School superintendents targeted

Written by Staci Hupp - Des Moines Register | 27 December 2009

© 2009, Des Moines Register and Tribune Company

A state lawmaker who pushed unsuccessfully to force school mergers in 2009 will come back in 2010 with a plan to shrink the number of Iowa school superintendents.

Sen. Matt McCoy, D-Des Moines, says he will back a legislative bill that returns Iowa schools to a system of county superintendents, a framework adopted during the 1930s.

The idea was a pillar of McCoy's school-merger plan last session. At the time, he said having just 99 superintendents - instead of about 348 - would save more than $22 million for schools.

"It's a paradigm changer," McCoy said.

In the 1930s, county superintendents were middlemen between school districts and the state education department.

McCoy's plan would put one superintendent in charge of all school districts in a county.

Assistant superintendents would oversee day-to-day operations. Larger districts would have more manpower than smaller districts.

"It's about the sharing of services, sharing of staff, sharing of resources and making sure every kid is getting more of a uniform approach to education," he said, "versus the kind of crazy system we have now where we have a lot of duplication."

Instead of answering to several school boards, superintendents could work for "super boards" that represent every district in a county, he said.

A bill has yet to be filed, but the plan has grabbed the attention of some superintendents.

"It's a place to start the discussion," Des Moines Superintendent Nancy Sebring said. "Given the status of the budget crisis in the state, we have to look at efficiencies anywhere we can."

Rep. Roger Wendt, a Democrat from Sioux City who heads the House Education Committee, said administrative layers below the superintendent would make a better target.

"There are a lot of areas where school districts can share," he said. "Some of them are doing that."

McCoy's plan also could be a tough sell to rural Iowans, who haven't forgotten last session's school-merger effort.

It targeted districts with fewer than 750 students for forced consolidation.

"I still consider the one superintendent per county proposal to be a smokescreen for forced consolidation," said state Sen. David Johnson, a Republican from Ocheyedan.

"If it means one superintendent per county and more assistant superintendents per school district, then where are the savings?"

McCoy has backed away from mandatory school mergers because so many cash-strapped districts are expected to combine or close on their own.

State education officials predict a flurry of school mergers as districts' financial woes are compounded by shrinking enrollment, budget cuts and the gradual elimination of a state budget guarantee that made sure districts with declining enrollments did not see a decrease in money.

The cushion is scheduled to go away in the 2013-14 school year.

"I think it's going to pick up rapidly now," state schools chief Judy Jeffrey said.