Dive Brief:
- One award-winning principal stresses that building relationships with students and staff members – including celebrating each of their birthdays and having them then connect with each other and the community in creative ways – pays off for administrators, particularly by building a strong school culture, which is critical to their success.
- Sharee Blunt, principal of Northglenn High School in suburban Denver, uses an elaborate spread sheet and relies on supportive staff members to recognize those celebrating birthdays and personally deliver a card — one of the efforts on building school culture that helped her become principal of the year in the state. She was highlighted in an article that is part of a “How I Lead” series on principals by Chalkboard.
- Blunt also developed a “paying it forward” program at the school for students and teachers, which encourages them to assist others in the school and in the community. Last holiday season, the program provided presents to about 120 students, supplied three books to each kindergartner at a local elementary school and brought gift bags for cancer patients.
Dive Insight:
Others featured in the series often focus on building relationships – including one principal who makes positive phone calls to parents, one who has made restorative justice work a part of the school, others who focus on socio-emotional learning for students or “no-surprise” teacher relations, and one who thinks bow ties break down barriers.
Relationships are often the theme in advice for principals, including this Association for Supervision of Curriculum Development report by Stephen Weber, associate superintendent of Fayetteville, Ark., Public Schools, who recommends principals learn the names of all staff members, get to know them and build relationships, citing research showing those efforts are key to a positive school environment. Communications is another critical point, he stresses.
John Eller, a former principal and now a professor at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota, also suggests in an article for the National Association of Elementary School Principals, that early in their tenure, principals should make getting to know the staff a priority. He adds that building maintenance staff and parent-teacher groups can be overlooked but are critical to a principal’s success.
The effort to build relationships is particularly important, the Harvard Graduate school of Education reports, when it comes to issues of race and culture, where principals must establish a “collective identity” for their school and work on agency – getting voices heard – not just advocating for them.