<p>BCEagle - Principals run their schools like small kingdoms because they ARE small kingdoms.
You are right there are some bad principals out there. Education is a funny business. We educate kids to become classroom teachers. If they are good teachers and have the potential for leadership they get promoted to assistant principal or principal. Often there is no preparation for such a monumental job. Principals are responsible for their entire building of students, they are responsible for curriculum development and implementation, they are responsible for teachers. They have to perform professional evaluations on their entire staff, they must prepare and stick to budgets - often with no formal education in accounting. They must deal with kids who don’t want to be in school and their parents who could care less. In some cases they also must be private investigators if they suspect a child is not living in the district and take steps to disenroll such children.
Because they work year round they sometimes get paid less per diem than a teacher.</p>
<p>I am not excusing bad leadership and parental disrespect, but sometimes it pays to understand what is on their plate. Unfortunately, your child’s crisis is often not the biggest crisis of the day. Sometimes they just need to hear that you are really a caring parent.</p>
<p>Binx - you make some excellent points, putting the issue in writing and following up can be very effective. Also using the chain of command - starting with the teacher and working up to the principal or even superintendent.</p>
<p>Finally - if the issue is something your child is complaining about, interview your child extensively and play devil’s advocate. Make sure you are confident with your story before going in.</p>
<p>Our principals are typically hired from other districts as professionals and come with
advanced degrees.</p>
<p>The superintendents do a good job interfacing with parents. Perhaps that is because
they are closer to parents on the other side of the management chain.</p>
<p>I would expect a principal without management training to acquire it.</p>
<p>The principal may have a lot to manage but parents have a lot to manage as well.
Imagine the amount of work that homeschooling parents do.</p>
<p>The principals that I’ve dealt with contacted us in the context of inviting us in to
participate in state testing. They didn’t seem to understand that spending two
weeks on testing was considered a waste of time in a homeschooling context.</p>
<p>Some of the parents at one of our elementary schools had issues with the implementation of the district math program at their school and got nowhere with the principal and superintendent. They posted their complaint on the town website and it was discovered that the other two elementary schools had supplemented the program and that it worked quite well with the supplements. The school wouldn’t implement the supplements though as it required additional work on the teachers. The teachers in the other schools did it voluntarily. The issue made its way back to the administration as many of the school board members monitor the town forum website and I do believe that some action was taken to get the third school to where the other two schools were.</p>
<p>Sometimes sunshine is the best disinfectant.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, my only experience negotiating something with a school principal was resolved with the threat of a lawsuit. We wouldn’t have won, but we made her believe that we were prepared to waste everyone’s time and money trying, and she grudgingly granted our meager request. I hate public school administrators. For each one that’s dedicated, caring, and reasonable, I’ve met five who are rigid, intellectually mediocre clock-punchers. I imagine that if they *really *cared about education, they’d be in the classroom.</p>
<p>I’m sure these comments will rankle a few people here, but keep in mind that this is my own experience.</p>
<p>I have been involved in all aspects of our school from classroom volunteer, to team mom, to PTC, to school board.</p>
<p>You have to know what you want and if you want sympathy, don’t complain to the admin, complain to your friends. If you want a solution, do nothing ever to put them on the defensive. School’s are set up to fight off the attacks of outsiders, to defend their actions.</p>
<p>Be on their team, on their side, and present the info in a way that they can hear.</p>
<p>Never let them get you emotional, as soon as that happens, they won, you are diffused.</p>
<p>If you have a serious problem with a teacher, do not tell the admin your unprovable complaints- “she shows favortism” give them something they can take to the union, “I asked for an accounting of the money to be spent on the 8th grade trip to DC on March 1, April 1, and June 1 and have still never been given an accounting” etc. They cannot act on, “the coach is unfair” they can act on, "the coach is keeping the boys until 7PM when the practice is supposed to be over at 6PM. The offenses must be measurable if they are to be remedied. You are dealing with union contracts on personnel issues.</p>
<p>Yes, that “I have never heard this complaint before” must be taught in Admin 101. I was president of the school board and fed that line by the superintendent on the same day he fed that line to another board member with the same complaint. He sealed his fate that day as a liar and he “got quit” a year or two later (the wheels move slowly in public schools)</p>
<p>I would not try to discuss academics with pricipal or any teacher. We have provided help at home whenever it was needed or if we feel that class program was insufficient. We are not education professionals, not even close. Anybody can help with any subject all thru high school, all you need is to read material in class textbook. We are even helping D (college junior) with her college physics. It is not biggy anymore, you can find anything on internet.</p>
<p>The meeting at the school was billed as a Principal’s forum but turned out not to be an open forum I had expected. The Principal had a specific agenda (which was very interesting and informative) but there was no opportunity to ask questions on other topics. As the questions I currently have are not really pressing issues, I will wait and see if another time is better.</p>
<p>Thanks for all of your stories/feedback/suggestions. I have copied and pasted the suggestions into a document for reference if/when I need them.</p>