Interview with Scott Niven

I had the opportunity to interview Scott Niven, the Superintendent of my district, Red Oak ISD. Mr. Niven has been in Red Oak for the past 7 years during a time of community growth and change. I was so appreciative of the laid-back approach he took in answering my questions, and of the advice and insight he gave. The following responses stood out to me:

·       How does a Superintendent build a good working relationship with the School Board? Mr. Niven emphasized that a good relationship would only be built when trust was established. This means you have to tell the complete truth all of the time, even when it is unpleasant to do so. He advised that it is also important to get to know what a particular Board wants. Different School Boards have personalities of their own, and individual members contribute to that. Some will want to know all the details, and others will want the bottom line. Getting to know what they will need to feel they have the information they desire is important to helping them feel they can trust the Superintendent because their questions will be answered. I appreciated this because I have witnessed first-hand the difficulties that can be encountered when there is a mistrust and/or difficult relationship between the School Board and the Superintendent.

·       How should a superintendent evaluate the effectiveness of communication strategies in the school district and encourage the engagement of the community to benefit all students? Mr. Niven stated that evaluating communication is one of the most nebulous areas of the superintendency because there are not clear benchmarks for success. “No one told me,” will also be the first complaint of anyone with an issue with the school. To combat this problem, you need to have a good communication plan that incorporates a wide variety of methods so that different people who communicate in different ways will have the opportunity to receive it. This would include phonecalls, postal mail, Facebook, Twitter, teacher blogs, websites, etc. Then there is also the internal communication piece that must happen: the staff of the district also need to know what is going on, because the feeling of isolation will kill morale faster than anything.

·       How should Superintendents manage everything from budgets to technology applications? Mr. Niven emphasized repeatedly the importance of building a team that has areas of strength to compensate for the superintendent’s areas of weakness. He said that no superintendent is really good at every aspect of managing a district, and if someone says they are good at it all, they are probably a very insecure person or selling something. For areas that you feel weak in, find someone with experience and then develop and use benchmarks of success to know that things are moving in the right direction rather than feeling the need to manage it yourself.

·       How does a Superintendent promote and sustain a district culture that emphasizes student learning and professional development? Mr. Niven said that developing the culture of a district is something that is easier said than done. That is because in order to really sustain the culture, the goals of the School Board, district leadership, and campus leadership must all move in the same direction. When this does not happen, the result is a need to confront individuals and have difficult conversations about the direction that things will move.

·       What is your definition of leadership? Mr. Niven said that in short, good leaders “find good people, put them in the right job, and support them.” He said that being a good leader is not so much about what you know yourself, but about being able to build a team that is strong, and then setting direction for the team so that your influence is felt and everyone is clear about what direction to go.