Burbio School Tracker 9/4: Comings and Goings

1.  The most important individual in setting district policy is the district Superintendent, and Burbio's Superintendent Turnover Tracker measures changes in that role nationwide. Tracking includes:

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

We launched the service in May, and have enough history now to provide some insight into trends relating to the position. Our first chart covers just under 300 positions that recently opened up where the reason for leaving is stated. We note that half the time the reason given is retirement:

As we see full-time replacements get hired, we track where the candidate came from. The chart below covers just under 400 positions that have recently filled, and identifies where the candidate came from. Almost two-thirds of candidates are hires from outside the district:

As the database grows we will build more history and be able to provide more depth on the trends noted above.

2. Burbio compiles strategic plans and LCAPs covering over 70% of the K-12 public school population. Clients can identify districts that are prioritizing relevant investments through document keyword searches and can access the data through a customized district profile. 

Mental health services have become an established segment of K-12 and this week we look at the frequency of references in this dataset. 

• For this analysis we restricted searches to districts that have issued strategic plans in 2022, 2023, and 2024 to best capture post-Covid priorities. 
• That portion of the database consists of over 2,000 district plans covering over 50% of K-12 students. 
• The chart below indicates the percent of plans where the relevant term appears at least once.

3.  Burbio's State-Level Funding Tracker features continuously updated, state-specific grants for K-12 schools, covering all state departments, as well as Federal grants where states can tailor the criteria. Burbio has identified over 1,000 grants covering over $30 billion in spending. This week we extend our look at state priorities by examining Virginia, and highlight how their priorities appear in state grants.  

The priorities outlined in Virginia's key state education documents, the 2024-26 Budget  and the state Board of Education's 2024-29 Comprehensive Plan are reflected in the state's grants.

• The state budget has a large section on early childhood education, and the Virginia Preschool Initiative grant program provides "quality preschool programs for at-risk four-year-olds unserved by the Federal Head Start program."
• The Comprehensive Plan emphasizes computer science and digital learning, and the Advancing Computer Science Education Grant "provide(s) funding to aid in the development of high-quality computer science instructional resources and provide professional development on curriculum integration."
• The Comprehensive plan references revenue to improve school safety; the School Security Equipment Grants Program and the School Safety and Security Grants programs are both being funded during the 2024-25 academic year.  
• The Comprehensive Plan cites the creation of the "ALL In Initiative," which focuses on high dosage tutoring, and the state's ALL In tutoring grants allow for extensions to be spent in the next two years by districts. 

4.  The deadline to obligate ESSER III funds is September 30th. California recently updated their district-level ESSER III "actual"  spending totals through June 30th (they report quarterly). Below we show the number of districts with available funds remaining. Note that 73 districts have between $5 million and $50 million, and 112 have between $1 million and $5 million. There is an overall total of just under $1.8 billion remaining across all districts in the state: