What Does it Take to be An Amazing School Principal?

After hearing about the girl's first day of school Monday, T said to me, "Wow. I don't ever remember having a principal that I wasn't scared of or even knew!" It's true, the principal at the girl's school is very hands on, visible, she interacts well with the students. I don't think the girls are afraid of her at all. In fact, Em didn't even realize she WAS the principal until I told her today it's the woman in the lunch room!

The fact is, however, that unlike T I had the privilege of having a unique and amazing principal my last three years of elementary school. For my first four years, we had Mrs. Kennedy. She was everything you would imagine a stereotypical principal would be. Mrs. Kennedy had an air of prominence, of sternness. When she stepped foot in the cafeteria, all would instantly become silent. She would clip-clop through the cafeteria right out the other door without a sound being uttered. As soon as the door shut behind her, the pandemonium returned!! The cafeteria ladies used to tell us that the crack around the bottom of the domed ceiling was there because we were so noisy we would actually raise the ceiling an inch!

When I was fourth grade, life at my elementary school changed dramatically, all due to the retirement of Mrs. Kennedy and the replacement of her by a man. He was quiet, unimposing, would never look you in the eye when he talked to you. He was in no way shy, just very thoughtful. He remembered everyone's name, almost instantly. If you were sent to him, it might be for one of many, many reasons. If you were my brother, than you were in trouble, and you knew it! If you were me, then he had some exciting new adventure for you to embark upon. (Sorry, D, but I knew when you yelled to the cooks, "Hey dudes, what's cookin?" and Mr. P stuck HIS head out the window, you were in for it!)

Mr. P went way out of his way to engage students of all kinds. Instead of being a presence, he was always present. Instead of having an air of anything, you would be happy to see him walking towards you (unless you were somewhere you shouldn't be!) and if you were almost smart enough to be in one of his special programs, he invited you along for fun. Mr. P had a way of making each child feel special and didn't beat around the bush with any parents.

Mr. P would stand everyday at the lunchroom door and collect lunch tickets from the students. Once everyone was in the cafeteria, he would walk around and monitor the lunch room. When everyone was settled, he'd sit in the back of the lunchroom helping kids with classwork they didn't finish. When lunch shifts were over, he'd head outside to monitor the recess.

When things needed to be done around the school and nobody was able to do them, Mr. P would find an able bodied student to come and help. I answered phones in the office, did some calligraphy for him and even helped him in the computer lab he'd set up in his office, which he rarely used.

When parents didn't run afterschool clubs, he did. He started a unicycling program (yes, folks, I used to unicycle!), juggling program, clowning and our reading teacher started double dutch. He couldn't actually do any of those things, but he was there afterschool to help us learn how. He even took the show on the road, as we traveled to other schools to show some skills. It was fun, it was adventurous and it was amazing.

I cannot think of another school administrator who did more for me personally than this man. Honestly, I can't think of a school administrator that I knew other than this man! And when I graduated college with a teaching degree, I went back to see how things were at my elementary school, of course hoping that this man would be proud of me. I got one of his big smiles AND a job offer. For real. I didn't take it, because I'd made a commitment here in Maryland and had already started teaching. I can't say it wasn't the most tempting moment in my life, though. I would have loved to work for this man, who took a shy, quiet and average girl and made her feel like she was important in the world. I'd seen him do that with many of his students.

A few years later was the "Erasuregate" scandal, that left the school scarred for eternity, many students and parents hurt and a town torn apart. To this day, I cannot believe a word of what was suggested, that this man, Roger Previs, was capable of changing standardized test scores. Even now, years later, I still do not believe any of the accusations. Why would a man who had done his job so amazingly, need to change scores on tests? I'd never known him to be anything but honest, compassionate, full of integrity.

I don't really understand what happened, but I know this: his was a tough act to follow. In the end, I can say that a truly amazing principal in my mind must love the students first and foremost, must listen to his teachers and support them and must make parents feel proud of the school their children go to. He did all that and much more. The scandal cost him his job. Even after passing a polygraph that seemed to clear him of wrongdoing, he sacrificed himself to stop an investigation that may have uncovered the true culprit. Do we have any principals these days who would do that for a school they love?

In Howard County, where we live, I doubt a principal could ever match that kind of dedication. They don't allow them to stay long enough in one school to create that kind of atmosphere. In the four years that we've been in our elementary school, we've had two principals and two vice principals. None of them has done after school activities, none of them has taken a lunch or recess duty for teachers, none of them have even come close to what I experienced. That doesn't mean they are bad, it just enforces upon me the realization that Mr. Previs was special, and he did something that few principals are able to: he took a large group of kids, told them they were each special and took them on an adventure in education that they would never forget.