Change: Lessons
Learned
“In Their Own Words”
Interviews with New Superintendents and Their District’s
Board Presidents in Iowa
Change: Lessons Learned
“In Their Own Words”
Introduction
Autumn is a time of change in Iowa. The leaves change color and the winds
of change bring a chill to the air and sometimes snow to the ground.
Change is also present at the tables of Iowa school boards; these changes
can bring a shift in the “local color” of board meetings and can sometimes
have a chilling effect on interactions at the board table.
Every fall in Iowa, school boards come together, regroup and forge a new
identity. Sometimes new board members have been elected - and the
board/superintendent relationship is changed. Sometimes a new
superintendent has been hired - and the board/superintendent relationship
is changed. Sometimes the board is simply facing new challenges (less
money, more or shifting student needs, additional pressure from the public)
- and the board/superintendent relationship is changed.
In the spring of 2011 Iowa School Board Association staff conducted over
50 interviews with board presidents and superintendents in districts which
had a new superintendent (new to the district) in the
2010-2011 school year. Almost all the interviews were conducted with each
board president and
superintendent separately. The purpose was to discover some of the key
factors that influenced these new (changed) relationships, and to consider
how IASB services might be of help in board work. The following is a
summary of seven key factors and how they impacted these first-year
relationships.
1. Establishing Expectations
Clarity of expectations helps ensure common focus for
board/superintendent work, which builds trust and increases the
likelihood of positive change.
Sometimes, expectations are not as clear as they need to be. Most board
presidents felt the board had established fairly clear expectations for the
superintendent’s first year in their district and believed this had been done
during the hiring process. “This is the guy we selected…so he knows what
we want.”
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Superintendents observed: “The hiring process established my priorities for
me.” However, probing questions in these interviews sometimes revealed a
lack of shared clarity around what those expectations were, absence of
agreement around priorities and a lack of specificity regarding what the
board would accept as indicators of progress in those expectations. As one
superintendent put it: “It is hard to be confident about board priorities when
the board doesn’t talk about established priorities, and when priorities are
changing each month.”
One superintendent was very blunt in stating the importance of clear,
frequently-monitored expectations. “One thing I know about this year is that
I was not successful in my level of communication with the board regarding
what they wanted from me. This lack of expectations coming from the board
has resulted in my not being rehired for next year.” The board president in
this situation admitted: “We failed as a board, because we put total trust in
our superintendent and thought we knew what her goals were, and we
didn’t.”
Another board president talked about board members meeting individually
with the new superintendent to establish what was most important to each
board member. The superintendent then “shared a summary with our whole
board as a way for him to set the stage for confirming his year’s priorities.”
2. Establishing Needs
Clarifying district needs is essential to establishing clear
expectations.
There are many needs in school districts and specific events,
circumstances or the sheer weight of history can sidetrack the board from
true priorities. Often boards limited their analysis of needs to a very specific
area. Many board members and superintendents shared concerns about
fiscal challenges. One board president put it succinctly: “The whole budget
piece is killing us.” However, the board and superintendent team did not
always agree upon, or indicate they had even talked about, what kinds of
steps might need to be taken to address these fiscal needs.
Sometimes the immediacy of needs got in the way of other priorities. As a
board president noted: “Given the immediacy of our financial
circumstances, the superintendent has been distracted from building
relationships/rapport with board, staff and community. This will need to be a
number one goal for him next year.”
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In some districts, building projects were also mentioned as so allconsuming that they kept the board and superintendent from a general
analysis of district needs regarding important areas such as student and
staff learning needs.
One superintendent spoke of the DE site visit during his first year as a real
catalyst for shared learning about district needs. “It was helpful when we
had to prepare reports on student data, technology, finances. That
identification of needs helped the board set priorities.”
3. Understanding Roles and Responsibilities
A clear view of “whose job is it?” and the roles and responsibilities of
the board will aid smooth operations in the system.
Ongoing communication around roles and responsibilities is needed to
ensure a clear view of board responsibilities. This was an area in which
there was a great deal of contrast and frequently a need for clarity. One
board president noted: “Our superintendent needs a lot better
understanding of the authority of the board. He doesn’t always seem to
understand the board’s control over the district.” The superintendent in this
district viewed the situation very differently: “Our board has a tendency to
micro- manage, especially the board president.”
A board president observed: “We don’t want to micromanage,” but
acknowledged the board had gotten into the habit of micromanagement
under past leadership and that it was a hard habit to break. Another board
president put it this way: “What needs to be learned and has not yet been
learned in this district is where the boundaries are. We need a roadmap.
