Board approves Renaissance purchase and limits Edify contract to one year

MADISON — The Madison County School Board approved new curriculum resources intended to strengthen standards‑based instruction and to support intervention efforts across grade levels.

Doctor Holmes said the district seeks to adopt Renaissance tools (including Nearpod) for formative instructional use and to provide a standardized resource K–12. He described Nearpod as a supplemental instructional tool that offers real‑time assessments and prepackaged lessons aligned to standards.

The board discussed cost, mandatory use and oversight. Doctor Holmes said the resource would be supplemental, not a replacement for the district’s core curriculum, and that principals would receive implementation guidance and monitoring dashboards to track teacher use. A board member asked whether the Edify Education Services contract offered multi‑year savings; after discussion the board amended the Edify contract to a one‑year term and approved the curriculum package.

Doctor Holmes also said some expenditures for these resources are grant‑funded. "The expenditures have traditionally been grant funded, so they're not coming through our general funds," a staff member said.

What’s next: Staff will finalize implementation guidelines for principals and schedule professional development before broader classroom rollout.