The Best Boss
I don’t know what the average is, but I’ve had one great principal in seventeen years. My typical experience has been principals who seem to be surgically joined at the hip to the district office, incapable of making a decision on their own. These folks seem unaware of the big picture, the important stuff; rather they are consumed by the little bureaucratic details. They are worried about compliance, the budget and are well versed in saying, “We have no money for that.”
But for five years I had a great principal. Jeff was a motivator. He had a way of always making you feel great. I never saw him enter a meeting without a beaming smile on his face. He ran a tight ship, everything was always on time, and his staff meetings lasted only thirty minutes on the dot, once a month. He never wasted your time, he used bulletins and email to convey the regular stuff, he never insulted your intelligence by dragging out mundane stuff in a meeting. There was never any open bickering or arguing at staff meetings, he always solved problems with the people concerned inside his office.
Jeff’s strongest suit was total optimism. There were never any problems for Jeff, only a never-ending parade of opportunities. When faced with what other would perceive as a problem, Jeff could turn it into something positive. When the district was faced with over-crowding in the sixth grade they turned to the junior highs to provide the needed space. None of the junior highs wanted the sixth graders. Two of the junior highs simply provided housing for the sixth grade students, a room and a teacher. The teachers at our junior high did not want the sixth grade “babies” either. But Jeff overcame all of that, he created a model sixth grade program, self contained within the grade, but rotating between a core of dedicated teachers. He invited fifth grade parents to our campus to “show off” our school and his proposed program. The first year we had two full sections of sixth graders. The next year we had a waiting list. Now we have three sections and the sixth graders have become an integral part of our school.
Jeff rarely said no, instead he asked you point blank, “Will this be good for kids?” If the answer was “yes’, he’d find a way. He had the freedom to do this because Jeff was a master fundraiser. Our district has a magazine sales fundraiser that is the sole domain of the junior highs. When Jeff first came to the district the average school did about $17,000 in magazine sales. His last magazine drive grossed $159,000.00, fifty percent of which was our share. How? For two weeks, Jeff became the crazed “Magazine Man.” He made the whole thing fun for the kids, a carnival atmosphere with lots of prizes and cash give-a-ways (all out of the magazine companies side of the equation) for everyone involved.
But those are just a few of the many facets that made up Jeff. He knew all 700 student’s names. I could never figure that out. He always had time for you. It did not matter if you were a student, parent, teacher, custodian, secretary or visitor; he made you feel as if he was waiting for you to arrive. Especially a visitor, he was always showing off his school, but always in the context of how proud he was of staff achievements and the student body as a whole.
Jeff loved the school and he loved his job. He was a principal 24/7. Leave a voice mail on a Sunday afternoon and more likely than not he’d call you back within the hour. He was that way with parents too, totally accessible, always. I spend a lot of time at school on the weekends, over the summer and Jeff would always know. He was always the first to acknowledge whatever service one might perform for the school. He always made me feel great, and that made me want to do more. Simple, effective, free! Jeff knew first and foremost how people should be treated and he practiced it every day.
In other setting and placements, I’ve always considered myself the idea guy. With Jeff I took the backseat and tried to hang on. I’ll never forget the time he came into my classroom and asked me, “Why don’t we do our own school portraits?” I was the yearbook guy, but I had no idea if we could do our own portraits! But for Jeff I knew I wanted to find out and quick. For Jeff I could just be a facilitator. The answer to Jeff’s question was “yes,” we could do our own portrait photography, technically, artistically and economically, but we had to fight like hell for district permission. And fight we did, against the superintendent and the school board. The superintendent is a “just say no!” kind of guy, I could never really pin down his real objections. The school board appeared to be the sole protectors of the free enterprise system. Never mind that schools are strapped for cash. Never mind that cut after painful cut are in constant consideration in our district, what about this big company we would be displacing, what would be our effect on them. Yeah, right, like we were going to put this global photography company out of business.
Bottom line, we won. I’m in my third season of doing all of the portrait photography for our school, spring and fall, sports too. Now my computer program never has to go begging for money. The technology program is self-supporting; we even support art, music and home economics for and extra $1000 a year apiece. But this was the beginning of the end for Jeff. The whole affair was a big slap in the face to the superintendent, and he was far too little a man to let it go, or to admit that he was wrong.
Out of the blue came charges of miss-spending student funds. No funds ever left the school, no charges were ever proven, but our principal was demoted to a V.P. job at a continuation school and relieved of any real responsibilities. It did not matter that the whole school community was up in arms, it did not matter how many parents, teachers and students went before the board, it was a behind the scenes deal, punishment for stepping out of line.
