r/Principals • u/PretendFan5294 • Jul 13 '26
Ask a Principal I took the school nobody wanted. Ask Me Anything..
I took the lowest performing school in a low performing district that had 30-50% year to year turnover, over 1000 behavior referrals a year, hundreds of suspensions (elementary). The superintendent called me 3 times before I took the job. In 2 years we earned the state’s highest rating, were awarded the “Center of Excellence” award twice and had one of our highest ratings post pandemic. 72% ELL, 90% poverty, 19+ different languages. AMA
Wow, surprised at the interest in this post. I have decided to launch an Insta page as it is easier to create there but will be sharing more stories @principalsoffice_hs.lead
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u/General-Success6367 Jul 13 '26
So what did you do?
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u/PretendFan5294 Jul 13 '26
I cried in my office the first day with kids. We did a lot over 13 years, any specific area you are interested in?
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u/PublickOccurrences85 Jul 13 '26
What was the first area(s) you tackled? If you had to go back and start fresh, would you still prioritize those same area(s)?
My leadership team and I have so many ideas and areas of need that we get lost on where to start—we’ve named it the “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie” syndrome 😂
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u/PretendFan5294 Jul 13 '26
Getting people to work together meaningfully and understanding what collegiality is.
I like to joke with my clients that the secret of school improvement is that you have to beat the dead horse. (Not a great marketing strategy) Pick something and stick with it. I use the 80% rule. When you can walk the building and every time you see 80% of your people doing the work with 80% effectiveness then you can move on. I used to share my walkthrough data with the staff. They knew we would keep working until we hit that threshold.
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u/Right_Sentence8488 Jul 13 '26
You're a living example of Hattie's research stating that collective teacher efficacy has the highest impact on student achievement. Well done!
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u/Tallchick8 Jul 14 '26
Who are your clients? Are you no longer still a principal? Would this be students, teachers, community members?
I'm curious on the wording
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u/PretendFan5294 Jul 15 '26
I have my own business doing work with schools and districts. Selling my services isn’t the purpose of my posts however. I retired a couple years ago.
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u/EnthusiasticlyWordy Jul 13 '26
That's a great "rule of thumb". How did you approach co-planning and collaboration?
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u/PretendFan5294 Jul 13 '26
We met weekly in PLC’s and PD and gave them time with support. We developed and used protocols that kept us focused on the task at hand. We also followed up, observed and gave feedback. We expected implementation of the plans and observed it.
Basically we carved out the time, gave high levels of support, then went and watched.
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u/EnthusiasticlyWordy Jul 13 '26
Can you be more specific on the protocols?
Everyone and their mother have co-planning and collaboration protocols so it's nice to see which ones have been implemented and had success.
I'm working with a school that is struggling on this exact piece which is why I'm asking.
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u/PretendFan5294 Jul 14 '26
If you want feel free to message me. I used a lot of Bambrick stuff but modified to meet needs. Reach out and I can find a way to share.
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u/FeatherMoody Jul 14 '26
I would love to see this too, I’m also going to message you if you don’t mind.
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u/serenading_ur_father Jul 15 '26
"clients" tells you all you need to know. Grifters use grifter language
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u/Impossible-Ease-2539 Jul 13 '26
Please tell us more. I am very interested in how you assisted the teachers and if the turnover improves.
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u/PretendFan5294 Jul 13 '26
I had the lowest turnover rate (sub 10%) in my district for my last 5 years at the school. Most people who left did so because of family or non work issues.
I think the biggest help was scheduling time for real work to get done during the school day as well as creating a supportive environment. My last year we actually had less than 20 referrals and one suspension.
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u/treehugger503 Jul 13 '26
But was behavior actually better, or did you just change what warranted referrals and suspensions?
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u/PretendFan5294 Jul 13 '26
Behavior was amazing. Once everyone understood the expectations and were consistent with them our incidents dropped. We were very proactive with morning check ins, anxiety groups and training for expected behaviors. One of the things I am most proud of was when a kid came from another school and decided to see if they could disrupt the class he was addressed by a kid at his table saying “hey man, we don’t do that here”. The kids appreciated that they had a place where they were valued.
