VITAL POLICY – OPINION – Appointed School Superintendents, A Revolving Door of Instability

A swamp of transient headhunters and wasted money

The system of appointed school directors has become a stepping-stone, a rung on the ladder, an instrument of promotion for individuals seeking to advance their school management careers. Small counties are just a place for would-be school directors to gain experience for a bigger and better gig. Five East Tennessee counties are currently in the market for new school directors. Among those are Knox, Blount, Sevier, Hamblen, and Jefferson Counties. The turnover rate is high, creating instability and extraordinary expense for school districts, a swamp of highly paid search firms and transient school directors. It was not always this way.

Before 1992, communities in Tennessee looked forward to the election of their superintendent of schools, a ritual that voters embraced every four years to determine the direction and policies of their local school district. Parents, students, and taxpayers could count on the election to produce a superintendent with close ties to the community. Voters were confident that elected superintendents were independent office holders that answered to the public at large and provided a separation of power from the school board. Elected superintendents had to campaign like any other elected official and be connected, responsive, and accountable to their voting constituents. It was an exceptionally good system.

All of this came to a crashing halt in 1992 when the liberals, globalists, teachers’ unions, and the precursor to the WOKE left persuaded the democrat-controlled Tennessee Legislature to strip you of your right to elect your school superintendent. Things have never been the same.

Since that time, multiple school superintendents have been hired, fired, and resigned, one after the other, decades of applications, hires, and short-term superintendents making a stop in Jefferson County, and other small counties, looking to pad their resumes for the next step up the ladder, often embellishing their record with school building projects and other expensive capital outlays, then leaving the community with a lot of debt and bills to pay. As one director exits, the local school board is gearing up to spend tens of thousands of dollars to find the next one, wasted money that should be committed to classrooms.

School boards in Tennessee pay search firms (head-hunters) large sums of money to locate potential applicants, which creates the illusion that a cross-country search has produced a highly qualified field of applicants chosen from the best our nation has to offer. In reality, a small flock of hand picked “applicants” roam the state from county to county with their chosen search firm, waiting on their next interview and their next step up the ladder. It is a recipe for high turnover, wasted money, and voter disenfranchisement.

In the last 20 years, Jefferson County has had 6 appointed school directors, about one every 3 years. In the 46 years prior to 2002, Jefferson County had only 5 elected school superintendents, about one every 10 years. On average, school systems pay headhunters about $60,000 to provide a field of applicants from which to hire a school director.

It is thirty years past due for the Tennessee Legislature to enact law to permit local communities to elect school superintendents. Every school board, county commission, city council, voting citizen, and political party in the state of Tennessee should urge state legislators to return this sacred right to the voters.

David Seal is a retired Jefferson County educator, recognized artist, local businessman, and current Chairman of the Jefferson County Republican Party. He has also served Jefferson County as a County Commissioner and is a lobbyist for the people on issues such as eminent domain, property rights, education, and broadband accessibility on the state level.

Source: A swamp of transient headhunters and wasted money