Finding the right balance: State senator and an educator differ on the length for superintendent contracts
Posted on Thursday, September 4, 2008
LITTLE ROCK ó Veteran state Sen. Kim Hendren, RGravette, promised recently he would introduce legislation in the next regular state legislative session to limit to one year the length of employment contracts for public-school superintendents in Arkansas, requiring that the contracts be renewed on an annual basis, if they are renewed at all.
Some Arkansas school boards, including some in Benton County, have faced the prospect of buying out the long-term contract of a school superintendent, Hendren said.
Sometimes, superintendents or other personnel have not committed a crime but still have not performed as well as anticipated, and school boards get saddled with the problem of whether to buy out a long-term, expensive contract in order to move on. That problem would be eliminated, or at lease greatly reduced, if contracts were written for a shorter duration, Hendren said.
If superintendents are doing a good job, they wonít have any problem staying employed. School board members and others will want the superintendents to stay on and continue doing the job they have been doing, Hendren said.
On the other hand, if that top school official or others in the school district arenít doing as well as they might be, itís not a bad thing to have their contracts come up for regular reconsideration, or to see that the contracts are not renewed, whenever thatís appropriate, Hendren said.
Most people, himself included, perform better when there is immediate accountability, and thereís no reason to believe school superintendents are an exception, Hendren said.
ì Iíve often thought the same thing about car dealers, î said Hendren, whose businesses include a car dealership.
Tom Kimbrell, executive director of the Arkansas Association of Educational Administrators, doesnít think the idea of renewing a superintendentís contract on a yearly basis is a good one.
For one thing, having a longer contract helps to insulate superintendents in ways that benefit all, Kimbrell said. For one thing, a superintendent is often required to make decisions about school board membersí children who are in the public schools they oversee. With a three-year contract, a superintendent has a chance to make good, but controversial, policy stick, even on those occasions in which some school board members, with their own families involved, may be less than objective about the desirability of a given policy.
ì Weíre all very emotional about our children, î he said.
And anyway, as of now, superintendents can be fired regardless of the length of their contracts, and requiring that the length of a (renewable ) contract be shortened would only make it harder for some school districts to attract the kind of talent they need to put in their school districtís top job, Kimbrell said.
ì (Superintendents ) can be fired for just cause, î he said.
The next regular legislative session will get under way in January.
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