It is the end of my 4th official week as a principal and I have finally hired all teachers. If school started today, we would be ready to go. I thought that I had come to this point two weeks ago, but additional transfers and resignations continued to appear. With the start of school 3 weeks away, I am relieved to have this part of the process complete. There are still a couple of teacher assistants to hire, but that process is much easier to go through.
What have I learned through this journey? The greatest lesson is to not delay at all when an opening occurs! The longer one waits to hire teachers, the shallower the pool of candidates. I am extremely happy with the group of teachers that I have hired, 7 in all, and I believe that they will all be great for our staff. There are 3 brand new teachers in the group and the others have experience and came with great recommendations from their former principals. This reminds me of another lesson that I learned while an assistant principal. Always check references before making an offer of employment! At a previous school, we were burned by a candidate that was not thoroughly screened, and had to endure more trouble than was necessary.
I believe that God placed the right people in the right place at the exact time that I needed!
Next week, I will attend the state's new principal leadership seminar for the entire week. It will be a lesson on how to lead while I am not at the school because I know how much work there is still to be completed. I have been able to delegate some responsibilities to the folks who will be at school and I trust that everything will be done. I am looking forward to networking with other new principals as we travel through our first year together...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment