La. Law Boosts, Complicates Local Chiefs' Personnel Powers

Louisiana superintendents will start this new school year with the power to hire and fire teachers without approval of local school boards, thanks to recent legislation passed by the Louisiana state legislature.

But school leaders in the state say that the law, which went into effect July 1 and is referred to as “Act I,” will not represent a substantive change in how effective superintendents interact with school boards—and may not eliminate the cases of micromanagement by boards that the law’s creator hoped to address.

That’s because school boards retain the power to get rid of superintendents they disagree with, said J. Rogers Pope, a Republican state representative who is currently the executive director of the Louisiana Association of School Executives. He voted against the law. In addition to putting the superintendent in the cross hairs of a displeased board’s ire, the law also eliminates some of the needed oversight capacity that a board can exercise over a school district chief and a...