Turnover
high for superintendents
Demands of the job test school
chiefs
Sunday, August 28, 2005 • BY JEANETTE RUNDQUIST •
Star-Ledger Staff
Like any new school superintendent, Bound
Brook's Ed Hoffman has plans: Update curriculum, create a
new middle school and work with the small town's students,
parents and school staff.
Like any new guy on a job, however, he
first had to learn his way around.
"I'm in the LaMonte building. I know
there's two grades here," Hoffman said. He chuckled as he
named elementary schools -- Lafayette, LaMonte and Smalley
-- and tried to list the grades in each. "I'm trying to
remember."
Hoffman, 55, a retired Pennsylvania
superintendent who started in Bound Brook on July 1, is part
of a crop of new school chiefs settling into offices across
New Jersey.
DEMANDING ROLE
The role of schools chief has grown more
demanding in recent years. More than ever, it is part
educator, part business executive and part construction
supervisor. Today's superintendents have to meet new
standards set by the federal No Child Left Behind law and
oversee the education of hundreds or thousands of kids, all
while dealing with stretched-ever-thinner budgets and
shepherding new construction projects.
In that climate, turnover in
superintendents offices has become rampant. More than 14
percent of the state's 584 school districts -- 84 altogether
-- hired new superintendents during the 2004-05 school year,
according to the New Jersey School Boards
Association.
Some 12.5 percent hired new
superintendents in 2003-04; 18.2 percent did in 2002-2003
and 21 percent -- more than one in five of the state's
school districts -- hired new schools chiefs in
2001-02.
"They take a lot of flak. There's been a
lot of turnover in the eight years I've been in this
county," said Somerset County Schools Superintendent David
S. Livingston, who said 46 superintendents have headed his
county's 19 school districts since 1997. That figure
includes interim superintendents, who serve while a board is
searching for a full-time one.
"It's sort of like being a lightning rod.
It's a stressful position to be in," he said.
Anthony Piperata, a retired school
district superintendent now working as interim schools chief
in the Great Meadows Regional School District, said he's
also seen turnover on the rise. Case in point: Great
Meadows, in Warren County, next month welcomes its sixth
superintendent since 1994.
"There is a lot of turnover," he said.
"It's made carpetbaggers out of some
superintendents."
A QUESTION OF
DEMOGRAPHICS
Some of the changing faces can be
explained by demographics. Some 58 percent of last year's
vacancies came via retirements, said school boards
association spokesman Frank Belluscio. He said turnover may
actually be leveling off, and districts with high turnover
"tend to be the exception, not the rule."
But in other cases, superintendents
resigned, or "parted ways." Some took contract buyouts.
Others jumped districts, creating a domino effect of
vacancies.
Barry Galasso is executive director of
the New Jersey Association of School Administrators, which
is working with Rowan University to study superintendent
retention. He linked turnover to the elimination of
superintendents' tenure in 1991.
The average district superintendent's pay
in New Jersey was $136,974 last year, with a quarter earning
$157,000 or more.
Turnover helped open the top office door
to some previously under-represented candidates, such as
women. But overall, interest is down. There were about 40
applicants per superintendent job 15 years ago, but only one
or two dozen now.
"Teachers' salaries are much higher today
than a generation ago. They can stay in the classroom, where
they might want to be," Belluscio said.
The question is whether a revolving
superintendent's door affects students.
Piperata, in Great Meadows, said it makes
a difference. "Students, parents and teachers like to feel
stable, secure and confident in their district. When you see
change in leadership, you lose those," he said.
Former Bound Brook school board member
Wendy Spinner said the board bought out the final year of
the last fulltime superintendent's contract because her
philosophy didn't match that of the new board majority.
Several principals also left. "All that turnover certainly
has an impact in terms of getting any kind of momentum," she
said.
Parents try to be positive, however. Val
Wood has one child in Bound Brook High School, and one in
middle school. "You've got to be optimistic. You send your
kids there and hope for the best," she said.
As new school superintendents settled
into their offices this summer, several said they were
undaunted by the notion of turnover -- and looking forward
to the future in their districts. No matter the
circumstances of a predecessor's departure, the newcomers
generally bring enthusiasm with their briefcases when they
arrive.
New Superintendent John Sico, 58, was due
to start work in Union Township, Hunterdon County, on Aug.
29. But he arrived a week early and, one hour into his job,
said "it's great. I'm looking forward to working
together."
Already on his calendar: The township's
Community Day on Sept. 4, where Sico will man a booth. "You
have to be sure of yourself," he said. "You walk into a new
job sure of yourself, and you expect good things to
happen."
In Bound Brook, Hoffman took over from an
interim superintendent, becoming the fifth schools chief
there since 1997. He was unfazed by Bound Brook's
superintendent history. "To me, you're going to be judged on
what you do. I hope I can beat the odds," he said. "I think
we're in line for a very good year."
Jeanette Rundquist works in the Somerset County Bureau.
She may be reached at jrundquist@starledger.com or at (908)
429-9925.
© 2005 The Star-Ledger. Used by NJ.com with
permission.
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