This is the fifth in a series of posts that will share some of my findings from my recent doctoral dissertation – How BC School Superintendents Spend Their Time.

The sometimes rocky relationships between superintendents and school boards are often well covered in local news and many researchers have dug into the importance of the relationship between the local elected officials, and the hired lead for the education system.  As with many other parts in the education system, there are multiple right ways for the two entities to work together.  I have written before on my blog thoughts on this topic, like here in 2014, on how boards and superintendents support each other.

For this current study, the focus is on the time of the superintendent, and in part on the number of hours they spend with the board and / or on governance issues.  My study got feedback from 59 of the 60 superintendents in British Columbia on their use of time.  My bias going in to the study was that the larger the district, the more hours a week the superintendent spends on governance and with trustees.

My prediction was partly, yet not completely true.  There were dramatic differences in the time that superintendents spent with their boards. Superintendents were asked in one part of the survey to identify the number of hours in an average week between September and June they spent on governance.  Six of the seven districts where superintendents spent five hours or fewer each week on governance had populations of up to 6,000 students (these were categorized as small districts for the study), but the final one in the group was a district of more than 22,000 students (these were the largest districts for the study). Looking at the other end of the spectrum, and those superintendents that spend more than 21 hours a week with on governance, three of the seven districts are from the highest student population category of more than 22,000 students, and there is one each from districts from the four next categories in population.  It was not simple to say that it was only in the large districts that superintendents spent most of their time with boards.

There was also a dynamic with superintendent gender and time spent with the board. Twenty of the 28 superintendents that indicated they spent ten or fewer hours a week over the year with their board were men, while five of the seven that spend more than 21 hours a week were women. Similar to educational leadership, there was not a dramatic difference between superintendents in their first five years and more experienced superintendents on the time they spend with their Boards. Both the newer and experienced superintendents had comparable numbers at both ends of the spectrum of less than five hours and more than 21 hours a week.

Working with boards is a task that virtually all superintendents take primary responsibility for. This area scored the highest among the 33 tasks for which superintendents take the highest level of direct responsibility. The second highest task was strategic planning, a task that is often done in concert with elected trustees. Other high-ranking tasks for direct involvement by superintendents included working with government organizations, working with parent organizations and citizen complaints, all of which are often tasks that have some level of shared responsibility between the governance and administrative sides of the organization.

In written responses, many superintendents lamented about what they saw as excess time that they spent with the board, as this was time taken away from working with the school system and focusing on student learning. Several superintendents referenced general guidelines they try to come up with to divide their time between governance and working with the board and all other time working with the rest of the system. Superintendents referenced goals of 20-30% of their time working with trustees, but the data shows some are working more than this, and others are working less.

While not the purpose of the study, the relationship between superintendent and trustees was front of mind for many superintendents when reflecting on their use of time.  Said one superintendent when responding to a question on control over their time, “Yes, with the current Board I do. They understand their roles very well, and minimize the time taken on governance and related issues that are not a part of the plan for student success.”   But for others the opposite experience was true, like this superintendent, “At this point my board continues to create an ongoing crisis where I am continually trying to respond.”  When superintendents reflected on their ability to control their time, their thoughts on their current Board were often central.  

This study was not intended to determine what the ideal number of hours per week is for superintendents to spend with trustees on governance work, but the range of hours clearly opens up this question.

Superintendents expressed some frustration about how they work with their board. It is also important, particularly given how inexperienced so many superintendents are in the province, that they need support around governance, and not just the trustees. In their 2019 book, The governance core: School boards, superintendents, and schools working together Davis Campbell and Michael Fullan argued, “many superintendents simply view the board as an external power source, important and legitimate but not a part of the superintendent’s team.” (as an aside, this is a great book study for trustees and senior executive members)

There needs to be continuous ongoing work to support superintendents to understand the crucial role that boards play in the system and how superintendents support the work of the board and boards support the work of the superintendent.

For further study, it would be interesting to ask each board how many hours a week they spend with the superintendent to measure that time and see if there is an alignment in their views. There is probably no perfect answer, and this study did not set out to determine if five hours or thirty hours is more appropriate, but the vast differences are worthy of more discussion to understand the range of governance models better and determine what the successes and drawbacks are for the various number of hours that superintendents spend with their trustees.

Want to read more?  My full dissertation is available under the research tab.  Next week I will look at the urgency and reactionary nature of the superintendency.