New here also - and have a similar need - as a govenor of a small village school I offered to sort out our ailing school website. Formed a small team which is gathering suitable content. Its down to me to sort out the technical side - on a very small budget hence I'm not simply going to the pros and getting them to do it. Showed them the Edugeek Joomla template - they all loved this as do I, so this would be the way to go, unfortunately errors appear when I tried it out on a 'wamp' install.
I've checked with the LEA as they currently host our site, they offer different services including php/mysql offerings (which would support Joomla) but they are not as competitive as the big hosting companies out there. Our plan is currently to sort out web content, work out the technical side, choose a hosting company, get a working website up and running (hopefully), then transfer the school domain from the LEA to this new site.
The challenge will then to train those responsible for content on how to update it, and then get them to update it regularly.
Then what about the longer term - who's going to support this when I'm long departed from the role and parents have moved on?
Not a simple project, when you look at it in more detail, but one has to do something!
