Column: Newport-Mesa would benefit if more women were placed in top administrative positions

The Newport-Mesa Unified School District has been under fire over the issue of administrative pay.

Critics have taken aim at the $34,450 “performance bonus” that Supt. Fred Navarro was awarded by the school board and for the 2.5% increase in his annual salary, to $289,915. (Other top district officials also received raises.)

At a recent school board meeting, former Newport-Mesa Human Resources supervisor John Caldecott chastised the board over an alleged “tax-free, health benefit of $17,000 per year” given to former Deputy Supt. Paul Reed, whose generous compensation raised eyebrows before his retirement in December 2016.

While these criticisms certainly warrant scrutiny, there is another aspect of the district’s leadership that deserves attention too.

Navarro, Reed and current deputy superintendent Russell Lee-Sung have something else in common besides their handsome compensation: They’re men.

In a profession populated largely by women — more than three-fourths of all K-12 teachers in the United States are female — less than one-quarter of the superintendents are women.

“Leadership is somehow connected to birth, to being male,” said Margaret Grogan, dean of the Attallah College of Educational Studies at Chapman University, who has studied this issue for more than 20 years. “Men are given the task to manage women.”

This imbalance cries out for careful examination, not merely because of the gender bias that it suggests, but also because the reasons behind this glaring disparity could reveal a lot about the priorities set by many public school districts.

The position of superintendent first emerged in the 1830s, and it will surprise no one to learn that in the nearly two centuries that followed the job was almost always viewed as “men’s work.” The role was seen as requiring managerial and leadership skills — the kinds of qualities long considered to be possessed by men. Women, not so much.

The path to the top post has often gone through historically male-dominated departments, such as finance, construction and building maintenance. In many districts, football coaches have even been seen as natural picks for a quick rise through the managerial ranks, thanks to their visibility and popularity in their communities.

Men in power mentoring other men is also a factor, Grogan said.

Many male teachers stay in the classroom for a relatively short time before receiving a tap on the shoulder encouraging them to pursue a certification track for school administrative positions, typically at the secondary level. From there, they often move easily into district management.

Women, on the other hand, largely remain in the classroom. Even if they advance to administrative posts, they typically max out at levels well below top district management.

Many cultural factors also contribute to this phenomenon, Grogan noted.

Generally speaking, from a young age boys are encouraged to take risks and assert themselves, and are groomed for leadership roles, while girls are often praised more for following rules and procedures, for waiting their turn.

Other unfortunate stereotypes persist well into adulthood, such as the one that holds that working mothers will be less committed to their jobs than their male counterparts, even in a seemingly female-friendly profession like education.

There has been some change to this dynamic, Grogan said, noting that when she began studying this issue in 1992 only 5% of superintendents were women.

In recent years, one side benefit of the otherwise unpopular No Child Left Behind educational reforms is that districts began paying more attention to instruction and curriculum — areas in which women were thought to have expertise. As a result, the thinking by school boards about the qualifications desired in superintendents has gradually evolved.

But we need to do better, much better than painfully slow, incremental change.

The fact that there are still far too few women in top leadership roles in school districts across the country, and right here in Orange County, is yet another sign of — and possibly a contributing factor to — the skewed priorities that are rampant throughout our educational system.

We need to move away from the top-down approach, in which administrators too long removed from the students they oversee issue fiats and make funding decisions that do little to improve the classroom experience. We need to stop rewarding district managers with bloated salaries and bonuses while teachers too often must contend with overcrowded classrooms and pay for supplies out of their own pockets.

And we absolutely must tap into the invaluable experience of women in the profession, who just might provide school district leadership with deep insight into demonstrated methods of improving educational outcomes — insight gleaned from years spent on the front lines of education, interacting with students and experimenting with promising, research-based techniques.

Of course having more women in top administrative posts won’t solve all the problems, but it could bring some refreshing new perspectives to the thorny issues plaguing education. And I’d bet good money that if more women were calling the shots, the rat infestation at Newport Harbor High would have been dealt with more forcefully and with greater haste.

“We will see progress,” Grogan believes.

I hope she’s right, because it’s not just women who stand to gain from their growing authority. Our kids would benefit too.

PATRICE APODACA is a former Newport-Mesa public school parent and former Los Angeles Times staff writer. She lives in Newport Beach.