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View submission: Explain Like I’m Five: What Do Superintendents Actually Do?
I don't know about superintendents specifically but I'm familiar with other similar roles.
They are ultimately in charge of this big, complicated machine and they are trying to make everything run smoothly. They have a dozen different groups of people all wanting things, but only a certain amount of resources in which to help them.
Let's think about the day-to-day life of one of your students. They get on the bus to go to school, the bus goes around and picks up a portion of the kids that go to that school, then arrives with all the other buses at the same time at the school. Then the kids all get off at the same time, get breakfast, then go to their homeroom. This student then goes to math, then art, then science, then English where their class goes together to the cafeteria to lunch, and they get the food that was prepared and sit and eat it while being monitored. Then the English teacher comes to get them and they finish English class. The next class is PE in the gym, and during this class the student feels a little nauseous, so they go to the nurse before returning. Then they have social studies, then band, then they go to track practice. After that their parents come and pick them up.
To make this day run smoothly for the student the superintendent needs to make sure all the people and facilities are in place and working well. They need to make sure they have enough buses and bus drivers, that the buses are maintained properly, to plan the bus routes so that everybody can be picked up and that every school has buses going to them and they all arrive at the school at the same time. They need to have a secure place to store the buses. They need to make sure the food service staff has the people they need, and that they have quality food that is cooked and maintained safely. They need to make sure all the appliances are working properly. They need to make sure the classrooms are in good condition, and that every classroom has a qualified teacher. The student has art and band electives, meaning the superintendent has to decide what electives they will offer and making sure whatever they choose is supplied and has a qualified teacher. They need the nursing staff for kids who need it. Then they have to make decisions on what after school activities are offered and make sure they're supplied and staffed.
And there's a lot I didn't cover there. Think about the staff needed to handle truancy and help with families that don't speak English. Then there's the office staff like HR and IT.
All of this needs to be done with the funds they have available. The track at Middle School #2 is in bad shape and needs redone. One of the fridges at Elementary School #6 went out and needs replaced. There's a cockroach problem at High School #1. HR is having trouble hiring enough bus drivers, so the person in charge of transportation has given you a handful of options on how to handle it, none of which are appealing. You're competing with other school districts for quality teachers so you want to offer the best pay and benefits you can, but there just isn't enough money to go around.
And this isn't just one year. You have to make these decisions in a way that provide stability for the long term. And of course you have to keep in mind that your bosses on the school board themselves feel pressure from the voters who can sometimes be irrational. So now you have to explain to the new board member who got elected by crazy people who obsessed over "indoctrinating kids about gender ideology" the policies around that.
There's nothing here!