Superintendent (education)

In the American education system, a superintendent or superintendent of schools is an administrator of a school district, a local government body overseeing public schools. All school principals in a respective school district report to the superintendent. The role and powers of the superintendent vary among areas according to Sharp and Walter, a popularly held opinion is that "the most important role of the board of education is to hire its superintendent." The first education laws in the United States were enacted in the colonial era, when various New England colonies passed ordinances directing towns "to choose men to manage the important affairs of learning, such as deciding local taxes, hiring teachers, setting wages, and determining the length of the school year." The persons responsible were frequently selectmen who had additional government responsibilities. Boston established America's first permanent school committee in 1721; this became America's first school board. Massachusetts and some other regions retain the term school committee, but school board and board of education are the more common terms nationwide, and a variety of other labels have been used. In 1986, about 95 percent of school board members were elected, with the rest appointed by town boards, mayors, or others. In early America, school board members handled the day-to-day administration of schools without the need for a superintendent. By the 1830s, however, the increasing numbers of students, as well as the consolidation of one-room schoolhouses into larger districts, led districts to begin appointing the first superintendents.