Burbio School Tracker 4/1: Uncertainty

1. In our previous Tracker we introduced an AI-powered discovery tool that, when applied to Burbio's foundational school district intelligence dataset, provides contextual insights for district initiatives. The power and reasoning capabilities of AI can now be applied against Burbio's data to deliver highly relevant and immediately actionable answers - to literally any question - at scale. This can be used by suppliers to understand district purchase decisions (more below) but it can also be used to investigate broader policy questions.  
 
In light of the widely discussed, and ongoing, changes to the Federal Department of Education, we queried our database for discussions of federal funding in school board meetings in the last few weeks. The answers fall into a few different categories:

• We frequently see Superintendents provide perspective on federal funding as a component of total district budgets in response to questions from Board members. Examples include Sumner-Bonney Lake School District, WA (2% of budget from Title Funds), and Decatur Public School District, IL with a figure of 10%.
• We noted multiple discussions about what block grants to the states would mean:
  • This one from RSU School District 57, ME, reports "It is unknown if the same level of funding received at the federal level would translate to the state level." 
  • In Niagara Falls City School District, NY, a board member wonders if the state administering federal funds would result in the same level of funding before noting, "on the other hand, some state testing is required in order to get federal money. Hopefully those regulations would also go away . . . " 
• Several districts have issued a formal board resolution against changes to federal funding to education, such as this one from Newark City School District, NJ. Other districts with similar resolutions include Los Angeles Unified and The School District of Philadelphia.
• Many districts reference having federal funding on their radar for upcoming budget planning; for larger districts, such as Detroit Public Schools, MI, with a high dependency on federal funding, it is a regular part of each board meeting. 
• While not widespread, several board meetings consisted of residents expressing concern about the future of federal funding. Superintendent responses to the question referred to district efforts to monitor the issue at the state and federal level. 
  • In Waukegan School CUSD 60, IL, a board member proposed a temporary halt on discretionary spending such as staff travel; the Superintendent responded that "In times of crisis, maintaining normalcy and stability is essential to reduce anxiety," and assured the board her team is monitoring the situation.

We will continue to closely track policy discussions as the federal funding landscape develops. 

2. This week's next question is "What districts are considering changes to their ELA curriculum?" using the AI tool described above. Answers are taken from the last six weeks of school district board meetings:

From the map above, here are example districts in a range of phases of the purchase cycle:

• Colorado Springs School District 111, CO, includes discussion of an allocation of a $1.5 million for Secondary Literacy Curriculum, taken from an allocation of almost $4 million of "Mill Override Funds" from last fiscal year.  
• Chippewa Valley Public Schools, MI, is piloting two elementary reading programs with 49 teachers across all elementary grades, with a recommendation later this Spring.   
• Districts adopting new curriculum include Lake Villa CCSD 41, IL, which approved the purchase of Sonday Reading System Curriculum, and Consolidated School District of New Britain, CT, which purchased Fundations.  

As noted, this tool can be used for any question about district activity. For a demo of this capability click here to schedule a meeting.

3.  In addition to datasets such as school board documents, bonds, strategic plans, district check registers, Burbio has a database of over 1,600 state grants. Below are a few recent 'grants awarded' announcements:

• In Iowa, the Therapeutic Classroom Grant, created to allow schools to set up special classrooms for students with behavioral needs, announced awardees for 2024-25.  
• In Texas, the 2024-2026 Effective Schools Framework- Focused Support Grant announced its most recent group of awardees. 
• In South Carolina, the 2024-25 Strategic Compensation Pilot Grant, which had a deadline in January, posted its awardees.  
• Facilities grants impact a wide range of client categories from HVAC and Energy to furniture, security, and CTE/STEM. From just one of many examples in our database, in Pennsylvania the state announced a large list of approved awards for the Public Schools Facilities Improvement Grants. 

4.  We finish this week with an example of a highly specific AI query across recent school board meeting minutes. The map and examples below feature districts that are discussing single-sign on and/or multi-factor authentication:

From the map above districts reviewing programs that vary in scope:

• Los Angeles Unified School District announced an initiative to digitize and improve a wide range of "outdated" systems, from enrollment to transportation routes, various payment and reimbursement forms, and more. 
• Iowa City Community School District, IA, discussed the development and implementation of a new cybersecurity program, which includes everything from MFA to phishing simulations, incident response, staff training, data governance, and more. 
• Manhattan Ogden USD, KS, has been focused on a "3-2-1" backup strategy (three copies of data, two different media, one copy off-site) and has picked a vendor for the service.