Empowering 60+ schools with a unified multisite platform

Evolving Web created a robust multisite platform for the Conseil des écoles catholiques du Centre-Est (CECCE), providing a framework for 60 school websites and a central district site on Drupal. With a flexible design framework, responsive and accessible features, and a library of reusable components, we empower school administrators and the district to manage their digital presence with confidence. The platform strengthens communication with parents, students, staff, and the wider community while giving each school the autonomy to tell its story.

The Conseil des écoles catholiques du Centre-Est (CECCE) is the largest network of French-language schools in Canada outside of Quebec. With nearly 27,000 students across 46 elementary schools, 14 secondary schools, a Virtual Learning Academy, nature-based classrooms, and an adult education school, CECCE is known for its leadership in transforming the learning experience. Its Catholic schools are recognized for excellence and their caring, collaborative role in the community.

CECCE set out to optimize its digital ecosystem by making information more accessible for students, families, staff, and the community. The district wanted a platform that highlights the achievements of students and staff, supports intuitive navigation, and increases enrollment. Equally important was creating efficiency for staff by streamlining how websites are updated and maintained.

Designing a framework that works across 60 unique school websites and a district hub requires balancing flexibility with consistency. Many school administrators handle multiple roles, leaving limited time and expertise for website management. The solution needed to be intuitive, accessible, and aligned with the district’s brand while offering enough independence for each school to communicate effectively.

Evolving Web partnered with CECCE to reimagine its digital presence with a scalable Drupal-based multisite platform hosted on Pantheon. We collaborated with district leaders and school representatives to define priorities, validate the technical approach, and translate CECCE’s brand into a modern, adaptable digital identity.

Our work included:

• Defining the feature set for both the district and individual school websites
• Developing a shared Drupal architecture to reduce costs while ensuring autonomy for schools
• Designing reusable components and modular features like photo galleries and video content
• Building emergency alert banners controllable at the district level, and pushed to school sites automatically, and also controllable by each individual School
• Enabling multilingual (English and French) content management, plus automated translation for six other languages
• School locator for parents, to find schools by keyword, region or level
• Targeted search features for programs, news, and events
• Implementing drag-and-drop editing, scheduled publishing, and flexible layouts for school administrators
• Ensuring compliance with WCAG accessibility standards
• Establishing role-based security, approval workflows, and password-protected content areas
• Media and content reuse, so that programs and news on the District website can be distributed to selected School websites by the content editor
• Delivering a fully French user interface for administrators
• Hosting the multisite platform on Pantheon using custom upstreams

CECCE now benefits from a unified digital ecosystem that reflects its leadership in education while giving 60 individual Schools the tools to own their digital presence. As new Schools are onboarded to the platform, administrators can easily update content to keep parents and students informed through accessible, responsive websites. The new design framework ensures consistent branding across the district, while allowing each school to showcase its unique identity. The platform balances the needs of consistent district-wide messaging with the independence and flexibility of individual Schools. Each school can publish their own content, and the District can also publish content across all School websites. With a scalable, future-proof platform in place, CECCE strengthens its ability to connect with the community, celebrate student and staff achievements, and support enrollment growth.