An Unlikely School Superintendent: A Memoir

By Bill Berrier

An Unlikely School Superintendent chronicles the life of Bill Berrier beginning as a student in a one-room schoolhouse in rural Missouri and culminating as the superintendent of a growing southern California school district minutes from the beach. He married his high school sweetheart and the two migrated to Southern California to teach and, eventually, to raise their two sons.The late 1960s were a challenging time for public education, especially in California. During the tumultuous times that impacted the secondary school district during the Vietnam war era, students demanded an end to restrictive dress codes and faculty organized to collectively bargain with the school board. The school board president encouraged the author, who was a young vice principal at the time, to apply to become superintendent. Feeling totally unqualified to make the leap to higher leadership, Berrier admitted he did not even know what a superintendent did. With coaxing from colleagues and the unwavering support of his wife, Berrier took the leap and was hired. In these pages, he shares how he came to learn what a school superintendent does. His strong midwestern values learned from his parents guided him as he dealt with crisis after crisis. His faith in people, his common sense, and his ingrained sense of fairness led to a decades-long career and a lasting legacy both in the district and in the community. Berrier shares his successes and his failures and gives readers a behind-the-curtain look at what a top school executive deals with on a daily basis. His surreal experiences and stories about the great team he surrounded himself with teach priceless leadership lessons. But this book also is about the sacrifices he had to make in his family life and his determination to make time for his wife and sons. At its core, this book is about the challenges and joys of the life of a school superintendent.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B08QSHXL6R
• ISBN13: 9798582003380
• Release Date: December 2020
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 184 Pages
• Weight: 0.53 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.5" x 8.5"