When the Hillsborough County school board in Florida recently fired Superintendent MaryEllen Elia, questions immediately arose about the fate of the district鈥檚 $100 million teacher-improvement initiative financed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
To quell concerns, Irvin Scott, the deputy director of education at the foundation, traveled from the District of Columbia to the Tampa-based district to address the crowd at one of Ms. Elia鈥檚 farewell receptions.
His trip sent a clear signal, school officials said: The Gates Foundation remains committed to the work.
鈥淭hey know the strong leadership that we鈥檝e had in Hillsborough,鈥� Ms. Elia said of the philanthropy. 鈥淭hey wanted to be there to show the appreciation for the work we鈥檝e done.鈥�
Districts such as Hillsborough County increasingly rely on hefty investments from private funders to pay for a variety of improvement efforts, from purchasing classroom technology to building stronger pipelines of prospective principals.
But the potential for tumult in the leadership ranks is an issue that donors to K-12 must constantly wrestle with as they make decisions about which school districts they want to support with their money. When superintendents attract tens of millions of dollars from foundations and then depart abruptly, the ties between their districts and those funders can turn tenuous.
鈥淭urnover matters tremendously,鈥� said Andr茅s A. Alonso, a former superintendent of the Baltimore city schools, who is now a professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. 鈥淚t makes the national foundations gun-shy.鈥�
So far, it appears the Gates Foundation isn鈥檛 flinching in Hillsborough County.
The 206,000-student school system is in its fifth year of Empowering Effective Teachers, a seven-year evaluation and mentoring program supported by Gates in Hillsborough and a handful of other districts and charter schools that the foundation selected. (The Gates Foundation also helps support Education Week鈥榮 coverage of college- and career-ready standards and assessments.)
The Hillsborough school board fired Ms. Elia in January, the same month she became one of four finalists for the national superintendent of the year award given by AASA, the School Superintendents Association. She had led the district, the nation鈥檚 eighth-largest, since 2005.
Ms. Elia鈥檚 decade at the helm marked an anomaly. The average tenure of superintendents leading urban school districts is now slightly more than three years, a 2014 Council of the Great City 69传媒 survey found.
鈥淪tability was a factor [in the award of the grant]. They made that clear,鈥� Hillsborough County schools spokesman Stephen Hegarty said of Gates Foundation officials. 鈥淲e think that we are still a school district that has stable leadership. The next few months and years will determine whether that will continue to be the case.鈥�
The school board has hired Jeff Eakins, a current deputy superintendent and longtime district employee, as Ms. Elia鈥檚 successor.
Mr. Scott, of the Gates Foundation, noted that leadership changes in other participating districts such as Pittsburgh and Memphis didn鈥檛 disrupt the initiative. "[We] have continued to work with these districts as long as they remain committed to the work and outcomes,鈥� he said in a statement. 鈥淗illsborough County is no different.鈥�
Succession Plans
While school districts have drawn financial support from private philanthropy for decades, the more recent pressures for urban school systems to improve achievement for vulnerable students even under tight budget constraints has helped drive the rise in district leaders who seek outside money. With budgets that allow little room for flexibility, some district leaders argue that without aid from philanthropy, some improvement efforts and new initiatives would never get off the ground, much less come to fruition.
鈥淎 lot of what is available in the margins is coming from the relationships with private donors and foundations,鈥� Mr. Alonso said.
Hillsborough County and the 145,000-student Charlotte-Mecklenburg, N.C., schools are among the six districts participating in the Principal Pipeline Initiative, a $75 million investment by the New York City-based Wallace Foundation to better train principals and support and evaluate them on the job. (The Wallace Foundation helps support Education Week鈥榮 coverage of leadership, expanded learning time, and arts learning.)
The departures of Ms. Elia and Charlotte-Mecklenburg鈥檚 schools chief, Heath Morrison, are the latest leadership changes since that initiative began in 2011. The Wallace Foundation has already dealt with leadership turnover in New York City and the Prince George鈥檚 County, Md., schools.
The foundation is donating between $7.5 million and $12.5 million to each school system over six years. As a condition of the grants, the districts are matching one-third of the grant amount with local funds. Another condition: Districts must plan for the inevitable changes in leadership.
