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The number of California school superintendents leaving their jobs is climbing, despite increased salaries and benefits. Some have reached retirement age or are moving to less stressful jobs. Some are being pushed out by newly elected school board majorities. A new crop of less experienced district leaders is taking their place.
Superintendent turnover in California grew from 11.7% after the 2019-20 school year, to 20.9% after the 2020-21 school year. Just over 18% left after the 2021-22 school year, said Rachel S. White, an assistant professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, who runs a research lab that collects data about school superintendents.
Turnover is particularly high this year because many superintendents who stuck it out during pandemic school closures, and the tumultuous years since, have had enough, White said.
“This year, before the 2023 school year, I think people finally broke,” she said.
Chris Evans, 52, decided to step down as superintendent of Natomas Unified in Sacramento at the end of last school year. He stayed on to help the new superintendent transition.
“The job was always hard to begin with, and it’s become infinitely harder,” said Evans, who led the district for 11 years.
“There are a number of folks in their 50s and 60s who are saying they are done,” he said.
Superintendents’ jobs changed dramatically after the pandemic closed schools in March 2020. Instead of focusing on academics, strategic planning, school finances and community relations, superintendents were charged with navigating pandemic mandates and negotiating these changes with district unions. Superintendents also were tasked with ensuring there were enough computers and connectivity for students and staff to support virtual learning, all while dealing with parents who were angry their children were not in school.
The reopening of schools did little to turn down the heat at school board meetings, which were politicized over issues such as the teaching of critical race theory and its tenets of systemic racism, and LGBTQ+ topics. School superintendents often found themselves the focus of community and parental ire — so much that some school districts paid for security for their superintendent.
Gregory Franklin, the former superintendent of Tustin Unified School District in Orange County, said he has never been threatened, but he knows other superintendents who have.
“I can’t ever remember hearing of a superintendent that had gotten a death threat before,” said Franklin, who left Tustin Unified at the end of 2021 for another job. “Now, I know personally four or five. It’s just kind of shocking. So, I think, all of that being said, that when other possibilities present themselves, people are taking them.”
The superintendent turnover problem is not California’s alone, according to the Superintendent Research Project. Nearly half of the country’s 500 largest school districts have changed leadership or are undergoing leadership changes since the pandemic began in March 2020. The study compared the two years before the pandemic to the first two years of the pandemic and found a 46% increase in superintendent turnover nationally.
“What we are seeing is that the challenges are greater than ever before and the political environment is creating great instability in the institution, which is resulting in shorter tenure for superintendents,” said Dennis Smith, managing search partner for Leadership Associates, a recruitment agency that does many of the superintendent searches in California.
California school districts searching for superintendents include Sacramento City Unified, Eureka City Schools, Palm Springs Unified, Eastside Union, Pasadena Unified, Pajaro Valley Unified, Pacific Grove Unified, Culver City Unified, Newman-Crows Landing Unified, Solana Beach School District, Culver City Unified, Dixon Unified, Millbrae Elementary, Woodlake Unified, Hillsborough City, Merced City, Black Oak Mine Unified, North Monterey Unified and Dos Palos-Oro Loma Joint Unified.
The California School Boards Association projected a superintendent shortage five years ago, said Susan Heredia, CSBA past president. It began as baby boomers started to retire, she said.
In the 15 months since Brett McFadden began work as a deputy superintendent at the Monterey County Office of Education, a quarter of the county’s 24 school districts have changed superintendents, he said. McFadden was the Nevada Joint Union High School District superintendent until last school year.
“If you look at the last 100 superintendents that had to leave their positions or their districts, you would be very hard-pressed to find any one of them that left because of test scores or left because of educational issues,” McFadden said. “They leave because of local politics, board relations, labor relations, a facility bond matter or a budget thing.”
McFadden calls the Covid-19 pandemic the kindling that ignited the rise in single-issue adult-driven disputes, like those around masking and vaccinations, at school board meetings.
Demand is so high for superintendents that McFadden is already getting calls from search firms hoping to entice him to apply for jobs.
“You know the paint on the door isn’t even dry yet with my name on it,” he said. “These search firms are now just aggressively looking for candidates.”
Of the 30 candidates that apply for each candidate search, maybe eight to 10 meet the district’s qualifications, Evans said. Of those, there are only maybe three or four that could potentially be hired for the job, he said.
The high demand is driving up salaries and benefits packages, with total compensation surpassing the $500,000 mark in some cases.
