The budget will include spending $8.7 million on expanding leadership density and $19.7 million on implementing the NES program at 29 schools, where teachers will be paid an average of over $80,000 per year, in addition to a $10,000 stipend.

"Be so bold in your approach to work that you actually invite termination for being so passionate," says Carvalho, superintendent at the Los Angeles Unified School District, the second-largest in the country.

When Verletta White became the superintendent of Roanoke City Public Schools at the height of the pandemic, she toured the community to ask families what was—and wasn't—working.

When Superintendent Jonathan Prince took the helm at St. Lucie Public Schools in 2022, he described it as being passed the torch by Bear Bryant. Fortunately, he had the experience from District Administration's Superintendent's Academy to rely on.