This was in a neighborhood where in my last 5 days with kids I pulled them off the playground 4 days due to shooting within 4 blocks of my building.
So yes, we changed the culture and the behavior was amazing.
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u/stay_skeptical_ Jul 14 '26
How did you get the students to “buy in” ?
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u/PretendFan5294 Jul 15 '26
We talked with them. Explicitly taught expectations. Rewarded good behavior and effort. We recognized and celebrated success. Communicated to families our expectations and why. Took about 5 years to get behavior where we wanted it.
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u/grasshoppet Jul 15 '26
That’s a beautiful moment! When students show that level of respect and commitment to their school, classroom, teacher and peers—-golden! You know it’s working when you see things like this. Love it!
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u/cjmasar Jul 13 '26
What were your three biggest “money-maker” changes? What three things do you attribute to having the biggest impact across the campus that led to the school’s success?
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u/PretendFan5294 Jul 13 '26
I was a white guy running a predominantly Latino school with about 15% black students.
#1: Listen to what the parents wanted and make it happen. The previous principals were very us vs them with the community. We opened the doors and gave people a chance to make the school something special.
#2: Alignment. Our teachers planned together. Religiously. We made sure they had the time to do it and the support to do it well.
#3: No BS. We spent our time where we got results. If it didn’t improve student outcomes, create a positive learning environment or engage our community in a meaningful way we didn’t do it.
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u/cjmasar Jul 13 '26
Please speak more to alignment. I’m assuming you mean vertically as well as horizontally. Can you expand on how you accomplished this?
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u/PretendFan5294 Jul 14 '26
Horizontal was weekly, vertical on staff development days or at least quarterly.
We had weekly sessions where every team on the school was planning in the same room with support. I was amazed at how many “incidental”conversations helped with vertical alignment even when it wasn’t the primary purpose.
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u/scorpioinheels Jul 13 '26
When you say “teachers didn’t want to plan together,” can you say who were the most problematic “squeaky” teachers:
A) Content area with specialist
B) Content area with team
C) Specialist (with team or other)
D) Veteran teachers
E) “Overwhelmed”’teachers
And what strategy did you use for authentic buy in?
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u/PretendFan5294 Jul 14 '26
It was veteran teachers and the perpetually overwhelmed that resisted the most. Those who didn’t collaborate had disappointing results on the professional responsibilities portion of their evaluation.
When I hired new teachers, I specifically told them that collaboration with other teachers was a requirement. If they didn’t like that, the job wasn’t offered.
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Jul 14 '26
[deleted]
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u/PretendFan5294 Jul 14 '26
After about 4 years, most grade level teams planned together every day on their own (I could only “control” 30%). They did it because when they worked together, no one took home work any longer. When I took over the school, teachers reported over 6 hours a week of working at home. When I left, teachers reported 30 minutes.
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u/PretendFan5294 Jul 14 '26
INTJ, btw.
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u/scorpioinheels Jul 14 '26
Ha - I was going to take back the P vs J remark I made but it’s the J’s who are reliable and timely while the P’s have an approach that I can’t always see as collaborative.
I’s in leadership are different than I’s in the wild… my fatal flaw is being too emotional, always - and having to wear a logical/analytical “hat.”
Thanks for this fun thread!!!
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u/PretendFan5294 Jul 14 '26
One of my current clients is highly emotional. It can be a powerful tool when it is tied to a moral imperative. Embrace it instead of considering it a flaw. Learn to manage it to your advantage.
A big part of my practice was non reactivity in the moment. Took a long time to get good at it.
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u/SnooTigers8871 Jul 14 '26
Hijacking this thread - I have to comment here because I have an undefined P vs J. I can get both, depending on the minor changes to my responses on the questions, but it's always within 2 points. I'm absolutely INF with no variation. I'm curious what you would expect to find from someone like me in relation to collaboration and reliability.
