Thelma Meléndez de Santa Ana, superintendent of Pomona USD, will deliver the keynote address at this year’s Women’s Leadership Breakfast, Nov. 7 at the ACSA Leadership Summit.
“The breakfast is a wonderful opportunity for women to get together and have a conversation about our role in administration, and our dreams and hopes for making a difference in children’s lives,” Meléndez said.
The focus of the conversation is expected to center on the paths women take to the superintendency. Men are also encouraged to attend the breakfast.
The U.S. Census Bureau called the school superintendency the most male-dominated executive position in the nation. Today, only 15 percent of all superintendents are women.
“Because women are often not in key positions, they tend to be overlooked by search committees, headhunters and boards of education,” said Meléndez, who earned her doctorate from the University of Southern California. “It is often the professional network of friends and colleagues in other districts, in professional organizations and educational foundations that alert us to opportunities.”
Women are also overlooked due to perceived responsibilities to family and children. Meléndez added that, unfortunately, these perceptions come from both men and women.
“We cannot sit back and hope that opportunities will open up for us,” she said. “We have to make ourselves ready should an opportunity occur. We must be more flexible, work harder and be willing to take risks and make sacrifices.
“We have to put in the time, energy and commitment to make sure we are the best, most qualified candidates.”
Meléndez cited one superintendent who attributed getting her position to being “in the right place at the right time with the right credentials, commitment, luck, hard work, training and a supportive family.”
She also had an unbelievably strong work ethic and mentors who pushed her into applying.
Meléndez outlines similar processes most women have followed on their journeys to the superintendency:
• Set a conscious goal about becoming a superintendent.
• Acquire the academic credentials and education to become the best qualified applicant of the pool.
• Gain experience in secondary education.
• Gain administrative experience through central office positions.
• Be willing to relocate and/or look outside of K-12 to broaden the experience she can offer.
• Develop a professional network.
• Join a mentoring program and seek out informal mentors.
• Stay aware of superintendency openings.
“The superintendency is a 24/7 job,” Meléndez said. “So above all, make sure that what you think you want is really what is best for you. If it is, then be willing to do all it takes to reach your goal.”
Among the more important aspects of having women in top leadership positions for schools is that students gain viable role models who look like them. Women superintendents lead some of the nation’s largest, most challenging school districts. But in most school districts, there are no female leadership role models for students or teachers.
As one superintendent observed, “You begin to wonder how in the world do you have this entry job (as a teacher) that is overwhelmingly female, but when you get to the top, then it’s overwhelmingly male? ... So you get the expectation that people question whether women can do the job because they have no reference point for women in the position.”
Studies on female superintendents have concluded that, “Race and gender do have an impact. More women would be superintendents if they had role models and mentors.”
“We learn by modeling and expectations,” Meléndez said. “We need to see that others who like us have also been able to succeed.”
A national African-American superintendent said that she specifically made the superintendency her career choice because she believed it was vital that students see the possibility of leadership and success. “This country is rapidly becoming majority minority, and the young people, the children, students, need people in leadership roles who look like them,” she said. “In one of our large upstate city school systems, they tell me that there are some African-American and Hispanic students in the public schools who have never seen (an educator) from their ethnic group.”
“Openings for minority superintendents tend to be in minority school districts where we serve as role models as well as educational leaders,” Meléndez said. “It is a job that is demanding, difficult and absolutely worthwhile because our students are learning that success is possible.
“There are very few who can aspire to what they have not seen and do not believe is attainable. As one superintendent said, ‘You can’t aspire to what you don’t know.’”
Women dominate the teaching profession and by rights, this should be reflected in a proportionate number of educational leaders. The truth is that women fill the “rank and file” teaching positions and men dominate as principals and superintendents.
But Meléndez cautions that whether you are a man or a woman, if you aspire to a position of school leadership, it should not be because you are only looking for a job with better pay or a more important title.
“If this is your only motivation, you are in the wrong field,” she said. “I believe the superintendency is more than an occupation. I think author and friend Louis Barajas described it best when he spoke of an ‘occupassion.’ It is the driving force behind our every choice and is why we seek to become superintendents.”
Many women choose the superintendency as a career goal in order to make a difference for as many children as possible. The most successful superintendents stay focused on the needs of the children in their district, in spite of all obstacles.
“You will be regularly faced with making hard decisions that will be criticized and will anger many stakeholders,” Meléndez said. “At times your only support will be your own voice saying, ‘I am doing the right thing for children.’
“If you do decide to become a school superintendent, you will be joining a small but growing group. You will be touching thousands of lives through your policies and decisions. You will be in a position to truly make a difference.”
The 2008 ACSA Leadership Summit will include several other special events, including the Membership Matters and Diversity Counts Breakfast, the Wake Up Café for new members and first-time summit attendees, the Summit Kick-off Dance, and the President’s Celebration and Awards Presentation. To register for the Leadership Summit visit www.acsa.org or call ACSA Educational Services at (800) 608-ACSA.