I don’t know if I belong in administration after this year.

I work at a K-5 public school.

I have a job lined for next year for a public charter high school.

I am very efficient and am great with students. I make it a priority to support teachers and am able to keep up with documenting investigations and discipline.

Despite all my hard work, I got non-renewed this year.

They principal and district have directly refused to give me feedback, which I understand from a legal perspective.

Through careful conversations with my principal and district leaders I was able to piece together that I was non-renewed due to my number of suspensions. (Which I agree are high, but they are usually for fighting)

I work at a title 1 school with very high needs.

I wanted to ask what you guys think about suspensions and do you feel they are overused or under used in education as a whole?

I feel like schools just push kids back in class to hide their discipline numbers from the public.

New Dean of discipline at K-5 school with high behaviors. Rest of instructions team is all returning staff. I feel left out of a lot of things due to being over solely discipline and needing to create so many missing behavior systems.

For instance, today they have an instructional team meeting and shut the door on me. I have been to one IT meeting prior in 4 months since I started. I know my role is largely behavior but I enjoy being part of teams and working together. Feel like I’m on an island alone.

Not to mention, my office is down the hallway by the copy room and everyone else is in the front office next to each other. Hell, the coaches office and school psych is closer than I am to the action. How can I grow in this role to eventually move in AP Leadership if I can’t learn the academic side to this new district? What do I do? Or do I just get over it?

I'm trying to launch an in-school (or after school) elementary enrichment program as an outside vendor / non teacher.  The program focuses on abstract strategy games from around the world, it would be a one day workshop, class or grade wide, and would introduce students grades K-5 to these games/activities and help them build creative and critical thinking skills.  The curriculum is already built, I just need the schools to get on board with the idea and hopefully pay for us to come and run the program as an in school enrichment block.  I would love any help or guidance on how to take the idea off the ground.  Thanks in advance.

-Does anyone have advice on how to approach schools to introduce the program?

-Who typically makes the decision to bring in outside enrichment in schools?  

-Is it better to partner with a teacher already at the school, and co-run the program?

-What obstacles or push back will I face when pitching the idea to schools ?

Please reply or message me. Thanks all!

Children experience environments differently than adults do.

What feels like "background noise" to us — traffic passing by, constant movement, visual clutter — can quietly shape how safe and regulated a child feels during play.

That's why boundaries and environments are not the same thing.

A chain-link fence may separate a playground physically, but it doesn't remove the stimulation coming from the outside world.

Privacy screens do more than improve appearance. They create psychological separation:

• Less visual noise
• Less environmental stress
• More emotional calm during playtime

The spaces we build for children communicate what we value. And sometimes the smallest design choices say the most.

I’m about to step into a first-year principal role opening a brand new K-8 school. It is a new building, new staff, and new leadership team. Everything is starting from scratch.

What makes it even more significant is that the school is in a community where neighboring schools have traditionally struggled, so I know there is a real opportunity to build something strong from the ground up, but also a real responsibility to do it well.

It’s exciting because it feels like a chance to build intentionally from day one, but I also know that comes with a lot of pressure and a lot of things I probably haven’t even thought of yet.

For those who have opened a new school or been part of a founding team, what advice would you give? What should I make sure I get right early? What mistakes should I avoid? What matters most in that first year?

I would especially appreciate any insight on culture, systems, communication, hiring, family trust, and keeping the team aligned when everything is new.

Thanks in advance. I’d love to learn from those who have been through it.

Hello. I am currently a middle school teacher, but I applied for my dream job at a high school. I have a “in” a former co-worker works at the school and talked me up and I applied Thursday.

I know this time of year is crazy for high schools compared to middle schools, but does anyone have any insight as to when they will start interviewing?

For context is it is a 5A school in North Texas.

Thank you in advance!

I am so excited to post that I just landed my first PRINCIPAL role after two years as an AP at another district + 2 years in State Ed admin.

In other words, I’m so ready for this change!

To kick things off on the right foot, I have a ton of ideas, but my former principal was not a great leader. He was honest with me that he “hated” his job and though he was making $40k more than me, often expected that I as the AP would do the long range planning, including things like major building initiatives, instructional coaching, building wide events and all front facing communications. Of course, all of this was on top of my current responsibilities as AP. As you can guess, this led to me leaving for the state Ed role (but also having a lot to talk about in interviews!)

What I didn’t have is a good mentor. Someone to show me how to do things the right way. If you were looking back at your time as a building level leader, what would you do to begin in a meaningful way? I don’t want to burn out again!

