As North Texas school districts return from spring break and settle in for the final weeks of the school year, many are also looking for new leaders.
Superintendents in several districts in the Dallas-Fort Worth area have announced their departures over the past few weeks. Some are retiring after lengthy tenures. Others have left their districts more abruptly.
Researchers say the rate of superintendent turnover nationwide remains high, although it has declined since the mass exodus of district leaders that schools across the country saw after the pandemic. A number of factors are driving superintendents to leave their positions, experts say, including enrollment declines, a lack of school funding and the increasingly round-the-clock demands of the job.
“Being a superintendent is not an easy job,” said David DeMatthews, a professor in the University of Texas at Austin’s College of Education.
The Education Lab
North Texas school superintendents resign
Several North Texas school districts have seen leadership changes over the past few weeks. School boards in Frisco and Mansfield ISDs selected new superintendents to replace outgoing leaders.
In DeSoto ISD, the board voted to approve a retirement agreement with Superintendent Usamah Rodgers. It named Brent Mitchell, a former assistant and acting superintendent of the Ferguson-Florissant School District in suburban St. Louis, as the district’s interim superintendent.
On March 9, superintendents in Irving and Prosper ISDs announced their retirements, both after decadeslong careers in education.
Two other North Texas districts are getting new superintendents as a part of state takeovers. On March 4, Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath announced he plans to name a new superintendent to lead Fort Worth ISD. The state-appointed leader will replace Karen Molinar, who stepped into the role on a permanent basis last March after serving as interim superintendent for about five months. Morath is expected to name the district’s new leader in the coming months.
On March 9, the same day that the Irving and Prosper superintendents announced their departures, Lake Worth ISD’s board voted to accept the resignation of Superintendent Mark Ramirez. Morath had already announced he didn’t plan to keep Ramirez during the agency’s takeover of the Tarrant County district, saying he wanted to create a new leadership environment in the district. The district’s board is expected to name an interim superintendent in the next few weeks.
Superintendent turnover remains high years after pandemic
Superintendent turnover surged in Texas and nationwide during the years following the pandemic, according to a report from the Texas Education Leadership Lab at UT. In 2023, 20.6% of superintendents across the state left their jobs, up from 16.4% in 2021. The turnover rate has declined somewhat since then, but it still remains higher than pre-pandemic levels.
DeMatthews, the UT professor and founder of the Texas Education Leadership Lab, said the effects of a change in leadership depend on the context. In cases where superintendents retire after long tenures in their districts’ top jobs, as was the case in Irving and Prosper, the change might not cause too much disruption, he said. In those cases, superintendents have often had time to cultivate other leaders who can ease the transition when the current superintendent retires. School boards usually have a few months’ notice in those cases, which gives them time to plan accordingly, he said.
In cases where a superintendent leaves abruptly, as was the case in DeSoto ISD, the transition can be rockier, DeMatthews said. In those cases, superintendents generally haven’t had time to do any succession planning or develop leaders who can take the reins once they’re gone, he said. And if a district cycles through several superintendents over the course of a decade, it could be a bad sign for that school system’s overall health, he said.
Job stress drives superintendent departures nationwide
Kristine Gilmore, chief leadership and learning officer for the national school leadership organization AASA, said the organization has seen “fairly large” numbers of resignations and retirements among superintendents across the country, although not at the levels it saw during and immediately after the pandemic.
Gilmore, who spent 19 years as a school superintendent in Wisconsin before retiring in 2022, said being the leader of a school district has always been a stressful, complicated job. Superintendents are chief executives, instructional leaders and political navigators, she said. There are always crises to manage and factions to pacify. Even when superintendents try to stay focused on doing what’s right for students, there will always be groups of people in their communities who are unhappy with their decisions, she said.
Gilmore acknowledged that there’s been a certain amount of de-escalation since the years immediately after the pandemic, when school board meetings across the country devolved into shouting matches over mask requirements and critical race theory. Even if those conflicts are less overt than they were five years ago, the political tensions are still there, she said.
One of the main sources of job stress for superintendents is the amount of time they’re expected to devote to the job, Gilmore said. The demands of the job have always been great, she said, but during her nearly two decades as the leader of a school district, she noticed a growing expectation that she be available at all times.
At least one retiring North Texas superintendent mentioned the demands the job placed on her time when she announced her departure. During her announcement at a March 9 board meeting, Irving ISD Superintendent Magda Hernandez acknowledged the sacrifices her family made to support her during her seven-year stint as superintendent.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick congratulates Irving ISD superintendent Magda Hernandez on her district’s accountability ratings during a news conference at the Toyota Music Factory in Irving on Thursday, Aug. 15, 2019.
Lynda M. Gonzalez / Staff Photographer
“My family has seen firsthand how much I love our district,” she said. “They have supported me throughout this journey, even when my commitment to this work demanded so much of my time, and they always came second.”
National political fights play out in school board rooms
Kevin Brown, executive director of the Texas Association of School Administrators, said he suspects the state and national political climate are driving superintendents to quit in greater numbers. National political divisions trickle down to the local level, he said, and sometimes those divisions play out in school board meetings. Superintendents often struggle to focus on student success because adult issues create distractions, he said.
In Texas, school leaders have also had to contend with a lack of funding, Brown said. Lawmakers sent $8.5 billion in new money to schools during last year’s legislative session. School leaders expressed appreciation for the new funding, but said it still left them well behind the buying power they had before post-pandemic inflation roiled district budgets. Many districts are also contending with yearslong enrollment declines that could accelerate once the state’s new education savings account plan comes online, he said. All those factors add up to increasing levels of job stress that are leading many superintendents to leave the job, he said.
In cases where superintendents leave, either through retirement or because they took another job, it’s the school board’s responsibility to maintain the district’s focus and minimize disruption to teachers and students, Brown said. When school boards work well together and stay focused on students’ needs, it can create the kind of consistency that can help districts succeed, he said.
“It’s very easy to tear things down. It’s very challenging to build things,” Brown said. “And that takes time and effort, collaboration and a very clear focus on where you’re headed.”
The DMN Education Lab deepens the coverage and conversation about urgent education issues critical to the future of North Texas.
The DMN Education Lab is a community-funded journalism initiative, with support from Bobby and Lottye Lyle, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, Garrett and Cecilia Boone, Judy and Jim Gibbs, The Meadows Foundation, The Murrell Foundation, Ron and Phyllis Steinhart, Solutions Journalism Network, Southern Methodist University, Sydney Smith Hicks, and the University of Texas at Dallas. The Dallas Morning News retains full editorial control of the Education Lab’s journalism.