60 Michael Hill, EdD One participant clearly expressed this phenomenon: As superintendents, we deal with people’s two most prized possessions, their money and their kids. You have a lot of superintendents who don’t understand that you have to work with your board, your school board who are your bosses, and they’re not trained like you are, and they’re very diverse, and they’re very different, and they have different expectations. Trying to balance the needs and wants and desires of your board, the staff, and the community that you don’t know or you don’t take the time to find out what’s important to them, you could make some mistakes. Being able to figure all of that out is what helps people stay in this role a little bit longer than the ones who make a fatal mistake in one of those parts of the triangle. Another participant expressed this in a different light: These jobs are political. There was a very, I thought, poignant quote in the newspaper, in the LA Times, …and it read, “the superintendent is a political appointee.” That’s all he or she really is. The board picks a superintendent and that in itself is a political decision. Because the board members are elected officials, the board uses that person to promote their agendas. And, so that’s a superintendency. It’s unrelenting. It requires great political skill. Yet another participant shared: Some superintendents choose the wrong things to make command decisions about. ... But you gotta get…a lot of people involved and caught up…. If you’re working on something big, you are supposed to get the stakeholders involved, follow a process, and then you got your product. In the meantime, they create a lot of havoc, and you can’t stick around, and you’re creating havoc. Conclusion The conclusions of the current study clearly present the job of the Texas school superintendent as one that is very complex and very challenging. All the Texas superintendent participants described a job filled with public scrutiny, conflict, unreasonable expectations in some cases, complex relationships, leadership challenges, and politics. The reality is that all organizational leaders, including Texas school district superintendents, face challenges. The findings of the current study could be beneficial to Texas school superintendents, communities, and school boards who are developing and training, and the findings could support their efforts for sustained leadership. Superintendents must go into jobs, lead districts, and positively affect students, with an accurate and realistic idea of what the job demands. References Clark, R. J. (2001). The superintendent as a temp. School Administrator, 58(4), 40-41. Cuban, L. (1985). Conflict and leadership in the superintendency. Phi Delta Kappan, 67(1), 28-30. https:// www.jstor.org/stable/20387519 Johnson, S. M. (1996). Leading to change: The challenge of the new superintendency. Jossey-Bass. Meador, D. (2019). Profile on Texas education and schools. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/texaseducation-and-schools-3194483 Milton, W. (2007). Me in the making. One man’s journey to becoming a school superintendent. Honeycomb Publishing. O’Rourke, C. (2010, May 27). PAC says Texas public schools employ one non-teacher for every teacher. https://www. politifact.com/texas/statements/2010/may/27/empowertexans/pac-says-texas-public-schools-employ-one-nonteach/ Short, P. M., & Scribner, J. R. (2002). Introduction. In P. M. Short & J. R. Scribner (Eds.), Case studies of the superintendency (pp. 1-9). Scarecrow Press. Sovine, D. (2009). First year: Challenges and mediating strategies for novice superintendents (UMI No. 3353822) [Doctoral dissertation]. Retrieved from ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database. Watkins, M. D. (2013). The first 90 days. Harvard Business Review Press.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy ODc4ODgx