Katz, s. (march 2010). women superintendents: standing for social  (Page 7/9)

Communicating effectively

Delia tries to put herself in situations where parents can informally come in and speak with her. She begins each year in the buildings, trying to be in every classroom by the end of the school year. She attends long, school sponsored trips with parents and their children, conducts three superintendent’s forums throughout each year on specific topics, and attends all the school functions – at Bingo night, she is the caller. Carmen strives to create a non-hierarchical atmosphere with her staff. Several times in the interviews, she mentioned that her background and upbringing as a Native American has helped her realize that there is no one person who “stands out in front . . . There’s nobody out here as the one who saves the day or the winner. It’s got to be everybody sharing the same outcome.” Like Carmen, Corwin also relies on her background as a catalyst to help people know and understand her. “I shared with them my whole background; just to say now here is where I come from and here is where I think we need to be going.” Fay wanted to communicate with her high school students and meet with them on a regular basis. She created a forum where students could feel comfortable sitting with her on their own “turf,” asking questions, talking about their issues, and giving feedback about what works in school and what doesn’t work.

Creating forums for all voices to be heard

Tina created a forum for her staff to feel safe and reflect on their biases, and stressed how they might begin to work toward changing those biases to better educate all of their students. As mentioned earlier, one of Karen’s challenges is that she was leading a district that had 13 communities feeding into her large high school district.

I have some old line families that have been in public housing that I can count on in any given day [for support] – even if you don’t have the finances, that does not don’t necessarily translate in a poverty of values, spirit and soul.

Corwin, Tina, and Delia talked about coming into districts formerly led by superintendents who had been somewhat divisive or who had a top down leadership style. Rebuilding trust was an issue they faced when staff and other stakeholders needed to regain interest and excitement about the schools in their community.

Delia had to work to transcend a former male superintendent’s “head honcho” leadership style as she tried to create an atmosphere of group process. “My style is much more collaborative, much more management as part of a group process and people had a difficult time making that adjustment.” Fay pointed out many instances where she either sent or joined her staff to present at conferences, participated on various boards and forums, and reached out to the community. “Leaders have to do [that], you take a chance, you step up when you are asked to participate and in that forum of course you will reveal your vision because you’re going to be challenged by all these people.”

Summary

Women superintendents in this study were speaking out about social justice issues in their school districts. Clearly, they work to establish community as a process, trying to involve staff and parents in decision-making to create better programs and schools, particularly keeping in mind that children are the future.