Calexico Unified board renews Impactor Pathway contract after mixed uptake across schools

The Calexico Unified School District board voted 3-1 to approve a contract renewal with the Impactor Pathway social-emotional learning platform after a presentation and extended discussion about uneven site adoption and staff buy-in.

Rodney Jones, executive director for customer success at Impactor Pathway, told trustees the district had 884 active student users this school year and nearly 30,000 student responses captured on the platform. "We're seeing that your students were averaging about 38% improvement in their social emotional competencies," Jones said, and cited a districtwide decline in discipline incidents of roughly 30% compared with last year.

Diana Perez, assistant principal at Enrique Camarena Junior High School, described how her site uses the platform as a tier 2 restorative intervention for students with office discipline referrals: students complete three lessons in the office and return to class when finished. "After they've done just 3 lessons of Impactor, I've seen a decrease of 28 percent that they don't come back," Perez said, summarizing her site's recidivism data.

Trustees pressed presenters on differences between sites: Dual Elementary and the high school had markedly higher implementation than several elementary campuses. A trustee who asked to pull the item for discussion said staff had reported they preferred the district's previous system and urged the board to verify teacher commitment before spending more: "Before we jump into spending, I think we need to look at... are we gonna get commitment from the staff?" the trustee said.

Trustee Calderon moved to approve the item with a request that the vendor and district staff provide demonstrations and more hands-on work with teachers when the new school year begins; the motion was seconded and carried, 3-1, with one trustee absent. President Contreras, who seconded the motion, noted the contract is a significant investment: "I think $99,500 is... a large investment," he said, and supported follow-up review.

Superintendent Jimenez and vendor staff emphasized that Impactor Pathway is one component of the district's broader MTSS and PBIS efforts and cautioned against attributing all behavior improvements to a single tool. Jones said the vendor will deliver an end-of-year report and that the district will receive additional implementation materials and sample lessons for trustees to review.

The board directed staff to (1) arrange demonstrations and user-led trainings for teachers and sites that have not yet adopted the platform broadly, (2) bring back an early review of implementation and outcomes during the first quarter of the next school year, and (3) include sample student lessons and evidence of teacher-facing supports in follow-up materials.

The vote follows the board's earlier discussion of program rollout, training needs and the district's aim to expand usage to around 2,000 students under the contract terms. The contract renewal was recorded as agenda Item 8 on the consent/action list.