About The Program
The National Superintendents Forum brings together Superintendents from K-12 public school districts across the country for candid, peer-to-peer conversations and shared learning. Leaders from more than 20 states will be represented, with a mix of rural, suburban, and urban districts ranging from 2,000 to more than 100,000 students.
The program features 20+ Superintendent-led sessions focused on the issues and challenges district leaders are navigating right now. Each session is designed to create practical conversations, share proven approaches, and give Superintendents the opportunity to learn directly from peers facing similar challenges in their own districts.
Topics of Discussion
From Budget Cuts to Strategic Investments: Doing More With Less
Superintendents are being asked to maintain — and improve — outcomes while facing funding uncertainty, rising costs, declining enrollment, and growing operational demands. This conversation will explore how high-performing districts are prioritizing resources, identifying efficiencies, and protecting the investments that matter most for students.
The Attendance Challenge: Re-Engaging Students and Rebuilding Connection
Chronic absenteeism continues to affect achievement, engagement, and ultimately enrollment across districts. Superintendents will explore what is actually working to improve attendance — from early identification and family engagement to student belonging, school culture, and district-wide intervention systems.
AI Without the Overload: Building a Responsible District-Wide AI Strategy
Superintendents are navigating the tension between embracing AI and protecting students from excessive screen time, misinformation, privacy concerns, and inappropriate use. Explore practical approaches to AI governance, instructional integration, staff use, student guardrails, and building an AI strategy that enhances — rather than replaces — great teaching.
Closing the Gap: What’s Actually Moving Reading & Math Outcomes?
With many districts still working to accelerate academic growth, leaders are looking for strategies that move beyond isolated interventions and create consistent instructional improvement across schools. This conversation will examine high-impact approaches to Tier 1 instruction, formative assessment, intervention systems, curriculum implementation, and using data to drive action.
Building the Workforce You Need: Recruitment, Retention & Leadership Pipelines
Staffing shortages, hard-to-fill positions, administrator pipelines, and declining certification rates are putting pressure on district capacity. This conversation will focus on practical strategies for attracting talent, retaining great educators, developing leaders internally, and building a sustainable “grow your own” pipeline.
Leading Through Political & Community Pressure: Building Trust When It’s Hard
Superintendents are increasingly navigating polarization, misinformation, social media scrutiny, board challenges, and heightened community expectations. Explore how district leaders are communicating difficult decisions, strengthening Board relationships, engaging communities, and keeping conversations centered on students rather than politics.
Winning the Enrollment Challenge: School Choice, District Value & Family Engagement
Declining enrollment, homeschooling, charter options, and expanded school choice are changing the competitive landscape for public school districts. This session will explore how districts are strengthening their value proposition, communicating outcomes, developing innovative programming, and giving families compelling reasons to choose their schools.
Beyond Graduation: Reimagining College, Career & Life Readiness
Districts are being challenged to prepare students for a rapidly changing workforce while balancing academic expectations and limited resources. Explore how leaders are expanding CTE, Early College, STEM, career pathways, and workforce partnerships while ensuring students graduate with meaningful options for college, career, and life.
The Superintendent’s Operating System: Building Leadership Capacity Without Becoming the Bottleneck
As districts become more complex, Superintendents need strong cabinets, principals, and leadership pipelines capable of moving the organization forward without every decision flowing through the superintendent. This conversation will explore organizational clarity, delegation, leadership development, cabinet effectiveness, culture, and creating the capacity to lead strategically rather than reactively.
From Initiatives to Impact: Building Systems That Actually Stick
4 out of 5 delegates said this is the best event they’ve attended all year
Past Keynote Speakers
Houston Independent School District, Texas
New Castle County Vocational-Technical School District, Delaware
Alpine School District, Utah
Decatur Public Schools District #61, Illinois
Current & Past Speakers
Stoughton, Massachusetts
Community High School District 218, Illinois
Campbell Union High, California
Maricopa Unified, California
Nogales Unified School District, Arizona
Mid-Del Public Schools, Oklahoma
Newburgh Enlarged City School District, New York
Leon County Schools, Florida
Grand Island Central Schools, New York
The Schedule
Event Registration
Opening Keynote
Strategy Sessions/Business Meetings
Afternoon Refreshments and Networking
Strategy Sessions/Business Meetings/Roundtables Discussions/Workshops
Free time
Welcome Drinks and Dinner
Networking Breakfast
Morning Keynote/Panel Session
Strategy Sessions/Business Meetings
Morning Refreshments and Networking
Strategy Sessions/Business Meetings
Workshops/Roundtable Disccussions
Networking Luncheon
Roundtables/Business Meetings/Workshops
Afternoon Refreshments and Netwotking
Strategy Sessions/Business Meetings
Leadership Talk
Free Time
Networking Drinks and Dinner
Business Meetings
Breakfast
Workshops/Roundtable Disccussions
Closing Session
Our Commitments to You
Maximized Networking Opportunities
A personal, customized itinerary
Exclusive qualified attendance
return on time and objective
Delegate Testimonials
A great, intimate conference with executive leaders, interspersed with vendor consultations. It's a great way to see what's available and stay current. Staying current on available options, networking with colleagues nationwide, and stretching my thinking.
RTM has exceeded my expectations. In all my 20 years of attending various conferences and workshops, I learned more at RTM on day 1 alone, and there are 2 more days of this conference! RTM has hit it out of the ballpark!!
This has been an outstanding conference. The setup has made every meeting and session very intentional supporting the specific needs at my district.
The RTM conference was incredibly well organized with a plethora of topics and information that is valuable for Superintendents. The discussions with other practicioners will illuminate strategies for improvement and ideas for improvement consideration. The conference is definitely worth your time!