Another factor pushing superintendents out the door is board members elected with the promise of firing the incumbent. The election of school board members who are determined to make significant changes in school districts has resulted in the firing of an unprecedented number of superintendents since the pandemic began in 2020, Smith said.
The school board meetings, broadcast live, have been watched throughout the state — especially by other superintendents.
McFadden remembers watching Pajaro Valley Unified school board meetings in 2021 when the board fired Superintendent Michelle Rodriguez without notice and then reinstated her days later after a public uproar. Rodriguez left to lead the Stockton Unified School District this year.
“You’d expect this in a Spanish novella or something, but you don’t expect it in your neighboring district,” he said.
School boards largely determine the qualifications required for a superintendent in their district. Although the state of California requires school district superintendents to have both a teaching credential and an administrative credential, the school board can waive the credential requirement.
At least six California school district superintendents did not have both a teaching and administrative credential in the 2022-23 school year, according to data reported to the state. The districts that waived the requirement that year included Visalia Unified, Los Angeles Unified, Mountain View Whisman Unified, Sacramento City Unified, Kingsburg Joint Union High School District and San Marino Unified, according to the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing.
Since there is no mandate to report this information in CALPADS, the state data system, there could be more superintendents without both credentials, said Anita Fitzhugh, California teaching credential commission spokesperson.
Superintendents are watching these meetings and paying more attention than ever to whether they fit well with the community of the district before they apply for a job, said White, of the University of Tennessee.
“I think it’s just a heightened awareness right now,” White said. “Especially if I’m going to pick up and move my entire family and start a position in a new place. I don’t want to be fired in two years.”
Temecula Valley Unified has been a hotbed of controversy since a trio of conservative trustees took control of the board a year ago. The board fired Superintendent Jodi McClay in June and banned the teaching of critical race theory, passed a parental policy requiring staff to notify parents if students are transgender and removed social studies material because it included a section on LGBTQ+ rights activist Harvey Milk.
Although the search for a candidate ended on Nov. 13 with the hiring of Gary Woods, a former Beverly Hills Unified superintendent, the search firm indicated to one board member that there were fewer candidates than in the past. Quite a few candidates did not meet the requirements outlined by the district in a job description and some weren’t even from the education field, board member Allison Barclay told EdSource in early November.
“I would assume that if you’re looking for a position anywhere, any company, any school district, you’re really going to look at what the situation is you’re walking into financially, culture-wise, all of those things,” Barclay said. “And so, having a school district that is making national news is probably not appealing to as many people as might be attracted to it when it wasn’t making national news and was just simply known as an award-winning school district. So, I can’t imagine that that’s been helpful.”
State legislators responded to the spate of firings by passing a bill creating a cooling-off period, prohibiting school boards from firing a superintendent or assistant superintendent within 30 days of new board members being seated or recalled.
The law also prevents school boards from firing school leaders at special or emergency board meetings, which require only 24 hours’ notice, instead of at a regular meeting, which requires the public to be informed of a meeting at least 72 hours in advance. The bill was signed by the governor in October.
“People are recognizing it’s just not healthy for an organization to go through these flip-flops where you might have a 3-2 majority that keeps a school or a superintendent, then have an election where the 3-2 flips and then the superintendent is looking for a job,” Franklin said.
Assistant or deputy superintendents in larger districts are moving into the lead role in smaller districts, or superintendents in smaller districts are taking the opportunity to move to more lucrative jobs in larger districts. Newer, younger superintendents are becoming more common, Smith said.
To meet their administrative needs, many districts are also grooming their own talent, said Molly Schwarzhoff of Ray and Associates, a national education search firm.
‘I’m seeing different, perhaps less-seasoned individuals coming into the roles,” McFadden said. “That doesn’t mean they are less talented or more talented.”
To help new superintendents prepare for their new role, the Association of California School Administrators offers a new superintendents seminar series, a superintendents academy and a new superintendents workshop before its annual Superintendents Symposium.
The 2023 Voice of the Superintendent Survey, conducted by education consulting firm EAB, recommends that school boards find ways to help superintendents feel successful in their role and allow them time to connect with students and collaborate with peers to staunch turnover. Superintendents surveyed for the report overwhelmingly said they need help navigating challenging conversations with the community.
Superintendents report directly to the school board, something first-time superintendents have never done before, said James Finkelstein, professor emeritus of public policy at George Mason University in Virginia. The new superintendent now has multiple bosses, often with divergent interests. They also have to deal directly with parents and external interest groups.