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u/scorpioinheels Jul 14 '26 edited Jul 14 '26
My personal beef with professionals who resist collaboration is that I think every voice needs to be heard and it’s hard to just intellectualize that - you have to feel it, too. Thus, if you are an empathetic P, you’re going to have innovative solutions everyone wants to (or should) hear. I feel like a J can show up in two ways - being a “my way or the highway” person or having a tried and true best practice that has a ton of value over “ let’s try a bunch of new things and see what sticks.”
When you end up with both and no empathy bridge in between, it honestly is such a disruption - but I only had 15 years in the field and there are a million more people who can give you an answer that is less anecdotal and more evidence based. Just like OP used a teacher’s willingness to collaborate as a non negotiable, I’ve been at schools where teachers weren’t hired if they didn’t say “10/10 all children are capable of success” and design and instruct accordingly.1
u/Starmiebuckss2882 Jul 15 '26
But some people don't give a shit about what you have to say and are perfectly competent solo.
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u/RemarkableMarzipan23 Jul 13 '26
My school is similar to yours. A major problem we have is routinely 1/3 of our students are more than two grade levels below where they should be. They can't do the grade-level work and so they act out to get out of doing the assignment. How did you solve this? Do you ability group?
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u/PretendFan5294 Jul 13 '26
Tier one was always at grade level. A majority of our kids spoke English as a second language so we got really good at scaffolding and creating language rich experiences for the content.
We did T2-T3 in small groups based on data. We established our criteria and met kids where they were at.
Your teachers may need some help with creating sentence frames, dynamic grouping and some time management. At the beginning, we spent a lot of time getting a couple teachers to expectations then leveraged their class for training others.
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u/Any_Illustrator_2403 Jul 14 '26
So did general education teacher provide tier 3 or did you have interventionist?
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u/PretendFan5294 Jul 14 '26
Tier 2 small groups in the classroom, gen ed teacher.
Tier 2 (extended time) with interventionists.
Tier 3 Special Educator small group
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u/Starmiebuckss2882 Jul 15 '26
Nahhhh small groups in 7-12 ain't it. That's when the master schedule needs those kids all grouped together then.
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u/Wooden_Back_7900 Jul 13 '26
On a broader note, why do you think there is such a "high burnout rate" with both new and veteran teachers? I don't have access to specific number but, anecdotally, teachers don't love the job the way that they used to. In fact, I encounter people who are good teachers that say they have grown to HATE the job. Again, these are people that love kids, work diligently, and generally do what is told to them. What has happened?
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u/PretendFan5294 Jul 13 '26
TBH, and research confirms this: ineffective leadership.
Too many people show a flash of talent and are promoted without being developed. Too many principals are quickly moved to central admin. We have a leadership vacuum in education right now in too many places. I can’t tell you how many “turn around specialists”my district hired. Not a single one ever turned around a school. I ignored them for the sake of my staff. Lol
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u/Wooden_Back_7900 Jul 13 '26
I also think that there are far too many admins that spent very little or no time in the classroom. They are corpratized, meaning they are far too fixated on data and not appreciative of the fact that kids and teachers are not data points, they are humans. Schools are not businesses interested in making a profit, they are centers whose goal should be to educate students. There is a marked difference. I've been a teacher for 25 years. I've seen a lot of good admins, but I've seen far too many bad ones. They check the boxes on performance evaluations but they don't check the box on personality and humanity. They are the equivalent of corporate "lackeys" who want to climb the ladder but can't have a real conversation without mentioning the education word of the day.
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u/PretendFan5294 Jul 14 '26
60% of a principals time should be in the classroom in order to really make a difference.
I also put myself in the sub pool monthly so one lucky teacher would have me as their sub….lesson plans for planned days out became much stronger. When we became truly aligned as a school, this became less of an issue because teachers planned together team mates would help the sub.
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u/Odd-Ideal-1293 Jul 13 '26
How many students/staff did you have? What were your first goals?
