Session 1 and 2
were an introduction and orientation to the course and the expectations of
learners and the presenters as teachers of leadership principles and values.
The effects of leadership and the roles of the principal were also examined. Jamie
Lombaert was the coordinator and was later rewarded with a principal ship of
his own in 2014.
The presenters in session 1 were: Lena Boisjoli,
vice principal at New Era; Phil Vickers and Shawn Lehman, new principals
at Betty Gibson and Earl Oxford respectively; and Terry Osiowy, a seasoned
principal with the Brandon School Division for 15 years and current educational
leader at Crocus Plains Regional High School. Informal discussions centered on
the landscape of educational leadership.
Session two had Mr. Bruce Shamray (principal of
Kirkcaldy Heights and Betty Howell (retired) examine the effects of leadership
and the compass of the educational leader.What I found most enlightening from
this session was that the principal carries all the responsibility in a school.
Whether novice or a veteran, the 'buck stops' at his or her desk. All other
resource persons, including vice principals, serve supporting roles to his/her
leadership. It is a huge amount of responsibility and cannot be ‘about the
money' as Mr. Osiowy said. It can only be about the leadership and trying to affect
change in the school and community because, as I have pointed out to many
students, if you add up the hourly wage for a principal for all the time he
spends in school, it would a substantially poor hourly wage.
Younger principals, such as Vickers and Lehman,
rely heavily on the veterans to help them in many of their conflicts and
challenges as they work to further build upon leadership skills that will be
expanded and tested in daily situations, that demand crisis intervention, or
Covey quadrant two, focused planning. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Things_First_(book)
I feel the best leaders are the individuals who are
reluctant leaders; who have “greatness thrust upon them”.
http://nfs.sparknotes.com/twelfthnight/page_110.html
. These people have nothing to prove and the job does not carry as much egotism
baggage. Those who seek power are seldom the best to wield it. I think this is
particularly apt in the field of educational leadership.
The book we were given for the course was School
Leadership: Handbook for Excellence in Student Learning. It is a great
compendium of edited articles on leadership which was greatly underutilized. We
were assigned reading which, sadly, was seldom referred to in the sessions. The
book has a complete definition of leadership (p. 3-5). Important to me was that
leadership is always based on priorities and includes “ideas of the
instructional stakeholders” (p. 3). I have found that teachers are very seldom
consulted for any decisions of importance in the Brandon School Division (BSD) and
that principals are stymied in making
“purposeful and directional” ( p. 3) changes by the top-down
oligarchical structure that exists. The “significant change” that is supposed to
accompany successful leaders was and is hampered by the passive aggressive,
‘voluntold’ leadership of the Senior Administration. As the principals here tonight reiterated
many times, “It’s about the kids learning”. The decisions made by others too
often create a leader who is emasculated due to protocols, procedures, and
hidden agendas that are not communicated to them.
It’s been my experience from these principals
speaking candidly, that they are almost never brought into the conversation as frontline
stakeholders, and are told what they are to do; their autonomy stripped from
them in most ways except administering the school. An example would be Mr.
Adamski being told he could choose to keep the International Baccalaureate (IB)
courses at Neelin, when in fact they are sacrosanct and will never be
terminated. This of course is unspoken but accepted since it was the brainchild
of a person who is now in senior administration. This one example alone causes impotence in a
leader and will not allow him to put forth his leadership and vision for the
school of which he has been put in charge.
In the book “The Organized Mind: Thinking
Straight in the Age of Information Overload by Daniel J. Levitin, I read
about flat and tall organizational structures and the poor communication of the
latter. Brandon School Division is decidedly tall in its organizational
structure even though it appears from the figure 2 below that it is flat. Most
all decisions are channeled through senior administration, which explains why
they are busy all the time; perpetually in Covey's quadrant 1 (fig 1). The
section of the book with the heading “Power Given Away is Power Gained” (p.12)
is in very short supply in the BSD.
