8 Things They Don’t Teach in

Superintendent and Principal School

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www.schoolwealth.com

The role of school principal or school district superintendent each carry with them the

need for unique skills and competencies, and colleges and universities that seek to

prepare people for these roles do the best job they can in anticipating the demands of

these leadership positions and crafting programs accordingly. Nothing in any graduate

program, however, can truly prepare anyone as effectively or comprehensively as

actual experience in the position. Anyone who has served as a principal or a

superintendent could easily develop a list of things they wish they had learned in

graduate school.

Though the two roles involve skills with considerable overlap, there nonetheless remain

several aspects of each job that are unique. This series will provide a list and some brief

commentary on four things for each position that would be good to know and that

may have been absent from typical graduate programs in educational leadership.

Considered first will be school leadership, further divided into the very different positions

of elementary and secondary principal.

1. Scheduling

While technology has certainly made the job of building a school schedule somewhat

easier, the task of creating a schedule each year is daunting to every new principal,

especially at the elementary level when little assistance is typically available other than

from more experienced colleagues willing to help. This responsibility at the middle and

high school levels is often shared with guidance personnel and vice-principals, and

larger schools with multiple sections of classes are easier to schedule than smaller ones

with more singleton courses that cannot conflict with other classes offered only once a

day.

Graduate programs in school leadership rarely provide practical training in schedule

building, simply because every district, and often schools within the same district, allow

certain priorities to trump others. The principal, ideally with measured input from

teachers themselves, should ultimately be the one who decides how to create a

schedule that takes the interests and needs of students into account as the top priority.

Doing so within contractual considerations of instructional staff is another constraint that

is unique to every district and, therefore, cannot be adequately addressed in graduate

programs of study.

New to scheduling in many districts is the connection between budget and program,

resulting in the need for software that tracks spending and ties dollars to program,

products, and personnel. Investing in such software is a cost-effective strategy for

managing costs and tying resources to student achievement in a meaningful and

tangible way.

2. Budgeting

The process of building a budget and managing spending for an entire school year are

aspects of the principalship that take most new principals by surprise. Direction from the

business department is helpful during budget creation, and new principals are

particularly wise to ask many questions and lean on the advice of experienced

colleagues in the district. Managing a budget as a school year progresses is an entirely

different process, one that includes prioritization and negotiation skills that few

graduate programs provide for or include as part of the preparation of principals.

New principals quickly learn, sometimes the hard way, that spending early in a school

year is smarter than waiting. It is not at all uncommon for the business office in many

districts to institute a system of heightened scrutiny or enhanced justification of

spending in the spring of a school year, spending that would sail through a less rigorous

process at the beginning of a school year. Emergencies aside, if something that was

anticipated while crafting a budget wasn’t purchased by the spring of a given school

year, conventional wisdom often prevails and such late spending is typically forestalled.

Elementary principals often have a deeper connection to spending on instruction than

secondary colleagues, simply because the nature of a secondary school budget

includes extracurricular and interscholastic sports spending that is often and completely

absent at the primary and intermediate grade levels. High school principals who

maintain a detailed view of all spending, especially resources devoted to instruction,

are those most likely to succeed at raising academic achievement, especially if

software is in place and data is developed and considered that connects dollars to

student achievement.

The comprehensive role of superintendent requires a skill set that includes many things

anyone would expect of an educational leader. The ability to communicate well with

different constituencies and the ability to establish a vision for the future of a district are

two of the most basic responsibilities of anyone who serves in a central office leadership

position. Striking the proper balance between transparency and confidentiality in

decision-making, while less apparent to those who have never served in the position, is

no less important for those who succeed as a chief school administrator.

The career arc of anyone who becomes a superintendent typically includes time as a

teacher, where many of the communication skills required for success are developed.

Also common is time spent as a building-level administrator, where many of the

delegating and prioritizing skills necessary for central office success are similarly honed.

Regardless of whether time as a teacher or principal precedes the superintendency,

the feeling of being occasionally overwhelmed and consistently humbled by the job is

virtually universal among new superintendents.

Graduate school and an advanced degree or two are standard fare for most

superintendents before ascending to that position. Despite the best intentions of

virtually every program of study meant to prepare superintendents for their role, there is

no better preparation than time served. The mistakes made, lessons learned, and

improvement experienced as a superintendent is priceless and irreplaceable.

A brief examination of things not taught in graduate school can assist anyone who

needs to understand the responsibilities of a superintendent of schools or a school

principal. If scheduling and budgeting represent challenges for most new principals, the

two items examined herein certainly qualify as equal challenges for superintendents.