Chalk up a win for stodgy, hidebound, inflexible bureaucracy and a loss for everyone else. So now I write out my frustrations here. I seem to have a little more time on my hands these days, now that the “Magazine Man” is gone. I don’t know if there is anyone out there, but I like the writing process just the same.
But for five years I had a great principal. Jeff was a motivator. He had a way of always making you feel great. I never saw him enter a meeting without a beaming smile on his face. He ran a tight ship, everything was always on time, and his staff meetings lasted only thirty minutes on the dot, once a month. He never wasted your time, he used bulletins and email to convey the regular stuff, he never insulted your intelligence by dragging out mundane stuff in a meeting. There was never any open bickering or arguing at staff meetings, he always solved problems with the people concerned inside his office.
Jeff’s strongest suit was total optimism. There were never any problems for Jeff, only a never-ending parade of opportunities. When faced with what other would perceive as a problem, Jeff could turn it into something positive. When the district was faced with over-crowding in the sixth grade they turned to the junior highs to provide the needed space. None of the junior highs wanted the sixth graders. Two of the junior highs simply provided housing for the sixth grade students, a room and a teacher. The teachers at our junior high did not want the sixth grade “babies” either. But Jeff overcame all of that, he created a model sixth grade program, self contained within the grade, but rotating between a core of dedicated teachers. He invited fifth grade parents to our campus to “show off” our school and his proposed program. The first year we had two full sections of sixth graders. The next year we had a waiting list. Now we have three sections and the sixth graders have become an integral part of our school.
Jeff rarely said no, instead he asked you point blank, “Will this be good for kids?” If the answer was “yes’, he’d find a way. He had the freedom to do this because Jeff was a master fundraiser. Our district has a magazine sales fundraiser that is the sole domain of the junior highs. When Jeff first came to the district the average school did about $17,000 in magazine sales. His last magazine drive grossed $159,000.00, fifty percent of which was our share. How? For two weeks, Jeff became the crazed “Magazine Man.” He made the whole thing fun for the kids, a carnival atmosphere with lots of prizes and cash give-a-ways (all out of the magazine companies side of the equation) for everyone involved.
But those are just a few of the many facets that made up Jeff. He knew all 700 student’s names. I could never figure that out. He always had time for you. It did not matter if you were a student, parent, teacher, custodian, secretary or visitor; he made you feel as if he was waiting for you to arrive. Especially a visitor, he was always showing off his school, but always in the context of how proud he was of staff achievements and the student body as a whole.
Jeff loved the school and he loved his job. He was a principal 24/7. Leave a voice mail on a Sunday afternoon and more likely than not he’d call you back within the hour. He was that way with parents too, totally accessible, always. I spend a lot of time at school on the weekends, over the summer and Jeff would always know. He was always the first to acknowledge whatever service one might perform for the school. He always made me feel great, and that made me want to do more. Simple, effective, free! Jeff knew first and foremost how people should be treated and he practiced it every day.
In other setting and placements, I’ve always considered myself the idea guy. With Jeff I took the backseat and tried to hang on. I’ll never forget the time he came into my classroom and asked me, “Why don’t we do our own school portraits?” I was the yearbook guy, but I had no idea if we could do our own portraits! But for Jeff I knew I wanted to find out and quick. For Jeff I could just be a facilitator. The answer to Jeff’s question was “yes,” we could do our own portrait photography, technically, artistically and economically, but we had to fight like hell for district permission. And fight we did, against the superintendent and the school board. The superintendent is a “just say no!” kind of guy, I could never really pin down his real objections. The school board appeared to be the sole protectors of the free enterprise system. Never mind that schools are strapped for cash. Never mind that cut after painful cut are in constant consideration in our district, what about this big company we would be displacing, what would be our effect on them. Yeah, right, like we were going to put this global photography company out of business.
Bottom line, we won. I’m in my third season of doing all of the portrait photography for our school, spring and fall, sports too. Now my computer program never has to go begging for money. The technology program is self-supporting; we even support art, music and home economics for and extra $1000 a year apiece. But this was the beginning of the end for Jeff. The whole affair was a big slap in the face to the superintendent, and he was far too little a man to let it go, or to admit that he was wrong.
Out of the blue came charges of miss-spending student funds. No funds ever left the school, no charges were ever proven, but our principal was demoted to a V.P. job at a continuation school and relieved of any real responsibilities. It did not matter that the whole school community was up in arms, it did not matter how many parents, teachers and students went before the board, it was a behind the scenes deal, punishment for stepping out of line.
Chalk up a win for stodgy, hidebound, inflexible bureaucracy and a loss for everyone else. So now I write out my frustrations here. I seem to have a little more time on my hands these days, now that the “Magazine Man” is gone. I don’t know if there is anyone out there, but I like the writing process just the same.
posted by Gary at 11:14 AM
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