What does Philadelphia’s superintendent do, and why should you care?

The School District of Philadelphia (SDP) is among the top 20 largest school systems in the country and is the largest in the state. There’s almost 120,000 students, 19,000 employees, and 216 schools in the Philly public school system. That’s a lot of ground to cover.

So, who’s in charge of making sure Philly’s school system is running? The school superintendent.

The city selected a new superintendent on April 1, and the job now belongs to Tony B. Watlington Sr., superintendent of Rowan-Salisbury schools in North Carolina.

But, what exactly does a superintendent do? And how is the city selecting a new one? Here’s everything you need to know about the superintendent’s role in Philadelphia.

A school superintendent is like the chief executive officer of a company, but for a public school system. They report directly to the school district’s Board of Education, commonly known as the “school board.”

A superintendent is responsible for overseeing the district’s operations throughout the city, managing finances, and employing a staff that can help achieve the superintendent and school district’s educational goals. They do this through policy-making, developing initiatives and programs, and helping to find additional funding for the district, among other responsibilities.

Philly’s superintendent is responsible for:

The superintendent also directly oversees a staff of supervisors, or “chiefs,” of various areas of responsibility in the district, like Chief of Schools, Academic Supports, Student Support Services, and School Safety that help achieve the goals set out by the district. You can see the full leadership staff list at philasd.org/our-leadership.

SDP also has 16 Learning Networks that each have an assistant superintendent. In Philadelphia, a learning network is used to group together schools in order to assign an assistant superintendent to oversee the schools in that network. The assistant superintendents can provide more hands-on support and an easier way for parents and teachers to communicate with the school district leadership.

Traditionally to be eligible, someone needs to: Hold a bachelor’s degree from a regionally or nationally accredited college, have six years of school experience with at least three years in a supervisor or administrative role, complete a state-approved, graduate-level superintendent certification program that includes an internship or equivalent out-of-state program (3.0 GPA required), and complete a state-required test to become a superintendent.

Another way to be eligible is for someone to:

Philadelphia’s current superintendent makes $334,644 per year. However, salaries are negotiated in the contracts signed between a superintendent and the school board when hired, and can change depending on the superintendent’s performance.

A superintendent is selected and hired by the district’s school board. After conducting a search and interviewing candidates, the school board votes on a superintendent.

The school superintendent is not an elected position. However, all members of the school board are appointed by the Mayor of Philadelphia and approved by Philadelphia City Council. So, Philly residents can indirectly help select a superintendent when voting for their mayor and city council members.

In October and November of last year, the school board conducted listening sessions and discussions with parents, teachers, and community members to hear what the community wanted in a superintendent. Those findings were compiled into a Community Engagement Report. According to the report, the city wants a superintendent who:

Participants also said they want a superintendent who understands that all schools need support, but not every school has the same needs.

“If the next superintendent is honest, transparent, and comes in ready to listen first, then roll up their sleeves and get to work, this District’s families, advocates and stakeholders will support them.”

If you want to see what other qualifications that school district stakeholders want in an incoming superintendent, view the Community Engagement Report at tinyurl.com/SDPcommunityinput.

Philly’s current, and soon to be former, superintendent is William R. Hite Jr. After serving as superintendent for the last 10 years — which is one of the longest tenures in the history of the district — he will be moving on to become the CEO of education nonprofit Knowledge Works and lead a program for aspiring superintendents at Yale University.

Hite received his bachelor’s degree in education from Virginia Tech, a master’s degree in educational leadership from the University of Virginia, and a doctorate in education specializing in educational leadership from Virginia Tech.

Before coming to SDP, Hite was the superintendent of Prince George’s Public Schools (PGPS) in Maryland — which is slightly larger in student size than Philadelphia — where he focused on programs to improve college and career readiness in students. During his time there, PGPS received national recognition for expanding access to Advanced Placement courses for students.

When Hite arrived in Philadelphia in 2012, the school district needed to borrow $300 million to pay teachers, heat schools, and buy new books for that school year. It was in financial crisis. In the next year, Hite had 23 schools shut down to save money.

Through his time as superintendent, he guided the district into becoming independent of state oversight and bringing local control back to Philly schools. From 2001 to 2018, the school district was overseen by a state-controlled School Reform Commission due to low testing scores and the fact that the city consistently operated the district at a financial loss, according to University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education.

Graduation rates improved during Hite’s tenure. Throughout his 10 years as superintendent, gradual improvements to student’s success occurred. However, there’s still a majority of students in the district who are not hitting the benchmarks as measured by state standardized tests. You can read more about the district’s performance at tinyurl.com/SDPscorecard.

Hite struggled with operational issues. During his time, the school district saw the environmental and health crisis that was caused by construction work and asbestos in schools that endangered, and in some cases, hospitalized people. Specifically at the Benjamin Franklin Parkway High School and Science Leadership Academy.

You can read more about Hite’s tenure in Kristen A. Graham’s coverage.

When hired, a superintendent signs a contract with the school board that outlines all duties, benefits, and processes of the job. In the contract are sections that outline how they can be fired or when they can terminate their contract with the school board. These contracts are unique to each individual superintendent and can differ between each hire.

You can read a copy of the current superintendent’s, William R. Hite Jr., contract in The Inquirer’s media archive. But, we’ll break it down more simply here.

The school board can terminate the current superintendent’s contract:

When a new superintendent is hired, a new contract will be written and some of policies may change.

You can contact the superintendent’s office directly by emailing superintendent@philasd.org.

You can find your school’s assistant superintendent at philasd.org/cso/about/assistant-superintendent-directory.

The school district holds various press briefings, community meetings, and listening sessions that the superintendent attends throughout each school year. You can keep up to date with school district events by following them on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, or by checking the school district’s newsroom at philasd.org/newsroom.

You can also contact the school board — which oversees the superintendent — by emailing schoolboard@philasd.org or filling out their online contact form .

Finally, both the superintendent and school board’s office is located at 440 N. Broad Street, but there’s no guarantee you’ll be able to speak with someone if you visit the offices.