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District recommends Atlas curriculum management system; finance review set before contract
Summary
After a multi‑vendor review, curriculum staff recommended Atlas as the district’s curriculum management system; the administration presented a five‑year implementation and cost plan and told the committee it will bring costs to finance committee for review before final board approval.
Council Rock’s curriculum office presented the results of a request for information and a recommendation to procure Atlas, a curriculum management system, to centralize course documents, approvals, public‑facing curriculum and staff professional development.
Supervisor Tammy Gary described a multi‑stakeholder evaluation that included technology staff, curriculum coordinators and special education specialists who reviewed three vendors (PowerSchool, Atlas and Curriculum Works). The team removed Curriculum Works from consideration early because of price, and recommended Atlas because the committee judged it more focused on curriculum planning and teacher supports.
Gary said the district drew a five‑year cost and implementation plan designed to front‑load professional development and implementation support, with lower subscription fees in years 1–2 while PD runs, and higher subscription costs later as recurring licensing replaces consultant PD. She also showed a proration for an April–June startup and reported sample line items discussed in the vendor proposal: a prorated April–June fee (presented as $2,125 for the current year), recurring annual subscription figures presented in the review (examples shown: a Year‑1 recurring baseline of about $8,500 and Year‑2 recurring of about $15,184), professional development/implementation support in the first two years (presented at about $30,000 across that PD period), a separate small fee for the public website feed and an optional later “Atlas Lesson” lesson‑builder module (sample figure discussed: $10,400). Gary emphasized those figures were the vendor’s multi‑year proposal as shown to the committee and that the district built room to stage purchases so professional development and curriculum work come before optional lesson‑builder licensing.
The curriculum team demonstrated how Atlas would house approved courses, units and standards, allow public access to selected curriculum pages and provide templates and PD for teachers to author curriculum consistently. The presenters noted states are requiring regular standards review cycles; the district cited Pennsylvania “Chapter 4” requirements for course documentation and explained the system would simplify board approval, public transparency and audit readiness.
Board members asked for the exact contract terms, historical spending on prior curriculum tools, and for a line‑by‑line five‑year budget. Several board members recommended the proposal go first to the finance committee for a deeper contract and procurement review. Administration agreed to bring a finance‑committee packet and then return to the full board for contract approval.
Ending: The committee agreed to send the procurement plan and five‑year pricing to finance committee for review prior to formal board action; no final contract was approved at this meeting.
