This generation of leaders is being asked to take on even more
Originally posted on IdahoEdNews.org on September 14, 2025
This is the first in a series that examines the increasing and unpopular challenges of being a district superintendent in Idaho. What used to be a title of prestige is now an undesirable role for those with the talent and certification for leadership. Reporter Emma Epperly spent nine months interviewing and surveying Idaho's leaders to develop these stories, thanks to a grant from the Education Writers Association.
When longtime superintendent and professor Rich Bauscher taught his spring class of future superintendents, he had just eight students.
Seven said they don’t want the job. It's too much work and too much pressure for too little money, they told him.
“All of the problems rise to the top,” Bauscher said. "The superintendent handles the load when someone else can't handle the problem."
Idaho’s 115 school district superintendents have always been responsible for managing billions in tax dollars, the education of Idaho’s children and, in most towns, the community’s largest employer.
And this generation is being asked to take on even more challenges from mental health to political ideologies. Meanwhile, pay lags behind nearby states, and the long work hours don’t justify the benefits of leaving the classroom.
The trending decline in the number of educators wanting to take on administrative roles, especially the superintendency, is putting a strain on the education system and becoming an increasing challenge for elected officials, like trustees, who are charged with finding replacements or solutions.
Idaho Education News spent months investigating the challenges and interviewing those most affected to put together a four-story series that takes a comprehensive look at leadership in Idaho public education — and the proposed solution, from Idaho’s superintendent of public instruction, which is not popular with those currently in the profession.
Applicants for superintendent positions dwindle
“The pipeline feeds differently in different places,” state superintendent Debbie Critchfield said.
After the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a big retirement cliff among school superintendents, and schools are only now starting to stabilize, according to data from The Superintendent Lab, the one of few research groups studying the superintendency.
And the cliff has created a problematic gap between veteran superintendents and the newbies, said Heather Williams, associate executive director of the Idaho Association of School Administrators.
Fifty-five superintendents responded to an EdNews survey asking about their experience, planned tenure, and challenges they face. Here's what they said:
- Three returned from retirement to offer short-term help.
- Eight planned to retire after the 2024-25 school year.
- 26 planned to retire in five years or less.
- 10 planned to stay in leadership for 10-plus years.
Qualified applicants are also declining, especially in rural areas. Williams and Bauscher say it’s common to see two or three applicants for positions that used to get five to seven.
That lack of applicants doesn’t mean there’s a shortage of qualified people to take on the job.
In Idaho there are:
- 491 people licensed to be a superintendent.
- 121 full- or part-time superintendent positions.
- 22 assistant superintendent positions in 17 school districts.
Hiring can be really difficult in rural areas, Williams added.
"It's hard to get somebody to uplift their life and move there," Williams said. "Especially when they can stay in larger districts and make as much as a teacher."
Mountain View School District has struggled to keep a superintendent, after four levies consecutively failed and multiple rounds of discussing a potential deconsolidation.
The district has hired four different superintendents in the past five years. Eventually, retired superintendent Alica Holthaus agreed to see the district through the vote to split in May and most of the 2025-26 school year. She plans to return to retirement later this year as the two new districts' trustees hire their own superintendents.
Border districts compete with districts in neighboring states that often pay better, Williams said — not just in Washington and Oregon, but also in Wyoming and Montana.
Also, fewer people want to be principals, taking a role that often puts them on the path to the superintendency, said Matt McDaniel, who leads the College of Idaho’s principal certification program.
"There's not a lot of people that are queued up to take those roles over," McDaniel said. "It's a big leap to go from being a classroom teacher… to leading a building. ... People feel like they aren’t ready.”
Add on policy, legal and legislative policy, he said, and being prepared and effective “is a moving target all the time.” Space and time — and ideally, funding — is needed for administrators to mentor their replacements.
More tasks, less help
Few superintendents' jobs are the same, especially with the huge geographic and rural-urban divide in Idaho.
