Elementary School Principal

HL was a typical teenager – shy at home, sometimes quietly rebellious, concurrently questioning her own intelligence and negatively comparing herself to others while earning praise from non-family adults for her confident public speaking. 

While sometimes doubting herself, HL persisted to earn a college degree, hoping she liked children well enough to make a difference as an educator. HL achieved her goal, overcoming multiple challenges. She has positively influenced many lives while she changed jobs and responsibilities along her education career path.

FAMILY BACKGROUND

HL is the younger of two daughters. She never knew her father, who literally drove away from the family (he was a truck driver) when HL was five years old, after HL’s mother told him that he had a choice: either be a full-time husband and father or leave. 

The mother of HL is a high school graduate who briefly attended a nearby state school until she soon found out that there were virtually no other students who shared her same, Black ethnicity. So, without her parents’ permission, HL’s mother transferred to a different college with students who looked more like her, studied to earn her college degree, taught school for two years before realizing that she didn’t like teaching and settled into a career as a financial analyst where, surrounded by white male co-workers, she was comfortable applying her skills to assist preparation of corporate budgets for production of military weapons and successful launches of the Space Shuttle.

CHILDHOOD THOUGHTS OF AN ADULT CAREER

Along with her sister and mother, HL attended a local African Methodist Episcopal church, where she was active within various church groups, each requiring regular public speaking by the young church members to the adult congregation. HL, who was still shy at home, soon overcame her ‘stage fright’ and learned to love speaking to an audience, for which she was often praised. 

So, what does a formerly shy, young girl decide to do as an adult? Of course: be a tv broadcaster – despite few females, none of whom were Black, then reporting nightly events from behind their tv news desks. HL knew she could do it and when successful, she would be both rich and famous!

However, HL’s mom had strong advice to the contrary: “The tv broadcasting business is ‘Make it or Break it’ which HL correctly understood to mean: “You have very little chance of actually succeeding in that business, so better to choose a different career path; what else would you like to do?” 

“Well,” said HL, “I guess I like kids so maybe I could try to be a teacher.” Mom approved this back-up plan. 

SCHOOL DAYS

During the second half of her senior year in high school, HL took advantage of the opportunity to participate in programs designed to expose high school seniors to real classroom experiences, to help them decide whether they truly liked being around students enough to pursue college courses in education. HL realized that as the youngest child of her extended family, she never had to deal with kids younger than her so she wondered if she would like kids sufficiently to consider a teaching career. Despite her early concern, HL enjoyed her classroom observations, which focused her college applications on colleges (and universities) which provided majors in education. 

CHALLENGES DURING HIGH SCHOOL YEARS

Within HL’s suburban school district, Black students were a minority but more than a few in number. When HL received an award for being “A credit to your race” she didn’t immediately understand that such a recognition was an insult to both her and to her race. Later, HL realized that the award was based on her not ‘acting’ or dressing (e.g., an ‘Afro’ haircut) like so many others of her race, who had done nothing wrong but were apparently somehow offending the White majority by being different. 

While HL had not ‘acted out’ publicly to perhaps disqualify her from an award, she was still a teenager, rebelling toward independence when she could get away with it, secretly upset that she didn’t have a father like other friends and that she didn’t have school ‘smarts’ like her older sister, who, like her mother, excelled in all subjects, especially math, while HL was still using her fingers to assist with basic math calculations. These feelings of inferiority decreased HL’s feelings of self-worth. While not overcoming these feelings during high school, HL was able to cope by playing sports, maintaining friendships with non-judgmental girls, and adopting her mother’s goal that HL graduate from college to lead a successful adult career. 

COLLEGE CHALLENGES

HL’s high school, overall grade point average (GPA) was ‘mediocre’ but all 5 colleges to which she applied, were apparently sufficiently impressed with the totality of her background – including positive teacher recommendations and a 3-sport athletic career, so she was accepted at each of the schools to which she had applied. 

