S05E08 - The Superintendency: One Of The Most Challenging, Yet Rewarding, Careers | Dan Cox

In this episode of Build Momentum, we are joined by Dr. Dan Cox, the Superintendent of Schools in Rochester Community Unit School District 3A in Rochester, Illinois. In his 16-year education career in the state, he led the Staunton Community Unit School District and the Jasper County Community Unit 1 School District. He also served as an Assistant Principal and Principal at East Richland Elementary School in Olney. He is active on many boards at the local, regional, and state levels, including the State Assessment Review Committee for the Illinois State Board of Education.

Some Questions We Ask:

• Can you tell us more about your career as a superintendent? (01:25)
• What aspect of your career is most rewarding? (02:18)
• What are your thoughts about the RAND research and how important wellness is to you in coping with stress? (04:04)
• How do you feel scrutiny of the superintendency has changed over the years? (05:45)
• What are key factors in unifying the community to support your vision? (09:34)
• How much do you think your experiences align with those of superintendents in your state or across the country? (07:11)
• How are you able to share and communicate your stories with the community? (12:39)
• What advice can you give to other school leaders who are struggling in building a community? (15:21)
•  Why is it important for people to see superintendents as human beings? (18:23)
• How can the community support superintendents? (20:20)

In This Episode, You Will Learn:

• Dr. Cox’s career in education (01:36)
• Rewarding aspects of his career (02:29)
• The  importance of wellness in coping with stress (04:15)
• Scrutiny of the superintendency (05:53)
• Developing a single vision for the community (09:56)
• Thoughts on communication and storytelling (12:54)
• Advice on community-building for fellow school leaders (15:43)
• Humanizing the role of superintendents (18:35)
• Advocating for superintendents (20:26)

Quotes:

“We had a pandemic, and it was our responsibility as superintendents to bring a sense of hope, but also a sense of peace and calm and renewal—and then bring in joy and love: the joy of education and the love for what we do and who we serve, which is our kids and our communities.”

“If I was to break it down and just really be authentic and vulnerable about it, [my advice for wellness] is to know who you are at your core and don't identify yourself with your profession.”

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Transcript

Sarah Williamson: 0:05

Hello and welcome to Build Momentum for Education. A podcast where we explore thought leadership and education. I'm Sarah Williamson, the founder of SWPR Group, an agency that supports public relations, communication strategies and thought leadership support for school districts, education companies and nonprofit organizations.

Chad Bolser: 0:23

I'm Chad Bolser, Chancellor at Ivy Tech Community College in Indiana. This season, we explore a particularly unique perspective in K 12 thought leadership, humanizing the role of the superintendent.

Sarah Williamson: 0:36

Throughout the many conversations we continue to have with superintendents, a clear theme has emerged about the need to bring more humanity into the role of the superintendency. In this special series, we interview current and former superintendents and researchers to pursue the core question, how can we better see superintendents as real people navigating complex challenges to provide the best possible education for K 12 students?

Chad Bolser: 0:58

We dig deeper into how this important work can help build community, invite collaboration and increase widespread engagement.

Sarah Williamson: 1:08

We can't wait to get started. So let's dive in. We're so excited to have superintendent Dan Cox with us for this episode. He is from Rochester Community Union School District 3A in Rochester, Illinois. Welcome Dan.

Dan Cox: 1:23

Hi. Thanks for having me.

Sarah Williamson: 1:25

Yes. Will you tell us about your career as a superintendent and the various districts you serve in and your current role right now?

Dan Cox: 1:32

Sure. Well, you know where I always like to start is, while I'm a superintendent of schools, I'm a husband, I'm a father, I'm a son, I'm a brother, I'm a friend, obstacle course racer, ultra marathon runner. I'm a proud superintendent of schools. It's what I do, but it's not who I am. You know, over the course of my career, I've been blessed to work in a lot of wonderful communities, and as a superintendent, I am in my 16th year as a school superintendent. I feel like I'm becoming an anomaly in that. And have been blessed to serve in three communities of Jasper County and rural southeastern Illinois, and then Staunton in southwestern Illinois, just outside of the Metro East of St Louis. And now I'm in Rochester, where we are a bedroom community of our capital city of Springfield. We're at pre K 12 unit district of 2100 students. And I always say it's a great day to be a rocket.

Chad Bolser: 2:18

That's great. So as we talk about this role, and kind of try to humanize it a little bit throughout your career, what aspects of the superintendency have brought you the most joy?