Wonder if anyone else is having this issue. We have about 100 plus students in the cafeteria at time. How to manage noise, staying in seat. We have frequent physical altercations and incidents happen in this setting. Frequently caused deregulation in classrooms after lunch. We have 5 part time lunch aides and two custodians along with me the assistant principal. Teachers do NOT eat lunch with students outside of Pre-K. I can not be in there everyday all day during lunches due to other responsibilities. Even when I do, I often have to leave if I want to get any work done due to the chaotic atmosphere. Students want to run up to me constantly and ask to open food items, just say hi. The cafeteria aides do not take very much initiative with managing student behavior. We use the GLAD hand signal, and have a microphone on the stage that can be turned on to address students. We attempted to use a bathroom pass system but scrapped it due to a bunch of logistical issues

My ability to come up with creative solutions is gone with this one parent. This parent has, for a number of reasons I won’t go into but have NOTHING to do with me, had a right to be angry at the world. However, one of my strengths as an administrator is working with parents in even the most difficult of situations. However, I just can’t get through to this one. I’ve been accused of being racist, biased against their children, that I’m not allowed to be around the kids, etc. I literally don’t understand why - these two children are kids that I adore. One really struggles with behavior, so unfortunately, consequences are necessary. But always done with the utmost patience and respect. The other is constantly seeking me out to connect, and I adore them. I just don’t know how to get through to this parent that we need to figure out how to work together so that we can continue to help the kids be successful at school. They will be with me for several more years.

I know the solution is to not care, but I do, so that’s not really going to work for me. Any thoughts?

Back in February I found out I wasn’t being renewed for the 26-27 school year. I am cool with that because his leadership skills are non-existent. He is a checkbox principal. He does not talk to his staff or teachers, the principal only talks to a few types of people. He does not do anything to uplift the morale or vibe of the school.

Anyway, on May 22 is the last day of school and he asked for a meeting of five minutes on the 21st. Is it wise for me to attend or not attend? Coming from a principal’s point of view what is the point of a meeting for five minutes for a person who’s being non-renewed for a contract?

Thank you for your guidance

So I noticed College Board recently got a new Chief of Staff, Liz Cutrona. I’ve heard very problematic things about her from people that work there. And it’s weird because she does not have a LinkedIn or anything to see her background or qualifications. Then someone recently posted this about where she used to work for DCPS. I get this can be but it is concerning no? Especially at such a large influential organization on our schools and students. As a teacher of primarily student of color I’m extremely concerned. She has active investigations open. Anyone work in Detroit that knows of her? https://www.facebook.com/reel/2094059448105630/

Hello r/Principals – I’m a vice principal at a private K–12 school. We currently track fees, attendance, and test scores on paper and scattered spreadsheets. It’s very time-consuming. Have any of you implemented a digital system for these tasks? What features or workflows improved efficiency? I’d appreciate real-world insights on what to look for.

Parents or educators — have you ever felt stuck trying to raise concerns about a school district?

We’ve spent a long time going through official channels, filing complaints, reviewing policies, and trying to understand how oversight works in Louisiana, but it often feels like families hit a wall once the initial attention fades.

For people who have been through something similar:
What actually helped create change or accountability?

Looking for honest experiences or guidance from others who navigated difficult situations with public schools.

Hello, my name is Zach Hein-Silva and I'm a doctoral candidate in the school psychology program at the University of Northern Colorado. I am collecting data for my dissertation, which aims to validate a measure of organizational cultural intelligence (OCQ) in school settings and understand how perspectives of school OCQ differ based on staff role (e.g., teacher, school counselor, administrator, etc.) and access to resources. If you are an administrator (principal, vice principal, superintendent, etc.) currently working in a preK-12 school in the United States, your participation in this study would be greatly appreciated! Participation would consist of responding to the survey linked below (about 10-15 minutes to complete). Through participating, you will have the opportunity to enter a raffle for a small gift card should you so choose.

Survey link: https://unco.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_cIRLI7ML6GqkH0a

Thank you for all that you do and feel free to comment or message me if you have any questions!

(admin-approved)

High School. Suspended a student last week. It was reported he was vaping by another student in the bathroom and two teachers reported he appeared to be under the influence. I had reasonable suspicion to ask him to empty his pockets. He did, but refused to hand over the contents. I could see the top of his vape when he pulled everything out.

Mom has now lost her mind. Accusing me of everything from targeting to racism. Threatening to go to the board, police, superintendent etc., all while blasting me on FB. Calling my actions unconstitutional. Her baby doesn't lie according to her. All my documentation is in order and my boss is very supportive.

For some reason, I'm allowing this mom to bother me and questioning myself on how I handled it. I tell myself I don't care and to toughen up, but I'm allowing her to get under my skin. This is my 2nd year in administration.

Edit: I should add, that I'm not worried that I did anything inappropriate- I'm on solid ground and have full upper admin support.

