When you read any published article or book for school administrators, you can usually tell after the first paragraph if the person writing is a writer on Educational Leadership or someone who has actually been in the role of principal. Writers often write wonderful things about how the principal is “the educational leader of the building” and other platitudes that are almost impossible to put on the calendar and actually accomplish in a focused way during any normal school day. This writer presents you with what your first headache of every year you’re boss will be, and you can put it on the calendar, and a lot of focused time will be spent dealing with it. The “Ivory Tower” folks didn’t mention this in grad school, we assure you. Problems like the one mentioned in this article could be the reason why they chose the Ivory Tower in the first place, and therefore have plenty of time to write!
So are you ready? Here’s your first big headache, and it will show on the first day or two of the new school year. She has just returned to her office after being “all over the place” greeting kids, checking buses, and talking to teachers and staff. It’s close to 10am and you sit down to catch your breath and finish the cold brew you bought at the convenience store this morning at 6am when it was hot.
The secretary comes in and asks if you want the person who makes the announcements in the morning – you should make some, by the way, about positive things and not just sports) – to announce that the registration applications are on the office counter for students who would like a parking pass that allows them to drive to school and park in the parking lot.
This seems harmless enough, right? Buckle up, it’s going to be a bumpy ride! The announcement is made, and by Friday’s application deadline, he has 203 applications. By the way, there are 35 student parking lots. Some of the applications are incomplete because they ask for a copy of the license, registration, and insurance. The clerk reviews all of this and hands you the 186 completed applications.
Good, so far so good. Here’s the question: who parks in all 35 spots? Have you thought about criteria? Will it be only for seniors? You wisely ask the secretary how things were done in the past with the previous director. She replies that she has no idea since old Mr. Brown took care of it himself; she just wrote the final list. Okay, you’re a pretty bright person, so you start with the logical thought that older people have first choice, and this brings the stack down to 117 requests. So you feel that since academics are paramount, the cutoff for consideration for a permit will be that each student must have a GPA of 3.2 or better. You have about 77 applications. Now what? Well, maybe you should look at the level of contribution each student makes to the school as a whole. For example, your service to the school might be considered as part of a band, a team, or some other student leadership activity. All good ideas so far and logically defensible. Now it has around 53 apps. So far, this Captain Queeg-esque analysis has cost him a lot of time and visibility. You realize you have a school to run, so you simply draw names from the hat to finish the process (also a defensible approach: a LOTTERY!) and present the final list to the secretary to write and paste. on the outer wall the main office. Okay. That wasn’t too bad, you think, what’s the next thing I have to make some decisions about? You go home that night feeling like you’ve accomplished something.
The next morning there are about 15 extremely angry parents waiting for you in the reception area of the office. Several angry parents have called, two school board members have called, and the superintendent has also called, the issue? Student parking issues.
Your day is completely filled with dealing with angry parents whose child didn’t get a parking permit. They all leave with the promise that “You haven’t heard the last of me”…and “I’m going to call the Superintendent and/or Board members, etc.” The superintendent asks what all the fuss is about. You ask, “What fuss?” “I just made some logical decisions about who will get a permit to park in the lot considering the fact that we only have 35 spots available.” You proceed to outline your ironclad logic in coming to this decision, and the superintendent thanks you and says that he will support you, but that you have to make an exception because the Board member, Mrs. Cavendish’s son who is going to technical school and has a job every day as a veterinary assistant needs to drive a considerable distance, etc. Funny Guy/Gal that Superintendent- he/she ends with the comment, “Are we having fun yet?” a team if they wanted due to financial problems. The respectful parents of some of her Indian and Pakistani students come next and tell her that their children, all of whom are excellent students and never miss a day of school, have to work in the family business every day, and would like to apply respectfully a parking space for your child. Two parents cry as they tell the sad story of an illness in the family that forces their son to drive every day for a legitimate reason. The other school board members call in for a favor, one of whom is painfully blunt throughout, reminding her that they can sway votes and will remember in the spring when the question of her raise comes up.
Now what? You cannot retract from the published list. Your heart goes out to some of these people, and you even think pragmatically about future raises for a moment or two. They spend two more days going through all the concerns from parents, students wanting to see him, calls from their bosses and board members, and unsolicited suggestions from various staff people. Another idea that comes to mind and quickly slips by is that maybe the students who are in their sports season could keep their slot until their season is over and then someone else could get the slot, but then you realize that very few students are involved in only one thing. Try calling other experienced directors in the area, all of whom have a suggestion or two, but all of whom come from various facilities, with varying levels of political capital depending on how long they’ve been on the job. You take good notes, but most of the things they say won’t help you today. At night, your loving husband or wife says, “Honey, you wanted this job…”
You decide the list stands, and the anger continues unabated for a week or two. You will see many of these people again. Despite threats of lawsuits, the school attorney assures him that anyone can sue anyone else for anything, but the plaintiff in these actions would have no real cause of action and his case would be dismissed; it would take a lot of his time, that’s all. Being a student of “shared government” – something Machiavelli would have laughed at – you put together a committee made up of several teachers, two students, a coach and one or two parents and task them with coming up with some selection criteria for next year.
Now, it’s been about two weeks into the school year and she hasn’t had a chance to “get some air.” Things seem to be on the way to resolution when the secretary reminds him of an irrefutable law of nature: people get older every day. That means that as the school year goes on, each day students celebrate birthdays and grow older. Therefore, at the end of the year there will be a significantly higher number of licensed drivers than at the beginning of the year. She also reminds you that you too were once young and as a senior in high school you probably didn’t want your friends to see you taking a bus to and from school either. It would be as embarrassing as having to bring lunch to school. What do you plan to tell parents who want to know why their kids aren’t allowed to drive to school now that they have a license in November?
By now, you may be thinking of that vacation commercial where they ask the question… Do you want to get away? You might as well look in the mirror and wonder why he left his teaching job and those long summer vacations. Relax, things will get better and it’s only September 20th. There is much more school. This has been your first headache. You will learn from this. We’ll stop now and give you some time to process. Many of your headaches this year will come unexpectedly. At least you know this one will arrive, every year at the same time. Are we still having fun?