DE PERE, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – The pandemic has caused many people to change or leave their job and it appears the top job in school districts is no different.
Officials who work closely with school superintendents say there could be record turnover by the time next school year starts.
From Green Bay and Appleton to Luxemberg Casco, Campbellsport, and De Pere, many school districts across our area and Wisconsin already know they will have a new superintendent next school year.
“Looking back I was hoping 5-10 years and then maybe look for something else, but as we planted our roots here, the grass is not greener on the other side,” said Ben Villarruel, the outgoing superintendent of the Unified School District of De Pere.
After 20 years, Villarruel is set to retire at the end of this year. It’s something he was warned could happen.
“When I first got hired, Bert Grover, he was helping the school board and he said, Ben, it’s a wonderful community, you can end your career here if you want,” said Villarruel.
Villarruel’s two-decade tenure is well beyond the norm. The average stay for a superintendent in Wisconsin is around 3 years, according to recent reports.
“For many of those that go into it, into leadership, it’s the culmination of their professional career,” said Ben Niehaus, Director of Member Services for the Wisconsin Association of School Boards.
Niehaus says the transition into leadership seems to be happening sooner, more recently.
He tells FOX 11 the role of a superintendent has also recently become less of a visionary position and more of a managerial one.
“There is much more time being devoted on the HR end. Some of our larger metros and suburban/urban districts have those HR departments, most Wisconsin schools you don’t have that.”
According to recent analysis from the Wisconsin Policy forum, an average of 16.2% of districts changed superintendents each year between 2009 and 2021.
“We average between 65 and high 70s every single year in terms of changes,” said Jon Bales, Executive Director of the Wisconsin Association of School District Administrators. “That wasn’t true a decade ago, but certainly has been a pretty consistent trend the last couple years for sure.”
As of April 15, Bales tells FOX 11 there would be at least 74 superintendent changes for next school year.
Bales says by the time the ‘22-‘23 school year starts, there could be more than 90 school districts with a different superintendent than the year before. He says that would be a record.
“There is research that suggests continuity matters in terms of student outcomes, whether that is teachers, board members and superintendents and administrators. Continuity and tenure matters.”
In speaking with a variety of people knowledgeable on the subject, the reasons superintendents leave aren’t much different than any other job: limited resources, family factors and opportunity to advance economically and professionally. However, according to a variety of employment studies, the average tenure for a private sector CEO is about double the average stay for a superintendent in Wisconsin.