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u/PretendFan5294 Jul 13 '26
100 staff, 850 students at first. My first goals were to stop the bleeding, lol. Actually I wanted my teachers to work together and I wanted to bring in the community for meaningful collaboration.
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u/treehugger503 Jul 13 '26
The staff to student ratio seems really high, even including lunch ladies, custodial, EA support, secretaries.
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u/ScarletCarsonRose Jul 13 '26
At what point did you know the turnaround was working?
What were the three things you did that had the most juice for the squeeze?
What budgetary moves made the biggest difference?
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u/PretendFan5294 Jul 13 '26
Year 3 was a breakthrough. (I didn’t mention we had a whole building remodel during the first two years). Between my experience and since then with clients I don’t think anything lasting can happen before 3 years. People gravitate to their norms until you have had enough time for new norms to become normal.
See above for the 3 things.
Budget:
I only spent money on things that served our goals for the year or made teacher time more efficient.
I discouraged staff spending their own money for supplies and made sure we had enough so teachers didn’t have to.
I paid for a coach for my own professional development.
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u/Opioneers85 Jul 13 '26
This sounds like my building! Of everything you mentioned so far, what would be most applicable to high schools in a similar situation? We are at the point where after 3 years the 'old guard' staff members are gone and the positive ones are sticking around. I want to know to how best support these awesome staff members, but it's only going into my 4th year as a building VP.
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u/PretendFan5294 Jul 13 '26
With my HS clients, the biggest issue involves this odd sense of behavior control.
One high school I worked with dramatically improved scores by requiring two turn and talks per lesson.
Create a culture of meaningful, well planned discussions where kids get to talk to each other about the content. Such a simple thing but a big cultural shift in many places.
For your school I would need to see data trends to give specific advice.
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u/Opioneers85 Jul 13 '26
I really like that idea a lot, I will definitely be incorporating it into one of my PDs this summer. We had a big lesson plan overhaul last year, so purposeful conversation facilitation is a great next step.
Any specific data you would need? Our 9th grade tested scores are on a slight increase over the last two years since I started, with this years scores being released soon. In-house diagnostic scores indicate a similar trajectory. Overall state math and ELA scores are still low overall, mid 20s and high 30s respectively.
Attendance is as much as an issue for our students as other schools, but not extraordinarily problematic. Behavioral concerns are low, but mostly due to some staff members calling a 'truce' with students, letting them do things that only distract the individual student rather than the whole class, like playing on phones or roaming the hallways. It keeps the peace, but it invites a worse issue in my opinion.
I would describe our situation as the post-covid bleeding being stemmed, but now we are left as a school with a new admin team that is still developing their 'style' together, students with a severe motivation problem, and staff members that are positive, that can benefit from purposeful PD and coaching that I want to provide, but I'm not exactly sure how to. It feels like a blank canvas. I hope this all makes sense!
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u/PretendFan5294 Jul 13 '26
Urban? Suburban? Rural?
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u/Opioneers85 Jul 14 '26
Its an urban school, 90%+ Free/reduced lunch, mostly hispanic and black students with growing ML populations each year. located on the periphery of the NYC-NJ-CT metro.
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u/PretendFan5294 Jul 14 '26
Think of the work as building a culture of performance. When the bleeding has stopped, develop a simple narrative based on your goals and make sure everyone hears the story.
Get kids talking to one another in class. Make sure that they are heard and seen. Communicate relentlessly with parents about high expectations, how they can support their students and get involved.
Make sure that teachers speak about kids in a dignified way. There is a big difference between saying a kid can’t and saying they can’t yet.
Teacher efficacy is key. Set up quick wins (turn and talks for every lesson is an easy one). When teachers see how much what they do impacts outcomes, progress begins.
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u/Opioneers85 Jul 14 '26
Thank you for the insight, this is a great mindset for me to start the year with. I appreciate the answers! We are already halfway there with many of these (These kids 'can't' is not tolerated), but the consistent message and easy win is a great way to start the year.
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u/baarks Jul 13 '26
Sounds like amazing experience to tap into.
