I was beyond excited to begin my first official year as an Assistant Principal. I had several steps to go through for the Human Resources department to complete my hiring. It took some patience, but I was finally able to start the second day of the school year.

It was definitely baptism by fire. I had to hit the ground running without a lot of knowledge on what I was supposed to do. My Principal and partner AP were very supportive. I was very determined to be successful.

It seemed like there was a nonstop flow of things that I needed to learn. I took a lot of notes and made some mistakes along the way. The easy part of my job was building relationships with students, staff, and parents.

Everyday I felt more confident than the day before. I did not get to be as supportive as I think I should have been for teachers instructionally. I was still trying to learn the district and the campus. I feel that I did an okay job, but there was definitely room for growth.

My partner AP was hired in another district. I was a little sad to see him leave, but I was happy for his new opportunity. I spent the summer preparing to have a better school year. I knew what I was getting into and would have a chance to have a complete school year.

My new partner AP was brand new to being an administrator. I have always been a person that wants to share what I know with others and this would be no different. I wanted to make sure that she would be set up for success. We were able to start out the school year strong.

The school year has been a success thus far. Of course there are areas I still want to improve in, but I feel that I am a better administrator this year than I was last year. I’m more confident in my decisions and more comfortable on campus.

I’ve always felt that i have been exactly where I needed to be at certain times in my life. I feel that my current situation is where I am supposed to be. I’m happy that my work makes a difference. The job is not easy, but it is very rewarding. With the support of my current Principal and my drive to succeed, I’m looking forward to the future.

I went into the Summer feeling pretty good. There were some things I wanted to improve on and that was my focus. I spent most of the summer doing my own professional development. I also casually looked at job postings and applied for a couple of Assistant Principal pools in different districts.

I returned to work in mid July. Upon my return, I met the person that was hired for the vacant Assistant Principal position. She had worked in the district for years and the school year prior, she held the same position as me at a high school. Her husband was also an administrator in the district.

Admittedly, I felt some level of contempt for the new Assistant Principal. Why was she chosen for the position and I wasn’t? She had done nothing to me personally and was quite pleasant when we met. I did my best to answer her questions and to help her acclimate to the campus.

I met with the new campus Principal. I informed her that because this was the last year of my position, I would be actively seeking Assistant Principal positions. She was understanding and told me that she would help me in any way that she could.

A week later, I was on the way home after work when I received a phone call. I was asked if I was interested in interviewing for an Assistant Principal position. I excitedly accepted the offer to interview. I was surprised because I applied for the Assistant Principal pool and not for an Assistant Principal position. I had two days to prepare for a screening interview.

The following day I returned to campus and informed my Principal about the interview. The next day I had my screening interview with the Principal and Assistant Principal of the campus via Zoom. The interview went well although I still was unsure of what was to come. The next day I received a call and was offered a chance to participate in a panel interview.

I gladly accepted and began my process to prepare for the interview. Two days later, sitting in the front office of the campus, I had so many thoughts running through my mind. The interview was scheduled for 3:30, so I knew that I had better make a good impression. When it was time to interview, the Assistant Principal walked me back to a large room filled with people.

There were at least fourteen people including the Principal and the Assistant Principal. I had participated in interviews with large panels before, so I wasn’t too nervous. I answered the questions as best I could and tried to show some of my personality. I felt that the interview went well. I know what kept me from being overly nervous was the fact that I still had a job.

I received a call the next week from the Human Resources department of the district. The person on the other end of the phone congratulated me for being the finalist for the Assistant Principal position. I think I was partially in shock. Her voice on the phone was so soft I didn’t know if she said finalist or a finalist. She informed me that the next step was a meeting with the district’s Deputy Superintendent.

I had never heard of a candidate meeting with the Deputy Superintendent of a district as part of the hiring process. This was quite nerve racking since I still wasn’t sure if I was chosen for the position. The meeting went well. It lasted maybe fifteen minutes. After returning to campus, I received the call that I had waited five years for. I was selected to be an Assistant Principal.

I was in my former school standing in the stairwell so I could not yell. I calmly accepted the offer. I excitedly walked outside and called my wife to give her the great news. I could not wait to get started.

We received notice that the current Principal would be retiring. This news was met with tears from the other Assistant Principals and Counselors, but had no affect on me. I had not known her long enough to be sad about her leaving.

Everyday that I was on campus, the Principals words would replay in my head. I was on a mission to show her how wrong she was. I continued to do what I was doing before. I also kept a watchful eye on other members of the administrative team and measured my words.

As the year continued one of the other Assistant Principals informed us that she had found another position. Her husband had landed a head football coaching job, so her family was moving. I was happy for her and her family, but she was definitely going to be missed. She was the one person that had always been consistent with me and helped me tremendously.

Upon the news of my counterpart leaving teachers began asking me if I would apply for her position. I had definitely gained the support of some teachers. I was unsure if I would get an interview even if I did apply.

A new Principal was named for the campus. Upon meeting her, I felt that she would do good things for the campus. I applied for the open Assistant Principal position. I completed the digital interview even though I did not prepare beforehand for it. I felt that there was no way I would get a chance to interview.

