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Job Survival Skills Superintendents Ought To Know!
Summary: A glance inside a classroom reveals the students, aspiring superintendents, requesting that their professor present to them the realities of school district leadership. The professor, a past superintendent, responds to the call by integrating conventional wisdom based upon his thirty years of educational leadership into theory. In the following class, the professor presents job survival skills that future superintendents ought to know. From accepting the challenge, raising the achievement bar, building teams, and sharing and learning, the job survival skills of the superintendency are instilled. The professor concludes his presentation of job survival skills with a passionate plea or promise that the future school district leaders need to commit, the same promise the professor as a superintendent embraced for over three decades.
Note:
This module has been peer-reviewed, accepted, and sanctioned by the National Council of the Professors of Educational Administration (NCPEA) as a scholarly contribution to the knowledge base in educational administration.
With just a few minutes remaining at the end of a three hour class entitled the 21st Century Superintendent, I started highlighting the activities planned for the next class session when one of my students raised her hand and said, "Professor Jazzar, you've done a great job teaching us about the theories and research of school district leadership, but I wish you'd take some time next week to tell us what you think we ought to know in order to survive as a superintendent."
I reflected on that comment for a couple of days and decided, why not? After all, as a former superintendent, I knew that being prepared for real life experiences was critical to future success of school district leaders. Inasmuch as I learned wonderful insights from other superintendents, it was now my time to pass on life’s lessons that I experienced. Moreover, I thought, perhaps integrating conventional wisdom into the body of empirical research would enhance the richness and relevancy of learning. The following is a synopsis of what I told my students during the next class session.
I set the stage by explaining that educational leadership, and particularly the superintendent, is undeniably one of the most demanding, yet rewarding, careers in education. It is also one of the most vulnerable to dismissal.I cautioned that there are few safety nets, and second chances can be few and far between. However, I emphasized that there are a number of important job survival skills that everyone who aspires to become a superintendent ought to know. Although I made no claim of originality in the identification of these skills or guarantee of their success, I explained that their origins could be found in the vast array of empirical and anecdotal literature on school leadership, as well as my own experiences and reflections as a former superintendent. The presentation of these job survival skills superintendents ought to know ensued beginning with preparing for challenge.
- Accept The Challenge! Know what you are getting yourself into before signing a contract. The challenges of running a school district are compounded by elected officials making decisions with little to no educator input, high performance expectations with little financial support to attain, deteriorating school buildings, lack of public confidence in schools, and horror stories of dysfunctional relationships between superintendents and boards of education. Don’t surrender in despair over vouchers, charters, and school take-over legislation, but work diligently to inform elected officials regarding the realities of their legislation. Rise above it all, children need you! Know that many others are rooting you on!
- Raise the Bar! Increase the achievement of all students by replacing low-level academic courses with more challenging ones. Although some standards and expectations such as AYP, top achievement on statewide tests, and greater retention of new teachers may seem unattainable; you will need to lead the way to setting and achieving higher expectations. You will soon discover that teachers and students alike will work diligently to rise to your higher levels of expectations as long as your expectations are appropriate, attainable, and worthy. You should provide the technical assistance such as professional development, mentoring, and other forms of support for those in need while striving to reach higher expectations. It is imperative that you demonstrate diligence, patience, and conviction for raising the bar of achievement.
- Build the Team! Know that your longevity as superintendent will be directly proportionate to your ability to lead others. Build teams with thoughtfulness and care. Take heed that board/superintendent relations can make or break your tenure. Keep students’ needs front and center and the sole basis for all team decision making. I shared my testimony of my last tenure as superintendent. Immediately following my appointment, I began meeting with board members, administrators, teachers, other instructional staff members, students, and others in efforts of increasing student achievement. I asked each individual the same question, “What do you need to improve student achievement”. I documented their responses. On the first professional development day, I distributed a listing of my documentation and asked all those in attendance to prioritize the listing. We agreed on a timeline and attached costs. This strategic plan served all of us very well for the next five years with minor adjustments. There was wide spread ownership for this plan and student achievement escalated from the cellar to stellar. We had built a learning community, or what we called a professional family, where all were on the same team to do what’s best for all students.
