When a colleague told me early in my career that in the span of a teacher's tenure the national average is 5 Principals I doubted that would be my experience. The first fifteen years teaching at 1 high school I had 3 great Principals.
Then the wheels fell off. Principal number 3 left mid-year for a leadership position at the district. There was no exit strategy. Two Interim Principals followed. They were short-timers; one and done. Principal 6 stayed 3 years. Principal 7 takes over July 1st.
All 7 Principals have been first timers. With each administrative turn over my program is in jeopardy of being cut. We're a magnet school for communication arts and technology. We are under a federal deseg order. For twenty years my salary has been paid from The Office of Civil Rights.
I'm proud of that and of my students' work.
My program is aligned with state and national standards. My students excel in academic core classes. The work they do in my classes complements those efforts. Each year I bring in grants and work on community projects for non-profits and educational entities.
Still, we battle to keep the program alive. We're not meeting the federal integration objectives. A court appointed "Special Master" interprets the plaintiffs case and our districts good faith attempts to respond.
At one time the emphasis was equity and access. Now the measures are test scores and racial balance.
These are my concerns. Will Principal 7 consider our daily news program "instructional minutes?"
Will he value the work based learning and dual college credit opportunities I've established with post secondary partners for our students?
Kristin Gilger offered the tools I need to initiate productive conversations day one. Instead of fear and trepidation about having to "train another Principal " I'm looking forward to opening the dialogue and meeting him in the middle.
I'm grateful that if there are bumps in the road Dean Gilger said we could contact her.
The part I omitted from my description of the interesting dynamics at my school are these:
The Tucson Unified School District is the home of banned text books and the elimination of a cultural studies curriculum.
Principal 7 needs to have the 4th C Dean Gilger mentioned: COURAGE.
Game On Principal 7. Let's do this!
Pam Shapiro
Pueblo Magnet High School
Tucson, Ariz
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