Case Study: Calgary Catholic School District achieves record stakeholder engagement and confident budgeting with ThoughtExchange

Publicly funded Calgary Catholic School District pulls off possibly one of the largest stakeholder engagements ever

Calgary Catholic School District (CSSD), Alberta’s largest Catholic district serving over 51,000 students in 105 schools, needed broad, meaningful input to balance neighbourhood school assignments and tight budgets. Traditional engagement methods were time-consuming and tended to capture only polarized views, leaving middle-ground stakeholders—including parents, staff, students, English-language learners and Catholic ratepayers—underrepresented.

CSSD used Thoughtexchange to run 106 online engagements, sending 62,000 emails and engaging students through computer labs under CFO John Deausy’s leadership. The process drew 15,000 participants who shared 30,000 thoughts and cast 370,000 stars, with responses segmented (10,000 parents, 4,000 staff, 1,000 students), enabling the district to confidently set priorities, shape stakeholder messaging, and inform its budget and school planning.

Calgary Catholic School District

John Deausy

CFO and Secretary Treasurer