“No amount of academic training or a certificate can prepare someone for this trial by fire,” Finkelstein said. “The bottom line is that there is no substitute for experience. But the catch-22 is that the only way to get the experience is by doing the job. Every school district would like an experienced superintendent who has demonstrated success in their previous position. But finding those individuals is increasingly difficult, especially given the dramatic turnover since Covid.”
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Comments (9)
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Brenda Lebsack - Former School Board Member 3 months ago3 months ago
I have a question that I hope the Edsource authors can answer. Are county superintendents having this same problem or only school district superintendents? Because county superintendents are elected officials while district superintendents are hired by the elected trustees. It seems to me that county superintendents have it "made in the shade." Although their board is also elected like them, they do not have to answer to their board. They are autonomous. It … Read More
I have a question that I hope the Edsource authors can answer. Are county superintendents having this same problem or only school district superintendents? Because county superintendents are elected officials while district superintendents are hired by the elected trustees.
It seems to me that county superintendents have it “made in the shade.” Although their board is also elected like them, they do not have to answer to their board. They are autonomous. It seems to me there is little to no accountability for county superintendents, yet they have direct access to the state superintendent (political upward mobility) and a lot of power over county operations, which includes overseeing large state and federal grants. Is this why there is not much turnover with county superintendents?
Replies
Frank 3 months ago3 months ago
County offices are outmoded, unnecessary entities. A county superintendent is the only elected official in the state that has complete autonomy with funds, personnel issues and very limited authority or purpose. It is time to either require county superintendents to be employed by a board, rather than elected. Elected superintendents only have to have an administrative credential, and require no experience at all, just the ability to get elected.
Lisa Disbrow 3 months ago3 months ago
It would have been helpful to hear from school board members who voted to change superintendents. For example in Temecula and Chino Valley where the community chose more traditional candidates, what reasons were given for the removal of the superintendent? It would also be helpful had the article clarified that many decisions on many issues are carried by 3-2 votes. The majority of these conflicts were baked into the cake by the CA legislature as they've … Read More
It would have been helpful to hear from school board members who voted to change superintendents. For example in Temecula and Chino Valley where the community chose more traditional candidates, what reasons were given for the removal of the superintendent?
It would also be helpful had the article clarified that many decisions on many issues are carried by 3-2 votes.
The majority of these conflicts were baked into the cake by the CA legislature as they’ve passed bills to culturally transform education and families without voters support or awareness. More and more voters are rejecting the usurping of family control over their children as they encounter the controversial critical theory based agendas and programs.
Ralph Golfer. 5 months ago5 months ago
School Superintendents are just overpaid paper pushers, they have little impact on schools. If a Superintendent “walked away” and the job wasn’t filled most would not even notice. I guess you got to a have somebody in charge, but at 400K a year? Cmon. You can get a paper pusher for 225K easily. Since Superintendents don’t do much, why pay them a ton of money?
Todd Maddison 5 months ago5 months ago
A great article, thanks. Would be interesting to see a more focused study like this done on CA superintendents. The CA system has its specific aspects that may drive superintendent turnover in different ways than may be true in other states. For example, just anecdotally it seems I've seen a decrease in superintendent tenure (less time in the same job), and from the specific cases I've looked at (granted, not a lot) it looks like a … Read More
A great article, thanks.
Would be interesting to see a more focused study like this done on CA superintendents. The CA system has its specific aspects that may drive superintendent turnover in different ways than may be true in other states.
For example, just anecdotally it seems I’ve seen a decrease in superintendent tenure (less time in the same job), and from the specific cases I’ve looked at (granted, not a lot) it looks like a lot of supers get promoted into a job that has a significant pay increase, spend not much more than the time needed to boost their “final pensionable pay” to higher levels, then retire.
I’ve also seen quite a number of “reshuffling” actions, where supers leave a job in one district to join another district in the same position.
If we’re going to actually identify the root cause, we need to know whether a given superintendent left for another district “to do something else” or retire.
If the former, then it wouldn’t seem to indicate the superintendent is unhappy being in education – just unhappy with something about their original district. Somewhat common “employee dissatisfaction.”
If “to do something else”, then perhaps that is driven by unhappiness with the state of education in some way.
If retirement, then if there’s any “problem” it might be the early age allowed for retirement by our pension systems and the lucrative nature of benefits.
To know that, in addition to the items above we’d need to know how long a super stayed in their original job before leaving as well as how long they’ve been in the education system. And we’d need to know that for some historical period – to see if the data indicates an increase/decrease or status quo.
Beyond that, all we really have is anecdotal stories about “how hard the job is these days,” and I can tell you most employees always think their job is harder this year than it was last year – since the beginning of time…
Thanks for bringing it up!
