The Superintendent-School Board Relationship
Keywords:
school boards, superintendents, educational governance, power relations, school trustees, educational administration, decision makingAbstract
Questionnaires were sent to 619 school board trustees throughout Canada in an attempt to gather information on the superintendent – trustee relationship. The study acknowledges that these two parties generally operate in a non-adversarial manner. However, at times, the superintendent and board may have some differences of opinion. In the latter instances, the party that controls the power sources generally has its opinion prevail. This study first examined several of these sources identified through previous research studies and then focused on the three areas of finance, personnel and communications. With 55% of the boards which were surveyed responding, the study found that even though the trustees possess the potential to control these areas, it is actually the senior administrative officers of the board who currently wield power over these three categories, and hence dominate the educational environment.
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