By Del Stover
06/01/04 -- After a months-long courtship by several urban school systems, including St. Louis and Washington, D.C., Rudolph "Rudy" Crew signed a contract with the Miami-Dade County school district May 17 that makes him one of the highest-paid education chiefs in the nation.
As the former head of the New York City school system, Crew boasts an impressive resume as an urban superintendent. Still, it was unprecedented to see so many districts vying for the services of a single school administrator.
Also noteworthy was Crew's reported compensation package with Miami-Dade County. Salary, bonuses, and benefits could reach $480,000 in his first year -- and upwards of $540,000 at the end of his six-year contract. Local business leaders have said they'll pony up another $240,000 to help Crew purchase a home.
That Crew's job search could elicit such interest -- and compensation -- is the most dramatic sign yet of the ongoing shortage of top-quality urban superintendents, say executive search consultants.
"I think it says a lot about the supply and demand in urban districts," says Richard Loveall, director of executive search services at the California School Boards Association. "There's a whole different set of skills and tools that a person needs to maneuver successfully through urban districts, particularly very, very large ones. . . . The selection is limited."
Yet, it's not just big-city school systems that are feeling the pinch, says Paul Houston, executive director of the American Association of School Administrators. The supply of superintendent candidates overall has been shrinking for some years.
Where a superintendent search once attracted 100 or more candidates, applications now can number in the dozens, he says. Even affluent suburban districts -- usually highly attractive to job hunters -- are feeling the pinch.
Shortages tend to boost market prices -- and, sure enough, signs that superintendent pay is rising are easy to spot.
The Portland, Ore., school board agreed to boost the superintendent's salary to $203,000 -- an increase of $53,000 over the previous school chief's salary -- when it hired Vicki Phillips, the former Pennsylvania education secretary.
And in May, Washington, D.C., Mayor Anthony A. Williams suggested the city's next superintendent's compensation package could reach $600,000, of which $350,000 would be salary and bonuses.
Most salaries are not rising nearly that high, but the job market is putting some school boards in a tough spot, search consultants say. Where fiscal resources are limited, it's difficult -- if only politically -- to compete for the best talent.
And it's not just school systems shopping for a new superintendent that are feeling sticker shock, says Gary Ray, president of Ray & Associates Inc., a superintendent search firm in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. School boards that are happy with their chief school executive also are responding to market forces with pay raises.
"A number are paying pretty well to keep their [current] superintendents," he says. "They don't want their superintendents cherry-picked by another school system."
The market for top-notch superintendents has always been tight -- if only because of the unique experience, skills, and talent needed to tackle what is essentially a corporate CEO position. But search consultants say the job has gotten tougher in recent years, and school boards are really starting to feel the ramifications.
Some blame high-stakes testing and the No Child Left Behind Act for making the superintendency more stressful than before. Others note that the budget shortages of recent years have tied the hands of school executives struggling to improve student achievement amid the clamor for quick results.
Education also has become more politicized -- particularly in urban areas -- and that is encouraging more veteran administrators to retire and discouraging up-and-comers, Ray says. Increasingly diverse constituencies are demanding competing and sometimes conflicting agendas, and where there's infighting within the school board, many potential school executives are simply deciding that there's too little job security in the superintendency.
Such issues worry some community leaders in Washington, D.C., as they search for a new schools chief.
Former Superintendent Paul L. Vance resigned in November, citing budget problems and the mayor's attempt to take control of the schools. In January, Interim Superintendent Elfreda W. Massie announced she would not seek the post permanently, telling the Washington Post "the role of superintendent . . . has become so politicized that it makes it difficult to focus on the clear mission of schools, which is to provide the best educational programs for students."
The demands of the job have become so onerous, say search consultants, that some veterans are opting to retire or go into private industry -- and many talented lower-level administrators are shying away from the superintendency.
"The farm system has dried up," Loveall says. "Teachers are looking at what it takes to be a principal and saying, 'I don't think so.' Principals and central office administrators are looking at what it takes to be a superintendent, and they're saying, 'I'll stay where I am.'"
That said, Houston says the shrinking pool of superintendent candidates is not yet untenable. School boards might not have as large a selection as they did a few years ago, and some might have to conduct a lengthy search. But there are still enough qualified administrators to meet the need.
Loveall agrees. "There are quality people out there," he says. "In most cases, there are enough to go around. We are still able to find the best candidate for each district. It only takes one."