Replies
el 5 months ago5 months ago
There are probably lots of elements in play and I would suggest that you'd want to divide the cohort into superintendents of small, medium, and large districts to better understand the causes. In large districts, it's maybe more understood that politics is part of the job, and the superintendent gets a pretty large direct staff including assistant superintendents. There are a lot of moving parts, and in some districts, substantial demographic differences in the schools they … Read More
There are probably lots of elements in play and I would suggest that you’d want to divide the cohort into superintendents of small, medium, and large districts to better understand the causes.
In large districts, it’s maybe more understood that politics is part of the job, and the superintendent gets a pretty large direct staff including assistant superintendents. There are a lot of moving parts, and in some districts, substantial demographic differences in the schools they oversee.
In small districts, the superintendent is one of a handful of total administrators and may even have their role span into a superintendent/principal combination. Every decision comes into their awareness and they are more uniquely affected by every extra task that comes from the Legislature or local circumstances. There’s no extra staff to handle that new report on the day that a new leak is found in the roof and the bus driver quits, and 20 angry parents called because now there’s no bus service.
Superintendents in these districts are paid to work year-round but they also do a lot of extra time supervising athletic events or responding to weekend or holiday emergencies because there may be only 3 or 4 or 5 administrators total in the whole district. It’s a recipe for burnout, and the toxicity of parents and in some cases board members in the last few years quickly evaporates any ability to recover.
It has been amazing to me to watch superintendents literally on a dime become experts on internet access in rural communities or fire evacuations or air quality monitoring or infectious disease control or whatever the crisis of the year/quarter/month is. The little choices and tasks that aren’t in any of the descriptions – like the superintendent who opened one of their schools to be a Red Cross shelter or the one who realized that a week-long power outage meant all the food was going to spoil or who had to find someone to evacuate (or care for) the school animals for the fire evacuation or the one who hunted down an acceptable internet provider for every unserved local family or the one who started every day giving COVID tests.
Good superintendents can make a tremendous positive difference – but most of the time, that work is invisible because it’s the absence of friction. They find great people and make sure that they have the tools to get the job done and obstacles removed. Don’t tell them but the ones that are successful are talented people who could work for as much money or more in far less stressful positions.
Help your good administrators by noticing the work they do, thanking them when they can, and those of you in the Legislature, have a heart about every report you ask for or every new legal requirement you send down, or remember to send funding for new staff to do them. That report is coming out of someone’s hide for no extra compensation, so if you ask for it, ensure you will read it and do something with it to make the education for the kids in that district better.
Robert Eppler 5 months ago5 months ago
I have been teaching at the same district for over thirty years. In that time only one superintendent made a difference + or - in the lives of the students. "Well paid and walking away" should be replaced by "Overpaid and walking away". The District Office keeps adding employees even though our district's enrollment has been in decline for a decade. A review of the our school board's agenda shows our board approving one … Read More
I have been teaching at the same district for over thirty years. In that time only one superintendent made a difference + or – in the lives of the students. “Well paid and walking away” should be replaced by “Overpaid and walking away”.
The District Office keeps adding employees even though our district’s enrollment has been in decline for a decade. A review of the our school board’s agenda shows our board approving one outsourced job after another and board policies that are cut-and-paste from the California School Boards Association newsletters. I can think of a dozen colleagues who could move into into the superintendent’s office tomorrow and do the job. Unfortunately, articles like this will be used by current supers to bargain more salary and benefits for less responsibilities.
Mr. Jean Howe 5 months ago5 months ago
I think we all know what has happened and it wasn't just from the stress and politics of the Covid lockdowns that superintendents are leaving ... Parents are finally waking up to all the shenanigans going on in many public schools and they are now taking more active rolls in having a say as to how their children are being taught. Over the past years before public schools started pushing critical race theory and its … Read More
I think we all know what has happened and it wasn’t just from the stress and politics of the Covid lockdowns that superintendents are leaving … Parents are finally waking up to all the shenanigans going on in many public schools and they are now taking more active rolls in having a say as to how their children are being taught. Over the past years before public schools started pushing critical race theory and its tenets of systemic racism, and LGBTQ+ topics, public schools did not get the kind of scrutiny from parents that they are getting now.
The politics in the California public school system went to far, and now the system is feeling the wrath of outraged parents…
Tom Adams 5 months ago5 months ago
As a former trustee, I know how challenging it is to be a superintendent. We should recruiting and preparing more leaders and educating the public about what the position entails.