The quality of the Mid-Prairie Community School District depends to a significant extent on the effectiveness of its Superintendent. The Superintendent must be a leader in creating learning opportunities that enable and inspire our children to become successful, caring and contributing citizens of our nation and the world.
Toward that end, the Mid-Prairie Board of Directors has adapted and adopted, as the basis for its Superintendent’s job description and annual performance evaluation, the ten Iowa Standards for Schools Leaders for Superintendents. The Superintendent must demonstrate competencies, skills and achievements related to each of the ten standards.
The superintendent will be an educational leader who promotes the success of all students by:
- Mission, Vision and Core Values: Develop, advocate and enact a shared mission, vision, and core values of high-quality education and academic success and well-being of each student.
- Ethics and Professional Norms: Act ethically and according to professional norms to promote each student’s academic success and well-being.
- Equity and Cultural Responsiveness: Strive for equity of educational opportunity and culturally responsive practices to promote each student’s academic success and well-being.
- Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment: Develop and support intellectually rigorous and coherent systems of curriculum, instruction and assessment to promote each student’s academic success and well-being.
- Community Care and Support for Students: Cultivate an inclusive, caring and supportive school community that promotes the academic success and well-being of each student.
- Professional Capacity of School Personnel: Develop the professional capacity and practice of school personnel to promote each student’s academic success and well-being.
- Professional Community for Teachers and Staff: Foster a professional community of teachers and professional staff to promote each student’s academic success and well-being.
- Meaningful Engagement of Families and Community: Engage families and the community in meaningful, reciprocal, and mutually beneficial ways to promote each student’s academic success and well-being.
- Operations and Management: Manage school operations and resources to promote each student’s academic success and well-being.
- School Improvement: Act as an agent of continuous improvement to promote each student’s academic success and well-being.
It is the responsibility of the Board to evaluate the performance of the Superintendent relative to those standards. The Vice President of the Board will direct the evaluation process.
Each member of the Board is to receive an evaluation form no later than October 1 of each year, and complete, sign and return it to the Board Vice President no later than the second Monday of the month of October.
Consistent with customary and responsible professional practices, and to encourage open, honest and accountable communications, Board Members—as the Superintendent’s supervisors—must sign their evaluations. The Superintendent shall also complete, sign and return this instrument to the Vice President as a basis for self-evaluation, and may also provide any supporting documents or other materials he or she believes will help Board Members understand his or her efforts and achievements during the evaluation period.
All evaluations received by the Board Vice President by second Monday of October will be photocopied and distributed to all Board Members, as well as to the Superintendent, by the third Monday of October of each year. The Superintendent shall also receive a copy of all evaluations. The original copy of each evaluation is to become part of the Superintendent’s permanent personnel file, which is to be secured and maintained by the Board Secretary. No other respondents or other parties may receive copies of any evaluations. These documents shall not be public documents.
On the fourth Monday of October, the Board Members and Superintendent will meet in closed session, consistent with Iowa law and district policy, to discuss the results of the evaluations, and develop a joint Statement of Commitment that will describe each party’s non-binding intentions for the succeeding academic and contract year. This Statement of Commitment will enable either party to make the appropriate plans for the succeeding year and beyond. The statement of commitment will be signed at the next regular scheduled business meeting of the School Board.
The Board Secretary will take the minutes and tape all meetings held pursuant to this policy. The taped record is not a public record. An attorney selected by the Board will review all documents produced pursuant to this policy, to ensure that they are sufficient for the purposes of Iowa Code Section 21.5(4). For the purposes of this policy, the Vice President is authorized to consult with the attorney.
The personnel file of the Superintendent will be established and maintained exclusively by the Board Secretary pursuant to Board direction. The Board Secretary shall keep a log listing details of each and every access to the file, including his or her own. The file is the property of the District, under the direct and exclusive control of the Board of Directors. The file shall be kept in a secure location and under no circumstances removed from its secure location without specific Board approval. No document shall be removed from the file except by express direction of the Board of Directors, or in accordance with law.
The Board is not precluded by this policy from taking any steps deemed necessary to promote the best interests of the District, as permitted by District policy, Iowa Code and the annual employment contract of the Superintendent.
Legal Reference: Wedergren v. Board of Directors, 307 N.W.2d 12 (Iowa 1981).
Iowa Code §§ 279.8, .20, .23, .23A (2013).
281 I.A.C. Ch. 83; 12.3(4).
Cross Reference: 212 Closed Sessions
302 Superintendent
Adopted: 9-17-90
Reviewed: 5-10-93, 8-9-04, 2-28-11, 1-11-16
Revised: 6-14-93, 1-25-99, 4-10-00, 10-8-01, 3-28-2022