r/Principals

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 ?

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Excluding teacher stipends, snacks, athletics and band, what does a typical per-club budget look like at your school, specifically at the middle school level?

How much does it vary from club to club? How much comes from fundraising and/or club dues?

I’m trying to get a ballpark understanding as my team and I plan for the fall

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.

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!

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!

Hello! I am looking for guidance and possibly reassurance as a new administrator (2nd year AP). My principal is a conflict-avoidant, scary administrator who tries to people-please their way out of everything. I'm afraid of not developing as a leader due to being under leadership with poor practices. The staff are very much out of control because they know there are no consequences. The principal holds virtually no boundaries and there's no accountability. The principal is not very direct and leads in a "grey area" approach where nothing is really clear. They hide multiple times a day at the first sight of any issues. I'm doing okay holding my own and my special education team knows and meets my expectations because they know I will enforce those expectations. I'm afraid of having my leadership growth stunted by not having an effective principal leader and mentor. Please tell me I will be okay? I'm brand new to administration and don't want to create any drama with my school or district at large. From the outside looking in, the school appears "perfect." I'm likely viewed as "on it" and organized" by my colleagues. I also likely have a touch of the tism which causes me to operate best by being very direct and clear and things in the environment operating that way as well so I'm really struggling here. My principal handles things chaotically and based on their current feelings or anxieties, which is extremely unpredictable. Looking for advice and encouragement.

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

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

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?

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.

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.

A third of the teachers quit at my school and it’s likely our principal isn’t going to be a very positive reference for any of us. If your new applicant has 3 positive references but none of those references are from admin will you contact their listed supervisor? If their supervisor is negative how does this affect the likelihood of moving forward with hiring the applicant if they have green flags everywhere else?

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.

Is “anonymous feedback” really anonymous?

Sometimes I’m tempted to share concerns, however it always feels like I’m walking into a trap.

So I have worked at my high school for the last 12 years teaching math (am the dept chair), and have taught math total 17 years in HS and community college.

The last two years test scores have been on the radar for math. They have gone down. Principal has talked to our dept weekly and almost every time it's the word "test scores have to go up". I understand this because the district will get on our principal is there are low test scores. I don't like it but I guess it is what it is.

We have changed curriculum and changed the way we taught.

Recently our star scores were not all that great and we have to wait for the PSAT data to come out sometime this Summer before we know how well our students scored percentile wise.

The problem is that there is no incentive or we can't do incentives for students to perform well.

Is this a problem in more areas in the nation right now with low test scores in HS math?

If you were me, would you move on? I don't want to be that guy that is looked down upon because our test scores aren't good. It seems like whatever we do, students are not motivated to do well because there is no punishment for doing poorly or a reward for doing well.

I am thinking of relocating to another state or changing the subject I teach in. I'm not sure my nervous system can handle another year of being told I'm not up to par due to student's test scores.

By the way, I was told "next year will likely be my last at the school" if test scores from this year's PSAT have not improved. My principal is not all bad and said some good things on my eval but that part kind of hit me.

On Friday, I received a certified letter from the parent requesting a no-contact arrangement involving the PTA president. The request includes asking that the PTA president not be present at meetings the parent attends. However, as PTA president, she is generally expected to attend PTA meetings.

The initial complaint involved alleged discrimination related to a disability. The PTA president responded to that complaint by email in a way that appeared to dismiss the parent’s concerns. There are now active state and federal investigations based on complaints filed by the parent. The PTA in a moment of anger responded to an official complaint saying that the parent is being difficult and that they are lying about being discriminated against. then the PTA president sent a school wide notification that a parent reported discrimination buy she doesn’t believe our school discriminates.

the parent also filed complaints with the state and OCR which are still pending. do I have to grant this no contact?

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?