The Superintendent

School boards in all except the smallest school districts hire a superintendent or superintendent-principal who is responsible for the school district’s daily operation and administration.

Contracts between school boards and superintendents are worked out individually. [ORS 192.660(1)(a)(D)]

Superintendents may expend funds as provided by the district’s budget. They prepare annual budgets for review by the districts’ budget committees and boards. A superintendent is directly responsible to the board for recommending the hiring, assigning, supervising, evaluating and firing of staff members [ORS 342.895(1)] and for determining the school curriculum.

The superintendent is the person to contact for comments about district policies, operations, finances and curriculum.

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The Clerk

The superintendent, if one is employed, is also, by law, the district clerk and responsible for board and district record keeping. A deputy clerk usually is employed to do many of the administrative functions assigned by law to the clerk. If a district has no superintendent, then a clerk is hired who often shares district administrative functions with a teaching principal or head teacher.

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