Dan Cox: 2:29

Oh man, you know the superintendency. I was once told by a mentor of mine, when I was taking my classes to become a superintendent, get my specialist degree, that the superintendency was going to be one of the most challenging professions you could ever do, but it's also going to be one of the most rewarding, and that has stuck with me through the good times and the bad. And I think what I try to remember is separating the job and the work. There are pieces to the job, quite frankly, that just aren't very much fun, that we have to do or that we have to deal with, but that leads to the work, and that work is doing the good work to serve others. I love helping others, bringing out the best in them. And we do this, I think, as superintendents, by instilling hope within our schools and our communities and bringing a sense of peace within storms. You know, I think back to 16 years ago. It was the financial crisis, and we were having to eliminate positions and programs, and it was incredibly difficult to, you know, just a few years ago in the pandemic, you know, just when I thought it couldn't get any worse than a financial crisis, right? We had a pandemic, and it was our responsibility as superintendents to bring up a sense of hope, but also a sense of peace and calm and renewal, and then bringing in that joy and love, the joy of education and the love for what we do and who we serve, which is our kids and our communities.

Sarah Williamson: 3:44

Yeah, I love that answer. Dan, I think it's so important that you remember what you love about it when there are so many challenging opportunities as superintendent. So I'm curious. We've talked about this with all of the other leaders we've had on this show, but the 2023 RAND study found that superintendents have one of the most stressful jobs in America. I'm sure you're very well aware of that study. How are you able to navigate that stress? I know you've really shifted your life to have a big focus on wellness. Will you tell us about what wellness means to you and why this has become so important to you?

Dan Cox: 4:15

Yeah, man, I could probably spend an hour just on this question, right? But I won't. But there's a lot of layers to that. If I was to break it down and just really be authentic and vulnerable about it, it is to know who you are at your core and don't identify yourself with your profession. I was 32 years old, starting the superintendency, and for so long, identified myself as that, as a superintendent of schools. And to be successful in this, I needed to realize that is what I do, but it's not who I am, and make sure I don't lose those pieces of me that make me unique in that. I think I really had to have a transition point. You know, it was 2020, in the pandemic, and I was not handling it well. I wasn't handling the stress of the pandemic well. I was really working obscene amount of hours for many years, and you know, so you still work hard and long hours no matter what and how you do your fitness as a superintendent. But I had to rediscover my physical and mental fitness, both in that time. And, you know, I did that by just continuous improvement, through physical activity, through better diet and nutrition, getting outside and moving and really looking at that core pillars of a holistic wellness to stay grounded. And I think the other piece was leading by example for continuous and growth, trying to talk to people about the challenges that we face and how we can deal with them, just by taking small little steps and changing our relationships with things, changing my relationships with my work relationship, changing my relationships with food, changing my relationships with the profession, as you will, just to be a little more balanced.

Chad Bolser: 5:45

So tell us, how do you feel scrutiny of the role as superintendent has changed over the past few years?

Dan Cox: 5:53

Oh gosh, you know, let me begin with this. And so going back to that last question, it was about four years ago. I was 100 pounds heavier than I am today, and I couldn't run two minutes on a treadmill. My doctor was telling me the various types of medications I was going to need to get on and all of these different things. I said, you know, I want to do something different, and I need to do something different. Fast forward to the day, 100 pounds lighter. I'm running ultra marathons, I'm eating whole foods, and just doing things a lot differently, both physically, but also I'm in my mental approach to things, which has also led to, knock on wood, not have to be on those medications yet anyway, as I get older. And I had to do that in part, because of the pressures we face in the job, and when I said changing my relationships with things. It's how you handle that pressure, how you handle that scrutiny. And certainly the scrutiny on superintendents have increased dramatically. One of the things I noticed during the pandemic, it was hard, but we were all fearful, and it's become true, that post pandemic was going to be even more difficult, and it is. I think there's a lot of angst in society, in the world, and you have people who are angry, but they just don't quite know what they're angry about, but they just know they're mad and they don't like what they have, so they want something different. There are opportunities for us there. And the reason I started with that scrutiny piece and that last question is I intentionally put myself in hard situations. Somebody's like, why would you put yourself in a position to run 50, 60, 80, 100 miles? Right? And I'm not saying that's for everybody, but for me, if I intentionally put myself in difficult and adverse situations, I can handle the adversity that comes with a job and look for the opportunities that lie within it, because they are really, really hard. So I think what I've seen you know that has gotten hard with that is that we went from being able to I just heard this from David Horsager, which I'll talk about, you know, in a few minutes. We live in a more critical world today without the ability to critically think than we've ever lived before. And so now it's personal attacks I've seen that evolve over the career, where superintendents are met with personal attacks about decisions they make on the job. People forget that we're human too, or that we're even parents. Many of us are parents with children in the same schools that we serve, and our families are subjected to their criticism and the scrutiny that comes with the profession. This is not just a person who sits in the chair in the superintendent office, their partner, their children, their families, are all subject to it as well.

