A Case Study of a First Year Superintendent: The Relationship between Person and Context.

This paper presents findings of a case-study analysis of the first year of a superintendent, with a focus on the relationship between school-district context and individual characteristics. The case study was conducted as part of a larger, national study comprised of 13 case studies of the superintendency across the United States. The case study examines the situation in which a woman superintendent was recruited to head a school district in the southeastern United States. She understood from the beginning that she was not the school board's first choice. She was faced with an immediate sales tax election and the need to garner support from community and business groups who had not been consulted in her recruitment, as well as conflict over the new social agenda she wished to implement. The superintendent had prided herself on separating politics from personal feelings; however, she found at the year's end that her working relationships with the school board had become political and personal. This story illustrates how district context (based on traditional notions of student academic achievement and standards) and political culture of the county conflicted with the superintendent's agenda for a broad curriculum that addressed social problems. Although the board voted to extend her contract at the end of the year, she declined to stay. Contains 13 references. (LMI)