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LRSD previews Paloma family-literacy pilot and Apptegy attendance tool; staff say Title I funds and carryover will cover initial costs
Summary
District staff previewed Paloma, a family-focused K-2 literacy pilot (English and Spanish) and an Apptegy Attendance Pro roll-out; officials said initial Paloma funding will come from Title I allocations/carryover and Apptegy will integrate with district dashboards and keep LRSD data under district control.
District staff introduced two vendor pilots aimed at family engagement and operational analytics: Paloma, an interactive family literacy tool targeting early phonics practice, and Apptegy's Attendance Pro for two-way family communications and attendance analytics.
Melissa Paloma previewed pilot features and early site deployment at three elementary schools; district staff said the full contract will come before the board for a vote on April 23 and that approximately $173,000 in federal Title I allocations and carryover would fund initial scaling. Staff clarified these are existing federal allocations and carryover rather than a new appropriation from the state.
Apptegy representatives demonstrated Attendance Pro's ability to deliver attendance calls and text messages with reply capability, and confirmed data-integration plans with LRSD's dashboards. Apptegy said LRSD retains data ownership and described security certifications on the vendor trust page.
Board members asked operational questions: whether Paloma is available in Spanish (staff: yes); whether federal funds represent offsets or new spending (staff: Title I allocations with some carryover/reserves); how pilot results will be evaluated (early usage metrics at three pilot schools, full student-outcome analysis not yet available).
Staff said pilots are early-stage: Paloma pilot had about a month of data at the time of the meeting and Apptegy integration will include dashboards board members can access. No procurement votes were taken at the special meeting; both items were placed on the April 23 consent agenda for board action.