Sarah Williamson: 8:20

Yeah. So you think it's pretty consistently, consistent across the board, in your state peers, you know, is there just increased scrutiny nationally with superintendents.

Dan Cox: 8:32

100% and you know, we're not unique. The superintendent profession is not unique. I have a more kindred bond ship with anybody that works with the public today than I ever have in my career. You know, you go talk to the retail clerk, go talk to the server at your restaurant that work with the public. I think everybody is needing more scrutiny, more criticism, and just really that a bit of erosion of humanity and just treating each other people with kindness, and I go back to the beginning, is why it's our responsibility to bring some joy to what we do and recognize and see others. And certainly, I think we are as superintendents, locally, regionally, in our state, our nation, we're certainly seeing an increase of that, of the scrutiny and the personal attacks. I think a lot of it, you know, it's attributing to turnover in the profession, which does concern me, and we have to balance the demands of that scrutiny with the well being of our districts and ourselves, that's something we're certainly facing in a conversation that we need to have is, how do we do that? Because we need to build the next generation of leaders, or we're going to be in real trouble. And that's something that concerns me greatly.

Chad Bolser: 11:07

We know that your story and your superintendency is, you know, we've focused a little bit here about the difficulties of it, but you bring vision to your community and to your school corporation. How do you think you do that? What is the key to bringing people together to support your vision and have community support?

Dan Cox: 11:29

Wow, the superintendency. When I got into it, I really. I thought I was on top of the world, right? And I quickly learned that I was not as good as I thought I was, but I also learned that I was better than what I'd given myself credit for, too. And indulge me, I'll tell you a story I went to my first superintendency was in the school district in the town and the high school I grew up in, and I was feeling pretty big time, right? And I was taking a walk on one of my first days on the job. It was in the summertime. It was in July, and I was walking through the high school, and I walked down the chemistry wing, the science wing of the school, and I saw this little plaque on the wall, and that wing was named after a former superintendent from the 50s. And I stood there for a minute. I have a picture of it on my phone still and I took that picture, and I stood there for a minute. I said, Man, that must have been a heck of an educator and a heck of a leader and superintendent. I aspire to be that someday, you know, when I'm done with this career. And then I stood there, in about 30 more seconds, I said, I never knew who that guy was. I never heard the name. I had never seen that plaque before, and I went to high school. That tells you how much I paid attention in science classes, right? I had never seen that before. I said, I don't know who that is, and not in the mean way. I don't care. And then it hit me, nobody's gonna remember or know or care who I am, either I'm just nothing more than a temporary guardian of this community schools and its most precious resources, which are its children. And that changed my mindset for the rest of my career, is that this is not my school, it's not my district, it's not my community. I'm just blessed to be able to be a gatekeeper and a guardian of its resources, and I want to serve that community the best I can and those kids while I'm here. So I think as we lean into that, you never figure it out, just when you think you figure it out, you'll get snake bit on that. You know, when things seem like they're going easy or they're going well, you are going to trip, you are going to hit adversity. You are going to have difficult things happen in your career or within your communities, and at that point, you have to understand the perspective of other people and understand it's not you. We talked about scrutiny in the previous conversation. It's not you that they're scrutinizing, even though it feels like it, it's the situation. And people want to feel heard, they want to feel valued, they want to feel connected with purpose, and that way, they're more likely to support a shared vision and bringing people together and bringing those diverse perspectives together. And I think the last piece is find that common goal, and we know where we disagree. I don't know when today's society will ever agree in the areas we disagree on right where we're polarized, but we can find that common ground. And in the school community, it's always the kids. Nobody wants their children to do bad parents, teachers, community. Everybody wants the best for the kids, and that's where we have to focus our work.

Sarah Williamson: 14:01

Yeah, and I know one of your pillars, Dan, especially your focus over the last couple years has been communications, so and that's obviously very important to us, and that's one of the reasons we host this podcast. And I love what you just said about really bringing people together around feeling heard, and that common voice and that common goal, tell us about how you're doing that with communications and storytelling?

