STANDARD FIVE: Managerial Leadership
Principals will ensure that the school has processes and systems in place for budgeting, staffing, problem-solving, communicating expectations and scheduling that result in organizing the work routines in the building. The principal must be responsible for the monitoring of the school budget and the inclusion of all teachers in the budget decision so as to meet the 21st century needs of every classroom. Effectively and efficiently managing the complexity of every day life is critical for staff to be able to focus its energy on improvement.
Element 5a. School Resources and Budget
The school principal must work with the district financial officer, school book keeper, school improvement team, and staff to create effective budget processes that are focused in student achievement. During my principal residency at JF Webb High School, I frequently discussed school resources and budget with Principal Rice and our school's bookkeeper Tylette Jones. Both helped me to understand the challenges of working with school budgets, especially during a year when the state did not provide a budget. I learned that athletics, especially the booster club, can generate a lot of revenue for the school, but such finances must be closely monitored by multiple people in order to prevent improprieties. I also learned that you must carefully evaluate both district- and school-paid software to analyze the use and effectiveness of each in order to determine if the software improves student learning and achievement. For example, Webb School Improvement Team determined that the district-purchased Method Test Prep was neither used nor effective at delivering ACT test preparation. As such, we will put together our own set of resources using freely available ACT preparation resources.
As part of a comprehensive overview of JF Webb High School, I used last years budget for a preliminary analysis of expenditures (below).
IMPACT:
As part of a comprehensive overview of JF Webb High School, I used last years budget for a preliminary analysis of expenditures (below).
IMPACT:
- Reviewing Webb budget with our bookkeeper helped to understand the challenges and common problems with school budgets.
- I learned that administrators must be especially careful with spending for athletics and music as these groups spend large amounts in seasonal cycles, and monitored to ensure that budgets money is spent by the school year-end deadline.
- I also learned from our bookkeeper and in our budget class the importances of understanding the different funding sources as they have different levels of restrictions (Highly restrictive > Federal > State > Local > Less restrictive).
- Depending on use, technology can be considered either capital outlay or instructional, and that school improvement teams must careful consider the short-term and long-term uses to efficiently maximize technology spending.
Element 5b. Conflict Management and Resolution
The school principal works with other administrators, counselors, and staff to manage and resolve conflict so that focus is placed on student learning and achievement. Conflict can arise between staff members, between students, and between staff and students. At the high school level, significant conflicts can occur between school members and the community. Adept school leaders create processes and procedures to proactively limit conflict and rapid manage conflict such that the school focuses on student achievement. My principal residency and the NCSU Principal Preparation Program have provided me many valuable opportunities to grow in managing conflict. One of my biggest challenges has been to handling student conflicts and discipline, in part to due lack of experience with discipline on an administrative level and in part due to conflicting policies and procedures. A particularly helpful assignment early on in my residency was to analyze school handbooks. I quickly realized that the various documents/policies pertaining to student discipline at our school and in Granville County Public Schools (GCPS) often had conflicting outcomes. I created my own student discipline matrix using GCPS School Board Policies, GCPS Student Code of Conduct, and Webb's Student/Parent Handbook. I also worked with Webb's Dean of Students and ISS Coordinators to improve some of the procedures such as emailing the ISS student list to teachers the night before, consolidating discipline recording systems, and linking Educator's Handbook discipline system with PowerSchool Incidents.
I have especially grown in my ability to resolve conflicts between student/students, student/family, student/staff, and staff/staff. In the beginning of my Principal Residency I tended to resort to dealing with conflicts strictly through the traditional (punitive) discipline system. As I gained more experience and knowledge and as I built relationships with staff, students, and families, I have switched to using more restorative practices when handing conflicts. The flowchart to the right shows how I handled two similar classroom disruption systems in the beginning of my principal residency (pink, right side) and toward the end of my principal residency (green, left side).
IMPACT:
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Element 5c. Systematic Communications
Principals should design and use a variety of formal and informal communication methods for obtaining and sharing information such that time can be focused on student achievement. During my principal residency I have helped improve digital communication at JF Webb High School using a variety of methods including:
IMPACT:
- Webb's website (WEBBsite)
- Uploading daily announcements to the WEBBsite
- Maintaining the digital announcements displayed in Webb's cafeteria
- Monthly Instructional Technology email newsletters
- Monthly Warrior News digital newsletters
- Instructional Google Slide Presentations with an accompanying explanatory videos
IMPACT:
- Staff, students, and families find it easy to locate information since the WEBBsite is kept up-to-date (e.g. daily announcements, events, academic).
- Student and staff like to see student pictures and other information that scroll in the digital cafeteria screens (e.g. college acceptance, National Reading Day, prom information, etc).
- Teachers and other staff can now contact me to have their announcements, videos, and other items uploaded to both the WEBBsite and Digital Announcements uploaded within minutes of their request.
Element 5d. School Expectations for Students and Staff
One of the biggest challenges that I face in changing from a middle school teacher to a high school administrator was managing communicating and enforcing expectations for staff and students. Staff and student expectations were governed by Granville County Public School Board Policies, GCPS Student Code of Conduct, and Webb's Staff Handbook and Webb's Student & Parent Handbook. To better makes sense of how each governing document affected staff and students, I first completed a detailed review of each (below) and then created my own student behavior matrix (second document below) incorporating overlapping information to help me ensure that I met all mandates with references back to GCPS Board Policy.
IMPACT:
IMPACT:
- Having a more complete understanding of district/school discipline expectations and outcomes, I am better able to make fair and informed decisions regarding student and staff expectations for behavior.
- My integrated district and school discipline format led to some administrators and principal fellows to use my matrix to guide them in student discipline decision making.