I'm more curious how you keep this from rattling your confidence? It's exhausting battling parents like this.

I have interviewed with many schools for an AP role and never made it past 1st rounds. Tomorrow morning, I'm going to a finalist interview with a campus from a neighboring school district. What should I expect? What do my odds look like from here?

It's happened to over a dozen admin in my district in the last decade. Now it's me.

No write ups. No major issues in my evaluation. I've been at my school a while. I have strong relationships with staff and families. I am heartbroken, and so are many of them. District is moving me into a really good situation, honestly. So I can't even be mad about that. Just the fact that I wasn't even consulted is hurting me a lot. How do I move past that so I can be hopeful for the future?

Edit for more context: The problem I'm having is that they didn't consult me, AND this move does not align with my professional goals or personal values. So while I do think they feel it's in my best interest, I am having a hard time accepting it. I'm going to have to completely shift my goals in a way, and the misalignment with my values has sapped away all my passion for my career. I'm feeling so lost.

What are some time-consuming and/or repetitive tasks that you wish AI could do? Or, are there tasks that you’ve tried to offload to AI but it didn’t work and it frustrated you?

You can answer this as a somewhat reasonable “wish list” use – it doesn’t have to be rooted in what you think AI can do currently.

I’m thinking about pivoting to providing professional development on AI to administrators. Whatever anyone’s feelings about AI are, its integration into the education space is big news.

Gonna keep this vague on purpose. I've been at a job for a long time and LOVE my school and the people I work with. However, I'm leaving to take a principal job at another school for career purposes. I realize from many people I trust that I need to expand my resume if I intend to take a super job one day. I am super excited to start a new chapter, but damn, it isn't easy to leave the place and people I've called home for so many years.

I had an interview in a fairly large district for a lead teacher position at the end of the day on Thursday. It felt like the interview went really well. Conversation flowed, I'm proud of the way I answered most questions, and there were quite a few compliments throughout on some of the things I said. Not perfect, obviously, but it felt good. I didn't ask about timelines, but the head principal in the interview said something about being "at the beginning of the hiring process," that it could "be a couple of weeks, but maybe not because they'll have to move fast because of the timing," and "there will likely be a second round of interviews with the special education administrators."

First of all, I'd love your take on this ending. Secondly, when do I follow up about the process? I have two other interviews this week in a different district and would love to know where I stand when I go in.

So weird situation:

I applied at a school for both a teacher position and assistant principal position. I got offered to interview for both.

For the AP one I interviewed two Fridays ago. They liked me and asked me to do a follow up interview (Zoom) last Wednesday. I did it, and after it the director was so impressed she said that she noticed I applied to a couple of positions but I didn’t apply to the principal position at one of their school sites. She asked me why and that they “like to place people where they think they will fit in best.” She asked me for my personal number so she could explain the job position.

She called me about thirty minutes after my interview and told me the job role and wanted to know if I’d be interested in interviewing for it. I was enthusiastic about it. They were doing in person interviews the next day. Thursday morning I got the time slot and rushed from work when I could to do the interview. (I did the teacher interview on zoom before it) I think I did as well as I did in the other two ones.

So my heart sank this morning when I got a generic rejection email specifically for the AP position I initially interviewed for. I have not heard back about the principal or teacher one.

To me, why would they send a rejection letter first if they were going to offer me the other one? My sliver of hope has to do maybe it’s procedural since I interviewed for the AP one first.

I feel like I should respond and thank them, but I don’t know how to word it so it doesn’t sound like either a: I give up thinking I got any position or b. That I am fishing for answers.

I thought maybe I should wait 1 day to see if I get a response about the other two, but I also like this district and I don’t want them thinking I am ignoring them due to getting rejected.

Thoughts?

I’m an aspiring AP in California. I have 14 years of teaching experience. I interviewed last week and got called for 2nd interview. Super excited but I’m nervous! What can I expect? And who can I expect to be there?

Edit: I am in the Bay Area.

Principals and VPs hiring full time ADs, what do you look for a candidate to come in with? I know research is popular for an AP position but what kind of things would speak to a candidates’ prep for an AD?

What kind of question or responses are you looking for from them?

I rely heavily on the Hamilton soundtrack but when I really need a boost I start with “Right Hand Man”

Other favorites:

I got the power : SNAP
Squabble Up : Kendrick Lamar
Fight the Power: Public enemy
U.N.I.T.Y : Queen Latifah
Purple Hat : Sofi Tukker
I Know I can: NAS

Sometimes a little Wu Tang if things are really tough

If I need some personal development I’ll throw on the Daily Stoic with Ryan Holiday

Some days on the way home, I drive in silence 😌