Superintendent Interview

On June 8, 2011, I had the opportunity to interview Dr. Susan Kincannon, Superintendent of Belton Independent School District. She recently completed her first semester as superintendent. Prior to becoming superintendent, Dr. Kincannon served as the Deputy Superintendent in Belton ISD for two and a half years. Her assignment during the previous seven years was as the Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction in the same district. Noting her experience here is important because it shows that she has enjoyed a unique view of the development of the leadership team and the development and implementation of the district’s vision and mission. She had modeled for her, has experienced, and has an understanding of the processes that have led the district from where it was ten years ago to where it is today. I think this uniquely qualifies her to lead the organization into the future. Being able to interview a Superintendent with whom I am very familiar helped me realize how important it is to participate in more regular conversations about our practice. Although I have at least weekly contact with the superintendent, an individual conversation explicitly about leadership with someone of her stature is rare. I gathered a lot of insight from her perspective but I also think that she was able to reflect on her practice to a level that the day-to-day beat of her busy position might not always allow. During the interview, I was struck by how often Dr. Kincannon mentioned communication and collaboration in answer to almost every question I posed. These skills are overarching to the position. Yes, the superintendent must have all of the knowledge of programs, laws, procedures, federal, state and local requirements. She must lift high the banner of the district’s vision and mission. She must be visible and accessible. But within the responsibilities of each domain about which I questioned her, the superintendent must have clear communication skills and must be able to reach out to and access a wide range of stakeholders and then must keep all stakeholders informed of issues and the direction of the district. She also talked about analyzing data often and asking tough questions about results in order to chart the course toward vision and mission accomplishment.

When I asked Dr. Kincannon her definition of leadership, she expressed her knowledge that leadership is complicated. “For me its about the ability to get things done. So it’s about, not only just having people follow you with the vision and the mission but the ability to organize people in an effective manner so that you can use the talents and strengths of people so that you can accomplish what you need to accomplish.” She also described the leadership process as very delicate.

In response to question 5 about Superintendent Competency 1, Dr. Kincannon emphasized the importance of consistency and systems. One example she mentioned was the district salary scale. She mentioned that there have been applicants who wanted to negotiate a salary that was outside the range of the published salary scale. To operate within the boundaries of the established system appears fairer to all employees. Another example is when a community flier is submitted for approval to be distributed, the superintendent might personally want to approve the flier for that organization but if it does not meet all of the requirements in our district guidelines for distribution, she has to work within the boundaries of the systems that we have set up and disapprove it. Dr. Kincannon also stressed the importance of honesty and always doing the right thing.

Since Dr. Kincannon is only in her sixth month as THE superintendent she has quickly been introduced to some of the negative aspects of the position. We are a district of 8500 students with one 5A high school, two middle schools, and eight elementary schools. Dr. Kincannon has spent over ten years in the district working her way up from principal to Superintendent. The district is one that has a small town feel and one of the negative aspects she mentioned was the size of the district. She described herself as very hands-on; she wants to know what is going on at all levels and across the district. She has a real desire to stay connected and thinks this would be even more difficult to manage in a larger district. As a principal, she remembers feeling very disconnected from her superintendent and wants to ensure that does not happen on her watch. She wants to be at all of the events and all of the meetings but management of a busy calendar and balancing home life with the hugeness of the job is a challenge.

I asked Dr. Kincannon about accomplishing wide-ranging strategic planning and she again talked about her team and communication. She mentioned Peter Senge’s book about systems thinking and his “discipline” about dialoging. She stressed the importance of examining data closely and having dialog. She also spoke about looking at other districts and learning how they are dealing with issues similar to ours. Finally, she talked about the district plan document and how she sends parts of it for review and input to a wide range of stakeholders. In this way, she is able to produce a document that has true collaboration as its basis.

Dr. Kincannon said that one of the most challenging parts of the superintendent’s position is competency eight: management of everything from budgets to technology applications or as she summed it up, “keeping up with what’s going on around you.” To deal with this, she gets regularly scheduled updates from departments and she constantly asks for more information. She brings the team together often and she keeps thinking of questions. She makes efforts to stay abreast of all the upcoming and hot button issues. She makes efforts to prioritize and finds herself studying everything from the infrastructure of technology to instructional best practices. She truly feels that although she does not expect to be the expert in each field, she wants to be an expert in each field. She has surrounded herself with a trusted team and she meets with them often but she, herself, has a need to know the details too.

I enjoyed conducting the interview with a superintendent and believe that much can be learned from reading the results of other students’ interviews. This experience has helped me uncover some of the areas in which I need to grow and gain experience before I can feel qualified to take on the responsibilities of a central office position. I look forward to having conversations similar to this interview with other central office staff.