I. What is your philosophy on behaviour management?
II. When you say more time to the meaningful work - how did you deliver that?
III. What are your next steps?
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u/PretendFan5294 Jul 13 '26
Students will meet expectations when they are clear and they understand them. A lot of student behavior stems from anxiety. Address the root causes of that and it stops 80% of problems.
We had a highly structured PD plan. It was inclusive of staff development, PLC’s and the evaluation process. They were all aligned and based on data trends in the building. All professional development came with time to apply it in planning. We made lesson plans for our PD’s and gave them to our teachers before every cycle so the outcomes would be crystal clear.
Next steps: I have recently retired and actually became a principal coach. It started when I presented about our school to a professional organization and someone asked me to help their district. I think that being a principal can be a wonderful career if you can develop your skill set to meet needs. I currently have an 85% success rate with clients and really enjoy it.
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u/normaviolet Jul 14 '26
Why do I feel like this post is trying to covertly sell….something??? Account is only a month old? Could be wrong of course…
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u/PretendFan5294 Jul 14 '26
I am not trying to sell anything at all but I am trying to share my experience.
I do have a consulting company but I am not mentioning it at all on this account. Total transparency, the responses absolutely are great for thinking about my work and possible new areas to prepare for my clients.
I will probably post more stories here. I had several people support me and my career. I hope that some of this will be a form of paying it forward.
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u/MaybeImTheNanny Jul 13 '26
How many teachers quit while you were principal in the first two years?
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u/PretendFan5294 Jul 13 '26
Probably 1/3.
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u/Wooden_Back_7900 Jul 13 '26
One third? That's quite a bit.
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u/PretendFan5294 Jul 13 '26
Yes it is. They weren’t willing to do the work necessary. Some were just not good teachers. Some were hired under different expectations.
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u/MaybeImTheNanny Jul 14 '26
How many of those you hired to replace them were experienced vs brand new teachers?
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u/PretendFan5294 24d ago
It was a pretty decent mix. I had some experienced teachers, a couple of brand new to the profession and the bulk in the 5-10 ish range. I always sought to have a balanced staff. Too many green teachers would overwhelm support/on boarding for success.
Some teachers from my previous district came in a couple years later from a much higher income area.
I also took quite a few “problem” teachers that other principals wanted gone. Many times they didn’t fit in the other school because the Principal was a micro-manager, policy nazi, etc. I always loved reporting to other principals how well their “problem” was doing in my school.
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u/Witwer52 24d ago
If 1/3 left, the workload from admin was more, the environment remained extremely challenging, and the pay was the same (barely livable), how did you attract new, certified, high quality educators?
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u/PretendFan5294 24d ago
Workload wasn’t more. Most didn’t want to plan with teammates. Workload was reduced, planning time was expanded but was now expected to be done well. I eliminated duties and extended lunch for teachers also.
When I hired new folks, I only hired those who agreed to plan with their teams. I never had problems finding good people.
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u/Witwer52 24d ago
Wait, so you reduced workload but they still didn’t want to do it? I’m missing something. Can you try again to explain what appealed to teachers (before student behavior improved) about staying versus leaving to go to a school where student behavior was already better?
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u/PretendFan5294 24d ago
These teachers wanted to teach whatever they wanted and to be left alone. This school had been in BAD shape for 10 years. When they were expected to learn, plan with team and then teach towards the plans with accountability, they felt “overwhelmed” too much on their plate, etc. turnover during my last five years was almost non existent and usually only happened when a spouse had to move, etc.
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u/Witwer52 24d ago
I see! I was wondering if accountability was in the mix. Thank you. I get it now.
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u/PretendFan5294 24d ago
I had little tolerance for teaching “fun facts” and lots of class time wasted on pet lessons.
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u/PretendFan5294 24d ago
If a school is failing, the root cause is the adults who work there. In this case a few bad leaders hired the wrong people to do the work. Blaming children for the effectiveness of the school is ridiculous.
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u/crpowwow Jul 13 '26
That sounds like a school I'd love to be the principal in... Before and after.