3. Establishing Partnerships

New superintendents are initially very popular, with a “honeymoon” phase that can last

for weeks, months, or longer. In the most respectful manner possible, taking stock of

what has transpired in the recent past and learning from everyone as to the perceived

strengths of a district and challenges faced and overcome is an especially wise way to

spend the first many months as a superintendent. Before setting out to change a

culture, learning about the culture that exists is the best way to exhibit the proper

respect for everyone who works in a district.

It is during the halcyon honeymoon days that a new superintendent can establish the

partnerships likely to ensure long-term success. Superintendents who are affable,

avuncular, and accessible from the minute they land in the chair are those who

succeed in improving the district they are honored to serve.

Partnerships with union leaders, local law enforcement, local political leaders, parent

groups, the education foundation, local media, and local businesses all pay dividends

for the district, and the degree to which the superintendent is front and center with

many or all of these groups as “the face of the school district” is typically a surprise for a

new superintendent. Embracing these opportunities to raise the district’s profile and

position it positively in the hearts and minds of the people in these groups and

organizations is a central responsibility of the superintendent of schools

4. Crisis Response

Few people who serve as a superintendent of schools ever escape the job of

responding to a crisis, whether an unexpected or untimely death, a natural disaster, or

a breach in school security. Most who begin their time as a superintendent give little if

any thought to this aspect of the job, but those who anticipate the need to

communicate during or after a crisis and have a plan in mind or in place for such

emergencies are better positioned to reassure people and establish order and comfort

in a time of potential chaos.

Experienced district leaders are careful to keep the board president fully apprised of all

events as an important initial step, sometimes before anyone else is informed or

occasionally once law enforcement has been contacted. If a particular emergency

requires an immediate response, and if that immediate response has been handled

professionally and successfully, communicating with key personnel is an important and

immediate next step.

Another aspect of crisis response that few new superintendents have ever handled

directly is confronting the media when they make initial contact. It is precisely this

situation that provides a compelling case for having a mutually respectful relationship

with local media figures before a crisis occurs. A polite rebuff and a brief explanation as

to the necessity of such a response is more easily delivered and more likely to suffice in

the initial stages of an emergency situation than a simple “no comment.”

School leadership can be both thrilling and lonely, and anticipating the things that

have vexed others in the role can help anyone overcome challenges and succeed for

their students and their schools.

School principals have the unique responsibility to ensure the smooth daily operations of

their schools while simultaneously holding everyone accountable for doing their best

work. The biblical phrase “all things to all people” first attributed to the Apostle Paul is

an apt descriptor of the role of a school principal, especially at the elementary level

where virtually everything lands in the lap or on the desk of the principal.

Running a school takes on a certain automaticity, and the logistical aspects of the job

can easily overshadow the more seminal responsibility of increasing academic

achievement. Especially in a smaller school with little or no administrative support from

a vice-principal or guidance personnel, being a school principal can be a very

challenging proposition, especially for those who embrace change over the status quo

and who take seriously their responsibility to drive innovation and improvement in the

daily delivery of instruction.

Adding to the challenges of serving as a school principal is managing the role of

parents in the operation of a school. Parental involvement has become a catch-phrase

for a wide variety of behaviors exhibited by parents, not all of them conducive to

running a school efficiently or effectively. Though it is awkward and politically foolhardy

to admit or acknowledge, this aspect of school leadership leads to two more things not

taught to those who aspire to the principalship.

5. Not All Parental Involvement is Good

Consider the practice of allowing parents to assist in the school library or in any other

school day program or activity. Even scheduled in advance and carefully monitored,

having parents present during the school day automatically makes them occasionally

or persistently privy to things that parents should not necessarily witness, most notably

the interactions between a student having a difficult time of things and the staff

member(s) who are trying to help the student and the situation. Rare is the school

principal who has not dealt with fallout from parents who hear an inaccurate version of

events from a volunteer about an incident in school.

The right to and expectation of privacy can be compromised when a parent volunteer

with the best of intentions to serve the school engages in the entirely human practice of

telling a trusted friend about something that happened at school during a volunteer

activity. The seasoned principal is typically mindful of this possibility and careful to

intervene diplomatically by counseling volunteers to respect the privacy of students

and parents by not sharing stories of what happens to the children of others that may

be perceived negatively.

6. Parental Involvement is Different and Distinct From Parental Engagement

The difference between these two phrases is often the hinge point as to whether the

presence of parents is productive or detrimental to the operation of a school,

extending well beyond semantics or the turn of a phrase. Parental involvement has by

far been the more popular phrase in the lexicon of public schooling, though parental

engagement is healthier for children and schools.

Parental involvement is an excellent way to describe the role parents should play in all

aspects of their own child’s education, ideally driven by the needs of the child and the

inclination of the parent to help in a way that matches their ability to help. There is no

formula for success in this realm, in keeping with virtually all aspects of being an

effective parent. The best approach is to do what seems right, and to monitor and

adjust the approach to parental involvement as any child progresses through the

school experience.

