HCPSS superintendent Dr. Renee Foose was retired from her position this week with 1.6 million dollar package. This probably is one of the highest severance package for superintendent all around the world.
Nearby north, Baltimore County superintendent Dallas Dance resigned without early notice. http://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore/news/2017/04/18/baltimore-county-schools-superintendent-dallas.html
Nearby south, Montgomery County had a hard time to hire a superintendent. Its current superintendent Jack R. Smith was hired from 70 candidates.
In one article, The Council of Great City Schools, which researches tenure, salaries and characteristics of school superintendents, found in a 2014 report that 3.2 years was the average tenure among superintendents in cities with populations of more than 250,000. Ref: http://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore/news/2017/04/18/baltimore-county-schools-superintendent-dallas.html
The average 3.2 years’ tenure for superintendent is really problematic. This length of time could not guarantee stability in the school management, execution of any strategy and long term planning of the school development. A good superintendent has to be open, practical, intelligent, friendly and energetic. It is a tough job to battle many fronts at the same time. It is also the most rewarding job since he/she has a huge impact on our kids’ education.
School superintendents, whose primary responsibility is to students, must answer to several constituencies – parents, teachers, taxpayers with no children in schools, and elected officials who fund them. It is a very challenging job, particularly in school systems that also deal with achievement gaps and inequities.
The Superintendents now a days are CEO’s instead of seasoned educators with a secondary business degree. If they have any teaching experience, it has been little or they have been out of the classroom so long that they have lost touch with the ideals of education. They float from state to state making the most money. Why is it that a Superintendent of a county school system earns $250,000+ per year managing Millions of dollars, when the Governor of a state makes only $160,000+ per year managing Billions of dollars and dealing with legislatures. Schools are NOT businesses to be run, they are learning environments for children. It is so much better when a Superintendent rises through the ranks of the school system…teacher > in school admin>upper management. No more CEO’s to run the school system. They must do a better job of vetting the next candidate.
yes, it is weird that all three superintendes were jumping around jobs. one superintedent even never held a job longer than two years at one position before.