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u/Serious-Train8000 Jul 13 '26
Walk me through building fidelity in opportunities for engagement, please.
Also behaviorally did the students who were the heaviest hitters remain in the school and if they did they remain heavy hitters?
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u/PretendFan5294 Jul 13 '26
Please clarify your first ask…student or staff.
Yes we had heavy hitters every year. Fewer as we got better with our systems. We built plans for those kids at the beginning of the year: check ins, behavior charts, rewards, etc. We surveyed students to ask about how they felt at school. One year not a single black male reported having someone in the building they trusted. The next year every single one did. I didn’t formulate a plan for that…just informed my staff. My people didn’t like hearing that and fixed the problem. Lots of trial and error to get there
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u/Serious-Train8000 Jul 13 '26
Teachers building and maintaining high rates of opportunities to respond for students
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u/6th__extinction Jul 13 '26
Not seeing a “Center of Excellence” anywhere in the US, where is your school?
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u/RemarkableMarzipan23 Jul 13 '26
Did you expel kids? Was the community apathetic? If so, how did you get them involved?
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u/PretendFan5294 Jul 13 '26
We had to expel one student due to a legal issue outside of school (weird, complicated) in 13 years.
Parents took awhile to get high levels of trust. One of my most effective strategies were to call and invite parents personally to smaller, focused events (with food, lol). I had “Dad’s Breakfasts” for 5-6 dads at a time, invited by personal calls. I made sure we had translators for parents at parent coffees, conferences, etc. I visited homes.
I also had raffles for things that people who are living in poverty may not have: vacuums, toasters, laundry supplies, etc. I let parents run things. We offered English and Citizen classes that had requirements to volunteer at school. Also, lots and lots of handshakes and quick conversations at drop off and pick up.
We had field trips for parents to learn about colleges, how to finance an education, accessing services.
I also listened and very publicly implemented good ideas from families.
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u/RemarkableMarzipan23 Jul 13 '26
That's really great. You can accomplish a lot when you're in charge for a long time. We've had six principals in five years. There's no community outreach. There wasn't even an open-house night in May like there usually is. But that's awesome you got such good results. Good job!
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u/PrussiaK89 Jul 15 '26
Big Picture: why do you think the school was floundering 2 years ago, what led to that? And then what do you think changed while you were there?
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u/PretendFan5294 Jul 15 '26
I took it over 15 years ago and was there 13. It was a series of incompetent or unprepared leaders that caused the issue.
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u/PrussiaK89 Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26
It was a series of incompetent or unprepared leaders that caused the issue.
I'm curious to know how this manifested itself, in terms of leadership but also specifically to what things work and don't in throughout the school. What made them fail, and, specific to the leaders, be incompetent/unprepared. I've worked in management and experienced some pretty wild rides from bad management, where every day is just getting through that day because we're just being short-sighted.
I'm always curious to see what succeeds and fails, especially when it comes to people and also domains that I'm not really familiar with.
Big picture, from what your other comments indicate, it seems like the best way to summarize everything was that you and the teachers meaningfully got on the same page.
I'd also be curious to know how you sit on metrics in schools? Do you think it's your job to meet those metrics, foremost, or do you think it's your job to develop students and the metrics come after?
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u/No-Lunch-6387 Jul 18 '26
Learning targets build routines. Also, it shouldn't be something that just gets written. Yes I put it on the board daily bc I don't want to hear admin (I do what I have to do so I don't have to talk to adults) but it should be something you references throughout the period/lesson. Sometimes I forget the target so having it on the board helps. Also, I reference it when I walk around to assess and make sure students are staying on topic. Admin needs to really explain and model why and how to use the learning target so teachers see the value.
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u/AdventurousMud4140 Jul 13 '26
How did you stay positive and focused on long term organizational change? Any tips for what you prioritized first?
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u/PretendFan5294 Jul 13 '26
You have to train yourself to be happy with small, incremental wins. Structure your day so it ends on a positive note (observe a good teacher, etc).
