My mom always taught me that when there isn't anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. The delimma is that I have to say something to get a grade. That's not a great opener and it should speak volumes for the new administration at my school. It's very unfortunate.
My principal is a first year principal and he brought in 3 first year administrators and only one of them taught on the high school level. We have 6 in all and some of the funds to hire them were taken from CTAE. The agreement was that they were to supposed to be half day admin - half day teachers. Instead, they are full time admin and CTAE never got their opening replaced. I have never known a school to have 6 AP's but that's what their titles are.
What I've learned is that half of our admin team in completely incompetant to run anything, back the parents instead of the teachers and are quick to pass blame when they drop the ball. They also have contributed to the fallen moral of the entire school. A shame. What I've learned with the "senior" admin is that they are carrying all the weight and completed bombareded with picking up after the new the "new guys". I feel sorry for them. Our AP over scheduling is dealing with a nightmare of a new schedule coming off Block onto a Hybrid 7 period day with "enrichment", late in Thursdays, and 0 periods. CTAE lost additional teachers because of the schedule and our AP over scheduling is tasked with reporting those numbers. Our admin is in a difficult position this year. Our AP over attendance is fabulous but has her hands full with our Pinnacle system and class by class attendance. It's been rocky and I'm still "learning" from them.
Wow, Erika. That is disheartening to hear but non the less true of many systems in place. A savvy principal recognizes his or her deficits and compensates by selecting assistants who are adept in these areas. It sounds like there is no management training in place and folks are just given positions based on who knows who. I can imagine the discourse and loss of direction caused by so many assistants. It seems like there is a bit of overlap in these positions. Sometimes its better to keep things simple. We have three assistant administrators and each has distinct duties. There is no confusion about who is over what and each is very good at their job. Our prinipal is a quiet person but I feel he is a good manager because he placed the right people in the right positions and they take care of most problems before it gets to him. Don't get me wrong... I work some very late hours and have quite a bit of demands placed on me but I give my best because my administrators recognize my efforts by complimenting the work I do, always providing me with whatever resources I need, even if they have to sit in my class while I give a 20 minute lecture in another class.
ReplyDeleteWHat a mess. You have to wonder just what they were thinking when they came up with THAT brilliant plan. It just goes to prove how out of touch those in charge can be. They get out of the loop and forget just what it is like to teach and deal with parents etc...Then they don't want to go out on a limb and support those who truly deserve it (teachers) and cave to the parents. I worked with an administrator at the last school I was at. He never looked you in the eye and was more interested in what type of car the parents drove than what the issues were. If you weren't young and beautiful he didn't have time for you. He also was a germaphobe and this was an elementary school. He wouldn't touch the children at all and couldn't stand when they touched him. It was an interesting and horrible year. I love my administration now. They aren't perfect but neither am I. They have been very fair and supportive of me. Good luck with your situation. I only hope that it changes for you next year!
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