Leadership in our Public Schools
Posted: 4:37PM October 25th, 2011 | Comments
As Principal for a Day at Spring Harbor Middle School with Leia Esser, the new and "real" Principal at the school, I got the chance to talk about leadership with an emerging dynamo in our public system. In the 3 hours I spent with Leia I witnessed her: 1) teach a class for one of her educators - Dave Ropa - so he could talk to me about his brilliant vision for creating a sustainable farm on their grounds; 2) brainstorm ideas for collaborative professional development with another middle school in their attendance area; 3) listen to and energize her teachers to pursue their ideas for experiential and service learning; 4) commit to writing a grant to support her teachers' ideas; 5) tell the office Admin person the phone number, from memory, of a student's father who has moved several times in the past month; and 6) discuss the intricacies of constructing a hiring rubric that will measure a candidate's chutzpah in a centralized and archaic HR department process. This is leadership. Recognizing talent and allowing it to emerge in staff, supporting and enabling good ideas, finding resources to make things happen, fostering collaboration and building a team. Leia represents the future for our public schools. - Kristen
