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Illinois School Board Journal
January/February 2005
District matrimony:
Will your relationship last?
by Linda Dawson
Linda Dawson is IASB director of editorial services and Journal editor.
Every issue of Ladies Home Journal seeks to answer a burning question: Can this marriage be saved? Each scenario is different, but most have recurring themes of broken trust, poor communication, family squabbles, lack of respect and money woes.
When they wed, the partners in each of these couples vowed "to love, honor and cherish" each other. They vowed that their lives would be as one: "for better or worse, through sickness and health, forsaking all others." They asked if anyone had any objections to their union, and then agreed that "no one" would come between them.
Amid smiles and joy they were united. But now, in front of a magazine's vast audience, they air their problems, seeking a way to salvage what still might be good amid the remains of a broken relationship.
The relationship that is formed when a school board hires a new superintendent may be compared to a marriage. Both sides bring expectations and high hopes. Some relationships may even resemble a marriage "made in heaven" — i.e., destined to last an eternity — or at least until retirement. But others head toward divorce court even before the first contract term has expired.
With a growing school superintendent turnover trend, many more school boards are evaluating their role in the selection process. Can anything ensure a good relationship from the start? And what can sour a relationship the quickest?
For advice on the subject, we turned to some "expert" board/superintendent marriage counselors:
What it takes
Not surprisingly, when asked to name the benchmarks of a good board/superintendent relationship, our experts turned out a list that mirrors the principles of any strong marriage: communication, trust, honesty, respect and clear expectations.
"A good board-superintendent relationship is crucial," said Michael Johnson, IASB executive director, "not just in terms of day-to-day activities, but in order to move the district forward in terms of increasing student achievement.
"The board and superintendent need to be able to communicate, not just with each other, but also with their community so that all sides share in educational expectations for their students."
Open, truthful, direct, frequent, positive, two-way and quality were the adjectives our experts used to describe communication that's needed for a good board/superintendent relationship.
John Cassel, field service director for the suburban Chicago divisions of DuPage, North Cook and Starved Rock, said boards should take a cue from Stephen Covey, author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People and First Things First: First attempt to hear and understand each other.
A difference exists between listening, just to be polite, and making an effort to understand the other person's position. If understanding is the key, paraphrasing back what has been said can be a good tool. Knowing you'll have to summarize what someone else is trying to convey forces a listener to connect with the information being offered. The give and take becomes a dialogue rather than just talking at one another.
Good communication also is key to fostering better trust, respect and expectations.
"If both the board and superintendent understand and respect the role of the other and the importance of that role to the success of the system," Cassel said, "they will work to assure that the other experiences success."
If the board and the superintendent have talked frankly about what each expects in terms of performance, accountability, reporting, etc., those conversations will save lots of time, hassle and frustration for everyone involved, added Angie Peifer, director of school board development. "Clarity around expectations is an important benchmark of a good board/superintendent relationship."
Sandy Gundlach, IASB field services director for the Abe Lincoln, Kaskaskia, Southwestern and Two Rivers divisions in central and southwest Illinois, said the worst thing a superintendent can do is to hide something from the board. "They will learn about it sooner or later. It might as well come from the superintendent first.
"Along the same lines, never give the impression that you're not listening or don't care about someone's concerns."
Bob Shanks, an IASB consultant and himself a former superintendent, looked at communication from a practical side. "If the board has questions about an agenda item, they should call the superintendent ahead of time. A board meeting doesn't need surprises."
"It's all about communication," added Walt Warfield, IASA executive director. "Everyone on the leadership team — all seven board members and the superintendent — should have open, truthful and direct communication."
This communication pattern needs to be established early in the relationship as well as sustained over time.
"The board and superintendent should spend quality time together as soon as the superintendent comes on board so that they can all share their educational and administrative philosophies, as well as identify some leadership team goals, both long- and short-range," Warfield said.
What to look for
Establishing good communication in the relationship actually begins with the superintendent search and interview process. If the board isn't clear about what it seeks in a superintendent, then the relationship may be doomed from the start.
IASB associate executive director for policy services Cathy Talbert said the board needs to be clear about the superintendent's job description. "That includes the knowledge, skills and abilities it is looking for in a superintendent, how the board understands its own job description and its governance philosophy," she said
Once the board is clear on those issues, members are able to interview candidates to determine if they share the same understanding and beliefs about school boards and the superintendency.
