It鈥檚 not every day the school board president meets the superintendent鈥檚 plane at the airport.
But that鈥檚 what happened last year when Jonathan Cooper, the superintendent in Mason City, Ohio, returned after interviewing for the top gig in a Fort Collins, Colorado district. Word had trickled out due to that state鈥檚 hiring rules鈥攁nd Cooper鈥檚 school board was determined to keep him.
Cooper shrugs, a bit sheepishly. 鈥淏oards are willing to go the extra mile. For us, that鈥檚 how it was,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 mean, we had newspapers here with headlines saying, 鈥榃ill the Cooper family be leaving or staying?鈥欌��
It鈥檚 a small anecdote that gets at how competitive the hiring process has become for top leadership positions.
For all the news stories on staffing challenges for bus drivers, paraprofessionals, and teachers, the pandemic has also taken a toll on the top job in school districts. National surveys indicate that about a quarter of superintendents say they鈥檙e at least considering leaving. Actual turnover rates, at least in the nation鈥檚 largest districts, match that figure.
It all translates to more districts looking to hire鈥攅ven as hiring experts say the applicant pools for jobs are thinner than they typically are.
Plus, says George Thompson, the past president and director of strategic initiatives for the Schlechty Center, a Louisville, Ky.-based education leadership nonprofit that runs two networking programs for superintendents, the pandemic seems to be changing the nature of the pipeline itself.
Given the pummeling they鈥檝e gotten over the last two years, seasoned district leaders are warier about jumping to higher-profile鈥攁nd potentially more troubled鈥攇igs.
鈥淎 lot of superintendents are saying, maybe those days of aspiring to be bigger and better are over,鈥� Thompson said. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e looking for communities where there is a really good, stable board that鈥檚 not turning over based on politics, and a lot of times those are in communities where there鈥檚 been less divisiveness.鈥�
The pressures will require school board leaders to think differently about how they hire, and the types of candidates they look at. Here are some of the experts鈥� broad ideas about how to think differently about the hiring process.
Be clear about what you want.
Board-superintendent relations tend to founder over a few key issues, often the direction and vision of the board. Being clear about those things can help get a pool of applicants more well matched to what board members want.
鈥淎re you going to want someone to create a new vision for the future? Or someone who鈥檚 going to lead in the direction of a vision that鈥檚 already been established? Often that鈥檚 where things go crosswise,鈥� said Thompson. 鈥淥ne thing we worry about is that with all that鈥檚 going on with the pandemic, will it accelerate the rush for candidates without that clear thinking?鈥�
Some boards tend to favor either the technical skills of the job, like managing budgets and personnel, while others鈥攗sually those that are looking to change direction rather than reinforce a set of beliefs鈥攑refer a more adaptive set of abilities, said Sue Rieke-Smith, the superintendent of the Tigard Tualatin district southwest of Portland, Ore.
Rieke-Smith said both she and board members at the Tigard Tualatin district, which she began leading in 2018, focused during the interview process on questions about student outcomes, which students weren鈥檛 performing as expected, and what kinds of changes might need to be made to start seeing progress.
鈥淚 had many conversations prior to coming on: When you say you want equity of outcomes, what does that look like? What are you prepared to do?鈥� she said.
Get your own house in order.
Unlike just a few years ago, board drama now unfolds in real time. Zoom recordings and YouTube mean that when meetings go haywire, the entire world can see it in seconds. Potential candidates are watching and deciding whether those are districts they really want to represent.
Take for example, Douglas County, Colo., where a 鈥攁nd have since been embroiled in a dispute over whether those plans violated sunshine laws. Or Spotsylvania County, Va., where last November several board members they鈥檇 ordered removed from the library. (The book policy was later rescinded.)
Such incidents have not only captivated the mainstream media, they also point to broader signs of dysfunction on the boards and potentially in the communities, the hiring experts said.
鈥淧rospective superintendent candidates are going on social media and seeing how the board is dealing with these tough issues. While lots of superintendents are quitting and retiring early, more are saying: I鈥檓 going to be particular about where I go, and I鈥檓 going to vet it really carefully,鈥� said Thompson of the Schlechty Center.
Look beyond the pool of sitting superintendents.
Most board searches start off by trying to find someone who鈥檚 already had superintendent experience. But those preferences are not well matched to the current market, said Robert Villanova, a professor and the director of the executive leadership program at the University of Connecticut鈥檚 Neag School of Education.
Interest in superintendent certification programs at his university has remained strong, Villanova said, despite the clear challenges of the job. On the other hand, seasoned leaders in the state are operating under a devil-you-know logic: They increasingly seem reluctant to leave good鈥攐r at least manageable鈥攕ituations.
