Who Leads Next? A Real-World Playbook for Charter School Leadership Succession

This presentation deck by Richard Moreno and Melissa Holdaway of the FUSE School Advisory Network outlines a comprehensive playbook for charter school leadership succession to ensure long-term organizational continuity and stability. It highlights the importance of adopting a written emergency succession plan for unexpected absences alongside a structured, six-step planned transition model. To select the right successor, school boards must identify their institution's current stage—Start-Up, Growth, Sustaining, Reinvention, or Turnaround—and align it with a corresponding leader profile. Additionally, the playbook details how to conduct a thorough job duty inventory to preserve institutional knowledge, evaluate internal candidates objectively, and establish tailored transition timelines to safeguard academic, operational, and financial health.