What Superintendents Say Went Right—and Wrong

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Another school year is in the history books, and district leaders are reflecting on what went well and what can be improved for the 2025-26 academic year.

Education Week asked superintendents from across the country what they would count among their highlights and steepest challenges from the recently concluded school year.

Despite a drumbeat of policy and funding uncertainty, superintendents said they found plenty to celebrate, from big gains in students’ literacy test scores in some districts to increasing student involvement in high-level decisions.

But the funding challenges at the local, state, and federal levels are real—something superintendents who shared their reflections cited as a major sticking point, making it more difficult to plan and fund programs that support students’ learning and their well-being, and forcing them to make tough decisions about staffing and school initiatives.

Here’s what six superintendents had to say about their district’s top achievements this school year, and what they learned from the more difficult moments. Their responses have been lightly edited for length and clarity.

The past school year had several highlights. One of our school board goals was to increase student voice in setting the direction of the district. We took several steps to further this goal, including pairs of board members 'adopting' 20 students in each high school grade level and committing to meeting with them biannually each year until they graduate. We also conducted a large student forum to gather feedback on key district initiatives, and used the high school class called Public Policy to do research on the best practices for using student school board members. The class’s suggestion will be our new model for the upcoming year.

The biggest challenge is a disappointing state legislative session that resulted in continued funding cuts across the state of Minnesota. It is hard to see great ideas to meet the needs of students go unfunded.

—David Law

Minnetonka Public Schools

Minnetonka, Minn.

One of our highlights included graduating the first class of the Questar III & HVCC STEM High School, which we launched on the campus of Hudson Valley Community College during the pandemic. Several of our students graduated in May from HVCC with an associate’s degree before they received their high school diploma in June. One student earned more than 80 college credits while in high school.

One of the challenges was that several of our state’s school districts had their proposed spending plans for next year narrowly defeated by voters. What we learned is that school communities will rally to support their schools (by passing the budget proposals on the revote), though there are longer-term concerns with the sustainability and predictability of funding.

—Gladys Cruz

Questar III Board of Cooperative Educational Services

Castleton, N.Y.

Highlight: The 2024-25 academic year in Peninsula was marked by significant strides in literacy, thanks to the successful adoption of our 'science of reading' curriculum. Our staff underwent extensive training, which has already begun yielding positive outcomes among students. Another proud moment was our Navy Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps (NJROTC) unit's exceptional performance at the Memorial Day celebration in Washington, D.C., which brought national recognition to our district.

Lowlight: Unfortunately, the year also posed challenges due to the continued necessity of staff reductions, driven by dwindling state and federal funding. This setback has underscored the urgent need for advocating for more sustainable financial support to ensure long-term stability and growth in our educational offerings.

—Krestin Bahr

Peninsula School District

Gig Harbor, Wash.

Highlights:

• Teacher and administrator retention are at an all-time high.

• The district was voted to be the best K-12 workplace in Colorado Springs.

• I was honored with the Women in School Leadership award in the superintendent category from AASA.

Lowlight:

• Funding: There’s a fight in the state to secure ... education funding. This leads to continued advocacy and education to ensure funding increases so we can support all students.

• End of ESSER funding led to decreases in programs we could offer to support our students and families. We’ve begun to look for other funding sources.

—Wendy Birhanzel

Harrison School District

Colorado Springs, Colo.

As a standout experience for Harford County Public Schools in the 2024–25 school year, I have been thrilled to witness the incredible growth of our youth apprenticeship program. Watching our teams enlist student after student and business after business has been fantastic. It was especially exciting to see the number of participating students surpass 300, which is an extraordinary milestone for a program that is only a few years old. This achievement tops a year of strong, career-focused progress across every category we track, including a significant increase in the number of students earning industry-recognized credentials as well as those attaining actual or potential college credit. I am proud of the momentum that continues to build in this space.

At the same time, this year also brought heartbreak to HCPS. I joined the appallingly long list of superintendents who have experienced the tragic loss of a student to a school shooting. I am grateful to the superintendents who reached out to offer their support and share their hard-earned wisdom. They reminded me that we are never alone in this work, but this is a network of leaders no one ever wishes to join. This loss will be with our district and me forever.

—Sean Bulson

Harford County Public Schools

Bel Air, Md.

Collierville Schools was named an 'Exemplary District' by the Tennessee Department of Education and named as one of only 100 districts nationwide to have fully recovered in both reading and math, surpassing pre-pandemic levels, according to the Education Recovery Scorecard. We've also created a new strategic plan entitled CS2030 focused on college and career readiness, life readiness, and educators.

I can't say we've had any real low points locally!

—Russell Dyer

Collierville Schools

Collierville, Tenn.