More Iowa school districts sharing superintendents to save on expenses

DES MOINES - The number of Iowa school districts that share superintendents more than tripled over the past decade as more small, rural districts in particular looked for ways to save money.

The spike in shared superintendents largely can be traced to three factors, according to multiple school officials:

' Historically lower increases in state funding.

' Enrollment decreases that also lead to lower funding.

' A program started in 2007 that provides incentives by increasing state funding to districts that share administrative personnel.

The number of full-time superintendents in Iowa whose work and salary was shared by multiple school districts has increased from 16 during the 2007-08 school year to 52 this year, according to state Department of Education data.

'I think we're seeing a change in attitudes in small districts, and they're more willing. They see (sharing superintendents) as a means of not just survival but being able to thrive,” said Randy Collins, a superintendent shared by three northwest Iowa school districts: Akron-Westfield, Lawton-Bronson and Whiting.

'That's something I've observed over the last 10 years, that districts are becoming more and more willing to cooperate, share and partner up,” added Collins, who said he has served as a shared superintendent for eight years.

The overriding reason districts decide to share a superintendent is to curtail costs, school officials said. The average superintendent salary this year is $147,825, according to state data. By sharing a superintendent's salary, districts can save money for costs more directly tied to the classroom.

'I really believe (school) boards pretty consistently have been prioritizing how do we maximize the programs we can provide for students while still allocating the right level of resource to that important function of administration and leadership,” said Lisa Bartusek, executive director of the Iowa Association of School Boards. 'And I think that's what the parents and communities and taxpayers of Iowa would absolutely want.”

Financial decision

The decision to share superintendents is tied to a web of fiscal factors, school officials said.

One is the recent trend of below average increases in state funding to public K-12 education. In the 38 years between 1973 - when the current school funding formula was written - and 2010, annual state funding to schools increased by 2 percent or less just three times. It has been 2 percent or less in six of the past eight years.

Many times, the districts that decide to share a superintendent are facing declining student enrollment. That causes a drop in available money because schools receive state funding on a per-student basis.

But perhaps the biggest driver in the spike in shared superintendents is the state incentive program, created in 2007, that adds state funding to districts that share administrative personnel. The program provides additional funding by counting extra students for each administrative position a district shares, up to 21 students. Districts that reach the maximum allotment would receive roughly an extra $140,000 in fiscal year 2018, according to calculations by the Iowa Association of School Boards.

So participating districts not only reduce spending by sharing a superintendent's salary with another district, they get extra funding from the state incentive program.

After the program was implemented, it took only two years for the number of shared full-time superintendents in the state to nearly double.

Chris Fee, a superintendent who is shared by the Andrew and Easton Valley districts in Eastern Iowa, called the state incentive program 'a huge benefit to rural schools.” Fee said the districts share multiple administrators and receive the program's maximum allotment of bonus funding.

'The state catches a lot of heat over school funding,” said Fee, who is in his first year as a shared superintendent. 'The state doesn't have the money either, or I assume they would be giving more to schools. So it's good to see them doing what they can to help fund schools ... and allow these opportunities to share and get additional funding through mechanisms such as this.”

How it works

The state incentive program allows districts to receive the extra funding for five years, and the entire program is scheduled to expire after fiscal 2020. School officials are lobbying state lawmakers to remove the five-year limit and extend the program into perpetuity.

'This has worked very well,” said Roark Horn, executive director of School Administrators of Iowa. 'It has saved taxpayers a great deal of money, and the state contribution really makes that work.”

Sharing a superintendent comes with its challenges. The individual is doing the work in two districts; that can mean double the school board meetings, paperwork and other duties. It often means a shared superintendent is not able to spend as much time interacting with the public.

And it means the districts involved, especially the school boards, must work closely together.

When districts enter into a sharing agreement, they determine how much time a superintendent will spend in either district. In order to qualify for the state incentive program, the sharing agreement must include at least 20 percent of the administrator's time spent at one of the districts.

Fee said his position is 80 percent at Easton Valley and 20 percent at Andrew but the districts' school boards grant him flexibility.

'I'm fortunate for the school boards that I work for that they recognize the direction I'm given is to go where I'm needed. So there's nobody tracking my hours,” Fee said. 'My hours just flex based on where the needs are.”

More districts are finding sharing a superintendent preferable to having a part-time superintendent or one who also doubles as a principal.

Part-time superintendents have nearly disappeared in the past decade; there were 30 in the 2007-08 school year and only seven this year, according to state data.

For recruiting purposes, school boards have found it easier to attract one candidate to work full-time but be shared by two districts than to find a superintendent candidate willing to work part time.

And shared superintendents said they would rather perform the same job functions in multiple districts than be in one district but have multiple jobs.

'I see so many advantages to being shared between districts in one role rather than to be in one district and serve two roles,” Fee said. 'Trying to be a superintendent and a principal, there's a lot of differences in those jobs. Me, personally, I would worry about being able to do both of those jobs very well if I was stretched in those two very different directions.”

Superintendent Snapshot

Here is a look at the number of full- and part-time shared superintendents in the state of Iowa since the 2007-2008 school year:

2007-2008 - 26

2008-2009 - 24

2009-2010 - 31

2010-2011 - 41

2011-2012 - 41

2012-2013 - 39

2013-2014 - 39

2014-2015 - 45

2015-2016 - 46

2016-2017 - 52

Source: Iowa Department of Education

l Comments: (515) 422-9061; erin.murphy@lee.net