Chapter 2: The Board President and Superintendent: An Examination of Influence Through the Eyes of the Decision Makers

A significant body of literature has pointed to the relationships among the district superintendent and the board of education and the influences of those relationships on the quality of the educational programs and academic success of children. A major contributor in facilitating and modulating the relationship of the superintendent and board of education is the board chair or president. Using components found in social capital theory, this study examined the perceptions of school board presidents and superintendents regarding the influence of their relationship on district leadership and the decision-making responsibilities of boards of education.

The findings suggest that attributions of superintendent leadership were enhanced through the networks and connections that they facilitated with the board president through the transmission of human, cultural and economic capital. Finally, constituents and stakeholders construct influentialothers as leaders on the basis of valued forms of human, cultural, social and economic capital. The caveat here, however, is that the superintendent must have the ability to gain prior knowledge of what capital is valued by others, that is, his or her constituents in order to have influence and to be perceived as a leader.