Figure 1
Figure 2
Taken from https://image.slidesharecdn.com/3atta2ihrm-140511062704-phpapp01/95/human-resource-management-38-638.jpg?cb=1399789996
Taken from https://image.slidesharecdn.com/3atta2ihrm-140511062704-phpapp01/95/human-resource-management-38-638.jpg?cb=1399789996
Taken from https://www.bsd.ca/Division/DivisionAdministration/structure/Pages/Default.aspx
I also found it
very interesting that a certain principal spoke with such authority and eloquence about
leadership, when I have personally been on the receiving end of this person’s
lack of leadership with regard to my daughter’s being bullied at his school. It
was a ‘Catch -22 ‘ situation because my wife and I were unable to bring this to
light, since we would be deemed unprofessional, but repeated requests to
rectify the situation saw no change. Our recourse was to move our youngest
daughter to the school of choice at J.R. Reid, where she flourished.
I
guess it could be seen as a strengthening of my character not to escalate this
situation by not going to Senior Administration with a request to have the
principal show the leadership he was entrusted to use at his school. Rather, it
crystallized my thoughts on the leadership roles of some that rise to the top,
as proponents of work-to-rule, instead of leading effectively for the benefit
of the students and staff in that school.
Session 3 and 4 topics
were on visionary leadership,
learning leadership, and the examination of the policies and
practices of the Brandon School Division; the latter further explored in the next
2 sessions as well. Presenters in session 3 were Ms. Barb Miller, principal of the
K-8 School in Alexander and Ms. Nancy Dane of Meadows, another K-8 school. Session 4 presenters were Dave Lim, a
new principal at King George, whom I latter shadowed during my mentorship
sessions; and Michael Adamski, principal
of École
Neelin High School, the school to which I was currently assigned.
The roles of a
principal in leadership are: 1.instructional 2.transformational 3.moral
4.participative 5.managerial and 6.contingent (pp. 27 - 28).While I agree that
most principals are doing a good job with these roles, especially at the K-8
schools, it has been my experience that increasing the commitment of school and
staff in a transformational manner and the moral leadership of the principals I
have been working with are woefully inadequate. I have not seen moral
leadership exhibited in the two high schools in which I have taught. This is
unfortunate because concomitant with this role is respect from a leader’s staff,
which I believe is imperative for the success of any leader. I do not see much
of this evident in the schools that I have worked in. ‘Do as I say not as I do’
is the more prevalent theme, and this does not engender confidence or
commitment in staff members.
One very
important point I picked up on in most sessions is that a lot of tough and
unpopular decisions have to be made by a Principal, especially for
instructional and managerial matters. I do appreciate the difficulty with
trying to please everyone and becoming ineffectual because of this tactic. Also
repeated many times was that students and their learning needs take precedence
over the staff’s needs. This happens almost without exception to which I
completely agree. A certain amount of ‘suck-it-up’ is required by teachers
under any principal. If decisions are framed in a manner that includes staff
input, this would bring forth the requisite respect needed to accept
unpalatable decisions. However, summarily dismissing decisions as ‘fait accompli’
and unavailable for input or change, stifles creativity and leadership
potential in staff members, and they follow obediently, in the same work-to-rule
mode to which they have been shackled.
The concept of
vision statements for a school was a particularly interesting concept I had
never heard before this session. The basic concept of a mission statement for
me up to this point was something that the school board and the school itself
set and was a nebulous idea that was never fully known or followed by the
teachers and other staff members in the school. The vision statement however, should
be principal’s first task when he assumes the head leadership role in a school.
The principal should ask, “Where do we as a school want to be in 5 years and
ten years in an idealized set of circumstances?” An easily understood and
shared, pithy statement should then be crafted, to be communicated to all
stakeholders in an ongoing manner. The mission statement is more action
oriented and states the ways in which all concerned parties will work to
achieve this vision; more of an “action-oriented” set of broad guidelines.
The reason it
was interesting to me is that by the time Mr. Adamski had taken over as
principal of Neelin I had never once heard, or seen, a vision or mission statement in print or electronically.
