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| Touchet School District Superintendent Susan Bell reads to kindergarteners. (Union Bulletin photo by Sheila Hagar) |
Rural school superintendents are used to wearing many hats, frequently acting as principals, handling district finances, navigating complicated state regulations, subbing for sick teachers or bus drivers, and even taking care of maintenance issues. Not to mention attending student sporting events and competitions to help students and their families feel cared for.
"Like many things in education, it revolves around money," Sheila Hagar reports for the Union Bulletin in Walla Walla, Wash. "Fewer students equals fewer state dollars, meaning many jobs that would be parceled out to department heads in larger districts land in the superintendent’s lap in small communities." But, though smaller districts routinely share resources like counselors or speech therapists to stretch education funding, each district must have its own superintendent.
It takes a special skill-set, a tolerance for extra-long work days, and a love of small towns to be a rural superintendent, which is why rural school districts have such a hard time hiring them. And though rural principal jobs have some of the highest turnover rates in the education field, rural natives tend to stick around longer in rural education jobs. Rural educators and administrators are frequently graduates of the schools they work for as adults, or graduates of other rural schools, Hagar reports.
It’s the latter for Susan Bell, 60, the retiring superintendent for the Touchet School District in southeastern Washington state, near Walla Walla. She was an assistant superintendent in another rural Washington school district when the Touchet job opened eight years ago, but was eager to tackle the challenges in Touchet. And though her days routinely stretch past 14 hours, she knows she’s making a difference. "Every kid is known and supported," Bell told Hagar. "We have strong graduation rates because of that."
from The Rural Blog https://ift.tt/2HixLKh Retiring rural school superintendents leave big shoes to fill - Entrepreneur Generations
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