6 upvotes, 1 direct replies (showing 1)
View submission: Explain Like I’m Five: What Do Superintendents Actually Do?
We’re a K-12 district with eight schools plus a transitional program for 18-21 year olds with special needs. Our district office has seven departments- human resources, business, operations, communications, technology, curriculum, and student services. At the risk of oversimplifying, HR handles paying employees and benefits, business handles buying stuff for the schools and funding student programs, operations handles building maintenance and groundskeeping, communications handles communications with the public, technology handles technology, curriculum handles obtaining curriculum materials as well as standardized testing, and student services handles students with special needs (IEPs, 504s, etc.) and associated staff (counselors, case workers, social workers, psychologists, etc.). Each of these departments has someone at the top who reports to the superintendent as well as various subordinates who handle specific areas of the department’s responsibilities. Some departments are relatively large (10+ employees) and quite hierarchical. Others are only like two or three people. Are all of our district employees absolutely necessary? Probably not, we could probably survive a few reductions, distributing those responsibilities to the survivors or passing them to building administrators, but then you risk losing those staff if they are overworked. Personally, I’m of the opinion that only the teachers are truly essential, but I don’t think teachers truly have time to do their job AND deal with all the administrative tasks that admin deals with.
No idea how other districts are organized.
Comment by KTeacherWhat at 09/03/2025 at 18:54 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Ours is similarly organized, but that means the superintendent doesn't do all the things on the list I replied to. He's certainly not making hiring and firing decisions, he hasn't even met the majority of the teachers in the district.