GREENSBORO, N.C. — We hear a lot about teacher shortages, but new information shows a lot of districts are also dealing with administrator shortages.
According to DistrictAdministration.com, between 2019 and 2024, 40 percent of school districts had at least one superintendent leave.
And when you look at the map, North Carolina has one of the highest turnover rates – with 64 percent of our districts changing superintendents.
We recently saw a superintendent leave Alamance Burlington Schools:
Doug Roberts with the Institute of Education Innovation explains one of the big reasons for the turnover.
“You got a lot of superintendents who are citing quote unquote politics, whatever that means, but I think it means kind of being the subject of or being party to sort of various political disagreements and arguments that get pretty heated as the reason why they're deciding to retire early,” Roberts said.
In fact a survey by the research organization RAND found 88 percent of superintendents were stressed about the intrusion of political issues and opinions into schools. And that 79 percent of superintendents say work is often or always stressful compared to 33 percent of all working adults.
“They are sleeping less. They are experiencing health problems related to work stress. And then there are a not small handful of them who have experienced actual threats of violence or actual violence. And that's an alarming thing," Roberts said.
Education experts say the good news is now that we know there is a problem, we can start working on solutions. Several national groups are coming up with plans to help school leaders cope with stress.