High turnover among Hudson Valley school superintendents

High turnover in the ranks of school superintendents in the Hudson Valley that has left the region with an uncommonly large number of newer administrators in school districts”™ top jobs could impair those schools”™ stability and success in reaching educational goals, according to a new report by Hudson Valley Pattern for Progress.

The issue brief, titled “The Spin We”™re In,” was released as teachers and students returned to classrooms this month in 122 public school districts in the nine-county region represented by Pattern for Progress, a nonprofit policy, planning and advocacy organization based in Newburgh.

Three out of four school superintendents in those districts ”“ a total of 91 top administrators ”“ have been in their posts for five years or less, Pattern researchers found. Of the region”™s 122 permanent and interim superintendents, 21, or 17 percent, have been in their jobs for nine months or less.

Seventy-eight of the region”™s school systems, or 64 percent, reported having hired three or more superintendents in the last 10 years. In 34 of those districts, four or more individuals have held the top school post in that decade, while four districts surveyed said they had hired six or more superintendents in the same period.

A vanishing figure in the state”™s high-pressured and financially constrained educational sector, the long-term superintendent serving 10 or 15 years in a district, has become relatively rare too in the Hudson Valley. Only 13 superintendents, or 11 percent of the region”™s top school administrators, have been in their posts for 10 years or more. “This means that districts are seeing the revolving door spin faster than ever before,” Pattern for Progress vice president Barbara Gref wrote in the report.

In Putnam County, superintendents in four of the county”™s six school districts have been on the job for less than a year, Pattern reported. That high turnover in district offices comes in a county where superintendents are paid “attractive” annual salaries that range from $223,000 in Garrison to $339,000 in Carmel.

Putnam”™s school administrator salaries are joined by high teacher salaries and general public education costs that leave county residents and businesses paying some of the highest school taxes in the state, according to Pattern researchers. That heavy tax burden adds to pressure on school superintendents to perform and can set the revolving door spinning again as well-paid but overly pressured superintendents leave for other posts or retire, as James Langlois, district superintendent of Putnam/Northern Westchester BOCES, noted in the report.

Langlois also attributed the high turnover rate in recent years to mounting financial pressures on superintendents, who in their districts”™ annual budgets must contend with the state”™s tax levy cap, reduced school aid from Albany, unfunded state-mandated programs in their schools and resulting cuts in school staff and programs.

Adding to the pressures on superintendents are new evaluation requirements for new teachers and principals that are part of the federal Race to the Top legislation and high-stakes student testing.

High teacher salaries in Westchester County and other areas of the lower Hudson Valley might also persuade more educators to stay in the classroom rather than seek a superintendent”™s position in more northerly districts in the region where top administrators”™ salaries are lower. And job security is greater for a teacher with tenure than a superintendent with a contract, the report noted.

With the position having lost some of its allure, postings for superintendent jobs in the region are attracting fewer applicants, according to the report. Robert Christmann, a former superintendent who conducts superintendent searches, told Pattern staff as many as 80 to 100 applicants in the 1990s vied for one of those jobs. Now, 25 candidates is more the norm, he said.

“The long and short of it is, districts don”™t really improve when turnover is high” among top school leaders, Middletown City Schools Superintendent Ken Eastwood, a 10-year veteran in the post, said in the Pattern report. “The superintendent comes in and sets the agenda.”

“No one is going to turn a district around in three to five years,” Christmann said.

“No matter the district,” Gref wrote in conclusion, “in the case of long-term district performance goals, a substantial degree of stability in the superintendent”™s office will likely be required in order to attain achievement.”

The report offered six recommendations to address the region”™s turnover issue:

Ӣ Identify and train potential superintendent candidates through programs like the seminar for early-career superintendents started last year at the Center for Educational Leadership at the Putnam/Northern Westchester BOCES. Training should include more emphasis on mentoring of junior superintendents by veterans.

Ӣ Increase training for sitting superintendents and school board members on governance and the respective roles and responsibilities of school boards and superintendents.

Ӣ Remove bureaucratic barriers to the superintendency, particularly state certification test requirements adopted this year, that discourage otherwise strong candidates, and develop programs to encourage hiring or active consideration of proven business leaders for top school jobs.

Ӣ Consider creating countywide school districts, even if only at the administrative level, to allow for higher pay and incentives for longevity or stability in a superintendentӪs contract. Higher pay and incentives could lead to a larger pool of applicants and higher-quality candidates, according to the report.

Ӣ Consider sharing superintendents among smaller neighboring school districts.

Ӣ Reorganize roles and responsibilities within central district offices to relieve excessive pressure on superintendents. Allow deputy superintendents to share in more responsibility.

“The Spin We”™re In” and supporting information are available online at pattern-for-progress.org.