The ‘Care and Feeding’ of School Boards

Nine tips from the trenches and what they really mean about survival for a new superintendent

Nearing his retirement, a long-time, highly successful superintendent with whom one of us worked as a school board member explained how he was able to survive for so long in an often-fragile and risky political setting.

He shared nine survival tips for new superintendents, which we’ve fleshed out here as school governance consultants. Each suggests what a new superintendent might tell the board, followed parenthetically by a more candid superintendent-to-superintendent translation.

Once you’ve established a trusting relationship with your board, we suggest you share this article with board members and ask them to consider this prompt: Reviewing your board’s history, can you recognize why such advice is offered?