Dan Cox: 14:28

Yeah, you know, we've had the opportunity to have some conversations on the side about this right communication is something I really enjoy, but I've also seen it grow and become a monster in of itself, especially in recent years. I was once told in my previous district, I was told by a parent and a good I would consider a friend to and that parent said, you know, I can tell how things are going in the district by how and how often you communicate? What do you mean? Well, things are going well in the district. You're communicating all the time, but when I know things are difficult or you're really slammed, we may not hear from you for six weeks. And that hit me, the importance of the consistency and communication and you fast forward to today, the appetite for communication grows at a rate faster than what we can keep up. We are communicating as a school district more in in more different ways than we've ever communicated before, and we still hear great cries for more communication, more diverse communication, and more transparency in communication, which has led me to believe in our next step in this growth, in this journey, is we've gotten very good at print. We've gotten very good at video. We've gotten great at social media, these types of communications. But where we're missing and where we need to go next is the deep, meaningful connections and two way connections. I've been able to build good connections with people over using video I recently. It was a year or two ago, I met some parents for the first time, and it was an adverse meeting, not with me, but the situation. They were upset about something going on with one of their children in one of our schools, and they wanted to speak with me and so we did meet. And whenever I met the parents, I said, Man, it's really pleasure meeting you. I'm sorry we're meeting under these circumstances, and I'll never forget the mom. She was so nice. And she said, No, it's okay. I already feel like I know you from your videos. And she joked that, hey, you're much taller in person. I'm six, six, right? And she's like, you're much taller in person. She goes, but you know, I don't see those anymore. I miss seeing you. And she was right. I probably hadn't sent videos. Was out for two months, so that was a key point of, I need to do that consistently. But today, we're doing those things, but we're hearing and seeing a need for the two way communication, the face to face communication, and that's where we're growing next in that piece, you know, not just being consistent, but also trying to make meaningful connections and listening, I think, is what we're missing.

Chad Bolser: 16:54

And you kind of touched on this next question a little bit, but you know, as leaders and superintendents, listen to this and listen to you talk about who are struggling to build that community, what advice do you give those superintendents, those school leaders that maybe don't have or aren't at the place that you are in your organization?

Dan Cox: 17:16

Well, I mean, it doesn't matter. You can be at a good place a bad place. It's not if it's when crisis hits your school district, your community, when you're in very difficult times or adverse situations that you have to navigate as a school leader, as a superintendent, especially, you're kind of like that lone tree in the field catching the lightning, right? You're the polarizing object where everything is and you navigate those things. We recently, just a few weeks ago, we had our state school board, school superintendent and school business official conference here in Illinois, the triple I conference is what it's called, and it's a phenomenal conference, and it has over 13,000 attendees at it. So you think about the majority of school board members, business officials, superintendents, all in one conference. It can be, you know, pretty engaging event. And we had a keynote speaker, David Horsager, who wrote the trust edge and trust matters. And so I wanted to give him credit for this, because one of the things he talked about, when things get difficult and when things become adverse, we and in this context, we as superintendents, we need to stay committed. We need to stay committed to our kids. We need to stay committed to the mission, and we do need to ride out that storm. And I think how you do that is building that trust. And to do that, you have to focus on listening first and creating opportunities for people to be heard, even when their opinions differ again, we can disagree, and we do have to get back to that place of being able to be critical, but also being able to critically think and have civil discourse around the table and remember everybody's humanity that starts with us. And so that means when you do face that scrutiny, when you do get that personal attack, because you will is to keep that other person's perspective in mind, in as difficult as it may seem, understand that it's not personal, and build your relationships by finding common ground where you can agree and looking at those shared goals that we have for our kids and our students. And you do that by, you know, being transparent, being authentic about what's happening. I'm having a meeting later this evening to rekindle some family engagement and parent engagement, and I'm going to be very authentic about why it fell off of the table. And there's things we own. There's things our families have to own as well, of why that fell off of the table, and owning mistakes is important too. I can point the finger all day long about people needing to humanize us as superintendents, but when I do that. You know this, there's three fingers pointing back at me while I do that. And so I think it's okay to own mistakes and show that vulnerability as leaders as well.

Sarah Williamson: 19:42

That's why we're here, Dan, we're here to point the finger at people, to humanize the role of the superintendent. We can do it.

Dan Cox: 19:47

Yeah, right, right.

