Newington Board weighs Ludus for event ticketing and payments after vendor demo

The Newington Board of Education on March 11 heard a detailed demonstration of Ludus, a platform for ticketing, retail sales and volunteer management pitched as a low-upfront-cost option for school events and fundraisers.

Megan Callahan of Ludus described the product features and payment arrangements, saying the company’s convenience fee is “5% plus 75¢ per ticket” for credit-card sales and that Ludus partners with Stripe for PCI-compliant processing. Callahan showed how the system handles reserved seating, optional merchandise or program-ad sales, student-affiliated sales tracking, marketing emails and a QR-code check-in app.

Craig, a parent and district user who has used Ludus in nearby Berlin, told the board the system is easy for volunteers and parents to run and praised its mobile card readers and inventory features. The board and staff asked about integration with ParentSquare, data security, opt-out options for marketing lists, admin accounts and payout methods; Callahan said Ludus does not store credit-card numbers and that schools can receive payouts by check or direct deposit.

Board members noted Ludus would not replace Easy School Pay for cafeteria or preschool payments but could provide added functionality for events, prom registration, activity fees and school-store sales. “If the board feels this is a go, it sounds like there’s not a lot of risk on the board side for expenditures,” the Chair said, framing the next step as compatibility checks and staff follow-up rather than an immediate contract or purchase.

District staff agreed to solicit feedback from the high-school and middle-school store leads (including a compatibility check with the school-store point-of-sale) and to report back by email. The board did not take a formal vote to adopt Ludus; members said the lack of startup or annual fees made the option worth further investigation.

The district’s next step is an operational check with school-store staff and any required follow-up on data-security or integration questions; the board asked that staff circulate Ally’s response (the school store lead) by email once available.