Before her first college classes commenced in September, HL was required to participate – with other entering college freshmen – in a summer school program to review and improve basic course and study skills. HL was initially surprised to find that 98% of her summer school classmates were like her, Black, with the others Hispanic. Now looking back, HL realizes that she was probably assigned to this special program as a combined result of her mediocre high school GPA plus her ethnicity. While HL appreciates the intent of the college administrators to improve the Black and Hispanic students’ chances to succeed in college, she now wonders: “Were there no mediocre GPA scores among the entering White students who might have also benefited from the summer program and if so, why this segregation, obviously based on race?”

An early challenge was finding her first freshmen class. Not immediately understanding that all education classes were located a half mile from the main campus, requiring a 30-minute walk, HL arrived late and found herself as only one of two Black students in the class. This ethnic difference plus not initially understanding the concepts being taught, led HL to continue to wonder: “Do I belong here? What am I going to do?” HL had daily headaches, reflecting her unhappiness, which persisted but fortunately, so did HL’s determination to avoid quitting; she would somehow carry on and graduate! 

SUMMER JOBS AS REAL-LIFE LEARNING EXPERIENCES

Now looking back, HL believes that the college summer jobs which her mother had lined up for HL, served to not only earn spending money, but were also intended as an initiation into a hard-working life as a food server or office worker with no interesting job responsibilities, which served as a contrast to potentially interesting careers which could be available after earning a college degree. So, HL now credits her mother for some ‘tough love’ in pushing HL to experience jobs which she would dislike more than pushing herself through college. HL also disliked losing some personal freedom during summers when she had to live at home. 

PERSISTENCE FINALLY LEADS TO AN INTERESTING CAREER PATH

Eventually, toward the end of her freshman year forward through senior year, HL performed well academically, adjusted to cultural differences, made new friends, and enjoyed her college years. During her sophomore year, HL joined a sorority, met other Black females who were also education majors and during her early classroom experiences, found that she enjoyed being around children, especially when she could make a difference as a role model while interacting with ‘underprivileged’ children.

Due to HL’s freshman year academic difficulties, she had not earned enough credits to graduate in four years. Her mother was willing to cover the cost of tuition for a fifth year, but HL needed to earn additional money, so she moved off campus to share rent with a few girlfriends and worked at various jobs (telemarketing, babysitting, washing dishes, summer camps) to cover the cost of schoolbooks and basic living expenses. 

MEETING ANOTHER CHALLENGE LEADS TO A FIRST CAREER JOB OFFER

During HL’s senior year, she was a student teacher within a nearby school district’s kindergarten class. By now, HL had persisted to overcome multiple personal challenges; perhaps there would be no more? Wrong, of course! The female head teacher within HL’s assigned kindergarten class apparently didn’t like her job and essentially ignored her basic duties as a teacher. HL observed the effects on the children, resulting from the head teacher’s lack of focus, so HL took it upon herself to take control of the kindergarten classroom. Soon, news of this development reached the school administrators so after a few weeks of HL’s classroom leadership, she was visited by an administrator who silently observed her interacting with the children and during a break, asked her a few questions about herself and her vision for her future. As a result, HL was offered a full-time teaching job, conditioned upon her graduating from college within the next few months. 

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN SUBURBAN AND URBAN SCHOOL DISTRICTS

The consensus among professional educators is that while the children within both urban and suburban school districts have much in common as children, their backgrounds in learning and basic skills are significantly different as they start school. On average across the country, city resident children score lower in measurable abilities for reading and numbers computation. 

HL, raised in a public, suburban school district, did not initially appreciate the difference between her suburban district background and the children she was responsible for teaching within the urban school district where she had been hired. During her first week teaching kindergarten, HL cried every day after returning to her apartment. She had to assess the skills (or lack thereof) of each of her students, whose literacy and language backgrounds were often below the range to be tested. Contributing to their situation, many of the children had lived through home drama, such as violence and drug and alcohol abuse. 