West Ada, the state’s largest school district, has a leadership team of eight, including its own general counsel, chief academic officer, chief technology officer and chief of staff. That leadership team is supported by 12 directors, in areas like special education, federal programs, assessment and accountability, and education foundation.
In one of Idaho’s smallest school districts, Avery, a single administrator is the school’s principal. In Genesee, Wendy Moore was superintendent and elementary principal, and also drove a school bus.
In Middleton, a growing district that serves about 4,000 students in Canyon County, the superintendent has three directors and an assistant superintendent.
The less support a superintendent has, the more work they take on. Every school district has to complete the same state and federal reports, said Tana Kellogg, Highland School District's superintendent.
Superintendents are required to file as many as 300 reports in a year to a variety of state and federal departments, according to a list from IDE.
“We have seen an increase over the past several years of compliance-driven reporting and practice from our legislature, from our state department, from our state agencies as well as the federal,” Williams said.
Other states have hired more administrators to deal with that increase in workload.
Nationally, the number of school district administrators grew about 11.7% between 2015 and 2018, according to Labor of Bureau Statistics data reported by Education Next, compared to about 3.6% teacher growth.
During the same time period, the number of Idaho administrators grew by about 1%. That number includes district and building leadership. The growth is less than 1% over the last two years.
There’s a false belief, Critchfield said, that more money would go to the classroom if districts had fewer administrators, but Idaho already lags behind other states when it comes to administrator growth.
For more on how superintendents’ jobs differ, read our profiles of two Idaho superintendents here and here.
Pay growth lags, and prestige has lost its luster
When Bauscher started in 1984 as superintendent in Kimberly, a rural Magic Valley district, he had just finished his doctoral program at Washington State University. He competed against 15 applicants for the job.
"It was really a prestigious type of job. Everyone wanted to be able…. to be a superintendent where they had the prestige, the respect of the communities,” Bauscher said. “And so that's kind of changed."
Administrators in Idaho are paid far less than their counterparts in nearby states. "We end up losing some of our most talented leaders to other states,” Williams said.
Lance Hansen was named the 2025 Idaho superintendent of the year by the Idaho Association of School Administrators for his work in Lewiston, where he made $166,817. Weeks later he announced his departure to Kennewick, Wash., where he’ll make $294,000, according to the Tri-City Herald.
Back when Bauscher started in the 1980s, the general guideline was that whatever a teacher makes, a principal makes about three-quarters more and a superintendent makes double, Bauscher said.
Now, the pay gap between teachers and superintendents is smaller and superintendents work more hours.
Another trend for those who move into administration is to stay as principal instead of seeking the promotion to superintendent.
"The other issue is the difference between what you could get paid as a principal, or any other district administrator and the superintendency," Williams said. "It's like you're taking on all this additional stress and workload and days, but really there's not the return on investment for our leaders."
In some cases, administrators make less in daily pay rate than teachers, Critchfield pointed out last year and EdNews confirmed.
In Pocatello, for example:
- A top-scale teacher makes $421 per day.
- A bottom-of-the-pay-scale administrator makes $374 per day.
- A top-scale administrator makes $528 per day.
But talking about paying administrators more is unpopular, Critchfield acknowledged. Teacher base pay has steadily risen, but administrator pay raises haven't kept pace.
Politics proliferate in schools
Politics in education is a huge concern, and can seep in through numerous venues, superintendents said in response to EdNews' survey.
“Education has become more political,” Critchfield said.
For example, a new state law — and an ensuing, months-long debate over poster and banner displays in classrooms — has left communities and districts at odds. Critchfield told school administrators last month that while her department will review complaints and send district compliance opinions and letters, they shouldn’t spend time checking every classroom.
“That’s not a great use of your time,” she said. “We want you talking about whether or not your kids can read.”
Her stance matches what she hears from superintendents: They want to focus on student learning. In turn, Critchfield tries to take on as many of the social issues as she can.
"Our school leaders, their first priority is, how do we provide a safe learning environment ... for kids to access the academic programs that we have available,” she said. “The social issues are not ones that our leaders focus on. But it's not to mean that it's not important."
