The purpose of this research is to explore the working relationships between school superintendents and members of the board of education. To this end, the review delineates and discusses a sampling of the current literature on working relationships between school supervisors/superintendents and their boards of education. It seems reasonable to suggest that educational objectives are maximized when school superintendents have good working relations with their respective Boards of Education. However, Grady and Bryant have noted that, "The superintendent's role may be difficult to manage simply because of the existence of a school board" (1-90).
In an effort to understand factors that interfere with effective working relationships between superintendents and their boards, Grady and Bryant mailed surveys to all superintendents of K-12 district schools in Nebraska (N=310 schools). The survey asked superintendents to identify critical incidents they had experienced with school board members. Superintendents were also asked if they would be willing to discuss these incidents in a telephone interview. Eighty of the superintendents agreed to be interviewed.
The single most frequently cited "critical incident" identified by supervisors was conflict between themselves and school board members over parental/relative/friends' reactions to students who had been banned from athletic competition. The second most frequently cited conflict was that scho
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