As the school year progressed I became more comfortable with my surroundings. I took on more assignments, spent more time in classrooms, and settled into doing some of the other leadership things that were uncomfortable. Things were going well.
Late November was wild. One of our team members became sick. Shortly after sickness ran through the rest of the persons family. This was during one of the notorious Covid flares. All of this meant more responsibility for me.
I did not mind doing more, besides this was something that none of us ever saw coming. We made it through this time period into Christmas break and the start of a new calendar year. During this time I was introduced to MAP testing on our campus. I learned how to assign testing and also monitor progress. I also had a chance to help with checking accommodations for STAAR(the state testing for Texas) testing.
I participated in a monthly meeting with our Area Superintendent that was supposed to prepare Assistant Principals for the Principalship. The meetings were okay. I did not care much for the topics of discussion and often did not have much to say. The topics were geared for those that had several years of administrative experience. I listened and took in all of the information that I could.
The Spring semester was also busy for me because my daughter competed on a travel volleyball team. I did not miss any tournaments except for one that was scheduled too closely to state testing. I remember before the first round of testing, I was asked to help with checking classrooms to make sure they were ready for testing. Myself and one of the other Assistant Principals checked rooms the week before testing.
My daughter’s team had an out of town tournament five days before testing. I was scheduled to return back to town two days before testing started. There was a mix up in flight arrangements and I did not get back until one day to testing. While I was away, I received a request to help with scheduling recess time for our fifth grade team. I thought the request was strange, but I still completed the task.
In the days following completion of state testing, I had my middle of year conference with the current Principal. I felt that I had been doing pretty well so far. I had no reason to suspect otherwise. I did not picture the conversation going the way that it did.
The Principal informed me that I should have scheduled an earlier flight and left my wife and daughter behind so that I could help with test prep. This statement highly upset me. No way I would leave my wife and daughter behind in an unfamiliar city. Besides, I did not earn a six figure salary that would afford me the ability to pay the high price of a plane ticket purchased at the last minute. The statement was completely tone deaf.
Along with the ridiculous statement that was made, I was accused of missing some district trainings that were held after school hours. This statement was untrue. On two occasions I joined the meetings via Zoom while making my commute home. I was also told that I lacked initiative and that I was not completing walk throughs. All of this really upset me because it was simply untrue. She also said that I struck her as a 8-4 guy. Her statements stung because I was always one of the first to arrive on campus and left around the same time as the other AP’s. I did my best to always be in the hallways and to help out when I saw a need. I also completed several walkthroughs that were evident by a Google form that was shared with the administrative team.
It took everything in me not to curse and yell during the meeting. I took the information from her perspective and set about finding my path forward for the rest of the school year. I knew that from that day forward she was someone I could not rely on. I also knew that, from what she shared with me, there were two Assistant Principals that I had to watch out for. It’s always upsetting when people around you would rather harm you than help you.
My Life In Education… 