Ten Years in the Limelight

School Administrator, Feb, 1997 by Priscilla Pardini

National Superintendent of the Year Honorees Reflect on the Significance of the Award

Donald R. Draayer noticed that once he had been named 1990 National Superintendent of the Year everyone assumed he'd be leaving his post as head of the small, suburban Minnetonka, Minn., Public Schools for "bigger, better things." Says Draayer: "They thought I'd go to a bigger district, a different job. They'd tell me, 'Now, you've moved beyond us.'"

That frustrated Draayer, who stayed in Minnetonka for five more years before opening his own one-person consulting firm just down the road. "I've never necessarily felt the path to glory is bigger and bigger," he says. "The important thing is to make a difference."

The nine men and women who have been named National Superintendent of the Year have made a difference. As a result of their leadership, student achievement--sometimes in the face of terrific odds--has improved. Teachers are being given more opportunities to do their best work. Money is being spent in more effective ways. Public confidence in public schools is up.

"Each one of these people is a living example of the talent that exists in the superintendency," said Gary Marx, executive director of the American Association of School Administrators' Leadership for Learning Foundation. "They are people with a mission--a ministry of sorts--in ensuring the well being of children and making sure they get a good education."

Now in its 10th year, the National Superintendent of the Year Award is sponsored by AASA and the ServiceMaster Company. The award recognizes outstanding leadership among the ranks of school superintendents. Candidates are evaluated on the basis of meeting student needs, communication skills, administrative knowledge, and community involvement. The program is open to all U.S. public school superintendents, superintendents of American schools abroad, and Department of Defense Education Activity schools who plan to continue in the profession. State selection committees choose the state-level superintendents of the year, and a blue-ribbon panel made up of education experts and officials chooses four finalists from among the state recipients. The finalists are invited to Washington, D.C., in January, honored at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and participate in a news conference at the National Press Club. The National Su perintendent of the Year is announced at the AASA's National Conference on Educa tion.

The 1997 National Superintendent of the Year, like each of his or her predecessors, will receive a $2,000 savings bond, a jacket and gold medallion with the NSOY emblem, and a plaque. But many former honorees say the best thing about winning the award is the $10,000 college scholarship given in the national superintendent's name to a student attending the high school from which he or she graduated.

With the prizes also comes the responsibility to lead in a larger arena. "The National Superintendent of the Year truly becomes the spokesperson for superintendents nationwide," says Darlene Pierce, associate executive director of the AASA Foundation.

To help celebrate the 10th anniversary of the NSOY program, The School Administrator talked with each of the previous winners. All have continued working in the field of education, including four who remain superintendents in the same districts where they were employed at the time of the award. Each described the year as a highlight of his or her career, personally rewarding and professionally enriching. All indicated that even years after serving as National Superintendent of the Year, the honor still was mentioned whenever they were introduced publicly.

The year in the limelight can be intimidating as well as exhausting since the experience means running a school district while simultaneously taking on a national education role. "Suddenly, people look at you as someone with unusual intelligence and remarkable insight and wisdom," says Draayer. Robert R. "Bud" Spillane, who was honored in 1995, agrees. "It tends to get characterized as honoring the best superintendent in the nation," Spillane says.

In comments echoed by each of the seven other past honorees, Spillane and Draayer say the award has to be put in perspective. "It means, there are a lot of great superintendents out there, and you were fortunate enough to be chosen to represent them all," says Spillane. Notes Draayer: "The truth is, a wise superintendent never leads in a solo fashion. It's a team effort."

Still, honoring individual superintendents as examples of outstanding leadership fills a real need, says Janet N. Barry, 1996 National Superintendent of the Year. "I think the country is starved for real leaders in every field, for people with integrity, for people who are articulate and visionary, and willing to stand for genuine improvement." In turn, honoring those individuals makes them even more effective, Barry says. "I know my capacity for leadership was dramatically increased by the award. There was a new receptiveness to my leadership--almost an expectation--that I stood for integrity and that I had vision for the task that was appropriate."