We need a clear vision of our role. The superintendent has a very clear
vision of his role and what he can do for the district. We need that. We need
a map of how the board and superintendent can walk together without the
board stepping in it or without tripping each other up.”
4. Modes of Communication
Any good working relationship relies on workable patterns for
equitably shared information.
Board presidents frequently noted time barriers to communication: “If I (as
board president) were not working at (a city 45 miles away) and did not
have such a big case load, and did not have so many family
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responsibilities…we could probably talk more often.”
Frequently board presidents voiced appreciation for “weekly updates” which
the superintendent sends to the whole board as an established regular
pattern of communication. The lack of updates was mentioned by others.
“We had an incident at school this week that the whole community knew
about before I did,” said one board president, also acknowledging that the
superintendent admitted he should have let the board know. The
superintendent in this same district noted: “I am still struggling with how
much information to provide the board.”
More than one superintendent mentioned a single board member asking for
a great deal of information; information that other board members did not
seem to need for effective decision-making. This involved additional staff
time/resources to gather information which was not used by the entire
board.
One superintendent took a particularly straightforward strategy to using
communication to build relationships... “The vote on my hiring was 4-1. I
went out of my way to set up opportunities for that one board member and
me to chat right away when I came into the district. I asked him specifically
what he was nervous about and what I could do to allay that.” The
superintendent noted that by the end of the school year, “. . . if you did a
Venn diagram on our board you would see complete unity. I have worked
hard on communication and now I feel complete support for my work.”
Other superintendents noted a belief in the importance of contacting board
members prior to the board meeting to ask if they had questions about their
board packet. A board president noted: “We have told him we are not going
to vote until we have enough information to vote.”
One superintendent especially noted the importance of keeping staff wellacquainted with the board’s work. “We have a board meeting tonight and
first thing tomorrow a message will go out to every employee about what
happened at the board meeting. As a former district employee, I know how
important it is that the staff not be the last to know.”
Another superintendent noted: “I had to figure out what the board was
wanting in communication. What was missing? I had to ask them, and they
were honest with me. Then I had to be honest with them - they might not
get all the information they wanted. This dissonance improved as we talked
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about it. ”
A long-term superintendent called upon his experience and offered the
following advice: “Do as much communication as possible face-to-face and
with the whole board at the board table.”
5. Adapting to New Practices
As change happens, the board and the public may find it difficult to
adjust to new approaches; the board will need to recognize the need
for change and determine ways to affirm positive change even when it
is uncomfortable.
One board president noted: “The board had previously assumed some
things had been happening inside the district, but those things hadn’t been
taken care of. Now I hear a lot of staff resistance to new ways of doing
things.” He observed that the board had to discuss ways to deal with that
staff resistance to changes the board had encouraged the superintendent
to make.
In another district the superintendent pointed to a specific change the board
had desired and reported that, once parents started questioning the
implementation of that change, the board immediately withdrew its support,
creating a real dilemma for the superintendent. This resulting unrest in the
district pointed out the importance of the board “staying the course” once
the need for change is established.
The challenge of change can express itself in different ways; one
superintendent spoke of “openly battling old ways of doing things and
experiencing a backlash from previous decisions.” Another superintendent
observed that past practice could make the board meeting itself difficult.
“This is not a board that is accustomed to building to consensus. They just
meet and vote - and that is difficult to change.” This experience was echoed
by another superintendent who stated, “A challenge is that the former
superintendent was the leader and they didn’t talk much at meetings. He
talked. The board listened. I want to hear from them. I want to know what
they are thinking - and they are used to just listening.”
A board president pointed out his responsibility to help the board adapt to
change: “I really worked hard at helping the board understand that this
superintendent’s leadership style was very different from the previous
superintendent’s. The board had a high level of expectation that this person
was going to be exactly like the prior superintendent - and that wasn’t fair.”
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6. Board Learning
A key factor to adjusting to change is taking time to learn together as
a board/superintendent team at the board table.
Some board presidents and superintendents described important steps
they had taken to ensure and reinforce learning at the board table. One
board president referenced an IASB-conducted workshop that had been
held two years before the new superintendent arrived. “We keep coming
back to the leadership concepts that we established in that workshop.”
Another noted the board needed to have some kind of “...facilitated
discussion on how we can work better together.”
Board presidents offered appreciation for superintendents who modeled
learning. “He really got familiar with our policy manual. I honestly think he
read it front to back!” “She has been learning more and more about school
finance and she really knows how to communicate it to us.”
7. Importance of Community Relations
The board must establish what it means by “effective community
relations” and determine how it can support the superintendent in
establishing/maintaining and strengthening those relationships.