HL’s kindergarten class, one of several housed in an open area with other kindergarten classes, was visible to other teachers, who HL assumed were watching her fail (HL’s belief, likely never adopted by others) her students every day. HL told her mother that she wasn’t going to be able to succeed at her new job, but her mother countered: “Keep your chin up! You can do this!” An older mentor, assigned by the school district to assist HL, had never taught kindergarten so was not able to be helpful. Fortunately, HL met a different fellow teacher, who understood that HL wanted to succeed, to help her students, so this new teacher friend took over as HL’s informal mentor, whose classroom conduct HL incorporated into her own routines as a model for interacting with young students with challenging backgrounds. Eventually, the progress achieved by HL’s students was recognized within and beyond the school district, so that HL and her informal mentor were pictured on the cover of one issue of the journal of the National Education Association (NEA). 

SIDE JOB ADDS ENHANCES STUDENT RELATIONSHIPS – BY ACCIDENT

Unanticipated life challenges may sometimes be balanced by unanticipated fun events which should be appreciated for bringing moments of amusement into our lives. Such was the situation when HL worked nights at a local mall, piercing ears, sometimes coincidentally the ears of her school-day students, during this part-time, evening second job. Some of her customers quickly recognized HL as their teacher and soon the news had spread, leading many more students to bring their parents to the mall, to provide permission for HL to pierce their children’s ears. All the participants – the students, the parents, and the mall worker – had fun getting to know each other better in this random way. 

ANOTHER CHALLENGE – SCHOOL DISTRICT FACING FISCAL CRISIS

Some challenges are self-created (e.g., comparing yourself to others may create negative conclusions about your personal self-worth). Some challenges have nothing to do with you, personally (e.g., your employer doesn’t have sufficient income to cover all its present and estimated future growth expenses). HL was suddenly confronted with the second type of challenge when a friendly administrator advised her, confidentially, that their urban school district was not going to be able to achieve sufficient taxpayer funding to continue its present staffing levels so it would be in her personal interest to look for another job. 

HL was devasted by this unexpected news. She loved helping her students to achieve great progress in their skills and she had many friends among the supportive teaching staff. But perhaps it was best to move on and try to help children in another school district which could provide better financial support for their students and teachers. So, HL attended a ‘job fair’, where those seeking jobs were able to move about to distribute their resumes and obtain information about various school districts, whose representatives were apparently required to remain behind their respective desks to answer questions about their districts and receive resumes from interested job applicants. However, one desk had only a few brochures but no one to answer questions or receive a resume. So, HL picked up a brochure and asked another person about that district, starting with: “Where is that district (we’ll call it “VG”) located? I never heard of it!” 

PAST EXPERIENCE MADE A LASTING IMPRESSION – BUT FOR GOOD OR BAD?

Long story short: HL was invited to an interview at VG. When she arrived in the VG parking lot, as she walked toward the interview building, HL’s long, flowing dress was caught on a car bumper, significantly ripping. Does the reader think this clothing challenge was too much for HL, who perhaps decided it would be too awkward to proceed so she got back in her car and departed? Not our HL (!), who wrapped the dress around herself, hoping to hide the tear, and walked into the interview waiting area, started to fill out a questionnaire and was summoned to the interview before completing the initial paperwork. One of the interviewers said: “HL, I know you!” HL did not recognize this older female, who said: “I was your second grade reading specialist, about twenty years ago.” HL still didn’t recognize this individual as she completed the interview and returned to her apartment, promptly calling her mother to tell her of the amazing coincidence of meeting someone who recognized her from two decades ago. “Mom, the only way she would remember me from a class of other kids, would be if I was either very good or very bad………..I’m afraid to ask now, but which was it?” 

“Well,” said HL’s mother: “Remember how you learned in church to not be shy and were comfortable speaking out?” Uh oh, thought HL, this is not going to help me get this job. 

However, HL was hired to be a teacher within the VG district, accepted the position and was immediately happy to work with her students while surrounded by supportive, mostly White fellow teachers and parents. 

EMPLOYER MAKES AN OFFER DIFFICULT TO REFUSE

An employee can be happy in their current role when suddenly presented with an offer to “advance” – but will the new position – Assistant Principal and Special Assignment Teacher – with increased compensation and a different future than being tied to the same classroom, happily teaching the same curriculum year after year, truly be an advancement? HL had to assess this new opportunity, asking several teaching and guidance counselor friends for their advice. Their consensus: your employer knows their proposed position for you involves greater responsibilities and they will be accountable if they have recommended the wrong person for advancement, so the employer must be confident that you have the right skills and personality to succeed, or they wouldn’t have made the offer. You should accept the challenge and we all believe you will succeed. Plus, you could return to teaching if you don’t like being an administrator. Not coincidentally, HL’s mother also believed that HL would succeed. 

