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Board approves five‑year Renaissance assessment and intervention partnership to unify K–12 screening and interventions
Summary
Trustees approved a five‑year contract with Renaissance to consolidate the district’s multiple assessment tools into a single suite covering universal screening, progress monitoring and interventions, funded partly by two grants.
The Board of Trustees approved a five‑year partnership with Renaissance to provide a districtwide assessment and intervention ecosystem, trustees were told. District staff said the contract replaces a fragmented set of assessment platforms and will provide universal screening (STAR), progress monitoring, computer‑based intervention, and classroom tools intended to support tier‑1 through tier‑3 instruction across grades K–12.
What the district will buy: Director Scott Worthing said the package includes the STAR assessment suite (early literacy through high school), FastBridge and programmatic elements the district already uses, Freckle for targeted practice, Nearpod for teacher content and supplemental lessons, and Accelerated Reader for grades 2–8 to build reading culture. Worthing described an included professional‑learning plan and districtwide rollout to reduce fragmentation across sites.
Costs and funding: Worthing presented a five‑year cost structure and two grant offsets. The district will receive a math/science/computer‑science grant that offsets roughly $300,000 over the contract term and an educator effectiveness grant that offsets roughly $112,000 spread over the period; those grants reduce the district’s annual net cost to about $67,000 per year, which Worthing said represents a reduction of roughly $16,000 annually compared with the district’s previous “fragmented” platform spending.
Why trustees supported it: Trustees and the superintendent emphasized that the district had been paying for multiple assessment systems at site level ($83,000 in FY24–25), producing inconsistent data and extra workload for teachers. Board members said a unified platform should simplify training and allow teachers to compare data across grades and sites. Trustee Peter, who cited his experience with a similar platform elsewhere, said common tools make formative assessment and targeted intervention easier for teachers.
Board action: Trustees voted to adopt the five‑year Renaissance contract. The motion passed after discussion; the contract includes ongoing professional development, district support and the two grant offsets noted above.
Implementation and next steps: Educational services staff said rollout will include summer training for site teams, ongoing professional development, and integration with existing special‑education and early‑literacy interventions where appropriate. A Renaissance representative attended the meeting and is expected to participate in initial implementation meetings with district staff.
