Job of K-12 superintendent more ‘complex’ as Iowa school leaders navigate increasingly polarized views

Leaders of Iowa’s K-12 public schools are navigating an increasingly complex job, guiding districts through unprecedented changes such as broader school choice, politicization of schools, heightened public scrutiny and continued pandemic recovery.

“It’s a completely different job in some ways,” said Brad Buck, former superintendent of the Cedar Rapids Community School District. “The biggest change is the amount of time a superintendent spends on the external environment compared to five years ago.”

Changes to the way students are educated and school funding challenges, combined with heightened interest from the public about district decisions, are forcing public school districts to evaluate how they can and should communicate with their communities, staff and families, school leaders say.

“Nastier” politics, more school choice and increased reliance on social media to stay connected during the pandemic has contributed to an “erosion” of trust in K-12 public schools, said Buck, who was director of the Iowa Department of Education from 2013-2015 before being named superintendent in Cedar Rapids.

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“There’s far less assumption of best intentions than there used to be. People hear something, and they immediately jump to one side or the other. The first story they hear is the one that sticks,” he said.

“That further complicates trying to get the real message through … I feel like you used to be given much more time to muddle through decision making. There’s a lot more immediacy expected,” he said.

Under Buck’s leadership from 2015-2019, the Cedar Rapids district began pursuing a more robust career and technical education programming. The school district is continuing this work under current Superintendent Tawana Grover through a plan called College & Career Pathways.

Buck also began a facility plan to reduce the number of elementary schools in the district’s inventory, work that continues today.

“I don’t know when Cedar Rapids is going to get to the point where they recognize they just need fewer schools,” Buck said. “Closing outdated facilities and building larger, modernized ones — that’s a good thing for kids. Schools appropriately heating, cooled, ventilated and lit. I hope there’s opportunity for more of that.”

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Buck said he tried to begin to “dig into the diversity conversation,” looking at achievement gaps between groups of students and what supports could be put in place to reduce those gaps. This also is work the Cedar Rapids district is continuing under Grover’s leadership.

‘Erosion’ of trust in K-12 public schools

Declining enrollment, driven by increasing school choice in Iowa and declining birth rates, adds pressure since enrollment has the greatest impact on a school district’s revenue.

“The school choice part to me — whether intentionally or unintentionally — erodes trust in the overall system,” Buck said. “The more you start to peel away groups of people that don’t have shared experiences, the easier it is to eyeball each other and say, ‘We’re not the same.’”

Buck is in his seventh academic year as superintendent of the Waukee Community School District — the only one of Iowa’s 24 largest school districts that is growing significantly. Last week, he announced his retirement from the district to take on a new role as the executive director of the School Administrators of Iowa.

Social media can ‘get people fired up’

Amy Hawkins, superintendent of the Dubuque Community School District, agrees that the role of superintendent is more political than ever. “There’s a lot of noise out there about education … Communication — you can never do enough of that ever,” she said.

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Hawkins said social media “tends to grow that problem.”

In the past, school leaders could have conversations when families or residents voiced their concern or disagreed with a decision. Today, people can post their opinion or understanding of an issue on social media, which can amplify certain messages and spread misinformation, leading to polarization.

“That can really get some people fired up,” Hawkins said.

“I think that’s one of the hardest things to do in any job is getting people to understand the why,” Hawkins said. “Social media has made it really easy for people to voice their concerns, and people read that and believe it’s the truth without doing any more research.”

Hawkins said being a superintendent requires “really tough skin.”

“No matter what decision you make, half the people think it’s great and half the people think it’s terrible. We have to make sure we’re staying true to what we believe and the goals we have set forth as a district and school board,” Hawkins said.

“We have almost 10,000 students in our district. We’re looking out for all those kids and not just a few.”

Hawkins said it’s important for each school district to tell their story. For example, while more families are qualifying for Education Savings Accounts — taxpayer funded tuition to non-public schools — that doesn’t mean people are leaving the Dubuque public school system, she said.

“We were down about 200 students this year, and the main reason is lower birth rates. We had a large senior class graduate, and now we’re bringing in less kindergartners. That’s where our difference comes in,” Hawkins said.