The succession of principals at Neelin over 7 years was such that this may have
not been possible due to such rapid turn-around. However, given the importance of the vision statement as
expressed by Dr. Michaels and the principals present, it made me wonder why we
still didn’t have one at year 2 of Mr. Adamski’s placement . My wife, who is
principal of O’Kelly in Shilo, had developed a vision statement and a set of
mission statements at the beginning of her career as principal. It is important
because it unites stakeholders in a moral purpose, focuses and gives purpose to
the staff and community and aligns rules, structures, and resources to support
the vision (School Leadership, p. 160). This makes the job of the principal and
others much easier. Without it, stakeholders are left to guess at the mission
ahead and have no direction; feeling lost and not part of the process. This
developed shared vision is missing at Neelin and also at Vincent Massey due to
a top-down managerial approach. The “unfreeze, change and freeze” method of
forcing change for excellence is our high schools, because of inertia and
status-quo (p. 176). It is not conducive to widespread buy-in of staff and causes
a culture of apathy. This then renders moot any discussion about learning
leadership.
Information also retrieved from:
Learning
leadership, from the statements the principals were making, seems to be about
learning how to survive in a lot of crisis intervention situations. This is a
great resource for sharing amongst principals. In fact, some people in the
session suggested that a principal’s handbook be published so that new
principals could have a training manual. This would save time for rookie and
veteran alike.
While I know
that K-8 teachers get around to the classrooms so that they are seen to be
active in a role other than disciplinarian, I have very seldom seen the various
principals in the schools in which I have been placed, drop by unless it was
necessary. So much so that there is an immediate fear that something has gone
wrong. Often it’s just something administrative, but the feeling of not being
called upon unless there is a problem, does not instill confidence in me as a
stakeholder in student success and as a valued team member. It shows, I
believe, a severe deficit in leadership in my opinion. If the leader is
supposed to model successful vision and leadership, it is not evident from any
leader I personally worked under to date.
The policies and
procedures are now available online instead of in a big paper-bound edition.
This is searchable and a highly efficient way for principals to now access valuable
information. We did a scavenger hunt for topics to see who could find the policies
and procedures fastest for various topics. It a great tool for use by
administrators and staff for the first time.
I was on the
cell phone policy review committee, until I later found out from the Brandon
Teachers Association I was not supposed to do because it was for senior
administration to create and staff to follow. I found out from Mr. Malazdrewicz
later when I shadowed him in the mentorship part of the course, that policy is
translated into procedures; the first is the goal statement and the latter how
it will be implemented. Since procedures
are interpreted differently in each high school and by each different administrator,
I think the procedures, and by extension their governing policies, are
ineffectual at best and ludicrous at worst. For example, inappropriate clothing
and cell phone policies implemented at Neelin and Massey are so loosely
interpreted as to be not even a guideline for appropriate use of either. Students can now use cell phones virtually
everywhere in the building, and no students are reminded about inappropriate or
revealing attire. This seems quite contrary to what we are supposed to be
teaching our students: self and mutual respect. I think it again comes down to
the overriding principle of ‘expediency first’. Difficult or demanding, long
term objectives and leadership are not implemented in favour of quick fixes. I
have had several Principals intimate to me in close quarters that it “won’t be
my problem in 5 years”. This, sadly, is not visionary or a leadership statement
that instills confidence. I wish it was otherwise. This would probably be the
defining principle in my decision never to be a principal in the Brandon School
Division; the lack of leadership at so many levels that eviscerates the ideals
we were learning about in the principal preparatory course.
Before I start on sessions 6 and 7, I
will discuss my mentorship placements, in which I purposely tried to diversify
my “shadowing” by selecting: a high school principal (Terry Osiowy Crocus
Plains, October 30, 2010); a K-8 Teacher (David Lim, newly appointed to King
George Elementary); Senior Administrator (Greg Malazdrewicz); and finally another high school principal (Matthew
Gustafson of Vincent Massey who is now Associate Superintendent).We were given
a set of questions, prepared by Betty Howell, to help us maximize our contact
time with the administrators during each of the 4 half-day sessions. I will
concentrate only on the relevant questions for which I received salient
responses.
