Leaders at a software company shut down access to their program at Houston Independent School District after the district didn’t renew their contract but kept using the program.
“We kept the service on as an act of good faith. These people are our partners. And, you know, we take this seriously and really our interest is the kids,” said Ivan Krieg, the Executive Vice President of Renzulli Learning. “We left it on for months in hopes that, you know, we would get a positive result in this case. We didn’t. And that’s unfortunate, but that led to us turning it off.”
Renzulli Learning is “an Internet-based educational tool that provides fun, engaging, and meaningful activities that are tailored to meet your child’s individual interests and needs,” according to a message to HISD families at the launch of the program. “Renzulli Learning makes sure that your child gets the exact educational resources he or she needs, exactly when he or she needs them.”
The CEO, Michael DiMauro, said HISD started using their platform in 2020 for students in the Gifted & Talented program.
“Houston had 30,000 gifted students that were working in isolation,” DiMauro said. “They had been conducting community showcases where the students were able to showcase their call it their passion projects. And the kids were working from home remotely on these projects, and they wanted to have a platform to showcase them. So, we have a very robust project-based learning module in Renzulli Learning. So, the students were able to work in our platform, then also upload their creative work.”
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The district entered a contract agreement with Renzulli in 2020 and renewed each academic school year. When the most recent contract ended in November 2023, DiMauro and his team didn’t pull the plug—hoping the district would again renew.
“We greatly value what we did,” DiMauro said. “This was our moonshot. You know, so we pulled this off for Houston so they could have, like up to 30,000 students uploading these projects in the course of a couple of days.”
A spokesperson for HISD told KPRC 2 they ended the partnership as they look at the upcoming budget.
“HISD is actively working to build the district budget for the 2024-2025 academic year. With the loss of federal COVID relief dollars and state funding remaining flat, HISD, like many other large districts, is forced to make very difficult choices as we decide which of our key actions to invest in,” the statement reads.
DiMauro said the company charges $15 per student for the software. While working with HISD, he adds, they came up with a cooperative contract and offered a ‘site licensing’ deal.
“The site license pricing does vary based upon the number of students, but it will probably be in the neighborhood of, you know, 5 to $7,000 as opposed to $30,000,” explains DiMauro.
Since shutting down the program, DiMauro said he’s heard from “a dozen or more’ various school leaders in the district attempting to work independently of the district to keep using the program.
It’s not clear how many schools or students previously used the program. But the partnership between the district and Renzulli Learning was shared on various district websites.
Meyerland Performing & Visual Arts Middle School, as of this writing, has the internet-based company on its website under its Gifted and Talented program.
Using Renzulli Learning wasn’t limited to the classroom, parents and their students could also access the software at home.
“Renzulli Learning provides information about summer programs that can keep your child excited, busy, and engaged in learning over the summer vacation,” according to a message to HISD families when the program launched.
DiMauro and Krieg understand other vendors are likely in a similar situation, but they hope the district will reconsider their decision.
“We’re very serious and still are about helping the students and also possibly even rebuilding our partnership,” said Krieg.
“It’s unfortunate that again, the centralized decision was made. But again, we’re very hopeful that down the line, you know, we will be back to where we were,” DiMauro said.
HISD STATEMENT:
HISD is actively working to build the District budget for the 2024-2025 academic year. With the loss of federal COVID relief dollars and state funding remaining flat, HISD, like many other large districts, is forced to make very difficult choices as we decide which of our key actions to invest in. We are in ongoing conversations with most of our vendors about their future partnership with the District, and depending on where vendors are in the process, staff is often limited in the information they can share about future contracts and engagement. Departments will be finalizing budgets in the next several weeks, and more information will be shared with vendors once that process is complete.