Respondents to EdNews’ survey frequently mentioned funding as a top job stressor.
Superintendents said tight budgets require juggling state teacher pay raises, an unfunded mandate to provide extensive special education services, repairs on aging facilities, and other needs.
Superintendents often tell Critchfield they need more training on conflict management and how to navigate working with their elected school board members.
“School boards today are being elected for the wrong reasons,” Bauscher said.
Many have a political agenda and are one-issue candidates, he said, instead of broadly wanting to help, support and govern the district. Bauscher encourages superintendents to do a significant amount of research on the school board before taking a job.
If trustees are trying to run the district, “your chances of running the district are slim,” he said.
Williams said trustee turnover is also a huge issue because it creates instability and a lack of cohesion.
"They're trying to carry out these policies of the board, but the board's changing so much that they are not even really sure what their policies are,” Williams said.
Many superintendents must also go to their communities to push ballot measures, as they seek local funds to supplement state dollars. The every-other-year campaign season for most school districts has become a time-consuming stressor. Some superintendents feel like “it’s just become more and more complex,” to run ballot measures, Williams said.
Politicians and educators divided over solutions
Critchfield’s proposed solution to the applicant shortage is to reduce the requirements to obtain a superintendent certification — a plan that has received near universal pushback from current school leaders.
Under her proposal, anyone who has a bachelor’s degree, passes a background check and has at least five years of experience in education, government, nonprofits, private business or military could be hired to lead a school district.
They would then have a mentor for three years, the length of their initial certificate.
Currently, to get a superintendent endorsement or an administrator certificate, candidates must have an education specialist's or doctoral degree. They must also have four years of full-time certificated experience working in a school, and must complete an administrative internship and a post-master's school superintendent program, among other requirements.
"I think we have to first understand what we're hiring for," Critchfield said.
Opponents say superintendents should understand what it’s like to deliver instruction and manage a classroom. They should also know what it’s like to manage a school building and budget as a principal.
Critchfield argues that superintendents are rarely in the classroom. They’re often not directly evaluating teachers. They must manage things like transportation and maintenance departments, a role where they have no prior experience. They also liaise with a governing school board, another area where they probably have no prior experience.
"I don't know that the traditional certification route always fits for a strong leader,” Critchfield said. "I think by having some alternate pathways, it helps us recruit highly capable people who might otherwise be excluded."
Those non-traditional leaders can bring in new ideas and mentorship can help teach the “school things” like budgeting, reporting, and evaluation.
Critchfield began developing the pitch last year when she formed a working group on the issue. That group finished its work in April.
Williams represented administrators in the group.
Of IASA members, 71% supported traditional university programs. Another 66% supported “grow your own” programs, which would allow districts to use mentorship along with additional coursework to help in-district educators get certified. The members were clear, Williams said: They wanted to maintain the quality and performance standards for incoming superintendents.
"That's where it comes to for our group, and for me personally, can we maintain the quality and the standards for performance in an alternative or non-traditional pathway?" Williams said. "I think there are ways to do that, but just saying anybody with a heartbeat can be a superintendent is not going to help kids."
Williams advocated for a master’s degree at least to be included in Critchfield’s proposal.
Critchfield has pushed back on her critics. She says her proposal isn’t meant to devalue the hard work superintendents put in to get into their jobs, but instead is meant to offer communities options. It’s up to a school board to decide if a candidate is qualified and a good fit for their community.
“To me there’s checks and balances here as well,” she said.
McDaniel, who wrote a column opposing Critchfield’s proposal, said he believes removing the current requirements won’t do any favors for students or families.
"It might be a quick fix to broaden the pool but not deepen the pool," he said.
Superintendents have other solutions they’d like to see. Bauscher, who recently retired from the University of Idaho and was a K-12 superintendent for decades, said an easy first step would be to make it easier for out-of-state candidates to get Idaho superintendent certification in Idaho.
Read more of Emma Epperly's series on superintendents in Idaho here.