Leadership Matters December 2013

IASA members step up big time in aftermath of devastating tornadoes School superintendents are

part of a special fraternity, and that was never more evident than in the aftermath of the devastating tornadoes that cut a deadly and damaging swath through several Illinois communities on November 17.

Message from the Executive Director Dr. Brent Clark

The tornadoes destroyed hundreds of homes, including the homes of three school superintendents. As the news of the disaster spread, we received several calls from superintendents asking how they could help. We decided to send out a statewide email giving our member superintendents the opportunity to contribute to a disaster relief fund for those superintendents that lost their homes and all of their belongings. We set a very ambitious goal of raising $12,000. Your response was overwhelming. Within three days, the goal had been exceeded, and as of December 2, the amount donated was $14,300. All of the money over the original $12,000 goal will be distributed to superintendents in the affected areas to assist students who lost school supplies in the tornadoes. Illinois superintendents always have helped each other out on a variety of issues and situations, but this disaster really illustrated how deep and caring those professional and personal relationships go among our members. While that response was pouring in, another equally impressive response was happening: The three superintendents who lost their homes and possessions – Dr. Chad Allaman and Dr. John Tignor, both from Washington, and Bill Mulvaney, superintendent of the Armstrong Township School District and the Armstrong Elementary School District -- quickly and selflessly focused on their communities and went about the business of getting school restarted and kids back in their classrooms. It’s one thing to talk about dedication and commitment to our duty of providing the best possible educational opportunities possible, but it is really inspirational when you see people like Chad, John and Bill rise to the occasion in the midst of their own personal crises. School administrator rated third most stressful occupation Speaking of performing under stress, I recently read a very interesting study on that topic in Business Insider magazine. The magazine asked career

information expert Dr. Laurence Shatkin to study the 747 occupations identified by the U.S. Department of Labor to find out which jobs were the most stressful. That study found that the job of education administrator was the third most stressful occupation, behind only first-line supervisors of police and detectives and mental health counselors, and ahead of air traffic controllers, pilots, surgeons, a sampling of other occupations that made the top 10 list. The study took three main factors into account: 1) the stress tolerance for each job, which measured how often employees face high-stress situations; 2) the consequences of employee errors, which measured how serious it would be if mistakes were made; and 3) the job's time pressure, which measured the strictness of deadlines. All factors were based on a scale from zero to 100 for prevalence in each job, where a higher rating signaled high stress levels. The results for education administrator were: stress tolerance 94.2, consequence of error 54, and time pressure: 53.8. I realize that superintendents probably don’t need a study to understand how stressful the job is, but this study confirms for everyone else what we already know. One thing that helps cope with those pressures is the fact that we all became educators because we wanted to do something to help provide great educational opportunities for children. That’s what IASA is about, and I’ve never been prouder of our members. Best wishes for a wonderful holiday season! MATT DAYHOFF/PEORIA JOURNAL STAR A tornado struck and destroyed much of the Devonshire subdivision Sunday in Washington. The town's water tower still stands.

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