Fayette County schools buy new learning management system

Starting next year, Fayette County Public Schools will be using a new learning management system.

The Board of Education voted 5-0 on Dec. 2 to adopt the Schoology platform, the merits of which were discussed at a Nov. 18 meeting after a group of 300 teachers, students and parents had evaluated two possible options. Schoology was chosen for its ability to integrate such elements as assignments, course organization and teacher/student/parent communication. Teachers currently use a combination of Blackboard and Google Classroom. The initial Schoology implementation cost will be $41,500 to migrate current content to the new system starting in January, although the system won’t be fully launched until next July.

The yearly subscription for teacher support and online professional learning resources will be $150,575, plus $77,900 annually for the assessment management platform. Those costs will be part of the regular school budget starting with the next fiscal year.