California annually experiences significant turnover among its superintendents; 468 out of 1,002 superintendents vacated K-12 superintendent seats in California between 1986 and 1989. Of this number, 92 accepted superintendencies in other districts and 4 became county superintendents. To discover where the other 372 superintendents went, information on every California district and superintendent was drawn from several consecutive issues of the "California Public School Directory" and entered into a computerized database. Questionnaires were also sent to new superintendents and to women superintendents listed in the 1989 directory. The literature consistently reports that superintendents leave positions to: (1) become superintendent of a larger, higher status district; (2) become superintendent of a district paying significantly more; (3) escape from a disharmonious board/superintendent relationship; and (4) enter into retirement. The database developed for this study, however, does not show that superintendents typically retire or move to larger, higher status districts with higher pay. Fully 80 percent of vacating superintendents do not move to other California superintendencies within 2 years. Results show that 13.7 percent of vacating superintendents assumed or accepted other administrative positions of lesser responsibility rather than retire. Also, 18.3 percent voluntarily retired, and 6.62 percent accepted unplanned, involuntary retirement, leaving 38.68 percent unaccounted for. Based on database and survey results, this paper unequivocally finds that board/superintendent disharmony is the major cause of superintendent turnover in California. (MLH)