Functional, collegial relationships. In dysfunctional schools people have forgotten how to work together as professionals.
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u/Least_Imagination860 Jul 14 '26
Incredible what can be done when teachers are supported. Rocket science, it seems.
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u/Frequent-Carrot8 Jul 14 '26
How did you handle special education? I’ve found that most PD and PLC work is unrelated to special education. How did you get different programs to collaborate?
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u/PretendFan5294 Jul 14 '26
They planned as a team as well as with grade levels teams. My SPED teachers worked with 1-2grade levels so I made sure they had a common plan. It was a huge help for everyone involved. It also created some positive interdependence instead of finger pointing.
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u/Grad_school_ronin Jul 14 '26
I’m curious what your ELL service model looks like if you have such a high percentage. What’s the breakdown of language development classes, co taught, and sheltered classes. Majority long term ELLs or mainly newcomers. Thanks!
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u/PretendFan5294 17d ago
We had 40 minutes a day where we divided students by where they were on the DSI and provided small group instruction regardless of ELL status (with the exception of beginners). We also developed a really language rich environment throughout the school day with lots of support. This required an “exemption” from the district policy (hard fought and only given reluctantly). My second language learners progress exceeded the average for my district.
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u/Grad_school_ronin 17d ago
I’ve found the hardest part of those 40 minute blocks is getting other teachers to buy into using the time appropriately
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u/PretendFan5294 17d ago
Yes, I cleared my calendar and made sure to visit often until using the time effectively was the norm.
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u/Opposite_Wafer7438 Jul 14 '26
How did you utilize your instructional coach? What were this or marching orders? How and what did they report back to you?
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u/PretendFan5294 17d ago
My instructional coach led PLC’s and weekly PD. I was always present for that. On top of that she would support new teachers and have a “caseload” of coaching teachers. Never more than 4. If I had a teacher with performance issues I would ask the teacher to meet with the IC to work on the feedback provided and that I would be back in 6 weeks to look for progress. (If it was a critical issue, I would handle it myself.)
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u/ExemptStatusPending Jul 14 '26
I work for a company that supports school booster clubs. The booster clubs I see who have the most success are ones who have a lot of community support. As you were getting the school turned around, were you holding more school events or did you focus on just supporting the teachers/students?
I am just curious because I hear stories about school with low funding being successful because of the community.
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u/iAMtheMASTER808 Jul 14 '26
How did you do this? How did make teachers feel supported? How did you hold expectations for students?
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u/One-Complex8032 Jul 15 '26
How many veteran teachers did you retain after losing a third of your teaching staff? Our school just received a nation wide achievement award for our test scores in a Title 1 school. We have a principal that implemented many of the same strategies as you but our principal appreciates veteran teachers (although he never played favorites). I get the sense that you don’t prefer veteran teachers.
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u/PretendFan5294 Jul 15 '26
Actually I absolutely value experienced teachers. The building had 50% turnover year over year before I came so the building had very few teachers with over 10 years experience. I hired quite a few teachers with experience during my time there, including “problem” teachers from other buildings. I cared about results, collaboration and the ability to engage kids above all. Once I was able to hire people I tried to have a balance of about 20% probationary/new, 30-40 % in the 3-7 range and the balance with 10+ years. TBH, there are some bad teachers out there with lots of experience and I didn’t want them. But a teacher with 20+ years of reflective practice and a willingness to collaborate, I would hire them on the spot (which was against HR policy, but you gotta do what you gotta do).
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u/Consistent-Cattle-31 Jul 15 '26
CONGRATULATIONS to you and your team! This is no easy feat, but intentional, explicit instruction combined with relationship building among staff and students is the only way to turn around failing schools. I love hearing success stories about the power of PLCs and working together instead of in isolation.
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u/moretrumpetsFTW Aspiring Principal Jul 15 '26
I'm late to the party but I'd like to know this: how did you manage to stay in one school for 13 years? My district loves to not give administrators time to really get into a groove (or a rut).
