Most of the school websites that I have seen are static and lack any cool features. Did you know that there are some free applications that you can integrate with your school website to make them pretty slick. Best part, these applications do not require you to be a tech expert but does require a bit of self exploration, but trust me it's quite easy.

1. Google Calendar:
You can create a free account with Google, then use their calendar utility ( www.google.com/calendar/). Google calendar helps you to announce holidays and events. It can then be put inside any web page as an iframe.

2. Google Groups:
You can create a google group for all the teachers in your staff. They all can have a personal page which can be updated by them individually. This section can be used for teachers to introduce them and even post assignments instructions for students. You can also form email distribution groups for communication.

3. Raise money for your school using escrip.com:
(this is from their site)
You register any one or all of your existing grocery loyalty, debit and credit cards for use in the program.
Participating merchants will make contributions to your chosen group, based on purchases made by you, just by using the cards you have registered.
Your purchases are tracked and available to you online, allowing you to see just how much you are earning on your child's behalf!

4. Conduct Free Surveys:
Sites like surveymonkey.com and freeonlinesurveys.com provide free services to conduct surveys. I believe they also provide free widgets to expose those surveys on your website.

There are numerous other software applications, but I just listed the ones I thought were easiest to use. There are may desktop applications like AVG, Zone Alarm, Open Office, LogMeIn, Notepad++, Picasa, Irfanview etc .. Check them out if you get time