Hazards Ahead: Thumbing for Rides, Walking on Water - brief notes on superintendents and school management - Brief Article

School Administrator, May, 2001

Service With a Smile

It's 8:30 a.m. on a blustery Friday morning. Three high school boys in Parkersburg, W. Va., are thumbing for a ride a few blocks from their school. A car pulls over and they hop in.

The driver asks their names and where they are headed. They all introduce themselves and brag that they're skipping school and headed to McDonald's to get warm. The driver introduces himself, pulling out his ID that identifies him as the attendance director for the Wood County Schools.

"He gave them a ride all right," said Dan Curry, the superintendent, "right to the school office. Didn't even offer to go through the drive-up window."

Can't Impress the Press

Bruce Cooper, who has done his share of research on the state of the superintendency, obviously appreciates the peculiar role these public leaders play.

Cooper, a professor at Fordham University, tells the story of the superintendent and the newspaper editor who share a long, contentious relationship. To mend fences, the editor invites the superintendent to go fishing. In the boat, the editor's hat blows off into the water.

The superintendent stands up, walks across the water and retrieves the hat. He returns to the boat and hands it back to the editor.

His Neck's on the Line

Headline in the following day's newspaper: "Local Superintendent Can't Swim!"

Each year, the school board of the Metropolitan School District of Mount Vernon, Ind., meets in executive session to assess Keith Spurgeon's performance as superintendent. State law requires the board to publicly post the date, time and reason for scheduling an executive session.

Apparently, Spurgeon's board had some extreme measures in mind this year when the agenda it circulated throughout the district read: "Execution session ... to discuss job performance evaluation of individual employees."

Weekly Reader

Bill Brown's weekly reading load as superintendent of the Silver Grove schools in rural Campbell County, Ky., includes more than what you'd expect. He reads 300 open-response essay answers written by students after they've been graded by teachers. Not only that, but Brown also writes comments to the teachers and students.

"It takes a lot of time," he concedes, "but when did you ever get a paper back that had a note on it from the superintendent?"

Brown's unusual self-imposed assignment each week is part of Silver Grove's apparently successful all-out effort to prepare its students for the Kentucky Core Content Tes.

Short humorous anecdotes, quips, quotations and malapropisms far this column relating to school district administration and school board governance should be addressed to: Editor, The School Administrator, 1801 N. Moore St., Arlington, Va. 22209-1813. Fax: 703-528-2146. E-mail: magazine@aasa.org. Upon request, names may be withheld in print.