Case Study: Chula Vista Elementary School District achieves broad, multilingual stakeholder engagement and actionable LCAP feedback with ThoughtExchange

Multi-lingual platform engages thousands in genuine, two-way dialogue

Chula Vista Elementary School District, the largest K–6 district in California with about 29,300 students across 45 schools, faced a steep engagement challenge when the state’s Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) required meaningful input from all stakeholders. With a large Spanish-speaking community and families who rely on mobile devices, the district needed an efficient, equitable way to gather broad, authentic feedback without disrupting daily life.

The district partnered with Thoughtexchange to run a 30-day, bilingual (English/Spanish) online dialogue using two to three open-ended questions. The mobile-friendly process drew 1,875 participants who contributed 3,414 thoughts and cast 88,519 stars, surfacing input from a much larger and more diverse portion of the community. The results informed LCAP refinements adopted by the board and positioned the district to use ongoing, measurable feedback to guide future decisions.

Chula Vista Elementary School District

Ernesto Villanueva

Executive Director Of Research