Entry Details

About the Entry

Category: 
Print > Single Topic Coverage > Mid Atlantic

Title of entry: 
Parenting as a Superintendent

Issue or Publication date:
January 2025

Publication name: 
School Administrator magazine

View Website home page:
www.aasa.org

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Entry Essay: 
The January 2025 issue of School Administrator magazine took a rather unusual dive into the family dynamics of the superintendency – that is, how the high-visibility, high-impact role of a school superintendent impacts her or his own family members. This is our entry in the magazine – single issue category.

Most of us cannot imagine what it means to grow up in the bright light as the daughter or son of the public official who oversees every aspect of the schools in that community. Notably, our attention included four personal essays by superintendents – two men, two men – about the experience of parenting a child in the same schools where they lead. We followed that with three intriguing accounts of school-age children and recent graduates, sharing their perspective, often uncomfortable, about dealing with the undue stresses of their parent’s unpopular decisions affecting their schools.

Another distinctive facet of this issue profiled eight situations where we found two family members – a husband and wife, two siblings, a parent and son – who were serving or had served in the superintendency, most of them concurrently.

Not unsurprisingly, this human interest coverage drew significant attention from our readers, most of whom are school superintendents, working atop the school district’s decision-making ladder.

Timely fare in other sections of this issue addressed a school district leader’s insights into a mid-year cellphone shutdown in his district’s classrooms, advice on how school leaders can deal with negative social media comments about them and their work and an ethical dilemma over a school district’s contractual dealings with a contractor accused of sexual assault.

School Administrator reaches 20,000 superintendents and other central-office administrators nationwide.