Hearkening to a Dad's Advice - chatting with school superintendent Stephen L. Swanson - Interview

School Administrator, May, 1996

Stephen L. Swanson

Shortly after he received his first superintendent appointment in the mid-1970s, Steve Swanson says his father, a bakery owner, proffered some advice: "Make sure you give the local merchant a chance."

Swanson didn't know what to make of those words at the time, but he does now. He says his father was suggesting that as the chief executive of his community's largest employer he needed to carefully consider the impact of any decision affecting people's purse strings.

That paternal advice never has been more valuable than today as Swanson completes his second year as superintendent of the 5,600-student Burlington, Iowa, Community Schools. It is a district that has struggled in the 1990s, rolling up a $1.3 million deficit in a $28 million budget, the result of declining state aid and the loss of nearly 300 Burlington students to neighboring districts through open enrollment.

Swanson plunged into the task. One of his first acts in Burlington was to visit the publisher of the daily newspaper, The Hawk Eye, an influential voice in city affairs. Bill Mertens, the publisher, says he was impressed by the superintendent's initiative and has remained so.

"I always find it interesting when government administrators actually seek out the public rather than waiting for the public to seek them out," he says. "Clearly he has turned the image around of the school hierarchy in that regard and by being a good, straightforward communicator."

Recognizing the need to commit local business people to the cause, Swanson enlisted the help of the Chamber of Commerce. He involved officers of the teachers union in the work of the chamber's educational task force and started joint meetings of the city council, board of supervisors, school board, and teachers.

One tangible result was last fall's resounding passage by voters of a five-year, $4 million levy for instructional support. The measure attracted 73 percent approval. It will allow the district to reduce class size in the primary grades, capping kindergarten this fall at 20 pupils.

In campaigning for the levy, Swanson promised to present a full review of the effects of smaller classes in three years. "This was a matter of being accountable to the people," he says. "We sold them on meeting the needs of kids."

Bill Holzworth, a Burlington parent who early-on asked the superintendent for greater administrative oversight of the interscholastic athletic program, does not doubt Swanson's follow-through pledge. "I've watched him do it. He sets definite goals and plans and follows to get them completed."

But stemming the outflow of students under the state's eight-year-old open enrollment plan-Burlington will lose another 72 this summer-remains a major concern for Swanson. Unlike his predecessor, he chooses not to blame parents for sending their children across district lines. Rather he seeks them out to hear their rationale and tries to get at any hidden agendas.

Swanson, a native, is well versed in Iowa politics and culture, having never left the state for either his education or work. Before moving to Burlington, he spent 13 years as superintendent of the West Delaware schools in Manchester. His first superintendency was in the 1 84-student New Providence district.

Swanson ranks as one of AASA's most engaged members. He is the new chair of the Board of Tellers and just completed service on an ad hoc panel on AASA election reform. He participated in the Soviet Union study tour in 1990 and is a regular at conferences. He recruits new members and has served as a judge in awards programs. He ran unsuccessfully for a seat on the Executive Committee.

Participation in AASA activities, Swanson says, "has given me other perspectives as I've sat on committees and gone to conferences." He says his horizons were widened recently when a superintendent in Texas described his travails dealing with illegal immigration, an issue mostly unknown to school leaders in Iowa.

He says he is more inclined to find common challenges and to benefit from the strategies other superintendents employ. Yet when he returns to the imposing task in Burlington, he hearkens back often to the words of his father.

He says: "I like working with our teachers and administrators and coming up with better ways to get things done, keeping in mind we have to be accountable because we're in the public sector."