WHO IS THAT $56,000 COMPANY THE SCHOOL DISTRICT IS HIRING?

The Board of Education on Monday plans to approve spending $56,000 to contract with a consulting firm for a "professional platform development" program.

See the resolution below:

We asked the district about the firm, Bloomboard Inc., and what they will do and have yet to hear back.

Bloomboard's website says of the company:

BloomBoard was founded in 2010 by Jason Lange and Eric Dunn when they took on the challenge of developing a teacher coaching platform that would use technology to take the principles of differentiated instruction for students ~and apply those principles~ to teacher development and support. Along the way, they realized that great coaching requires two fundamental and distinct areas of focus: providing personalized recommendations based on needed areas of support and collecting evidence of practice. Along with a world class team of former educators, engineers, and others dedicated to their mission, Lange and Dunn have built a holistic set of tools and products to power both effective coaching and continuous, personalized, competency-based learning for educators. 

EdSurge.com reported in 2015:

Founded in March 2010, BloomBoard first offered observation and evaluation tools to help teachers and administrators track and record professional development (PD) goals. The product came at a time when many states and districts were creating new PD plans to meet data reporting requirements in order to receive the Department of Education’s Race to the Top funds. So far the company says one million teacher observations have been conducted through its platform.

The contract comes, of course, when the district is hitting budget problems and has had to layoff nearly a dozen teachers.

Monday's meeting is set for 7:30 p.m. at the board offices, 525 Academy St. See the entire agenda HERE.