Paula C. Butterfield - school district superintendent - Brief Article

School Administrator, Sept, 1995

Cultivating Common Turf Without a Battle

Paula Butterfield likes the symbolism of the glass wall that lines one side of her superintendent's office in Bozeman, Mont.--not that passersby see her logging much desk time inside.

That would be too isolating for the personable occupant, who this month begins her sixth year as district superintendent. A hands-on leader in Montana's fifth-largest community, she tries hard to be accessible to the district's 5,000 students, their parents, and teachers.

"The first thing is to get dialogue started," she says, conceding this is sometimes the most difficult hurdle.

Butterfield is recognized as a master collaborator, making her a regular at the conference table with heads of other human service agencies at the local and state levels and earning her an appointment from the governor to his Task Force to Renew Montana State Government.

"Social service and education dollars are under attack and shrinking. We have to do the most we can and stop being as competitive as we've been in using those resources," Butterfield says.

Last year the Danforth Foundation picked her as one of eight superintendents nationally to foster collaborative early-childhood initiatives among youth-serving agencies, while the National Science Foundation earlier this year awarded her district $1.8 million to provide training to science teachers across the state.

Her closest observers suggest Butterfield's effectiveness in inter-agency collaboration stems from her aggressive pursuit of putting children's needs at the top of every agenda. They say she comes across as warm, genuine, and likeable.

Randy Hitz, dean of Montana State University's College of Education, which helped Bozeman open a nongraded science and technology elementary school, says of the superintendent, "People really trust that she cares about children and education in this community."

Butterfield came to Bozeman in 1990 from an area superintendency in Wichita, Kan. She wanted to be able to apply a personal touch--a philosophy that leads her to send birthday cards to every student and staff member in the medium-sized district.

"I don't feel I'm an expert at anything but people skills," she says modestly.

Others in Bozeman are effusive in their praise. Lowell Springer, a local architect who designed a high-tech food service facility for the school district, considers Butterfield "an advanced thinker" because even when she's dealing with unfamiliar terrain "she knows what she doesn't know and how to find out."

In her recent speech to the MidContinental Education Lab titled "Secrets of a Successful Practitioner," Butterfield pointed to the difference between an effective school reformer and an educator embroiled in controversy: communications. "I feel like we get too isolated as educators and don't hear other constituencies. We get in such a rut and congratulate ourselves on what we're doing."

Her child-first philosophy puts her in good stead. A few years back, she abandoned plans to move members of the central administration from their aging headquarters into a new facility when she learned about the dilapidated conditions in one of Bozeman's elementary schools. Instead, the new building became the first home of the science and technology magnet.

"She can find an innovative approach to any problem," says Kathy Rinker, vice president of the school board.

As she begins her sixth year in Bozeman this fall, Butterfield will mark the longest stay she's had in one job since her graduation from Houghton College in western New York 26 years earlier. S e spent her first three years teaching social studies in the District of Columbia and once served in five positions over a seven-year stint in the Frederick County, Md., schools.

Butterfield admits sh has been offered several superintendencies in the last few years--one that paid $30,000 more than her current contract--but says she is not ready to pull up stakes.

She explains her rationale for remaining in Bozeman all 'he while recognizing the fast-changing political climate. Even her school board has become more conservative in her half dozen years there.

"We've got a lot of good things going that I'd like to nurture," she says. "One thing that ha pens (in this profession) is we get things going and then move on."

Butterfield adds, "I can make a lasting difference if I h ng in there longer."