Context “Matters”: Issues of Personal Values, Local Politics, and the Superintendency

Abstract

Superintendents are asked to make decisions that are in the best interest of K–12 public school children, families, and communities, all while considering the involvement of internal and external influences. This often requires leadership that challenges superintendents’ professional ethics and moral values as they walk a proverbial “tightrope” over culturally and politically sensitive issues. This case explores these dynamics through the experience of a new superintendent navigating a crisis that forces her to choose between her professional obligations to investigate potential misconduct of a district employee and her political survival in a community that has already begun to question her leadership.