Parental engagement is a much better description of the preferred role parents can

play in helping a school or its principal to deliver the best possible experience to all

children. Parental engagement can take the form of serving on committees or regularly

attending meetings of the PTA, PTO, or HSO. It can also include running for a seat on the

board of education, clearly the most productive and responsible way to craft policy

with the legitimate authority to do so and to ensure that the schools are well run without

trying to actually run them.

The last points in this series will examine two additional aspects of the superintendency

that typically receive scant attention in professional preparation programs of study.

Examining aspects of school or district leadership roles that carry more practical than

theoretical benefits is the best way to improve practice and to educate the lay-public

as to the challenges faced by principals and superintendents in performing their jobs

well.

New superintendents are typically surprised and often challenged by how much of the

job has very little to do with educating children or raising academic achievement,

especially in districts with frequent turnover in top leadership positions. In some states,

the average length of service for the superintendent position has lately and historically

been fewer than two years, this in a profession that research suggests requires five or

more years of consistent leadership in order to affect meaningful change.

This juxtaposition often results in time spent building trust and establishing a vision with

constituencies that are understandably reluctant to invest in the process. Leadership is

only as effective as the “followship” it inspires, a process that can easily be sidetracked

or completely derailed by the tenuous hold a new superintendent may have on the

position. This difficult, though not atypical, scenario has a direct connection to two

aspects of the superintendency that few anticipate as they acclimate to the job.

7. Much of the Superintendency Often Has Little To Do Directly with Educational Issues

In any district with a full array of extra and co-curricular activities including a robust

interscholastic sports program, issues arising from those offerings frequently and

eventually end up landing on the desk of the superintendent. Even when proper

delegation of authority and responsibility includes interaction with principal or athletic

director as proper initial steps in a parent or student concern, some are never satisfied

with the outcome of events until and unless the superintendent weighs in.

Parents are often at their most unreasonable and least rational when it comes to the

extracurricular or interscholastic athletic activities of their children. Most superintendents

with any time on the job have fielded phone calls or emails that begin with the

statement, “This is not about the playing time of my kid” before a parent launches into

a tirade that clearly or eventually belies that qualifier. It is almost always about playing

time when a parent has a problem with the coach of a sport or the advisor of an

activity.

Another realm that vexes most superintendents is of oversight of the physical plant, an

aspect of district leadership for which most district leaders are ill-prepared. Though

others are nominally in charge of buildings and grounds issues, many board members

and lay-people fully expect the superintendent to know as much as anyone else in the

district about fenestration, EPDM versus built-up roofing, or levels of carbon monoxide

adjacent to all boiler rooms in the district. Time spent on each of those issues is time lost

to overseeing innovation or ensuring gains in academic achievement.

8. Not All Board Members Serve to Advance the Interests of Students

In a perfect world, those who run for a seat on the board of education would have no

political aspirations and only want what’s best for the students of the district. If true, then

Mark Twain was wrong in 1897 when late in his life he infamously wrote: “In the first

place God made idiots. This was for practice. Then he made school boards.”

In a more practical and realistic assessment, school board members are no more or less

likely than anyone else to exhibit entirely human characteristics like compassion,

ineptitude, or hubris. Their role as policy creators and fiscal overseers is made infinitely

more complicated when parents burden them with unrealistic expectations of instant

improvement and magical solutions to everyday issues. In a well-intentioned effort to

assist parents, many new school board members overstep their authority and promise

more than they could or should deliver when a problem is shared, often in a social

setting far from school time and place.

Into this all-too-typical milieu confidently strides the superintendent, who is instantly

confronted with the need to simultaneously settle an issue while correcting a board

member’s misstep that may have exacerbated it. The seasoned superintendent

immediately recognizes the value and wisdom of enlisting the aid of the board

president in calming the waters and settling the problem, if only by teaching a rouge

board member the blessings of restraint when confronted with an irate or irrational

parent.

Principals and superintendents serve in positions of authority and leadership rivaled by

few if any others in a school district. These roles require patience, wisdom, and the

humility to accept the fact that their jobs are sometimes made more difficult by others

not restrained by professional ethics or a moral compass. Graduate school is important

in the preparation of school and district leaders, and practical experience that only

comes with time spent in these positions is irreplaceable and invaluable. Principals and

superintendents who learn early that locally derived data and its proper analysis by

professionals trained for that task is the best bulwark against making decisions based on

instinct or experience alone.

The things not taught explicitly in graduate school can nevertheless be gleaned by

those who anticipate the many challenges of running a school or a district. By

considering possibilities before they occur and by having a plan for clear-headed and

compassionate leadership, educational leaders are most likely to succeed by

evidencing a foundation of what is best for the social, emotional and academic

success of the students as decisions are rendered and outcomes are delivered.