The Lexington School strives to instill in its students “21st century skills”—perseverance, lifelong learning and teamwork. Its conference-scheduling system, however, was decidedly 20th century.

Making conference-scheduling accessible to parents online

Before Calendly, a secretary would begin fielding phone calls and scheduling appointments weeks before parent-teacher conferences began. Equipped with only a pen and binder, the secretary had minimal ability to update faculty. Teachers had no knowledge of their schedules until the day before conferences.

Jaime Lassman, director of studies, explained that this manual system led to lots of errors. The secretary might accidentally write down the wrong name or the incorrect time. She was on the phone all day with no time to organize the meeting records into a manageable format for teachers.

Teachers were being double-booked or given no break time, and parents were frustrated.

“For us, the big wake-up call came from parents who said ‘Access to the internet is pretty much ubiquitous. Why can’t I go online and schedule a conference?’ We wanted to take out the distance we were creating between scheduling and parents.”

Managing teachers’ time with ease and respect

By using Calendly, The Lexington School gave families the simplicity they’d asked for.

Parents now schedule with any of Lexington’s 80 teachers instantly, even after putting kids to bed—long after the secretary goes home. Teachers, now able to check their own conference schedules, can block out breaks as needed. And with Calendly’s automatic reminders, their worries about parents missing conferences have disappeared.

Calendly transformed The Lexington School’s conference-scheduling from antiquated to sophisticated. Parents book appointments at their convenience, teachers manage their workloads in real-time and the secretary, freed from the second job of scheduling, can fulfill her daily responsibilities to ensure that administration runs smoothly.