0.3 Preparing and training superintendents for the mission of  (Page 8/23)

Purchasing and Contracting

States have strict laws requiring school district purchasing practices and superintendents must comply evenif their boards disagree. Many states hold superintendents personally liable for violation of state purchasingprocedures.

The issuing of contracts for goods and services is often a controversial issue for superintendents.Service contracts obligating millions of taxpayer dollars can be very complex. Examples are contracts for architectural services,transportation, and food services. Simple contracts for district foodstuffs and fuel can also be controversial if not donecorrectly. A medium size district of 2,400 students might process 400 to 500 purchase orders a month.

Property Management

School districts are required by state law to maintain demonstrable control of all district property. Periodicinventory of all district property must be conducted and discrepancies reconciled. Disposal of unusable property is strictlyregulated in most states. Distribution of new purchased property and materials is an important task that can impact programs. Insmaller districts, superintendents are very involved in this process. In large districts, they generally have little knowledgewhether proper supplies are reaching the schools. And, even less knowledge of whether schools are controlling and accounting forpublic property.

Risk Management

Every school district carries several types of insurance coverage including fire and casualty, errors andomissions, blanket policies, student insurance and employee performance bonds. Superintendents must keep the districtadequately insured at a reasonable premium level. Thousands of districts in recent years have found it very difficult to obtainliability coverage and have resorted to multi-district cooperatives largely managed by participating superintendents.

Salary and Wage Management

While some district employee salaries are determined by collective bargaining agreements, others are not.Periodic salary studies are necessary management activities in many districts. States sometimes regulate selected wage and managementconditions. Salaries are a very sensitive issue. Unhappy employees and poorly managed payroll procedures can quickly put asuperintendent in hot water.

FacilityManagement

In perhaps a majority of communities across the nation, the value of local school buildings constitutes thesingle largest investment of public funds. Superintendents must understand the dependence of school programs on appropriatefacilities and be able to guide the community in a financially responsible manner in replacing, remodeling, and retrofitting thedistrict facility inventory. This process involves millions of public tax dollars and has a decided long term effect oneducational programs. Managing construction projects has become a very challenging task in the past several decades. Successfulmanagement of facilities is an integral part of a district’s community relations program. The condition of facilities to themajority of patrons not having children in school often represent an efficient or inefficient use of public tax dollars.