The Journal presents my weekly reflections on being a private, Catholic school principal during what promised to be a year filled with energy, excitement, challenges and possibilities…
As a leader, part of what I want to do is minimize the stresses with which our professional staff contends. I want to level the ground for them. To give them stability. To provide an environment which they can predict.
The only constant is change someone once said and I cannot think of truer words spoken about the year 2020. For educators like myself, since late February and early March, all that we have known about the work we do has been in a state of flux. Much like plugging holes in a dam, once one is repaired, another breaks open and keeping up with the leaks is almost impossible.
This is not true just for those of us in school leadership, it is true for the families and students in our schools. Equally important, it is true for the staff and faculties we serve. Faced with the typically daunting task of starting a school year, a late summer/early autumn rite of passage which educators traverse each year, teachers have also been challenged by the dynamics of change that we all face. In the case of the teachers and staff in my school (like teachers and staff in schools world-wide), changes in schedules, expectations, systems, modes of delivery and more have been thrust upon them.
Most educators like predictability and stability. They like to plan in large chucks, in units, in weeks and months. This constantly churning landscape is both uncomfortable and unfamiliar.
As a leader, part of what I want to do is minimize the stresses with which our professional staff contends. I want to level the ground for them. To give them stability. To provide an environment which they can predict.
I am struggling.
Part of what needs to change is what we are doing. Developing schedules and plans in the spring and summer was the right thing to do. Employing best practice and thought in writing these plans and putting them in front of our communities early was the correct path. Giving everyone time to get used to them was advisable.
But, in living new schedules and trying out new ideas, one realizes that, sometimes, things need to change to best suit a changing landscape. Schedules that made sense on paper make less sense in practice. Simple shifts in approach may improve the experience for all.
How much change, though, can a faculty and staff manage? In light of external uncertainties, should we not do all we can to create stability internally?
What is the balance here?
I have no easy answers. I do know that part of educational leadership in the 2020-2021 school year is searching for this solution.
We had no new cases this week… But we are back in our buidlings at half capacity. SO GOOD to be together, even in this format.