Ethics in the superintendency: the actions of malfeasance by a few superintendents undermine the credibility of honest, hard-working educators

School Administrator, Sept, 2004 by Priscilla Pardini

California superintendents surveyed in 1999 by Karen Sue Walker, at the time a doctoral candidate at the University of La Verne in California, scored somewhat higher. Walker concluded in her dissertation, "Decision Making and Ethics: A Study of California Superintendents," that the superintendents made ethical choices consistent with the statement of ethics adopted by the Association of California School Administrators the vast majority of the time. According to Walker's research, "most school superintendents make decisions that he or she believes to be right even when it is difficult."

Anecdotal evidence tells its own story. Two high-profile cases surfaced recently. In Roslyn, N.Y., former superintendent Frank Tassone and Pamela Gluckin, the district's former assistant superintendent for business and finance, were charged in early summer with felonies for allegedly embezzling more than $1 million each in school district money. The superintendent of nearby William Floyd school district, also on Long Island, asked the district attorney to open investigations of its two business officials. One was subsequently arrested.

Superintendents across the state "reacted with outrage," according to Tom Rogers, executive director of the New York State Council of School Superintendents. "Stealing from a school system steals from children. That's despicable." Revelations of such alleged gross misconduct, he adds, threaten to unjustly undermine the public's trust in all schools and fuel the ire of public education opponents. "Fairly or not, the actions of a few will reflect on all," Rogers says.

Ethical Dilemmas

Lynn G. Beck, dean of the school of education at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Wash., did her doctoral research on the ethics of school administrators and has published two books on ethics training in educational administration. She says there is much more to being an ethical school superintendent than deciding not to hire your brother-in-law as director of transportation or submitting inflated reimbursement requests for out-of-town travel. She makes a distinction between principle- or problem-focused ethics and narrative ethics.

Beck describes the former as the way one responds to specific ethical dilemmas--listening to the voice in your head, for example, that tells you not to accept the junket to Florida sponsored by the textbook company that wants your district's business. It also means making decisions to "allocate your resources in order to create the greatest good for the greatest number," says Beck. Or not. "You could make an alternative decision to use a lot of your resources to meet a critical need, such as special education even though it benefits a smaller group."

Other examples she cites: Deciding between the public's right to know and an individual teacher's right to privacy, or between a lucrative district contract with a soft drink company and more healthful, if less popular, vending machine offerings.

Beck says such decisions, to some extent, are judgment calls based on any number of factors, including both a superintendent's personal commitments and his or her need to be accountable to a school board. "It's usually a matter of weighing one set of policies, beliefs, values and sometimes even laws against another," she says.