Case Study: Glendale Unified School District reduces LCAP workload and boosts stakeholder engagement with ThoughtExchange

Innovative platform eases the administrative burden for Glendale Unified School District

Glendale Unified School District, a California district of 31 schools serving 27,000 students and more than 2,620 employees, faced a major challenge meeting California’s LCAP engagement and reporting requirements. Gathering meaningful input from at least 13 stakeholder groups across eight state priorities had been driven by time‑intensive in‑person meetings that left many voices unheard and created an unsustainable administrative burden.

Glendale partnered with Thoughtexchange to run a large‑scale, multilingual, email‑based engagement that let stakeholders contribute on their own schedule. The district reached 4,139 participants who submitted 11,986 thoughts and cast 159,173 stars, saved hundreds of hours of meetings and administration, and had comments aligned to the eight state priorities and to school‑ and district‑level needs. Thoughtexchange also provided demographic reporting, an interactive results website, and presentation materials, increasing transparency and helping Glendale meet LCAP requirements while learning from a broader cross‑section of the community.

Glendale Unified School District

Richard Sheehan

Former Superintendent