The Mobility of Our Work World

Executive Perspective

I often refer to school superintendents as highly educated migrant workers. Going back to the 1920s, to the first-ever report focusing on the superintendency, the average tenure of a superintendent has remained consistent at about three years. That does not mean that the average career of the superintendent lasts three years. It means superintendents move around.

Most superintendents hold multiple superintendencies during their careers. I held the position for 27 years in four school districts in two states.

This mobility has many causes. In most cases, it is a career move. The first superintendency tends to be in a smaller district, and after a few years the opportunity arises to move to a larger district with higher pay. The superintendent may be on the lookout for the opportunity or may be recruited by an executive search firm looking to fill a job with an experienced superintendent.

Career Movements

I began in a school district with fewer than 5,000 students and moved to larger and larger districts, culminating in Fairfax County, Va., with 165,000 students. The median size school system in America is 2,200 students and the range extends from a handful of students to more than a million in New York City. A broad diversity exists in terms of size and demographics.

In my first three jobs, I was fortunate that I was not required to move from where I lived. On Long Island, N.Y., there are 56 school districts in Nassau County and 72 in Suffolk County. There are plenty of opportunities to hop around from one district to another without having to change domiciles.

That may not be the case in states that have larger county school systems. Moves in those states usually require the superintendent to move residences. This mobility may cause hardships on the superintendent’s family, particularly if there are school-aged children involved. It also will affect the superintendent’s spouse if employed and he or she needs to look for employment in the new location.

Continuity’s Impact

Sometimes it is not the superintendent who chooses to move. The school board may be the one to make the decision. In my early years in New York, I heard state Education Commissioner Ewald Nyquist say that superintendents tended to leave their districts the same way as when they were hired — fired with enthusiasm.

Today school boards are more strident in deciding to either end prematurely or not renew the superintendent’s contract without cause. Such decisions can be costly to a community when the superintendent’s contract still has several years remaining. We are seeing of late a rash of such without-cause terminations of superintendents with national reputations.

MaryEllen Elia was terminated without cause in Hillsborough County, Fla., after 10 years of exceptional leadership. A finalist for 2015 National Superintendent of the Year, she now is the education commissioner in New York state. In Montgomery County, Md., the board failed to renew Joshua Starr’s contract. He now serves as executive director for Phi Delta Kappan. Such outstanding educators will immediately be pursued by headhunters to fill other high-level jobs. The districts, however, will lose continuity of leadership and the stability that is a hallmark of outstanding school systems.

Systems with a revolving door into the superintendent’s office tend to be dysfunctional. It takes a good five years for solid practices to become ingrained in school systems and then continuity of leadership to sustain them. This is true of school boards as well. Studies conducted by AASA show that school board tenure tends to parallel superintendent tenure and that high-performing districts have continuity in leadership in both the superintendent and the board.

A good friend, Alvin Wilbanks, has been the superintendent in Gwinnett County, Ga., for 19 years. That system has won the Broad Prize for Urban Education twice and is considered one of the premier school districts in the country. Fairfax County, Va., where I had the pleasure to serve as superintendent for seven years, is another excellent district with sustained longevity among its superintendents and board members.

Sustaining Tenure

The lesson to be learned here is that sustained leadership leads to quality schools. Lengthening superintendent tenure and reducing mobility is in the best interest of all. Many school boards recognize this and work with the superintendent to ensure they stay on the job by properly compensating them and focusing on policy while the superintendent manages the operations. It is a proven formula for success.