KENTUCKY (WYMT/Herald Leader) – For the 2022-2023 school year, there are 15 superintendent vacancies. According to our news partners at the Lexington Herald Leader, that is already close to the 18 vacancies in the 2020-2021 school year.
“That’s a high number because there are more to come,” said Rhonda Caldwell, the Executive Director of the Kentucky Association of School Administrators.
One of the superintendents that recently made the decision to step down from the position was Tim Bobrowski, the Owsley County Superintendent.
He said the reasons for his upcoming retirement are COVID, personnel problems and social media “frenzies”.
“Our superintendents, they’ve been harassed, have been threatened, over decisions to mask, decisions not to mask, decisions to close school, decisions to open school, decisions to go to remote learning, conversations around vaccinations,” said Caldwell.
Scott Helton said his plan to leave his position was changed by the pandemic. Originally, he wanted to stay another year before stepping down to help his brother, but COVID made it harder to find qualified people for the job.
“We adapted to the virtual, but it wasn’t a normal school year, the fear of putting people’s lives at risk,” Helton said.
Jim Flynn, executive director of the Kentucky Association of School Superintendents, said superintendents with other options are starting to take those options instead of staying in their positions.
Copyright 2022 WYMT. All rights reserved.
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/gray/7JWLWDYN7RAQDD45HLLXRBPCIM.png&description=Several+Kentucky+superintendents+leaving+the+job+from+COVID%2C+political+pressure){kind=link}