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sk a superintendent what keeps them up at night, and the likely answer is strategy rather than curriculum. Whether it is managing the end of pandemic-era funding, navigating enrollment declines (or upticks in some areas), or evaluating the role of artificial intelligence in schools,
district leaders are balancing financial stewardship with a rapidly evolving vision for the future of public education. For one superintendent in Kansas City, Missouri, leaning on contracting part- ners to help with transportation has greatly improved service and on-time delivery for students and families. Jennifer Collier took the reins of Kansas City Public Schools in February 2023 after serving in an interim role. She has spent over 20 years as an educator at the district, focused on literacy initiatives, reintroducing elementary arts and improv- ing student performance.
Hot Trend: Contracting For many district leaders, decisions about contracting services go beyond con- tracts and cost, but instead focuses on people. From the students and families relying on buses each morning to the drivers behind the wheel, superintendents say successful partnerships hinge on vendors prioritizing service, reliability and the well-being of the adults responsible for getting students to and from school safely. Collier noted that contracting with vendor partners is something all superinten-
dents should consider. “How will this serve our students and our families? Because they are our pri- mary customer,” she said of evaluating vendors and their track records versus the outcomes they promise. “How have they performed in the past? Then even going back to assess after we’ve perhaps entered an agreement, do we feel like that ven- dor has really kept their part of the bargain? Are they serving our students and our families?” Collier said contracts shouldn’t just be evaluated based on cost. “We know that
services aren’t always free, and we have to think about our budgets, but we first have to think, does this serve our students and our families well? There’s always a price to pay,” she continued. “You can pay for things to go well and to do what’s best for kids, or there could be a negative price to pay, a negative cost. And what we were seeing before is that we were paying a price, but it wasn’t the price that we would want to pay because it was our kids’ future that was at stake. Now we’re paying the price to have great customer service, reliable [transportation] service and it’s benefiting and serving our kids, our staff and our families in the ways that we would want to see, the ways I want to see as a superintendent.” ➥
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