Apr 24, 2008 6:04 PM
They’re called “rock star school superintendents,” the alleged turn-around-artist administrators whom beleaguered school districts look to hire to meet No Child Left Behind mandates and who can take the heat and not break out in a sweat. Oh, yes, and educate kids, too.
There’s a school superintendent shortage nationwide, with some 20 percent of the nation’s 13,000 school districts looking to fill top administrator posts. Principals and central office staff who would typically fill the superintendent job say the NCLB accountability standards and politicized school boards mean it’s not worth the hassle. Superintendents often work 80-hour weeks and routinely have to juggle politics, policy and management without generating negative headlines.
Such people cost money, with average superintendent salaries increasing from about $110,000 10 years ago to more than $200,000 today. Total compensation packages for larger districts are in the $325,000 range, with big-city superintendents staying an average of 18 months.
Clayton County, Ga., the site of Margaret Mitchell’s “Gone With the Wind,” is just one district that wants to go top shelf. It has a problem; the school district risks becoming the first since the 1960s to have its accreditation pulled [see March 27 News Briefs]. Among the candidates its school board screened was a former Pittsburgh schools superintendent who won’t come cheap. In addition to a $275,000 salary, the candidate wants a $2 million consulting budget, a Lincoln Town Car with a driver and money to pay a personal bodyguard. Even Joel Klein doesn’t do that well. One Georgia union leader says that the shortage is creating “nothing but a big scam — almost racketeering.”
True, there are successful “rock star” superintendents, including former New York City Schools Chancellor Rudy Crew, now of Miami-Dade in Florida, and Joe Hairston in Baltimore County, but one Clayton County parent told the Christian Science Monitor he thinks going platinum is a bad idea. “Instead of giving perks to big-shots from the national stage to come here, they should be thinking about giving more perks to our students.”
Christian Science Monitor, March 31