District Administration - September 2009 - (Page 42)

In addition to 2008-2009 salary survey data from Educational Research Services, this year DA also reports on new specialized administrative positions. bY alan Dessoff t’s getting to be that you need a scorecard to identify district administrators by their titles. to keep up with changing needs, many districts are creating new management positions or adding new responsibilities to old ones and then coming up with titles that sometimes only hint at what they are about. “traditionally, if you looked at a district’s table of organization, it was pretty standard,” says Daniel a. Domenech, executive director of the american association of school administrators. “You had a superintendent, and if the district was large enough, you maybe had an assistant superintendent for instruction and another one for business and that was pretty much it. now you see greater numbers of people in district offices who are there to deal with specialized issues that are creating substantial changes in the way districts go about their business.” Executive Responsibilities More districts appear to be giving administrators “executive” titles, using a word that traditionally connotes more authority 42 September 2009 Salary 9 AnnuAl th AdministrAtor Survey I in the workplace hierarchy. The atlanta (ga.) Public schools hired an atlantabased search firm, the Royster group, last spring to find candidates for executive director of instruction (for high schools), a new position. There already is an executive director of operations for high schools, and both positions report to Randy bynum, associate superintendent of high schools. bynum says the new position is part of a plan initiated in 2006 by superintendent beverly hall to transform the district’s high schools by creating small schools and learning centers in place of traditional larger high schools. “she wanted to build up the staff to make implementation of the transformation effective,” says bynum. among other things, the transformation includes creating small schools, each with its own principal, on each high school’s main campus. in addition to a master’s degree or higher in curriculum and instruction and at least five years of experience in an administrative or leadership capacity, the new executive must have knowledge or experience in developing instructional platforms for small schools or small learn- ing communities, according to the job description. it says a compensation package for the position “will be developed for the suitable candidate.” among other responsibilities listed in the job description, the executive director will provide “instructional guidance and feedback” to principals as well as teachers. accordingly, bynum says, the “executive director” title is appropriate instead of “director” because “on the hierarchal chain here, a director does not outrank a principal and an executive director does.” other districts are making similar moves. The board of education in the san Juan (Calif.) Unified school District last winter approved the new position of executive director for high schools, with responsibilities including supervising and evaluating all high school principals. it was one of five proposed new management positions, while 16 others were designated District Administration

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - September 2009

District Administration - September 2009
Contents
From the Editor
Letters
News Update
Health Update
Curriculum Update
Stimulus Monitor
Conversations
Administrator Profile
District Profile
Administrator Roles Shift with the Times
Turning Around Schools in Need
Global Learning
Managing Generational Diversity
New Products
Professional Opinion
How Well Does This Web Site Work?
New Books
Tech Disruptions
Online Edge

District Administration - September 2009