Meridian is a research/demo AI-native admissions and enrollment platform for private, independent, and faith-based K-12 schools. Built across ~/meridian (Phoenix backend) and ~/meridian-web (Next.js frontend), it demonstrates how the Rising Sun stack composes into a vertical SaaS product targeting Ravenna Solutions' market.
Why Build It
Ravenna Solutions (acquired by VenturEd, four-acquisition stitch-up) dominates private K-12 admissions. Their stack: zero AI, mutable audit trails, opaque pricing, fragmented architecture. Schools complain about the price, the absence of intelligence, and the audit-trail integrity. Meridian inverts each.
Three Differentiators
**Intelligence-first** — 10 AAASP agents handle application review triage, document extraction, family communication, recommender follow-up, financial aid screening, and decision-package preparation. 4 Augur specialists forecast enrollment yield, retention risk, financial aid demand, and class-composition balance.
**Cryptographic provenance** — Every application event, decision, and audit-relevant action is stamped to Etch. Mutable audit trails are structurally impossible. This matters for accreditation, fair-process disputes, and Title IX compliance.
**Transparent pricing** — $299/mo Starter, $599/mo Professional, $999/mo Enterprise. $0 per-application fee. Published. No "request a quote" — the opposite of Ravenna's model.
Three Portals
- >Admin:
- >Family:
- >Teacher:
Demo Tenant
`westlake-academy` — seeded with 8 demo families, full application lifecycle, Etch-stamped audit trail. API key `demo-api-key-westlake-2026` (research only). Both backend and frontend compile and run clean.
Architecture
**Backend** — Phoenix 1.8 + Ecto + Oban + Guardian JWT. Multi-tenant via tenant_id FK + API key auth. 20 tables across 13 migrations. Three portal scopes (admin, family, teacher).
**Frontend** — Next.js 14 + Tailwind CSS v4. SSG-friendly admin dashboard, family-facing application flow, teacher recommender forms.
**Platform integration** — Etch for provenance (every event), AAASP for the 10 agents, Augur for the 4 forecasting specialists.
Status
Research / demo. Phase 0 (foundation) complete. Phase 1 (admissions views) built. Used as a proof point that the platform composes into a vertical SaaS targeting an entrenched but technologically stagnant incumbent.
Tech Stack
Elixir / Phoenix backend, Next.js 14 frontend, PostgreSQL, Etch + AAASP + Augur platform integration.