The meeting with
Mr. Osiowy was on Halloween day and the students in the building were hyper
because of the carnival atmosphere. A teacher did present an ‘attire’ issue to
Mr. Osiowy, but it was deemed acceptable in light of the costume aspect of the
skirt. It was not made clear if it would have been overlooked in everyday
dress, but the fact that a teacher brought it to the principal’s attention was
reason enough for me to believe there were some measures in place. This was Mr.
Osiowy’s first year at Crocus, and it was widely believed that he was placed
there to make the school run more effectively. This would include dealing with
the Indian Posse and other gang related issues, as well as taking a less
laissez-faire direction with regard to staff and resource allocation, which was
the norm up until his placement. When asked about how staff are accommodated
and needs met for those who have always fared well in the assignment of
courses, Mr. Osiowy repeated an often stated truism, “It’s about the students,
not the teachers. The learning, not the teaching.” Teachers should be
professional and accept that you accept “duties as assigned” when they are
within a teacher’s capacity and skill set. This however is very seldom well
accepted because a lot of teachers still see themselves as subject matter
experts (SME)
instead of facilitators of learning in the new digital paradigm. http://www.thedailyriff.com/articles/the-flipped-class-manifest-823.php
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Having
not attained a Masters of Education, but instead having learned all his
leadership from years of experience, it was refreshing to talk with Mr. Osiowy and
get a better idea how a veteran administrator perceived leadership skill
acquisition spanning generation X to generation Z. http://www.socialmarketing.org/newsletter/features/generation3.htm He intimated to me that there was a continual
battle with senior administration when it came to running the school
effectively and that decisions were often made without consultation. A lot of
the time, the adage “ask forgiveness not permission” had to be the prevailing
principle in order to get on with the day-to-day affairs of this huge regional
high school. Crocus is entirely different than the other two high schools.
Funding for vocational programs alone, meant a full time financial person had
to be employed. Overseeing finances figured much more prominently for the
leader of this school. The moneys generated from the canteen were being used to
pay for a position at the school and should have been used to support the
canteen or sports, not staffing. This was a particular sore point with him and
one he said he would “go to the mat for”. Wrangling and in-fighting between
leaders and senior administration degrades morale. Removing autotomy from a
leader in any school seems counterproductive to the ends we all serve as
educators.
His
response to my question of building capacity at Crocus and continuing his
vision in a transition plan was, “Why bother? It will get changed anyway.”
While this may seem a particularly jaded response, I think it was based more in
the practical non-academic realities learned over the years of being as
efficient as possible. There would be no sense in spending valuable time on
such endeavours when your planning can be drastically altered by the vagaries of
budget, enrolment and staffing restraints, and the capriciousness of top-down
governance of senior administration.
I chose David
Lim at King George in order to get a K-8 perspective on leadership, especially
a newly minted leader; as this was his first year. He was still very much
beholden to the veteran staff for guidance on how the school ran in previous
years to get his orientation. He reiterated what we heard in the classes: that
no one is really ready for the leadership position and you grow into it with
time.
Mr. Gustafson stated that a good
leader is like a good gardener, tending and nurturing carefully what is doing
well in the garden and eliminating the weeds or unnecessary. Weather, removal
of crops, soil conditions, and other factors can affect the yield but there
will be one. Soil supplements, irrigation, and other means of increasing
productivity are the tools an effective gardener use, and these are what the
effective school leader needs to seek out. This will minimize crisis and
maximize efficiency while trying to integrate all stake-holders’ perspectives
and needs. Mr. Gustafson is much more reserved with comments and measures
everything he says with reflection before he speaks. He is very diplomatic and
I wish I had seen how that worked as an administrator in daily contact with
staff and students. We did not get to any practical work however because of
meetings which I was excluded from and the time limits of a half day. This was
a point brought up by many in the course; that mentoring been longer (2 or more
days in succession)
The topics for Sessions 6 and 7 were
Stewardship Leadership with a focus on the policies of the BSD; and the
personal characteristics of an effective school leader. Presenters for session
6 were: Donna Kormilo (retired principal of O’Kelly school) and Ron Cruishank (retired
vice principal of Crocus Plains). Session 7 had many community members: Judy
Pilling; Chief of Brandon Police Keith Atkinson; Nonnie Cancade from Investors
Group, and Jeannie Millis from BDO.