That puts the search/selection process into the marital equivalent of "dating." And just as some dating relationships don't work out because couples share different life goals, a good selection07/screening process when hiring a superintendent can detect when boards and superintendent candidates don't share the same goals for the district and the community.
Unfortunately, just like some couples ignore potential pitfalls to a relationship while they're dating, some boards don't heed the warning signs in the interview process.
"Sometimes, just like a marriage, it never should have taken place," said Donna Johnson, IASB field service director for the south suburban Chicago divisions of South Cook, West Cook and Three Rivers.
She cited instances of candidates responding to preliminary superintendent search information before having any idea of criteria the board would set. And, conversely, boards shouldn't go into a search process without knowing what they want in a new superintendent.
Boards need to go into the process a little more thoughtful of finding a good match, just like couples should do when they marry, Johnson said. It's like the young man who said he fell in love with a woman's eyes or was captivated by her smile, but had no idea of what she wanted out of life.
"Sometimes he or she just isn't the one for you … and you have to look some more," Johnson said.
During that "dating" process for boards and superintendents, the board needs to have a clear sense of direction … a mission, vision and goals … in place.
"Without those in place," Peifer said, "boards are apt to make hiring decisions based on emotion and perception," rather than shared expectations and a clear sense of district direction. "As Seneca wrote," she added, "if a ship doesn't know what port it's making for, any wind is a good wind."
Absent of clear goals, once the match is made, a superintendent will head in the direction that he or she deems appropriate, according to Talbert. This direction may not meet the needs of the board or the community. Or the superintendent may be pulled in many different directions by various voices on the board and in the community.
"Either way, energy and resources may be wasted, the board may be dissatisfied, and community engagement and support may be lacking," she said.
Just like "family squabbles" in a marriage, disagreements can be controlled by coming to a consensus with the community around expectations for the district and by providing a clear sense of direction for a new superintendent. Without it, according to AASA's Kussmaul, former superintendent at East Dubuque Unit School District 119, "the direction chosen by the new superintendent may concur with three board members and not with the other four, creating a no-win situation for progress in the district."
This doesn't mean that all board members and the superintendent must see eye-to-eye on everything. But the ability to communicate openly and honestly can leave room for disagreements without being disagreeable.
"If you enter the conversations with good intentions and expect good intentions of your peers, you are well on the road to building a successful board/superintendent partnership whether or not all parties agree," said Bob Tschirki, writing in the Spring 2004 issue of PRISM, an issues-oriented publication of the Colorado Association of School Boards.
Tschirki, who is executive director of the Colorado Association of School Executives, said those well-intentioned conversations help to clarify the difference in board/superintendent roles and facilitate a better understanding of the district's mission, vision and goals.
If a board is unclear on its mission, vision and goals, it should find someone to assist in defining that sense of direction before it embarks on a superintendent search, said Dawn Miller, IASB field services director for the northernmost Illinois divisions: Northwest, Kishwaukee and Lake. And boards need to include the community in those conversations.
Just as no public school districts will ever be identical and no communities are exactly the same, no set of criteria to hire a superintendent will be exactly the same, either. Once a district-specific mission, vision and goals are in place, the board will have a good basis to set the criteria for the type of superintendent the district needs.
Experienced vs. new
Once criteria are established for a new superintendent, the job of selecting final candidates becomes much easier and the board can deal with specifics, rather than wondering if they want to hire an experienced superintendent or someone who may be seeking a first top administrative job.
If boards look for a person who shares their goals and aspirations, IASA's Warfield said, experience comes in a far second to vision.
In some cases, Miller said, an assistant superintendent from a really large district may have more experience with some concerns than someone who has been a superintendent from a small district and not had experience with community growth and property developers. "It all depends on the district and the complexities facing the board in the next three to five years."
Historically, Peifer added, most boards would prefer an experienced person. "The exception has been very small districts with salary restrictions who understood that they were often ‘starting off' places for new superintendents and that they would probably lose the ‘good ones' within a couple of years."
Cassel, meanwhile, agrees with hiring ideas from the recent best-seller, First Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently.