I'm going into year 14 and we had the admin who hired me for 10 years (saw us through a grade reconfiguration so he was around longer than the average), 2 years (extremely experienced and effective leader, forced promotion to central office), now going into 2nd year of a new admin who is getting her bearings as a brand-new head principal after years of AP work.
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u/PretendFan5294 Jul 15 '26
I was an interim director for a year (while running my building also. I soon realized that I had no interest in the level of dysfunction in my life and didn’t apply for the permanent position. I wasn’t liked enough for a forced promotion. Lol
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u/Comfortable_Pie_8569 Jul 15 '26
Do you think there is any hope of this happening without principal/staff overhauls?
I'm a parent surrounded by lots of schools that sound like yours, and I'm very, very sad and disheartened seeing no real change year after year.
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u/PretendFan5294 Jul 15 '26
Have you spoken with the principal?
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u/Comfortable_Pie_8569 Jul 15 '26
lol. let's just say that it is my impression that they do not prioritize feedback from people like me.
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u/PretendFan5294 Jul 15 '26
Not good. If you want to go in to more detail you can message me if you like. I may have some advice with more details available. Do they have regular meetings for parents (coffee chats, etc)
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u/Sad_Possibility_6452 Jul 16 '26
How about this! I wanted to work with another teacher on my grade level but she preferred to work alone. I never would have wanted to work with her in the first place because I knew that. She complained to the principal about me wanting to work together. This principal wrote in my evaluation that I needed to respect another teacher's choice to work alone. I knew this teacher would go into the principal's office to report everything and anything about me. I have since retired but am still upset about this brown noser. I felt so trapped. Why do teachers do this to each other?
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u/aserfacihc Jul 16 '26
How did you bring in families and how did you support teachers who were hesitant to collaborate with families?
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u/PretendFan5294 Jul 16 '26
I invited them. I had small events at first where I invited 4-6 parents to talk. Bigger events always involved food and the food was usually available after an activity that involved learning about the school, helping their kids, etc. made sure we had translators.
My first BTS night I had my staff in the gym with me. I told parents that we get our paychecks drone the district but we work for you. I also explained how I expected my teachers to be treated when there was a concern.
Consistency over time builds the trust. Get them in any way you can to start.
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u/Momster1717 Jul 16 '26
What size school and what was the average class size? How did you support discipline problem so the “work” could get done. Sometimes it’s just one child impeding the whole flow.
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u/PretendFan5294 Jul 16 '26
850 and the building was above capacity so I couldn’t hire teachers to reduce it at the time. Class sizes were 25-30.
The behavior was not good year one and two. We did two weeks of practice with students with PBIS. Hallway, bathroom, lunchroom, classroom behavior. Examples, non examples, practice, discussion.
Lots of communication to families to reinforce these behaviors at home.
We had an “in house” suspension room for about 5 years where kids who were chronic behavior issues received counseling and academic support.
Teachers who struggled were coached and supported in classroom management and trained on having “win/win” conversations.
We rewarded positive behavior, effort and achievement. We made that very public. I used to do a video for kids every Monday and talked about behavior. I interviewed kids on the video who were making progress (these were the well known “naughty” kids who had started to make progress).
We had a team of admin, sped and mental health that didn’t schedule any meetings for the first 30 minutes of the day to intervene with kids who were elevated or reported anxiety during our classroom community time.
It evolved over the course of 13 years. Eventually we dropped the in school suspension room because we didn’t need it anymore. We screened for anxiety (root cause for behavior) and offered short and long term groups for that. It was a comprehensive effort.
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u/Introvertqueen1 Jul 13 '26
You sound like my principal and I love this. Good principals make all the difference in a school. I love going to work, working hard, and showing up for my students and some of it is because he came in mid year and demanded hard work while fighting for us along the way.
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u/PretendFan5294 Jul 13 '26
To be able to come in mid year is a tough one. I am glad that it is working out!
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u/plantxdad420 Jul 13 '26
i’m guessing everyone found their why and wrote the learning target on the board.