鈥淵ou get fewer superintendents who want to pick up and move from their district,鈥� said Villanova. 鈥淚鈥檝e been trying to convince the boards that there are a number of people in the number 2 spot who are completely qualified and certified.鈥�
Such sentiments are echoed by other hiring experts. 鈥淲e try to say that there鈥檚 a lot of really good aspiring superintendents鈥攖he assistants and the deputies. They鈥檙e hungry, they鈥檙e smart, and they鈥檙e humble,鈥� said Glenn 鈥淢ax鈥� McGee, of Hazard, Young, Attea, and Associates, a hiring firm that specializes in superintendents.
And don鈥檛 overlook strong interim talent, either. Sometimes, newly elected board members feel like they have to come in and begin by changing things. But if a district already has a strong interim superintendent in place鈥攐r a deputy who is already well aligned with the board鈥檚 vision鈥攚hy put them through the ringer of a search process?, points out Julia Rafal-Baer, a co-founder of the ILO Group, a women-led education leadership consulting organization.
鈥淚t just does such a disservice to the person, and it鈥檚 really bad for the community. It puts the community at odds with each other when the most important thing they could be doing is showing unity and that they have a real vision,鈥� she said. 鈥淣ot enough people are calling out this reality that in this stage of the pandemic, the last thing most communities want is a whole lot of churn.鈥�
Newly minted superintendents do face some unique challenges that board hiring committees should be sensitive to. First-time superintendents often struggle with the complexity of the budgeting process and school board relations in particular, Villanova said. But there鈥檚 an opportunity, he added, for boards to be honest about the kinds of support both parties will need to make a new arrangement work.
Hire women.
One of the consistently depressing findings about the superintendency is its incredible gender imbalance: the percent of women leaders rose modestly from 13 percent in 2000 to just 27 percent nearly two decades later, according to the School Superintendents鈥� Association.
Even that progress appears to be slipping during the pandemic, and the fact that many districts continue to put a premium on hiring sitting superintendents means this pattern tends to be self-reinforcing because of how heavily male-dominated the profession is.
Yet women are far overrepresented in the educational administration programs that typically qualify educators for the top chair. (In about half the states, an education administration degree suffices, while in other states, candidates have to get a special superintendent credential.)
In 2018-19, women made up 68 percent of those who received a master鈥檚 degree in educational administration and 64 percent of those who earned doctorates, according to federal data.
The last thing most communities want is a whole lot of churn.
When you add it all up, it means there鈥檚 a large number of women who are talented, qualified, and even credentialed, but who aren鈥檛 in the hiring mix. Fixing that is a challenging structural problem, Rafal-Baer said, but the solutions need to begin with school boards. They can start with steps like asking the hiring firms they contract with to include equal numbers of women candidates, and thinking creatively about contracts that would attract women candidates. And they can make the job more attractive by modeling good governance.
鈥淥ne of the first reasons we鈥檇 find why women were not putting themselves forward for the job was that they had concerns about governance structure, or about how the board was approaching decisionmaking,鈥� she said.
Be decisive.
During and after his interviews, Cooper, the Ohio superintendent, found his phone pinging nonstop for days, both from well-wishers in the Centennial State and from colleagues in Ohio urging him to stay. Both jobs were great and came with good benefits. So what, ultimately, was the tipping point?
It wasn鈥檛 the contract details or the money; it came down to some last-minute dithering among the Colorado board members that delayed things too long. Cooper chose to stay put in Mason City.
鈥淭here needs to be a level of recognition that in in our roles, we can鈥檛 just mess around with our careers or burn our bridges,鈥� Cooper said. 鈥淣ot when you鈥檙e in a high-profile position like this. This is a life decision, not a money decision.鈥�
Bottom line: Once you have a great candidate, don鈥檛 wait around.
Open your pocketbook.
Ok, while money clearly isn鈥檛 everything, it鈥檚 not nothing, either.
Hiring experts warn that most boards will have to pay about $20,000 more than they want to spend, and if they want a sitting superintendent they鈥檒l likely pay a premium on top of that. 鈥淚t鈥檚 supply and demand. It鈥檚 just basic economics,鈥� said McGee, the hiring expert.
And some recent big-city contracts suggest that new hires are being wooed at least in part by a crop of new or strengthened perks. Sabbaticals, deferred compensation, wellness days, and moving expenses variously crop up in new agreements inked in Oakland, Calif., Los Angeles, and Atlanta.
