A Question of Principals
Every year as the release of The Fraser Institute's Secondary Schools Report Cards nears, school principals in BC and Alberta must wonder what new revelations the Report Cards will hold. Why? Because they know that when things aren't going right, the buck stops right there on their desk. Parents demand action. District superintendents want to know how the whole mess will be dealt with - and when. Then there are the pesky reporters on the phone. By all accounts, that was the scene after last year's BC Schools Report Card ranked Salmo Secondary School last out of 262 schools. The principal, Mike McIndoe, took a lot of heat. How much is a lot? In a recent interview in BC Business magazine, he candidly admitted that if his school's position in The Fraser Institute rankings didn't improve in the year 2000, "I'll be run out of town."
So it is not surprising that when the Report Cards hit the streets, principals are often the first to call us at the Institute. Once they have had an opportunity to vent their rage at the injustice of their school's low rating, they add that while they agree that principals should be responsible for running the school, they don't always have the authority and resources they need to make improvements. They remind us that they are hamstrung by rigid teacher and support worker collective agreements that have been negotiated and agreed by others. They point out that they must fight for every dollar of funding from their school districts, and they must adhere to district policy even when that policy may be disadvantageous to the students they count as their customers. In short, they say, we can't be expected to do the job if we aren't given the tools.
Of course the principal is responsible. Each principal is his own secondary school's Chief Operating Officer. As such, he is the school's manager and leader.
As managers, principals must marshal considerable human and physical resources to accomplish the school's mission. They must first assemble and then maintain a skilled and highly-motivated teaching staff. Then, they must help the staff succeed. They must efficiently manage a resource base that includes substantial plant and buildings. They must gain the trust and respect of thousands of clients - both students and parents. They must constantly innovate to meet changing customer needs. They must improve themselves and their organizations constantly. They must be results driven. But they must accomplish all this while operating in the onerous environment of collective agreements and government regulation.
As effective leaders, their example will ignite the school community with a will to succeed in all aspects of the learning endeavour. But expectations are not enough. The principal will invest enormous effort in developing a complex web of effective relationships between student and teacher, teacher and administrator, teacher and parent, and, even, student and parent. When these human links are forged successfully, a positive atmosphere is palpable in the school's hallways.
Principals face many of the same challenges that confront their business sector counterparts. In order to succeed, both must possess a comprehensive set of management and leadership tools. Well-honed skills in communications, negotiating, and relationship-building; the ability to motivate the members of a number of diverse and sometimes adversarial groups; a passion for discovering ways to do more with less; the ability and inexhaustible desire to learn - these will be found in every successful principal's personal tool kit.
When principals run into obstacles that make it hard for them to keep the school moving forward, they must simply go through or around those obstacles. If there is no way around, they must yell out - loudly and publicly. If an individual principal believes that her school's students are not being properly served because of a union contract provision or a district regulation, she should be willing to fight for change at every opportunity. Advocacy for improvement comes with the territory. Annual measurement and reporting of school performance such as that found in the Report Card is evidence of the need for change that principals can use to fight for improvements in their schools.
There are many practising principals who are undoubtedly skilled COOs. Their success is reflected in the Report Card ratings. We rarely hear from them. They have no reason to complain. They regularly use their own analysis of school performance data to design and implement improvement plans that address areas of concern. When the Report Card comes out, they certainly study it to find any indicators that suggest new areas in which they can improve. These principals can serve as an inspiration and an example to others whose management and leadership skills need honing.
And Mike McIndoe? Happily for him, Salmo improved its rating in this year's Report Card - released just a few days ago. Much more improvement is possible at Salmo, and we hope that Mr. McIndoe will have the chance to make it happen.
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