Spring ISD board approves 'Elevation' platform to centralize services for emergent bilingual students
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Summary
Trustees approved purchase of the Curriculum Associates 'Elevation' platform to centralize identification and monitoring of emergent bilingual students; administration said the first year includes higher setup costs and recurring annual subscription of roughly $132,000 thereafter.
The Spring Independent School District board voted Feb. 10 to purchase the Curriculum Associates "Elevation" platform, a commercial system administrators said will centralize identification, documentation and real‑time progress monitoring for the district’s more than 11,000 emergent bilingual students.
"Elevation empowers adults to make intentional, informed changes in practices that directly translate into improved academic achievement and equity and long term success of our bilingual emerging bilingual students," Multilingual Programs Director Letty Hawk said as she introduced the proposal. Assistant Director Alex Sanchez described dashboards and workflows intended to replace manual LPAC paperwork and provide earlier visibility into language development trends.
Administration told trustees the platform was selected after cross‑departmental review and an RFP process. The presenters said first‑year fees are higher to cover data migration and training and that ongoing subscription costs were expected to be lower; the administration cited annual subscription costs of about $132,000 after implementation and described potential revenue‑protection and labor‑savings gains from more accurate coding. Administration also offered an example in which 70 miscoded students at $6,000 each could represent roughly $42,000 in recoverable funding.
Trustees asked for a clearer dollarized ROI and for vendor performance measures to be built into contracts. Trustee Adams urged tighter contractual metrics so vendors “put their money where their mouth is,” and requested comparative performance data from peer districts. The superintendent and trustees asked senior leadership to develop ROI figures in dollars and cents to compare to the subscription cost.
Trustee Adams moved to approve the purchase and Trustee Correa seconded; the president announced the motion carried unanimously.
The board approved the purchase in open session and directed staff to return additional contractual and ROI details as part of implementation and procurement oversight.