The hard business of searching: for search firms, filling a superintendency can be as demanding as the job itself

School Administrator, June, 2003 by Paul Riede

After eight years helping school boards find new superintendents, Bert Grover finally decided enough was enough. The late nights of meeting with boards, often followed by a long drive home, were too reminiscent of his own years as a school leader.

"It brought back painful memories," he says with a laugh. "Been there, done that."

Grover, 66, and his two partners sold their Wisconsin search business last summer partly because of their ages--Grover's partners were both older than he--and partly because the job was becoming ever more frustrating. Each new superintendent search required weeks of meetings with school board members, dozens of phone calls and scores of mailings in search of elusive candidates.

"I had the biggest post office account in town," says Grover, a former local and elected state superintendent in Wisconsin. "It's not a slam-bang, superficial enterprise."

As more superintendents reach retirement age and fewer young educators seek to replace them, the job of finding new school leaders has become an enormous challenge. Search firms that once relied on advertising to bring in most of their candidates now must doggedly recruit people through networks of consultants across the country.

"We have to do an enormous amount of networking and recruiting out there and really beating the bushes for new candidates," says Jacqueline Roy, who has been finding superintendents our of her Massachusetts headquarters for nearly 20 years.

At the same time, the search business is becoming increasingly competitive. A 2001 survey by the National School Boards Association counted school board associations in 34 states that provide search services. Many regional education centers, such as the Boards of Cooperative Education Services in New York or the Educational Service Centers in Ohio, also offer help with searches.

Many searchers say the number of private search firms across the country has grown markedly over the past decade, but that is hard to pin down. Ken Underwood, the 75-year-old managing partner of Harold Webb Associates, says that's because small firms--often started by retired superintendents aiming to keep active--come and go so quickly.

"You know how you see restaurants open and then close, open and then close? That's about it," he says. "They don't realize the hard work it will be. They do a few searches and say, 'I don't want to do this."'

Shrinking Pool

The reasons behind the shortage of leadership candidates have been well documented. The first is simple demographics: The legions of baby-boomers able to retire at 55 are moving on to other pursuits--in some cases becoming superintendent searchers themselves.

Beyond that, the much-publicized pressures of the job--from dysfunctional school boards to impossible budget crunches to a myriad of new government mandates--have scared off many potential candidates. Add to that the fact that in many cases, superintendents earn only slightly more than their deputies.

"A lot of central-office people are making darn near what the superintendent is making," says Grover. "Why get out in front of the parade?"

Although some search firms say their recruitment numbers have not changed, many concede they have seen huge drops in their candidate pools.

"We jokingly used to tell boards that it's dwindled from a pool to a puddle, and now we say we're looking under the rocks for moisture," says William Attea, managing partner of Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates of Glenview, Ill., one of the nation's largest firms.

Roy, who specializes in searches in the Northeast, says she used to receive 50 to 80 applicants for each search and was able to find 10 strong candidates to recommend to a board. Now she must find those 10 candidates in a pool of 20 or 25. Even a once-envied job like the leadership of a high-achieving, 3,000-student district at a salary approaching $200,000 drew fewer than two dozen candidates in a recent search, she says.

Richard Lerer, who has done many searches for prestigious, high-paying districts in Long Island and Westchester County, N.Y., says even those jobs are far harder to fill than they were 10 or 15 years ago. "Different world is putting it mildly," he says. "It's a 180-degree turn from what it used to be."

Finding good candidates is even more challenging in larger districts. Harry Weinberg, one of six former superintendents in the California search firm Leadership Associates, says that in districts of fewer than 5,000 students, his firm can usually expect about 30 applicants, with many coming from the ranks of assistant superintendents and principals. In districts of more than 15,000, where school boards often require previous experience in the top position, it may find only 15 to 20 solid candidates.

Changing Tactics

All of that means that searchers have to be far more aggressive than they once were. Many firms say well over half the candidates they recommend as finalists to school boards now come from individual recruitment rather than advertising. And that translates into many more hours of tedious work for the searchers. Nancy R. Noeske, president of PROACT Search Inc. in Milwaukee, says that for each search, her firm sends out from 500 to 800 letters and e-mails and makes from 200 to 300 phone calls to drum up candidates.