The
most interesting topics from the first session was the concept of the principal
as a steward of human and physical resources as well as the driving force
for making community connections. Until
this session, it wasn’t evident to me, and in fact most teachers, that the
principal have the responsibility for not only maintenance staff ,
educational assistants, teachers and the
students but also every piece of equipment and tangible resources within the
school. He/she must have a finger on the pulse of what is going on in the
school, know how this can serve the needs of the catchment community, and
strive to increase the communication between the two.
Also,
interesting was the clearer definition of the role of the vice principal which
is for service and support to the principal. VPs can make recommendations and
be consulted for their knowledge but they are in no way a proxy for the
principal. This was enlightening because, like most teachers, I believed that vice
principal is synonymous with principal. This is fact not the case. Every piece
of equipment purchased, every cheque signed and every staff member hired is the
sole responsibility of the “commander-in-chief”. The implications for this
should be made known to all staff so that they are addressing the main decision
maker in the school, instead of going the more circuitous route of VP, then to
the principal. An example to illustrate would be when a teacher asked Mr.
Proulx (the computer technician for IT Neelin) to obtain a new printer for her
room. The VP told Mr. Proulx to proceed and he gathered details on models and
prices. This work was for nothing because a definitive ‘NO’ was given to the request
when it arrived on the principal’s desk. In this case, not only was the
communication lacking, but the roles and responsibilities of the principal were
clearly not understood by the technician or the vice principal. This confusion
could easily be cleared up and not repeated if the principal defined his and
the vice principals’ roles to all staff in the building. Confusion and
miscommunication like this is still happening at my current position in Vincent
Massey.
Judy
Pilling in session 7 gave a brief summary of Stephen Covey’s 7
Habits of Highly Effective People to
which I was already familiar. This again clarified my thoughts on leadership in
the BSD as previously stated. Independence and interdependence for staff is
paid lip service but not truly valued, practiced and modeled by administrators
and thus staff.
Why there were
two business people giving presentations was somewhat a mystery. On reflection,
I think it may have been to provide some balance, by providing discussion on
leadership demands outside of a school setting. Effective leadership traits remain
the same for a business leader as are for an educational leader and in a lot of
cases (moral, ethical, communication, building capacity, entrepreneurship,) equally
as well followed or not. It think it is quite simply easier to dictate than to
collaborate and this is borne out in the cases if the arrogant disregard that large multinational
businesses, whose bottom line to investors takes precedence over the customer
or the environment. I understand that all leaders are just people, but the fact
that they have assumed the role of leader in any arena, means they must be held
to a higher standard; one that requires reflection and introspection on what
they do to, and for, others. A sense of community and a true “global village”
has yet to be realized because local justice does not trump international rules
yet.
Whole day session at the Strategic Leadership
Council (SLC) monthly meeting. This was without a doubt the most boring and
bureaucratic meeting I have ever had the displeasure to experience. The meetings
I attended while I was a programmer with McCain Foods Canada, shone out like
beacons of hope in comparison to this meeting. Meeting for the sake of
meetings. To make sure the power structure is validated. A waste of principals’
valuable time that is mandated monthly. But according to the Harvard Business
Review, it is what you would expect if there is no clear plan or priority. https://hbr.org/2014/05/your-scarcest-resource
Topics of note: the new
provincial report card and how our K-8 reporting without grades will be
difficult to implement inside the parameters of what the Ministry of Education
expects
Works Cited
Smith , Stewart C.
and Philip K. Piele. School Leadership: Handbook for Excellence in Student
Learning. London: Corwin Press, 2006.
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