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School-Aged Children
Is your elementary principal friendly?
We've been into DS's new school 4 times in the last 2 weeks. Everytime I've seen him in the office and he has never said hi to DS or I. I'm fairly outgoing and I would just introduce myself to him but it's like he looks right past us, never makes eye contact. I'm getting irritated about it, like wth? Everyone else is very friendly, the secretary knows us and the school coordinator (like an assistant principal) has spent time with us. Is this normal?
DS - June 2006
DD1 - November 2007
DD2 - August 2010
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Is your elementary principal friendly?
DD2 and 3's principal is very friendly. He's always in the lobby at pick-up/drop-off and always stops to chat if he sees volunteers in the halls or library.
DD1's principal always seems really busy or distracted. So I wouldn't really say he's friendly but that school is more like a middle school (3rd-8th grade).
I've had dealings with 4 different principals during my kids' elementary school years. DD has attended 3 schools because of redistricting and moving to a g/t magnet. Here's the rundown:
DD's first school: Friendly, but in a fake way. Lousy leader.
DD's second/DS's current school: Excellent principal. Knows every kid by name and always greets parents. Great leader.
DD's third school, fourth grade year: Tired, old principal on the way out. Friendly but disorganized and a rotten leader.
DD's third school, fifth grade year: New, peppy principal. Made a big show of being friendly and accessible at start of year, but hardly showed her face at school events during the year. Weak on discipline.
In my own school, I've worked under 3 actual and one interim principal. Here's the lowdown:
#1: terrible.
#2: Nice and friendly, but an ineffective leader. Kids liked him, but had no backbone. Inconsistent.
#3 (interim): Strong leader but a bit inflexible. Very supportive of staff.
#4 (current): Great! Accessible to families and a good leader with faculty.
So, in my experience, great principals are hard to find. In good news, your child's day to day school experience will be mostly determined by the classroom teacher, not the socially awkward principal!
The Student Services Coordinator (assistant principal) is who I've had lots of dealings with, she was at DS's IEP in May and she's shown us around the school 3 times. She is great, knows all that is going on, remembered details of DS's IEP months later, etc. She's my go-to person already.
It's actually an excellent school, the best elementary in a large district. So I guess he's doing his job well. I've just been feeling like he's ignoring us and was starting to take it personally.
As a teacher of special needs kiddos, I agree that they are the population that would be most vulnerable when there's shaky leadership. In my experience, the first thing that erodes under a lousy principal is structure and consistency, and the special needs population of a school is most likely to be first affected by problems with structure and consistency.
Additionally, when a lame-duck principal is in place for a loooooonnnnng time, many of the best teachers leave. Since weak principals are likely to be less adept at hiring, eventually all the high-quality teachers are replaced by mediocre new hires. A child attending a school where a lame principal has been in place for several years has a higher chance of winding up in a class with a less effective teacher.
However, all this being said, I know that in my own classroom, I am the boss. It doesn't matter what b.s. I'm dealing with at faculty meetings, when I'm in front of the kids, I'm accountable first to them. When kids are in my classes, they learn to read challenging texts, think critically about them, and write their thoughts in a meaningful way. From years of anonymous student feedback, I know kids gain confidence in my classes, and many learn to love English for the first time.
So, a bad principal doesn't always mean your child will have a bad classroom experience.