There are common advantages to having a leader who has been in a district for decades and bringing in someone new. There are common challenges as well. Why might some districts hold on to their leaders for the long run and others feel the need to reach out to new ones with regularity?  Do causes lie within the leader or the district or the board? Forthrightly, we have a bias here. We strongly believe that the chaos of rapid turnover in the superintendency eventually takes a toll on students, on faculty and on the community itself. Superintendents typically get three year contracts yet there is a body of research indicating that systemic change takes approximately 5 years to achieve in a sustainable way.  What does this say about leadership purpose in districts where leaders change every three years...or less in some places. Read more...