Hawkins “grew up” in the Dubuque school district, and began her teaching career there in 1997. She believes this makes a difference in how her community perceives her.

“Last year, we had to close an elementary school. It’s a school I went to. My parents still live across the street. I was able to connect with those families and neighbors personally. It helps with some of that trust. I have to make hard decisions for everybody, and I’m not picking and choosing what’s best for me personally,” Hawkins said.

Even so, Dubuque voters said “no” to two school bond referendums in two years that would have funded improvements to facilities.

“We’re at a time where finances are getting tighter. We have to find ways to make efficiencies that are best for our kids. There’s not a superintendent in the state who says, ‘I want to take this job, so I can close schools.’ That’s a really hard thing to do,” Hawkins said.

How have public schools become more politicized?

School leaders pointed to recent state and federal laws as examples for how schools have become more politicized over the last five years.

In 2021, House File 802, signed into law by Gov. Kim Reynolds, banned governmental entities — including K-12 schools — from teaching “divisive concepts,” such as the idea that moral character is determined by one’s race or sex, or that the United States and Iowa are fundamentally or systematically racist.

In 2023, Senate File 496, signed into law by the governor, began requiring school libraries to contain only “age-appropriate” materials and defines that term to exclude any book with a description or visual depiction of a “sex act” as defined in Iowa’s criminal code.

The U.S. Department of Education this year is directing public schools across the U.S. to make changes to programs the Office of Civil Rights says violate federal antidiscrimination laws.

As a result, the Cedar Rapids district in September was told to sever partnerships and disband initiatives aimed at promoting equity for students and staff of color. Iowa schools also were ordered to stop giving students access to bathrooms and locker rooms that correspond with their gender identity. Instead, they must maintain separate areas for biological boys and biological girls.

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Partisan school boards distract from educating kids

While school boards are nonpartisan, Buck said he is seeing increasingly partisan candidates. For example, two or three Republican candidates will run together and two or three Democrats with “different worldviews on how to educate kids,” he said.

“School issues should be nonpartisan. We want kids educated, kept safe, to grow up to become great neighbors, great workers. Things like what books should be in school libraries, this whole culture war thing — public schools are microcosms of the community. We’ve seen it with restrooms, sports,” Buck said.

Buck said all this distracts from what schools are meant to do: Educate kids and keep them “safe, cared for and loved.”

More school choice

Lisa Remy, current executive director of School Administrators of Iowa and a former superintendent, said “the superintendency has become more complex” and that complexity has been “amplified these last five years.”

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Superintendents have to “navigate opposing views” of how a high-quality education should be provided to every child, Remy said. Public education is at a “crossroads” as families have access to more school choice. If they’re unhappy with their public school district, they can just leave, she said.

Iowa’s K-12 open enrollment law allows students to attend a public school outside their resident district.

Public schools also have faced increasing competition for students as more families became eligible for Education Savings Accounts since 2023. Public schools do receive some categorical funding for every resident private school student attending a private school through an ESA.

Charter schools also are becoming more common across the state following a 2021 law that allows founding groups to apply directly to the Iowa State Board of Education for approval. Charter schools are tuition-free schools that are publicly funded, but independently run under an approved charter with the state. In Iowa, charter schools receive per-pupil aid from the state, just like public schools.

Superintendents spending more time on ‘perceptions’

Jane Lindaman, who retired as superintendent of the Waterloo Community School District in 2022, said families have a louder voice in educational decisions than they used to.

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“I’m not sure that’s a bad thing … The trickiness that comes with that is you have parents that may or may not be fully aware of the rationale behind the decisions being made. They are potentially making assumptions about the way things should be,” she said.

“COVID changed everything. It changed the way we educated, it changed people’s thoughts about education, and I think it changed kids. Kids are different in many ways — emotionally, socially, academically, behaviorally,” Lindaman said.

Lindaman said superintendents spend “an enormous amount of time on public perception.”

“Superintendents get pulled into more climate and culture, making sure staff and parents are happy … it’s skewed the amount of time they can focus on the work of students and learning,” Lindaman said. “It made them focus on the climate and culture and happiness, and that’s tough. For me, I really wanted to focus on learning.”

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