HL accepted. Her decision required HL to enroll in off-duty courses to obtain certification as a school principal but meanwhile, before achieving that certification, she was eligible to serve as an Assistant Principal. 

When HL soon realized that as an Assistant Principal, she could extend her influence to positively affect a greater number of students than when her responsibilities were essentially limited to one classroom as a teacher, she looked forward to finding a position as a principal, which she eventually located within a different school district, which appointed her as a Principal within one of their several elementary schools. 

TYPICAL ACTIVITIES OF AN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PRINCIPAL

An elementary school principal reports to the school district’s Superintendent while concurrently has responsibilities to the professional staff within her school (e.g. teachers, guidance counselors, food service and maintenance personnel) and to the parents as individuals and through the parents’ organizations. A principal engages in the following types of activities at one time or another, of course, not all in the same day: 

• Completing and revising the building-wide master schedule
• Facilitating staff, data team, building leader, cultural equity, grade level team meetings, site-based committees, and parent meetings
• Complete teacher and paraprofessional evaluations
• Facilitate emergency drills and evacuations to ensure the safety of all students and staff
• Select and authorize the purchase of student and teacher resources
• Conduct daily classroom walk-throughs to provide teachers with instructional feedback focusing on engagement, rigor, learning goals and student responsibilities
• Organize and implement school-wide fundraisers and assemblies
• Communicate regularly with student families through emails, phone calls, newsletters, and Twitter
• Organize Back-To-School Nights, Family Literacy Night, International Night, Kindergarten Screenings, Kindergarten Open House, Fifth Grade Graduation and New Student Orientations
• Communicate frequently with central office staff and collaborate with district-level supervisors and coordinators to articulate a plan for building professional development and district-wide trainings
• Collaborate and communicate regularly with Home and School Board and Association members, including attendance at monthly meetings
• Lead monthly data meetings with teachers of all subject areas and grade levels K-5, to identify areas for needed instruction and intervention
• Analyze school-wide data to reform education models, address student needs and develop instructional goals
• Create and administer cultural equity audit to create district and school goals
• Implement process to analyze behavior referral data and bus referral data to inform school-wide programming and implementation of education requirements
• Develop and deliver opening day professional development and activities for teachers
• Develop and deliver professional development for paraprofessionals in guided reading strategies, analytical writing, cultural equity and other related topics
• Provide training in the use of data management systems
• Collaborate with teachers to identify interventions to help struggling students
• Coordinate with community representatives to initiate schoolwide Operation Backpack, which provides weekend food supplies to students who qualify for free and reduced cost lunch program
• Problem-solve with parents of students who were experiencing difficulties in school and at home
• Review and evaluate reevaluations, IEPs, evaluation reports for special education students
• Implement restorative discipline practices with students
• Collaborate with gifted support teacher to advise and extend curriculum for advanced learners
• Present updates to School Board and Public stakeholders at monthly Board of Education meetings

CAREER SATISFACTION

HL has now served as an elementary school principal for almost ten years, with intent to remain until she eventually retires. While she has moved within her education career path to different duties (teaching kindergarten, third grade, and later fifth grade, then into administration as an Assistant Principal and finally, Principal), HL is mindful of the positive influence and connections she tries to make daily in the lives of students from both privileged and underprivileged backgrounds. 

Earning administrative and parental recognition as a caring and successful educator provides multiple opportunities to influence lives through leadership in various community organizations outside the school day and the school buildings. Thus, HL continues to find time to donate her personal time to lead and assist others. She has been nominated twice for the State and National Distinguished Principal Awards and was recently nominated for a Women’s Caucus Award.

HL recognizes the benefits she has received from multiple mentors as she has matured from a self-doubting teenager to an educational leader. She aims to be the same, humble leader and role model for the students and fellow educators within her sphere of influence.