Glossary

Plain-English meanings for the words you will see in the admin.

Academy : One of the five current programs: Kayak, Climb, Kiteboard, Mountain Bike, Surf. A sixth, Snow Sports, is planned but does not have a live program page yet. The word means two things in the admin, and both are normal. There is an Academies list (one record per program, holding its text, photos, and settings) and an Academy dropdown on other items (a label for which program that item belongs to). See Academies.

Academic Year / School Year : A year label like 2026-2027, used to group destinations and schedules. You pick it from a dropdown. If a year you need is missing, you create it once and it appears everywhere.

Alt Text : A short written description of an image, used by screen readers and search engines. You add it in the Media Library when you upload a photo.

Caption : The photographer credit for a photo, set in the Media Library. It shows as a small "Photo: Name" box in the corner of the photo, anywhere on the site except trip cards. Leave it empty if no credit is needed. See Give a photographer credit.

Bricks : The page builder that lays out the site visually. Editors should not open it. If you see "Edit with Bricks", skip it.

Coach : At WCA a coach is a kind of staff member. Coaches are managed as Faculty Members.

Connection : A direct link between two specific records, like a Destination and its Schedule. Different from a label: a label files an item onto any page that shares it, while a connection wires two exact records together.

Current : An item happening this school year. Current items appear in the "Current" sections of an academy page. See Rule 1.

Custom Field : Any of the labeled boxes on an edit screen below the title. Most of what you edit on this site lives in custom fields, not in the big main text area.

Connected Destinations / Connected Schedules : The box that links a Destination to its Schedule. It is called Connected Destinations on the schedule edit screen and Connected Schedules on the destination edit screen. Set the link once, from either side. The pair must match on academy, academic year, and quarter. See Destinations & Schedules.

Destination : A place students travel to for one quarter, for example "Costa Rica" or "Patagonia". See Destinations.

Destination Type : The Past/Current/Future switch on every Destination. It is one of two switches per quarter. The other is Schedule Type on the matching schedule. Both must be flipped at the year-end rollover. See Two switches.

Faculty Member : A teacher or staff profile. Stored in the list called Faculty Members. See Faculty Members.

Faculty Status : The Current/Previous switch on every Faculty Member, in the Staff Information box. Current profiles show on the website. Previous profiles are hidden but kept on file. See When someone leaves WCA.

Future : An item planned for a school year that has not started yet. Future items appear in the "Future" sections of an academy page.

Gallery : A set of photos shown together. Academy pages have a top gallery and a bottom gallery.

Gravity Forms : The site's form-building tool. The contact form and the job application form are built with it.

Media Library : WordPress's store of every uploaded image and file, reached at Media in the left menu. This is where you upload a PDF or photo and copy its link.

Previous : A Faculty Member who no longer works at WCA. Previous profiles disappear from the website but stay saved, so there is a record of everyone who has worked here. Use Previous instead of trashing.

Past : An item that already happened. Past items disappear from the website but stay saved in the database. This is how you retire old content. Use Past instead of deleting.

Permalink : The full web address of a page. Changing it on an existing page breaks links people have already shared, so leave it alone.

Publish / Update : The blue button that saves your changes and makes them live. New items say Publish, existing items say Update.

Quarter : Q1, Q2, Q3, or Q4. The four travel periods in a school year.

Schedule : The day-by-day plan for one academy for one quarter: a date range plus a list of events. See Schedules.

Schedule Type : The Past/Current/Future switch on every Schedule. It is separate from Destination Type, so each quarter has two switches, one on each post. See Two switches.

Section Display toggles : On/off switches on each Academy that show or hide whole sections of that academy's page. Used when content is not ready yet, and during the year-end changeover. See Sections and headings.

Slug : The web-address part of a page or label, usually filled in for you automatically the first time a post is published. A copy does not get a fresh one: it starts with a slug based on the original (like q1-2027-surf-copy), so set it before you publish the copy. Leave it alone once a post is published. See After you copy a post.