How Montessori School of Wellington went paperless after 30 years

The Montessori School of Wellington has been part of its community since 1996. Originally founded by Rayna Lew’s mother with a single classroom and a pen-and-paper approach, it has now grown into a multi-program school, with before and after-school programs across three public school sites and 29 staff members to manage.

Until discovering Lumin, every document that needed a signature went through the same slow cycle: print, sign, scan, send.

Rayna grew up watching it happen. Her mother would work through stacks of staff contracts, performance reviews, and enrolment documents by hand, day after day.

“My mom started the school, and I remember her telling me her hand would start to hurt because of all the signatures."

When Rayna took over the operator role, she inherited the same process. With staff across multiple sites, a slow office printer and document seasons that spike hard in September and at tax time, the print-sign-scan cycle wasn’t just tedious – it was a genuine bottleneck. And as the sole authorised signer for the organisation, every document landed on her desk.

Found on Google, kept on the taskbar

Rayna found Lumin through a Google search while looking for a simpler way to handle eSignatures, and the fit was immediate.

Already working in Google Workspace, she needed something that could slot into her existing setup without a learning curve or a support call. What she got was a tool she now keeps permanently pinned in her browser – ready whenever a document needs to move.

“Lumin is very quick and easy. I have it tabbed on my computer, so it’s just always there."

The workflow is clean and consistent. Rayna uploads a contract or staff document to Lumin, adds her stored signature with a single click, and sends it off – no printer, no scanner, no back and forth. The original file remains on her computer, and a signed Lumin copy is saved and ready for reference whenever needed.

“I like how it saves my signature so I can just click it wherever it needs to go. And I can keep an original and also have a Lumin copy with the signature – so I can use either."

For a school managing staff agreements, performance reviews and program contracts across multiple sites, version control matters. Every document has a clean paper trail, and nothing gets lost in a printer tray or an inbox.

5 minutes saved per document

“Lumin saves me five minutes per document" might sound modest in isolation, but Montessori School of Wellington’s document volume is seasonal and significant.

September brings a wave of staff contracts as the school year kicks off. Tax season brings another. For the sole signer of a 29-person organisation running four separate programs, five minutes per document across dozens of agreements adds up to real time – reclaimed from the printer and put back into running the school.

Eliminated Strain

The repetitive signing that used to cause Rayna’s mother notable discomfort is now gone entirely. Stored signatures and one-click placements have replaced the hand-cramping work of manual sign-offs across a high volume of documents.

Always Accessible

With both an original and a signed Lumin copy saved, Rayna has a reliable audit trail for every agreement – without digging through email or hoping the scanned version is legible.

Room to Grow

Rayna recently discovered that her annual plan includes unlimited collaborators in her Workspace. As the school continues to expand, she now has the infrastructure to bring her team in without any additional cost.

Why Rayna Recommends Lumin

Easy to use

Rayna has never had to contact Lumin for support. She self-serves, finds it straightforward, and has had no issues since signing up. “It’s pretty self-explanatory. I haven’t had any issues, and it’s easy to understand.”

Reliable performance

For a busy school operator managing documents across multiple sites and programs, reliability isn’t optional. Lumin lives in Rayna’s browser, ready when she is.

“It’s nice that it’s just always there.”

The right tool for schools

The Montessori School of Wellington started with pen and paper in 1996. Today, it runs on Google Workspace and Lumin – a shift that reflects how much the administrative side of education has changed, and how much time the right tools can give back.

The bottom line

For school administrators and education operators managing high volumes of documents across multiple sites and seasons, the print-scan-send cycle is a quiet but consistent drain. It costs time, causes physical strain, and creates version-control headaches that nobody has the bandwidth to manage.

Rayna inherited a 30-year-old paper process and replaced it with something that fits in a browser tab. “Lumin saves us time, and in a digital world, we need tools that enable us to have a greater impact.”