Sarah Williamson: 19:49

So actually, that's perfect, because I wanted to ask you, I really want to get to the heart of this question. That's why we're running this series. You really want to understand. Do you think it's important to humanize the role of the superintendent? Do you think it's important people see superintendents as real people who are navigating complex challenges, and does that help you serve the communities more effectively?

Dan Cox: 20:08

It 100% does. You know I have to remember as a leader, that when somebody makes a poor choice, a mistake, somebody's upset and they're yelling at us, or whatever. Nobody wakes up in the morning says, I'm going to go and do a bad job. No kid gets up in the morning says I'm going to be late for school, right? They might realize they're going to be late for school, but that's not their goal. Almost every kid you ask, says I want to do well in school. I mean, 99% of kids will say, I want to do well in school. When you ask them, Do your parents want you to do well in school? Yes, they do. When you ask parents, do you want your children to do well in school? Yes, teachers want the best for their kids. School leaders want the best. Communities want the best for their kids. But things get in the way, and life gets in the way where it may not always reflect that, and I think we have to remember that and give each other grace and extend that grace. Extend grace to yourself. You know, we talked about how we can keep going in this profession as superintendents, that starts with giving grace to yourself, that you may not have everything done just perfectly okay. You may not be able to work 16 hours a day, and you shouldn't, you know, do that, but you have to stay consistent, and you have to stay patient and understand that building trust takes time with people, and likewise, I think, for others to help us see us as a real person, it gives us a lot of confidence to you know, we have to first extend grace as leaders, but getting that grace in return certainly means the world. You know, we recently navigated a very complex issue within our community, and it was tough, really tough. I was not feeling great, and a few messages came in from families that were extending grace, and man, that was something I could hold on to and really help me navigate that. That was good to hear from those people.

Chad Bolser: 21:53

That kind of leads us to the next question is, we're advocates. We're supporters of K 12 education, and we want to know how to as community members, parents better support our nation's district leaders?

Dan Cox: 22:10

Right. Because, what I just said, extend grace and empathy, and that's a two way street. We have to do that as leaders and model that. But also, I would ask that people look at everybody that works within a school system, or anybody that you encounter on a daily basis, quite frankly, who are trying to serve and help you and help serve you and your families. Recognize that, you know, we do face immense pressure, and we face very, very complex challenges. There are no right or wrongs in many of the issues we face and many of the decisions we make. And we're representing a very broad group as school superintendents. So recognizing us as people, and in doing so, recognizing our humanity really goes a long way. I think the next thing that people can do is get involved constructively. I said I was going to be, you know, just lay things on the table and be authentic. Social media is killing school communities. People that go on and complain and voice their issues but don't want to be a part of the solution that's not accomplishing anything. And I see social media tearing down teachers, tearing down schools, tearing down communities and leaders, and it makes people not want to do that. So I think getting involved in a productive dialogue, attending school events, joining committees and being a part of the solution strengthens trust and builds relationships. Two ways. We, in turn, have to provide those opportunities as well. You know, within our schools, and the last is advocate for education, support policies and initiatives, ask good questions and keep an open mind. I think you know those three things are where people can really help us as school leaders and our school systems as a whole.

Sarah Williamson: 23:48

Thank you, Dan, where can our listeners connect with you and learn more about you?

Dan Cox: 23:52

I knew this question was coming, so I guess, you know, first I'll start with, it's the month of December, right? I'm taking it as separation season, and so you know that joy and that peace, and in that time for reflection, I decided to take a break from social media. So right now, you're not going to find me until 2025 But all joking aside, you know, I think that is something people can do that's healthy is take some time for yourself to reflect and grow and write and read in different ways. But I will be coming back next year, and you can, of course, find me on LinkedIn and Twitter and Instagram all at Dan Cox. I think LinkedIn is Dan W Cox, and Twitter and Instagram are at Dan underscore Cox. And I don't know if I'll come back to all those things or not, but for sure, I'll be on LinkedIn, and a few surprises coming in 2025 as well.

Sarah Williamson: 24:37

Oh, we can't wait. Well. Thank you so much. This has been a fantastic conversation. We appreciate it.

Dan Cox: 24:42

Yeah, thanks for having me.

Chad Bolser: 24:44

Thanks. Thanks for tuning into the Build Momentum for Education podcast. If you enjoyed listening today, we would love to hear your feedback, and we'd be grateful if you could leave us a review.

Sarah Williamson: 24:56

This helps us to share these powerful stories with even more people. If you liked what you heard, we'd be honored if you could share this episode with someone in your network. We look forward to seeing you next time on Build Momentum for Education.