On Outreach & Training: Preparing for a Superintendent Transition
By Perry Hill IV, Ph.D.
It is vital for the board of education to take a proactive position when preparing for an incoming superintendent. Here are 14 areas to consider as the district transitions. Each promotes forethought and provides a structure to prepare for a change of leadership.
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Adherence to the Foundational Principles of Effective Governance allows the board to be sure that they understand what their role is and what their role is not. When it comes to a change in their employee, the board must recognize the certain channels that they can explore to maintain their role and move forward with the executive search process.
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Role of the Board & Role of the Superintendent means being aware of the board’s expectations for the superintendent: What their current superintendent was charged with performing, and whether or not those are the same expectations that they should hold for the incoming superintendent.
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Succinctness and Adoption of the Organizational Chart are important first, because the board must make sure there is an organizational chart in the policy manual. This spells out the district power structure and who is supposed to handle an issue before it rises to the next level. These are hierarchies that should be observed and followed.
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State of the Superintendent Job Description. The board must review and agree on the formal job description, and its terms, of the current superintendent. This is so they can know what needs to be tweaked or overhauled for the next superintendent, to meet whatever their unique needs may be.
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Review/Status Check of District Goals and Strategic Plan means that first, the board should make sure they have goals in place. If they don’t have goals, then they want to entertain when the right time is to go through a goal-setting process. The ideal time might be to wait for the incoming superintendent. But ultimately, the board needs to have those goals. With existing goals, the board needs to review them with their current superintendent to assess which district goals were met and which were not, so that they can have a starting point with their incoming superintendent. This will also help the board determine contractual goals. Similarly, the board should review the strategic plan, if they have one, with the current superintendent to assess progress in each area of the plan. If the board is apprised of where they stand with their district goals, they will have an idea of what of the strategic plan is completed and whether or not they need to continue it with their incoming superintendent or start over and develop a new one.
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Review/Status Check of District Finances. This is another status check. The board should have a conversation with the current superintendent to ensure they know the status of the district finances. This means reviewing a report on the state of district finances, providing an overview of the state of each fund, so there are no surprises. When the incoming superintendent starts, they will receive a full knowledge base from which they can move forward. Also, it’s a good idea to agree on the current data sources being used, and what they say about each fund, and then carry that data over to advise the new superintendent as a starting point and a consistent data source.
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Condition of Board Policy. The board should perform a policy check to know what was most recently reviewed and what needs to be reviewed. At the same time, they can identify, if they don’t already have one, a plan and a frequency for conducting policy reviews. Coupled with that is taking a look at the status and review cycle of administrative procedures, and to entertain with the new superintendent any additions or refinements that need to occur.
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Verifying the Status of Board Protocols. If a board already has protocols (and/or processes) in existence, the question becomes when they were last reviewed. With an incoming superintendent, there will be a need to take a look at those processes again, to be sure they are adaptive to the new administration. If the board does not have pre-existing processes, they should consider an appointment with their IASB Outreaching & Training Director, when the new superintendent takes office, to develop new ones. This will offer consistency and greater efficiency.
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Status of Board-Superintendent Communication Expectations. Whether or not boards have formal communication expectations in place, it is ideal to wait for the new superintendent’s arrival to establish new expectations, which they can do in an IASB workshop. This means both expectations of the board for the superintendent, and of the superintendent for the board.
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Structure of Board Committees and Closure to Superintendent Committees means the board will have a conversation with the current superintendent to identify active superintendent committees, so the board has no surprises. And likewise, the board should understand their own board committees. For all committees, it is ideal to bring closure, so that the incoming superintendent can establish their own committees for a fresh start.
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Quality of the Superintendent Evaluation Process involves a review of the superintendent evaluation instrument, and also the process itself, including protocols. This means having a conversation with the current superintendent and board about challenges that they have encountered and how those challenges might be addressed. Similarly, when the new superintendent begins their tenure, the board and superintendent should have mutual agreement on the elements of the process and the evaluation instrument. That’s the collaborative nature of superintendent evaluations, with a full awareness of both parties on the governance team.
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Positioning on the Annual District/Board Calendar means, again, it’s important for the board to have a conversation with the current superintendent, discuss if there are challenges to the annual calendar and advise the incoming superintendent of those challenges and suggestions for remedy, and then reach agreements on the timeframe of that calendar.
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Consistency in Conducting Regular, Board Self-Evaluations promotes consistency and efficiency. The board should consider their current needs regarding an incoming superintendent. Some boards may choose to have a board self-evaluation when a superintendent exits; many more boards schedule a self-evaluation with the new superintendent. It’s important for the board to consider what the appropriate time would be for that to occur, to meet the needs of the board and the district.
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Prioritizing Potential Areas for Contractual Goal Negotiations. The board should examine the contractual goals of the current superintendent and use those as a potential starting point for negotiations with their incoming superintendent. The new contractual goals will not be identical, but the board can assess what was met and what was not. This is a starting point, as it relates to transitioning their district from the outgoing superintendent to the incoming superintendent.
This proactive position allows the board to maintain governance and safeguards district progress, while promoting leadership continuity with an approach that is intentional, strategic, and methodical.
Perry Hill, IV, Ph.D., is Director of Outreach & Training for the Illinois Association of School Boards. IASB supports boards of education with superintendent transitions with policy services and by offering relevant in-district workshops, including Starting Right, the Board Evaluation Instrument, and the Superintendent Evaluation Process. A new workshop, Board Readiness for a Superintendent Transition, will debut in Spring 2026.