District recommends Panorama data warehouse to centralize student records and MTSS

Administrators recommended that the Manheim Township School Board approve Panorama as the district’s data warehouse and multi‑tiered system of supports (MTSS), saying the platform would centralize academic, behavioral, attendance and social‑emotional data and replace multiple existing subscriptions.

Dr. Nicole Ricker, assessment supervisor, told the board the district formed a multi‑stakeholder committee that evaluated vendors using demonstrations, pilot sandboxes and a rubric focused on MTSS support, reporting analytics, usability, data privacy and long‑term sustainability. "Panorama stood out clearly among those options," Ricker said, noting committee preference and rubric scores.

Dan Lyons, who briefed the board on privacy and security, said Panorama meets federal requirements including FERPA and COPPA, uses role‑based access controls and allows the district to retain ownership of its data. "All of the data ownership remains with us even though it's being stored on their servers," Lyons said. He added that Panorama's AI features would not be trained on district student data and that the vendor follows industry security practices.

Dr. Ryman said negotiators reduced the annual price from about $135,000 to roughly $109,662 and emphasized that adopting Panorama could eliminate recurring costs for EdInsight, Renaissance Fundamentals and Ed Climber, producing partial offsets. Administration also noted a one‑time integration fee (included in the presented price) and a professional‑development package to support rollout.

Board members asked whether Panorama would integrate with IEP workflows and other district systems. Ricker and Lyons said Panorama supports APIs and "smart forms" that can pull demographic and assessment data into templates and that nightly syncs with i‑Ready and Renaissance Star are possible. They estimated a six‑to‑12‑week integration window and said the district — having piloted the system — is already partway through implementation steps.

If the board approves the recommendation at its April 16 voting session, administration said it would begin integrations immediately with the goal of having core functionality available for the next school year. The board did not take a final vote at this work session.