Interim superintendents wave of future

Terry Webster

Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2000 | 11:23 a.m.

National experts say the Clark County School District is not alone in its struggle to find a new superintendent.

A shrinking pool of qualified -- or even interested -- candidates is turning superintendent searches into a labored process that can take over a year to complete, experts say.

For Clark County, stiff competition from other high-profile school districts and a liberal open-meetings law are tangling the task even more.

After interviewing five hopefuls who didn't pan out, the School Board is now preparing for its second set of candidates, a total of two.

"There are a number of school districts like Clark County that are asking very similar questions," said Jay Goldman, editor of the American Association of School Administrators' magazine in Arlington, Va. "They all want to attract high-quality candidates who can succeed in the superintendency of a large school district."

But who wants to do it? That is the question.

"A lot of people have decided they're content in managing smaller school systems," Goldman said. "It's a sad statement to make, but being a superintendent has become an almost impossible position today. People can't win."

Many school administrators shy away from becoming superintendents because the pay difference isn't worth the stress and responsibility.

"Superintendents come in as a white knight riding a glimmering horse, and everybody has these incredibly high, unrealistic expectations," Goldman said.

School districts in Los Angeles; San Francisco; Oakland, Calif.; New York City; Dayton, Ohio; and Pittsburgh are confronting or getting ready to confront the task of finding a new superintendent, Goldman said.

On the AASA's website alone, 86 school superintendent openings are listed.

In terms of size, New York City has the biggest school district with Los Angeles second. Clark County, a rapidly growing district with 217,000 students, is the country's eighth largest.

"When you're conducting a search at the same time as eight or 10 other large districts, some of which are good suburban systems, you are going to be at a disadvantage," Goldman said. "But this has been the case for the past four or five years."

What is new is how school districts are coping.

A new species of superintendent is emerging: interim superintendents. The trend is so strong, it is being featured in an upcoming edition of AASA's magazine, Goldman said.

Leslie Fenwick, a visiting fellow at Harvard's education school in Cambridge, Mass., has been studying the interim movement.

Her research indicates the use of interims nationally has increased three-fold the past 10 years -- and that doesn't include every state. Fenwick said some of the state education departments do not keep track of interim hires.

Fenwick found that about 15 percent of the nation's 14,500 school districts are being led by interims.

"One of the things I found in my work is that the incidence (of interims) is increasing and the length of tenure is increasing," she said. "On average, they stay about a year."

What that means is school boards are taking longer to find superintendents. Fenwick said searches average around 14 months. Fenwick also said interims are not just figureheads but make changes.

"I've found the person who serves as an interim is not just a place-holder," she said. "Often, interims are leading districts through some kind of crisis."

Sometimes it backfires.

For example, she said, is an urban district where an interim superintendent set lofty student performance goals only to have them knocked down when the permanent superintendent came on board. The result was a public outcry that the permanent superintendent lowered standards to become eligible for a contract bonus tied to student improvement.

"I don't think that was the case, but it caused a lot of problems," Fenwick, who sees other problems with interims, said.

"The next argument that will be waged is we don't need educators to lead school districts," she said, adding that four or five states already allow this.

Nevada is one. State law allows nontraditional candidates to head school districts as long as a licensed administrator helps oversee the operation.

Another quirk in Nevada is an open-meetings law that places the entire hiring process in a public arena. School Board members feel the law is too open and deters candidates.

The board has been criticized for discouraging candidates by not working together.

"If board members can't get over their particular issues and come together with a common vision, there is not much a superintendent can do," Goldman said. "Your highest-quality candidates are not going to apply or allow their names to be considered in a situation with that kind of uncertainty."

Meanwhile, names of interim candidates for the Clark County job continue to emerge. The most recent are Pat Mulroy, Southern Nevada Water Authority general manager, and Nevada State Bank Chairman Bill Martin. Both have said they are not interested.

James Rogers, a multimillionaire and president of Sunbelt Communications, still wants to be the interim superintendent at no cost until the district finds a new one.

School Board members acknowledged Rogers' offer as gracious. But they also have said they are not ready to consider anyone as an interim -- yet.

"It's really getting tough, with other large districts looking for superintendents," School Board member Shirley Barber said Monday. "It's a thankless job. I really hope everything works out. But if we have to go to an interim, I have no problem with that. "

The Superintendent Selection Process Committee's agenda lists creating a plan for hiring an interim, which will be presented to the School Board. The majority of the committee supports Rogers.

The School Board has directed search-firm consultant William Attea of Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates of Illinois to present two candidates to be interviewed in March. The board hopes to name a new superintendent by April 1.

During interviews in late November and early December, five candidates were either eliminated or dropped out of the race.