Burbio School Tracker 4/30: Superintendent Turnover

1. Burbio's K-12 datasets include a State-level Funding Tracker, school board meeting minutes, strategic plans, ESSER III plans, checkbook registers and more, and we continually evaluate new data sources. 

The most important individual in setting district policy is the district Superintendent, and a recurring question we receive from clients is how to monitor changes in this role. With that, over the next few weeks Burbio will roll out a K-12 Superintendent Turnover Tracker. As with any dataset, an important step is to identify a framework for documenting the information. Among the elements: 

• Identify an upcoming change in district leadership immediately upon the resignation or termination of the previous Superintendent. 
• Document status of searches, interim leadership (if applicable), and the start dates of new Superintendents.   
• Monitor the full circle of activity, including where the new Superintendent used to work and what district the outgoing Superintendent left to lead (if any).

Here are some characteristics of Superintendent searches:

• Districts often post surveys soliciting feedback from stakeholders about what they would like to see the new Superintendent achieve, suggestions for interview questions, and even what qualifications should be required. Examples include this from Fall River Public Schools, MA, this from La Porte Community School Corporation, IN and this survey in both English and Spanish from Bethel School District, WA. Examples of posted results of surveys include these from Upper Merion Area School District, PA, and Ames Community School District, IA.
• Search timelines get posted on district websites, often including processes and criteria. Here is one from Anaheim Elementary School District, CA, another from Minooka CCSD 201, IL and one from Durham Public Schools, NC. 
• Districts often appoint Interim Superintendents during a search process.  Saint Paul Public Schools, MN has appointed an interim Superintendent who previously served in that role in 2017. Bainbridge Island School District, WA, has promoted their Assistant Superintendent as interim leader while postponing a full time search until next year.  In February, Montgomery County Public Schools, MD appointed a previous Superintendent of Orange County Schools, NC, as interim. 
• Districts will frequently post finalists as they close in on a hire.  Examples here from Washoe County School District, NV, School District of Cudahy, WI, and North Thurston Public Schools, WA. 

We are launching the service looking at the 3,000 largest K-12 districts and will be quickly growing that universe. Superintendent openings occur on a rolling basis. From an initial set of over 150 current openings we identified, below is a percentage distribution of the intended start date of the new hires: 

It is important to note that not all the open positions have had new Superintendents identified and start dates are based on posted timelines. Further, given that Superintendents often leave one district for another, filling one opening can create a vacancy elsewhere, making this information very fluid  We will be sharing additional insights in future Trackers as the dataset expands and deepens.

While Superintendent searches are generally triggered by a Superintendent retiring or taking a new job in another district, Superintendents being terminated, resigning under pressure, or having their contracts bought out occur frequently enough to be noted. Recent examples include:

• The Superintendent of Tigard-Tualatin School District, WA resigned in February amid concerns about student behavioral issues in the district. In Tahoma School District, WA, the Superintendent resigned amid a child sex abuse investigation involving a district staffer. The Toppenish School District, WA, board fired their long-time Superintendent in late February amidst an investigation into district finances.
• The Fort Bend ISD, TX, Superintendent was forced out in December 2023 for then-unexplained reasons, later disclosed to be issues around cost overruns in a recently passed bond. 
• In Spotsylvania County Public Schools, VA, a newly elected school board fired their Superintendent in March amidst complaints about the Superintendent's qualifications and decision making.   
• In Central Bucks County, PA, the Superintendent resigned suddenly in November with a severance package approved by the outgoing school board.
• The Everett Public School District, MA, was placed on administrative leave in October and later replaced amidst complaints from district employees. 
• In February the Clark County School District, NV, board and Superintendent negotiated a mutual separation amidst ongoing tensions among a variety of district stakeholders.

2. In our previous Tracker we profiled 31 states' recent ESSER III reporting, and this week we showcase two different ends of the spectrum. As of March 15th, Ohio districts report spending 74.4% of their ESSER III funding, one of the highest of any state. Below is a breakout of the percentage of districts by their reported spending; note that just over 11% of the districts have spent less than half their ESSER III funds, and over 60% have spent more than 80%.

Massachusetts districts report having spent only 56.5% of ESSER III funding as of March 17th, one of the country's lower percentages. Below you can see almost 25% of districts report having spent less than half their ESSER III funds:

Going back to Ohio, even as districts have cumulatively spent spent a high percentage of ESSER III, the total of over $1 billion remaining in those is material. In the chart below you can see that three districts in the state have over $50 million remaining and 25 have between $5 million and $50 million:

Massachusetts districts have $722 million remaining as of the last reporting date, two of which have more than $50 million remaining and 14 districts have between $5 million and $50 million.