A retiring superintendent advises his school board to look deep beneath the surface and encourage candidates with superior speaking and writing skills. Boards should be leery of spotlight-grabbers, process-lovers, faddists, and yes-people and seek tough peacemakers with high expectations for staff. Looking beyond the norm will increase the…

A good administrator has the following characteristics: (1) commitment to excellence in education; (2) leadership in the classroom, the individual school, or the school district; (3) admirable work habits; (4) dedication to professional growth and innovation; and (5) a passion for excellence. (MLF)

The Shaker Heights (Ohio) Citizens' Committee (SHCC) has been actively participating in school board member selections since 1931. The SHCC seeks out possible board members and after a process of interviews, selects a candidate to endorse and back financially. The SHCC seeks out an ethnic and gender balance on the school board. (KDP)

Compares the role of the superintendent with that of a National Football League (NFL) referee. Both jobs require intellectual and mental preparation, calmness, and consistency. Also compares the school board role with that of NFL director of officiating and the director's evaluation team. (LMI)

School board presidents today operate in an era of consensual leadership and must play many roles. A former school board chairman developed a three-part conceptual framework. Thirteen practices are listed for board presidents. A sidebar summarizes findings from a study of 45 superintendents about the role of the school board chairman. (MLF)

Administrators should (1) realize that most people lose their jobs because they are uncooperative, (2) never confuse the number of hours worked with value to the organization, (3) respect the opposition and critics, (4) keep meetings brief, and (5) remember it's all about human relationships. (MLF)

To be an effective school board president, certain leadership qualities and personality characteristics are useful: (1) trust, (2) effective communication, (3) responsibility versus authority, (4) control of meetings, (5) committee structure, (6) problem-solving approaches, (7) board development, (8) superintendent relations, and (9) mission. (KDP)

Creating a theory of school leadership involves adopting an all-encompassing perspective that includes the entire school landscape. One sidebar quotes Thomas Sergiovanni on forging covenants on a school's shared values; a second summarizes standards for school leaders called for by the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium; and a third…

Data were collected from reports prepared by consultants for 12 school boards that were involved in active superintendent searches. The reports reflected the comments of 88 school board members in the 12 districts. These are compared with the national recommended standards for preparing school leaders. The standard on community collaboration was…

School board presidents are faced with many challenges as leaders. A past president of the Dallas (Texas) school board shares his experiences and maintains that an effective board president must be willing to take risks and criticism and be totally committed to public education. Provides a leadership style evaluation form to rate board presidents.…

Superintendents and school boards need to implement rapidly new measures that will ensure full participation of the building principal in the district's management decision-making process. (Author)

From a random selection of 4,841 school board members, 1,306 (27 percent) ranked a list of 22 roles and 25 attributes that might apply to school board presidents. Respondents also listed the following as their top three concerns: (1) efforts by the states to dictate the responsibilities of local school boards; (2) aging school facilities; and (3)…

Learning the difference between board leaders and members who come to meetings just to vote is an important step toward leadership. Another way is to gauge one's fit on a hierarchy of leadership potential. Provides 13 questions to guide reflections on interactions with the other board members. (MLF)

To attract the best available superintendent candidates boards should (1) sell the advantages of the district; (2) define expectations early; (3) spell out working relationships; (4) develop compensation guidelines early; (5) consider developing leaders and alternative prospects; (6) maintain strict confidentiality; and (7) make the final…

Describes a method used by the board of an Ohio school district for assessing a superintendent's personal style. The commercially developed Persona Matrix system enabled five evaluators to determine whether the manager was of the promoting, analyzing, controlling, or supporting type. (TE)