Help me integrate pfSense into my existing network
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I've had some time to go over the diagram you posted. There are a couple elements that I'd have to change to make it work with my hardware due to a couple limitations.
The first limitation is that my APs are PoE, and my only PoE provider is (currently) the 10-port managed switch. The wireless controller is a single port in, single port out; it can't handle the APs directly.
The other issue is capacity–because my existing switches (except the 10-port PoE) are unmanaged, they can only handle traffic from one VLAN. One switch for Students is fine; the other for servers is fine, but that leaves a few drops disconnected; they'll have to be routed through the other managed switch if I don't buy greater capacity. The simplest solution for that is buying two switches, a 48-port and a 24 (site limitations make that a true max capacity for physical connections). 2 managed switches instead of one would free up the 10-port to handle the APs (or APs and VoIP).
Is there a better solution than these mods?
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Nothing wrong with that. You don't need managed switches I just like them because they let you have more control of your network. I would just make sure that you only send untagged traffic to your unmanaged switches. Although there are some unmanaged switches that can deal with tagged traffic. Typically unmanaged switches will not support LAGG and may not have spanning tree too so be careful when running extra links between switches for redundancy.