Entry #1: "Summer is the time of year
when I most feel like I am in a business."
As a principal, I quickly remind myself that the first week of school is
much easier for me than the teachers' first week.
I spent the two weeks before the beginning at break-neck speed, trying to
finish getting staff in place for the upcoming year. It's almost hard to
describe the pressure I feel to get the "best staff" for our students.
Teachers are becoming very transient, and they may choose to change schools
as late as early August. Legally, we don't have to allow them to leave after
thirty days prior to the opening of school, and that is gut-wrenching to
deal with; no one wants someone to stay around if they don't want to be
there, but to find a superb teacher without a job in early August is almost
impossible.
On August 2, I allowed one of our exceptional education teachers to leave.
"I appreciate everything you have done for me," she said as she
turned in her keys. "I know you didn't have to let me go, but it is
my hometown, and you knew I wanted to teach there." My insides hurt.
It gets harder to make the puzzle of staffing work -- to do what's best
for students -- with teacher shortages. Summer is the time of year when
I most feel like I am in a business. It is a dog-eat-dog world, and middle
school teachers are certified to teach fifth and sixth grades at our elementaries
and ninth grade at our high school, so sometimes we compete against ourselves
within our district.
With our staff finally in place, we held our annual Back-To-School Bash
for the students on August 5. The PTSA organization sponsors the Bash. We
have about 450 students attend, WITH THEIR PARENTS. We give out schedules
and run a mini-schedule with the students and their parents. After the mini-schedule,
while the students are dancing, we offer a "BCMS Parent University"
for interested parents.
This year was our largest crowd of parents ever, with 100 in attendance.
Our 21st Century Learning Center, "The Clubhouse," sponsored the
university. There is so much we want parents to knowthe Information on Demand
system that allows them gain access by phone to information about their
students' daily attendance, behavior, and grades (posted every 4 weeks)...the
Homework Hotline...the dress code...attendance...Parent Volunteer Program...Homework
Detention...Student Handbook...agendas. We pick and choose the topics. Of
course, we always want more parents to attend, but if we had any more, I'm
not sure where we'd put them!
My biggest reflection on the opening of school centers around the smaller
elementaries that feed students into our one middle school "in town."
The schools in smaller communities have the ability to know more parents,
and we want those same parents to feel welcomed at their new, bigger school.
The middle school is the first school in the county where students have
to have a note any time they change transportation. Students use the homework
hotline, and we don't collect assignments for a one-day absence. Students
have up to six teachers when they are used to having only one or two --
and their parents are used to that, too.
So it's important to sell the positives. Because of our size, we can have
a Junior Guard program, winning band and athletics programs, and a 21st
Century Learning Center. We go out of the way to say, "We know the
mere size of our building can sometimes be threatening, but we want to be
your neighborhood school." After saying that, we have to "walk
the talk" and treat parents and students as our customers.
After a few years of giving our new staff way too much information at once,
we changed our strategy this year. Gosh, there are so many details and so
many lingoes to learn! We chose to give them a little bit of information
each week. This gives them more time to absorb the content of the open response
assessment tool or our emergency crisis plan. We only have two first-year
teachers on staff this year, but we have several teachers that are new to
our building. Each week, I try to encourage them. They are all trying to
meet our standard of excellence, and they will make it.
I chuckle to myself as the image of one new teacher comes to mind. The first
week, every time I would look at her, I thought she was going to throw up.
I told her to ask questions often. She said, "Sometimes I'm so overwhelmed,
I don't know what to ask." That same week, she got a Positive Office
Referral from the Media Center Specialist recognizing how well her students
had behaved in the Media Center. I took her a small plaque and recognized
this in front of her seventh period class. She seemed to breathe a short
sigh of relief. It was good to see her smile. She does love kids, and that's
what we are all about.
Read Michelle's next diary entry >>>
Read some background about Michelle
Pedigo and her school