鈥淭he superintendent is an important leader, 鈥� but we make sure we work with a team,鈥� said Jody Spiro, the director of education leadership for the Wallace Foundation. 鈥淣o leader ever does it alone. It builds insurance against disruption.鈥�
Wallace also allows for flexibility, giving new superintendents the opportunity to reshape the grant as it fits their agenda, Ms. Spiro said.
In Charlotte-Mecklenburg, the team leader for the principals鈥� work was former Deputy Superintendent Ann Blakeney Clark, a longtime district teacher and administrator who was promoted to the top job in January.
In the Los Angeles Unified schools, a number of deep-pocketed foundations backed former Superintendent John Deasy as he advanced an agenda that included opening more charter schools and instituting personnel changes that made it easier to fire teachers that supervisors deemed ineffective.
The Los Angeles district鈥檚 roster of big-name backers includes the Gates Foundation, the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, the Walton Family Foundation and the Wasserman Foundation. (Broad helps support Education Week鈥榮 coverage of personalized learning and systems leadership; Walton helps support coverage of parent empowerment.)
鈥淲e see our role as a partner in problem-solving with the district, so it鈥檚 never our intent to drop funding due to unanticipated changes to the system,鈥� Meredith Young, the director of communications for the Austin, Texas-based Dell Foundation, said in a statement.
Having served two previous stints as superintendent in the 641,000-student Los Angeles district, Mr. Deasy鈥檚 successor, Ramon C. Cortines, is a familiar face for foundation leaders. Mr. Deasy, who resigned in October, now works for the Broad Center for the Management of School Systems as a consultant.
But even with Mr. Cortines in charge, it鈥檚 not clear yet whether the investments made during Mr. Deasy鈥檚 tenure will continue.
鈥淲ith many of the foundations, support is not contingent on a specific leader or leadership team. But with some, it鈥檚 more about a political agenda than an instructional agenda,鈥� Los Angeles Unified school board Vice President Steve Zimmer said. Of 鈥渢he political-agenda foundations, 鈥� we haven鈥檛 heard much from them much since鈥� Mr. Deasy鈥檚 departure, he said.
Mr. Zimmer declined to say which foundations he considers to have 鈥減olitical agendas.鈥�
鈥楽witching Horses鈥�
Under former New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, then-69传媒 Chancellor Joel I. Klein helped raised hundreds of millions of dollars from the philanthropic community to help pay for his and Mr. Bloomberg鈥檚 vision for public schooling, which included a rapid expansion of charter schools, smaller high schools, assigning letter grades to every school, and a heavy reliance on test scores for making decisions about grade promotion.
While foundation dollars continue to flow to the 1.1 million-student school system, efforts by Mayor Bill de Blasio and 69传媒 Chancellor Carmen Fari帽a to change the policies put in place by the Bloomberg administration hasn鈥檛 pleased some major donors, including officials at the Broad Foundation.
鈥淯nfortunately, successful efforts to improve public schools are too often rolled back whenever a new leader steps in,鈥� Swati Pandey, a spokeswoman for the Broad Foundation, said in a statement.
鈥淲hether you agree with a particular effort or not, I think we can all agree that switching horses every couple years makes it impossible to create sustainable improvement for students,鈥� she said.
During Mr. Bloomberg鈥檚 tenure, the Broad Foundation contributed $21 million to the city鈥檚 school system. The foundation also awarded the district with its Broad Prize in 2007. While Broad continues to support charter schools in the city, the New York schools have not requested grant funding under Mr. de Blasio鈥檚 and Ms. Fari帽a鈥檚 leadership.
Overall, the contributions coming from foundations to big school districts remain relatively small, considering that numerous metropolitan school systems have multibillion-dollar budgets. Still, unlike in New York, the specter of lost funds hangs over some districts and their decisionmaking, experts said.
鈥淢ost districts are going to do whatever they need to do to not lose that money,鈥� Mr. Alonso said. 鈥淭his is a business of relationships.鈥�
While she鈥檚 no longer at the helm in Hillsborough County, Ms. Elia, in an interview, expressed high hopes that the school district鈥檚 sizable foundation support won鈥檛 dry up when the current grants expire.
鈥淏ut I can鈥檛 guarantee anything now, because I鈥檓 no longer the superintendent,鈥� she said.