Board members were very clear about their desire for the new
superintendent to be a visible source of information for the public. In the
words of one board president: “She has done an admirable job of
presenting to the public. She is out there: at Rotary, at events, interacting
with the business community. She talks about our district needs and she
uses facts and figures about the budget and about student learning that
hold her audience’s attention.”
A superintendent described his contact with the community as an “ongoing
plan-full” effort. “I am extremely visible because I live in the community and
thus am easily accessible to all people, staff and students. My door is
always open and I try hard to attend events and increase that visibility.”
Another board president observed: “Superintendents have to get used to a
high level of public scrutiny. Our public wants to see the board and the
superintendent doing the right things for kids. It is important for the
superintendent to make recommendations that clearly state why this way of
doing things will be in the best interests of all kids.”
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In Conclusion
Every board in Iowa is dealing with change. IASB is considering ways in
which our staff can help boards deal with these big key factor areas of
change. One way is to encourage consideration, by your board and
superintendent, of these seven factors at your board table. The attached
two pages contain a strategy for your board to consider in each of these
areas.
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Specific Strategies to Consider
Short and simple techniques for working toward improved
board/superintendent team relationships and work.
1. Establishing Expectations
Clarity of expectations helps ensure common focus for
board/superintendent work, which increases the likelihood of positive
change.
Conduct a discussion at your board table. What are the big picture
expectations the board is looking for from their superintendent? The board
president needs to preface this discussion by noting that no specific
personnel issues will be discussed. Ask each board member to individually
write down the two major priorities they hope the superintendent is focused
on for this school year. Go around the table and ask each member to clarify
why these priorities are important to them. Make a list. Ask the
superintendent to respond to how this list compares to his/her existing
priorities. Ask the superintendent and the board to come back to the next
meeting prepared to share reflections on what they learned from this
exercise.
2. Establishing Needs
Clarifying district needs is essential to establishing clear
expectations.
When the board looks at student achievement data, ask those reporting the
data: “What are the two greatest needs you see emerging from this data?”
When district budget information is shared, ask those presenting the data:
“What are the two greatest needs you see emerging from this data?”
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3. Understanding Roles and Responsibilities
A clear view of “whose job is it?” and the roles and responsibilities of
the board, will aid smooth operations in the system.
Directly address the “whose job is it?” question. Take a specific agenda
item that will require ongoing attention and action. Discuss as a
board/superintendent team:
What will the board need to do to support this work?

What will the superintendent’s job be?

What might the superintendent delegate to other administrators?

4. Modes of Communication
Any good working relationship relies on workable patterns for
equitably shared information.”
After a board meeting, select one area in which the board has reached a
high-impact decision. Ask each board member to briefly respond in writing:
 What information which we received as a whole board was most
helpful in this situation?
 What additional information do I wish we would have received?
Compile the information and discuss the implications at a subsequent board
meeting.
 How is the superintendent to know what information is most helpful?
 How is the board to know when researching and compiling
additional information is a good use of the superintendent’s time?
5. Adapting to New Practices
As change happens, the board and the public may find it difficult to
adjust to new approaches; the board will need to determine ways to
affirm positive change, even when it is uncomfortable.
Pinpoint what is going to change. Clarify why. Forecast specific road blocks
which may be placed in front of this change, and consider how to address
them. As a board/superintendent team, develop three or four clear talking
points on why the change is important, the impact it will have on students
and student learning, and why it will be worth the adjustment required on
the part of the system.
6. Board Learning
A key factor to adjusting to change is taking time to learn together as
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a board/superintendent team at the board table.
You want every student to learn. Clearly state that you believe it is a
responsibility of the board to learn and to establish a map for learning
(What will a year’s worth of focused learning look like on the board meeting
agendas? When will workshops be held?, etc.). Determine a focus area the
board wants to learn about this year and determine what you will study and
why. Get in the habit of learning at the board table. At the end of each
meeting, take time to say:
 What did we learn about tonight?
 What did we learn about boardsmanship?
 What did we learn about our school district?
7. Importance of Community Relations
The board must establish what it means by “effective community
relations” and determine how it can support the superintendent in
establishing/maintaining those relationships.
Take time to discuss the term “visibility” at the board table.
 What does this really mean to board members?
 Does it mean different things to different members?
 How does the board set priorities and direction to guide the best use
of superintendent time and energies in relating to the public?
 What kinds of “main messages” does the board want to get out to
the community?
 How can the board and superintendent together work to ensure the
community is aware of both the needs and the successes of the
district?
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