Maybe, maybe not.

Some never get any good.
Some start off good.
They will probably get better, yes, but may still never become competent if they start out incompetent.
And some start out good and competent but may become either complacent or frustrated and stop giving the job their best.

For certain all government jobs are ultimately political even if the people have to vote to close entire programs to undo the harm of some bad ones — or people characterized as bad

What might help in any case would be keeping a running vote regarding perception of how well or poorly each one is doing his or her job. But for that to mean anything, you would need to know how competent the judges were to judge each one. Teachers and parents for example might or might not know how well Malcom is doing his job — or they might be suck-ups or people with axes to grind. No way for most to know.

It would be interesting to try. Imagine if you could remove a county commissioner from office after…say two months of negative ratings. Say the commissioner gave away public roads to private colleges and you objected. You could give a bad rating. Others who thought it was a wonderful idea would have time to rally the troops to support the give-away. (To avoid excessive turn-over, let every voter who said nothing be counted as approving. That would be the usual case. Also, the voters/raters would have to renew their decisions every week, two weeks or month for disapproval to be counted.) So, yes, they would always be running for office but every day would be election day.

David for participant feedback

Being out of step with the rest of the world is verrrry bad. We need to conform to the standards not just of other states but Islamic states, Communist states. It doesn’t matter if what they do is silly, foolish, immoral, unethical — what matters is CONFORMITY.

(Please note the above is sarcasm.)

David for reasonable people

Reason is an Appointment in that position is the same as a Contract and the Superintendent would serve as an agent of the District School Board.
School Board members would determine the length and standards of that Contract and if the Supt and Board were in disagreement then the Supt can be dismissed or outright FIRED.
In the case of a School Board “releasing” an Appointed Superintendent they usually have to pay out the remainder of the contract.
Should a Superintendent be Appointed by the Board for 3 years and after 2 years the Board decides to release them then the taxpayers are responsible for buying out the contract, basically paying off the final 3rd year.
No Term Limits associated with an Appointed Superintendent of Schools.

The question should lie in those elected to the school board to hire the best qualified person as superintendent. Of course, the various unions will want to take part in the process. Being insane would certainly be a qualification…trying to please members of the SB and do a competent job of running a system as large as ECSD!

Maybe this is like the dog chasing its tail…once caught…, now what?

They serve Locally for each County and they should be ELECTED by the People/