"The board is rightly concerned about experience, expertise and ability," he said, "but the wise board will pay particular attention to talent. That is, does the person have the talent to be superintendent? Does the candidate want to do the job of superintendent? Does the candidate care about the right things and have the aptitude to be a superintendent?"
Working on the relationship
Just as in a marriage, relationships may start out on a good footing but deteriorate rapidly when the honeymoon is over and the new couple comes face to face with district reality: additions to the family (growth issues), money problems (budget deficits) or an unexpected crisis (natural or man-made disasters). These stress points in a marriage can cause friction and can sour a board/superintendent relationship.
Dishonesty, inflexibility, lack of trust, miscommunication and making incorrect assumptions on either side top the list for our experts as a sure path to district relationship disaster.
When there is a loss of trust and respect, Cassel said, "it most likely means they stopped talking."
"Or they're not being truthful," added Dave Love, IASB field services director for the southern and eastern divisions: Illini, Wabash Valley, Egyptian and Shawnee.
Love said boards that seem to like each other and enjoy spending time with each other also seem to develop the best relationships with their superintendents. When board members can't stand to be in the same room with each other, the relationship with the superintendent may be doomed as well.
AASA's Kussmaul believes superintendents have a responsibility to learn about their district: who the key stakeholders are and what issues divided the board and/or community in the past. "Inflexible decision making by the superintendent with a lack of understanding of the history behind an issue will kill a relationship fast," he said.
Likewise, the board has to be prepared to listen to what the superintendent has to say, even if it's not what they want to hear, said IASA's Warfield. "It is imperative. The superintendent's failure to tell the board what it needs to know and/or the board interpreting ‘bad' news as disloyalty to the board is a certain formula for failure."
Making it work
With all the pitfalls, is it really possible for a board/superintendent relationship to flourish and for a superintendent to fulfill all the requirements and expectations that come with the job?
Our marriage counselors split on this one … some of them with tongue-in-cheek responses that would seem to indicate it also takes a good sense of humor to survive in the world of education today. Although some said "yes" and others "no," they all did so out of a great respect for the relationships necessary to lead school districts.
"It's a huge challenge," IASB's Talbert said, "but it's a challenge that anyone seeking the superintendency should understand and be willing to accept."
Some superintendents and boards obviously are very successful at it. But, Love added, "it is very difficult and, in my opinion, getting harder every year."
Warfield agreed, but framed his answer in the context of having clearly defined expectations and goals. "Clearly established, attainable goals are always possible," he said, adding that it can be healthy for the leadership team to establish some goals that may not be attainable. Those push the envelope to make certain the team is working together to provide the best educational opportunities for students.
As a newly retired superintendent, Kussmaul said a superintendent can fulfill all the requirements and expectations of the job by having a passion for doing what is best for kids, by knowing his or her own limitations, by being flexible in decision making and by being a visible figure in the community.
But Blair, another former superintendent, answered with an emphatic "No! And it has never been possible, but the great superintendents try to find a consensus on expectations, both with their board and in the community." When that consensus occurs, the board/superintendent relationship does have a better chance to succeed.
Cassel, who also answered "no," said paying careful attention to priorities, limits, support structures, self-assessment and self-awareness can go a long way to easing the pressures and challenges so that superintendents aren't overwhelmed by the job.
"Of course it's not humanly possible," quipped Miller, a former board member. "That's why they are called SUPERintendent!"
Increasing numbers
Superintendent searches conducted by IASB field services have been on the rise for the past three years and show little sign of slowing down.
Since 2002, superintendent changes in Illinois have run half again as many or more than for the three prior years, 1999-2001, and the numbers in 1999 were up more than 20 percent over 1998.
In 1998, 93 superintendent changes were documented in Illinois. That number rose to 116 in 1999, fell back slightly to 108 in 2000, but was up again to 112 by 2001. Then came the surge. In 2002, there were 169 superintendent changes, with another 162 in 2003. As of November 1, 2004, there had been 136 announced changes.
Changes are coming all across the state, with steady numbers in all divisions.
According to IASB records, 136 (or about 15 percent) of Illinois districts have a new superintendent for the 2004-05 school year, said Doug Blair, IASB senior field services director. Of those, 85 are beginning their first superintendency, while the rest have experience as public school superintendent either in Illinois or in another state.