The Journal presents my weekly reflections on being a private, Catholic school principal during what promises to be a year filled with energy, excitement, challenges and possibilities…
… these moments of connection, of sitting face-to-face, of learning are powerful, are formative, are motivating.
One of the spring rituals I both look forward to and dread as a principal are end of year conversations. These are 15 to 30 minute chats with each member of the staff who are in the academic part of our work, essentially all those people who report to the principal. Typically, I put together a list of questions, block out time on my calendar, ask folks to sign up for their slots and start meeting.
These conversations are chances for connection.
Sitting down with people who have taken time out of their full days to slow down and chat is a gift. Hearing about the school and the decisions of leadership and the vision faculty and staff have for the future can be deeply moving and gratifying. More than a few times this spring, tears have risen in my eyes during these chats.
I look forward to them every year.
The time these conversations take is immense and the institutional commitment to them is massive. Well over a hundred collective hours will be spent in these chats when they are all done. That’s a significant number of minutes. For teachers, the work of the classroom does not stop. Their days are packed. These meetings are another responsibility that pulls them away from other duties. For me as principal, the work of the office barely takes a breath during the spring. Rather the reverse: the pace quickens.
It is this part that I dread, the fitting these conversations in part.
These are critical conversations, at least they are for me. Surely some faculty and staff see them as an empty ritual, one other administrative edict to cross off their lists. Some may well wait to sign up until later in the spring or “forget” all together and hope (with some confidence) that I will lose track of the list and they will not have to come chat at all. For me, however, these moments of connection, of sitting face-to-face (as I am conducting the majority of these in-person), of learning are powerful, are formative, are motivating.
Especially this year.
These chats are not always easy. I ask for honest assessment of the school, of leadership, of me. Often I get it. Most of our staff takes the opportunity for the same honest assessment of self as well. The best of these chats have the potential for transformation. The worst (if such a word applies) still serve as half hour chats between colleagues – in my mind, an inherent good. On the Myers-Briggs Personality profile, I have a preference for extraversion. I love to engage and let dialogue flow where it will. I love to talk. These conversations are not just in my wheelhouse, they are my wheelhouse. I know that not everyone shares that preference and that feeling, but this is one place I am okay forcing people out of their comfort zones because these conversations are also immensely important to connection. Connection is always worth the time.
We may be on the knife’s point here. We are averaging almost 1 positive case a day right now. The quarantines spinning out of these cases are significant. Those are managable, though. They are not ideal, but they are managable. What will not be is if we have a number of “outbreaks.” Those will be highly problematic. We are closely monitoring …