School Principals Need to Go

I enjoyed being a school principal. I was a middle school principal and opened a brand new high school as their first principal. I enjoyed playing the role of the school’s instructional leader, even though many of my counterparts delegated teaching and learning to others.

But maybe it’s time to close the school principal position, and assistant principals along with it. If we really want to bring accountability down to its most important level, which is between the young learner (a student in the traditional system) and a learning coach (a teacher in our current public schools,) then maybe we create a new role, that of a principal learning coach, to support the relationship between young learners, their cohorts, and their adult learning coaches.

Recently EducationWeek ran a photo essay about two school principals, one high school and the other elementary. As I looked at the pictures of these two school leaders at work, it struck me how different the role of a principal learning coach would be in each of these situations. Using the captions describing the pictures, let’s explore how a principal learning coach would be different from a traditional principal or assistant principal.

Michael C. Brown, principal at Winters Mill High School in Westminster, Md., talks with, from left, seniors Brady D’Anthony, 18, and Sydney Dryden, 17, on May 17, 2022.

I talked to a lot of kids when I was their principal. I attended almost every school activity on the calendar. But this is what I learned when it came to building relationships. Students could love me, and be happy to see me at their activity, but truth be known, I was so far away from them in terms of a quality learning relationship. The relationship should have started and ended with the group of adults responsible for the young person’s learning plan. My attempt at building relationships was a “nice to do,” not a “have to do.”

Brown meets with athletic director Jen Gosselin in his office.

In our new system of learning, athletics would not necessarily be a part of the generalist learning coach’s day. Instead, athletes would be scheduled into their favorite sporting activity through their personalized learning plan, and then passed on to a specialist learning coach, the coach for whatever sport the young person shows interest in.

Brown speaks with a student and her mother.

In our new system of learning, this type of communication would occur between the learning coach, the young learner, and their family. If the learning coach required assistance, then the principal learning coach would make themselves available to support the generalist LC (learning coach.)

In a campus hallway, Brown catches up with assistant principal Maria Martin.

This conversation wouldn’t be needed since both positions – principal and assistant principal – would go away. Instead, the conversation would be between a group of generalist LCs and specialists about each young learner and their learning plan. Remember, accountability would be closest to the learning.

Brown stops to chat with some of the art teachers.

Art specialists would build their learning cohorts through referrals from the generalist LCs. Young learners who desired art to be part of their learning plans would be referred to such specialist LCs. It would be the same way for athletics, journalism, performing arts, chemistry, calculus and more.

Students demonstrate line warfare as part of a U.S. History lesson as Brown walks around the high school campus.

I guess principals walking around schools is a good thing. It’s better than principals holed up in their office every day. But we don’t need someone called a principal to observe learning. We have other adults who can help with this – like parents, mentors, business leaders, and community members.

Manuela Haberer, principal at Boone Elementary School in San Antonio, Texas, talks with Norma Farrell, principal at Colonies North Elementary, at the conclusion of the Communities in Schools of San Antonio’s Keeping Kids in School Luncheon on Thursday, May 19, 2022. At right is Salma Cuellar, the Communities in Schools site coordinator for Boone Elementary.

All these school-based positions would go away in the new system for learning. Instead, generalist learning coaches would build Communities in School time into a young learner’s plan if it was decided by the coach and the family that this would be in the best interest of the young learner.

Haberer visits with kindergartners Amalia Cavazos and William Dyas during the Pennies for Literacy event in the school library.

Since the school principal position would go away, there would be other adults visiting young learners inside their learning cohorts – most importantly their parents and other family members.

Haberer takes a selfie with Whataburger’s mascot, Whataguy, during the school’s Pennies for Literacy event.

Ok, I’ve held off long enough. Is anyone else noticing how much time these two principals are spending just walking around the school and chatting with kids and adults? When I was a young principal, a mentor taught me a new type of management model titled “Supervising by Walking Around.” I did this type of “supervision” well, but, truth be told, it probably didn’t make any difference in the amount of learning that was taking place in our school.

Haberer moves tables back into place after the Pennies for Literacy event.

Learning coaches can move tables too.

Haberer changes from high heels into sandals in her office before heading outside to direct parents and students in the pick-up line at the conclusion of the school day.

The other district principals and I used to have a running joke that “we were the highest paid trash collectors” in the district. We would pick up trash in the cafeteria, supervise hallways, and make sure kids were dropped off and picked up safely.

All of that, under a new learning system, would go away. Instead, the generalist learning coach, and other generalist LCs, would be responsible for the safety of the young learner cohort. If the generalist learning coach needed assistance, then the principal learning coach would assist in building a safety plan to make sure all the young learners were safe. Safety above all else!

Some think this new learning system could be more expensive than our present public schools. Let’s do a little math. If you assigned 50 young learners to two generalist learning coaches and budgeted let’s say $8,000 per young learner, then those two generalist learning coaches would have $400,000 available to fund a learning plan for each of the 50 young learners. They could pay themselves $100,000 each for their services and still have $200,000 left over to pay for specialists, a possible principal learning coach (it would probably take a few more learning cohorts of 50 to afford a principal LC position,) and equipment, materials, and supplies.

No money spent on principals, assistant principals, instructional coordinators, department chairs, team leaders, and the list of traditional positions goes on and on.

A new system of learning is needed. Otherwise, we will continue to pay for more “Supervision by Walking Around” or cleaning up after “Pennies for Literacy.”

Til tomorrow. SVB