Question for School Administrators

[Veruka]

I've been looking for some input on this topic, and since this forum is such a wealth of knowledge in so many areas, I thought I may try for some insight here.

If anyone around here works as a school administrator, or is familiar with the requirements of such a job - How much time / knowledge do you think a school superintendent needs to give to matters of the state legislature and funding? Funding for schools where I live (Ohio) has been messed up for a long time, and has been an issue always complained about, but never fixed. The school district where I live has an operating budget levy on the ballot on Tuesday. For a number of reasons, for the first time in my life, I'm torn on how to vote on this one. I have ALWAYS voted in favor of school levies in the past.

So to try to resolve my undecided status, I went this morning to an "ask the superintendent" forum that was open to all city residents. I was pleased with what I heard in a few areas, but very very bothered by the superintendents apparent utter lack of knowledge of the workings of the state legislature. he kept on talking about how the way to tell the legislature that we demand change in funding was to quit voting the same guys in to office over and over. The only problem is there is not a single incumbant on the ballot in the city where I live for any state office - legislature or executive branch. Term limits have gone into effect which means NO ONE will be giong back to office. So the advice he was giving was outdated and irrelevant.

I walked away thinking that a man who has to spend so much time worrying about state funding, and points to it as the cause of most of his problems should really be involved more in finding ways to DO things about the problems, rather than just talking about them.

Am I being unfair to him with this expectation? Or is it reasonable to think that a superintendent should be aware of, and in contact with, the state legislators who represent the district he runs?

[MRD]

THis guy sounds clueless and he's running your schools. Is he elected? Our county appoints, but the next county over elects the superintendent of schools. at least if they are elected I feel the parents get SOME say about how they run the school system.
I hope he gets his head out of his butt and gets things fixed in your city's school system or takes a civics class to get updated on what's going on.

[nlmcp]

One would think the superintendent of the schools would have a better idea of the political workings of the area.

Where I am, in Michigan, they are hired by the school board, but they still spend a great deal of time working with elected officials.

[Veruka]

He was hired by the school board, and the school board are the elected officials. When it comes to the management of money, he seems to really have it straight. He's made some good changes to make things more financially efficient (such as adjusting schedules by one minute to allow for 45 additional minutes of teaching time from each teacher), and is championing sharing some jobs between other school districts in the area (things like school psychologist, bus mechanics, etc that you don't necessarily have a full time job for, but several school disctricts could share), and even finding ways to increase revenue by providing charter schools for home schooling parents. From the management side, I have to say I like what he's doing. But it does seem to me that if your campaign literature blames the way the state funds schools for the problems, that you should be actively lobbying to change that.

I'm acquainted with one of the school board members. I think he's going to hear from me.