- Attain the Great – Communicate! As it is location, location, and location to a Realtor; so it is communication, communication, and communication to an educational administrator! Only through effective communication will you build the foundation of trust. To accomplish effective communications, you should not purposely withhold information. You must attempt to minimize surprises. Communicate your support for others to achieve their professional goals when aligned to your school district’s mission. Your effective communication necessitates your active-listening! To illustrate, I shared that on Fridays I would bring donuts to the bus garage, sit down with bus drivers, and chat. Our sharing built trust among us! This trust was particularly beneficial on inclement weather days when bus drivers communicated their opinions to me regarding the safety of the roads. This information was advantageous to my rendering a decision as to whether the starting of school should be delayed or cancelled. Communication is equally important with constituents outside the school district.
- Take A Lead In Your Community! Leadership should not stop at the school-district door. You are not only the leader of your school district; but a leader in your community as well. From positions on boards of local hospitals, volunteering for civic activities, participating in community affairs, and similar other involvements, you need to take an active role in your community. In turn, the relationships you make with other community members may be beneficial to your school district; especially at times of need. As a Rotarian, I made numerous friendships during many activities sponsored by the Rotary Club, such as the three annual chicken barbeques. My fellow Rotarians became the strongest supporters of our school district.
- Share and Learn! Seek the support of others. You should know from the onset that the superintendency is often marked with solitude. You've got to break the silence--telephone, e-mail, or give somebody a surprise visit. No matter how bad your current issue is, someone always seems to have a more pressing situation. You should stay active in your professional associations. In addition, you should stay linked to university preparation programs and fellow graduates, maintain positive relations with superintendents in neighboring school districts, and continue to seek professional development. The American Association of School Administrators and state affiliate chapters sponsor meaningful conferences, relevant publications, and wonderful opportunities to network with other superintendents throughout the nation. Sharing and learning is critical to your success as a superintendent as is your keeping an opened mind.
- Keep your mind open to change. A mind is like a parachute - neither works when closed. Education today is in a constant state of change. What worked yesterday may not be the best solution for tomorrow. As disgruntled parents, community members, board members, and others storm into your office, it is critical that you keep on open mind in seeking first to understand rather than to be understood. In more cases than not, these individuals desperately want their chief executive officer to simply acknowledge their plight.
- Praise in public. Discipline in private! Support your board members, faculty, staff, and others. Discipline others in private, praise in public. By extending a well deserved compliment in public, you are not only affirming an individual’s actions, you are also encouraging others to replicate similar achievements. To illustrate, during one of our numerous board of education meetings, I extended a compliment to our board president for handling a specific situation very well. It was like E.F. Hutton had spoken. The positive tone was set for the rest of the meeting. Other board members discovered their outstanding actions would be affirmed by their superintendent.
- Be realistic! You need to be realistic about what you, as superintendent, and others can accomplish. Yes, you should envision the best possible programs for children; however, you need to realize that funds, personnel, and logistics may be limiting factors. You should set realistic goals that are attainable with timelines that are feasible. You must be mindful that Rome wasn’t built in a day; neither will the school districts you lead be able to achieve exemplary blue ribbon status overnight. To exemplify this realistic perspective, I was offered a position at the helm of a school district that had an ongoing law suit over the health curriculum. This six year law suit divided the faculty and community. This school district was in dire need of a successful bond vote for new school buildings. I accepted this superintendency in good faith that the school board’s expectations would be realistic in terms of first settling the law suit and then moving onward to a bond election. The school board’s expectations of my performance were kept realistic and we were able to resolve the lawsuit and move on to a successful bond election. Likewise, you will need to keep your expectations realistic by considering all factors of any given situation.
Following my rapid firing of job survival skills superintendents ought to know, I wanted to leave my students with something personal. I took a deep breath, paused, and passionately identified a writing entitled Promise Yourself. I testified that this writing assisted me at my deepest and darkest moments as superintendent. I shared the following covenant verbatim while challenging my students to live up to its principles:
Promise Yourself
Promise yourself to be strong and not to allow anything or anyone disturb your peace of mind. Talk health, happiness, and prosperity to every person you meet. Make everyone feel that there is something in them. Look at the sunny side of things and make your dreams come true. Think only the best, work only for the best, and expect only the best. Be just as happy about the success of others as you are about your own. Forget the mistakes of the past and press unto greater things of the future. Wear a cheerful smile at all times. Give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others. Be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.
This class was far different than others. It was not instruction as usual as emotional issues were being confronted. A real sense of accomplishment was felt at the completion of this class. Much was learned by not only the students present, but also their professor.
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This work is licensed by Michael Jazzar under a Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY 2.0).
Last edited by National Council of Professors of Educational Administration on Dec 11, 2006 8:45 am US/Central.