Contributing to a Seamless Transition

President's Corner

Having worked in three school districts as a superintendent, I’m excited to share my experience as it relates to mobility and transitions in our field.

From my perspective, I can’t stress how important it is for the outgoing and incoming superintendents to develop a transition plan. I also encourage boards of education to hire superintendents with plenty of advance time to ensure a seamless transition.

The transition plan should include meeting with stakeholders, internal and external. New superintendents should go on a listening tour — not a speaking tour — but a listening tour to hear from students, parents, teachers, support staff, administrators, mayors, municipal officials and community college and university partners. Sometimes students and parents are overlooked as part of these initial input groups, but their voices are vital.

An ongoing dialogue also should take place with the board about the transition. As I started my superintendency in each school system, the board and I recognized we had to work together over the first six months to find our fit as it related to communication.

When I was in the Marshall Public Schools in Wisconsin, which had 1,100 students at the time, the board wanted to know anything they might hear if they stopped at the grocery store on the way home from work to buy a gallon of milk.

In the Stevens Point Area Public Schools, also in Wisconsin, where I oversaw 7,600 students, the board wanted to be informed of any development that would appear on the evening news or be published in the newspaper the following day.

Here, in High School District 214, a Chicago suburban high school district with 12,000 students, the board wants to know immediately about “significant issues.” We spent the first six to eight months of my first year defining what constitutes a significant issue.

Board relations are critical in a superintendent’s opening year, and I encourage all superintendents new to a district to meet regularly with board members and engage in conversations regarding the expected level of communications with the board.

The transition plan also should include goals for the superintendent and how those goals will be monitored and reviewed on a regular basis. I suggest quarterly meetings with your board during the first 1½ years. During the transition, it’s important to cement a positive, working relationship with board members and the board as a whole sooner, not later.

As superintendents, we have an obligation to make life easier for our successors than it was for us, regardless of how seamless a transition we had. We should create a timeline for our successor of important, upcoming projects and a calendar laying out significant tasks, from daily to monthly and annual. We should organize important documents and create procedural manuals rather than take everything, including the pencils, with us on our last day.

If we are committed to our profession, as I know you are, we should do our best to pave the way for a smooth transition. At the same time, it is not appropriate to throw our predecessors under the bus. As superintendents, we all carry the same title. Demeaning one person in our line of work demeans everyone. Instead, we should focus on elevating our profession. We can do that by talking honorably about all those who serve as superintendents.

If you are interested in continuing this conversation or providing a shout-out via Twitter to an AASA everyday hero in your region of the country, please use the hashtag #leadexcellence. And if you haven’t downloaded the AASA app yet, I highly recommend doing so. It’s a helpful tool for school system leaders.