Two weeks later I received a phone call on the way home for the weekend. I was offered a chance to interview much to my surprise. I spent the weekend preparing for the interview.

My interview was conducted via Zoom. Our Area Superintendent, the new Principal, a Human Resources director, and a Principal from an intermediate school all participated in the interview. I felt that the interview went great.

I received a call from the Area Superintendent two days later. I did not get the position. He went on to give me some advice on things to work on. I took this as a victory, even though I did not get the job.

The next day my retiring Principal told me about how impressed our Area Superintendent was with my interview. I guess I wasn’t such a terrible employee after all in her eyes. I still had another year to improve on what had been a successful school year.

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.

I was set to begin the next phase in my career in education. I was going to be an Administrative Associate at a 5-8 grade campus in a new school district. I would be responsible for part of the campus 504 caseload and other administrative duties except for Special Ed.

The biggest change was my new 45 minute commute. I had never worked this far away from my home, so that was a bit unnerving. Another concern was how I would fit into my new environment. There were not many students that looked like me. How would this community accept a black male in a leadership position?

I was one of four administrators on campus. Everyone that I met upon my arrival on campus was nice and seemed genuinely excited that I was there. I met with the campus Principal and settled into my office.

After speaking with the Principal and finding out what would be expected of me, I was ready to get to work. I took every opportunity to make connections with students, staff, and parents. I enjoyed being in the hallways, visiting classrooms, and lunch duty.

I learned how the school district and campus handled 504 meetings from one of the other Assistant Principals. There were close to one hundred students that we conducted meetings for that school year. This, along with supervising athletic events, kept me busy.

Covid was running rampant at the time. There were several days of contact tracing and calling parents to inform them that their student could not come back to school for a few days. There were also discipline concerns. I became pretty good at investigating using camera footage and interviewing students.

Overall, I was enjoying the school year. One Assistant Principal was very helpful to me, another mostly helpful, and one who only offered to help when I asked. I was getting good experience and started settling in more. This position was supposed to be for two years. I can do this…

During a staff development meeting I received a phone call from one of the districts that I had applied to. I completed an application for their Assistant Principal pool. To my surprise, I was contacted to interview for an Assistant Principal position at a middle school. This was exciting news.

I returned the phone call and set a time for the interview. The interview would be conducted via Zoom. The interview, I felt, went well. I waited days to receive a response that never came. I was a little disheartened but I still felt good about my situation.

I continued planning and attending meetings in preparation for the upcoming year. A few days later I received a call to interview for a position with the same school district that I recently interviewed with. I would have to complete another interview via Zoom.

I interviewed with the campus Principal and her team of three Assistant Principals. The interview went very well. I felt that I had a very good chance of landing the position. I was excited, but I did not want to get my hopes up too soon.

Saturday morning of the same week I interviewed, I received a message asking if I were still interested in the position. I quickly reached out to the Principal to inform her that I was indeed interested in taking the position. I was extremely excited. Finally I was taking a step in the right direction.

The following Monday I informed my current Principal about my job offer. She responded by letting me know that I needed to submit a resignation letter. I was more than happy to do so. This meant I was finally able to get away from her leadership.

I originally planned to stay on my current campus for two weeks, I only made it one. I was asked to move from my classroom and lesson plan for the upcoming weeks. This made no sense to me because my replacement was already in the classroom. I made a phone call to the district that was going to hire me to see if I could start earlier than expected. They agreed and my current district allowed me to end my contract early.

This was all great news. My exit from campus was not what I expected. There was an incident between the Principal and a teacher on my former team. I don’t want to go into detail, but it only underscored the lack of true leadership that my former Principal displayed. I was sure to voice my opinion about her leadership and the environment on that campus.

It felt great to finally be free. I was a little sad to leave a district that I had been with for fifteen years, but I was more excited about my new journey. This is going to be great…

The school year started off with an introduction to our new Assistant Principal. She appeared to be a nice person, but I was admittedly still upset about not being given a fair shot at the position. Nevertheless, I still had a job to do.

Our grade level team was still intact, which was helpful. We worked together well and collectively did our best to help students be successful. Periodically I had to remind myself of what my purpose was for doing what I do. This was a tough task when you are in an environment that you do not want to be in.

Throughout the school year there were different things that happened that tore at the fabric of our school. There were some teachers targeted for their clothing, while others were allowed to wear what they wanted. There was one teacher that had a class with several behavior issues that was not properly supported by administration. These are just a couple of examples of things that did not help to build morale.

As Spring Break was coming to an end, we received news that we would not be returning to campus. This was at the beginning stages of Covid sweeping across our country. This was in many ways a blessing for me. I would still be able to do my job, but I would not have to step foot on campus. While it was hard teaching and planning with my team virtually, it was so much better for my mental health.

Even during virtual teaching, our campus administration found ways to ruffle feathers. I had two incidents that were not pleasant and had heated exchanges with the campus Principal. Looking back, I could have handled things differently, but I was fed up.

I made it through the school year as determined as ever to not return to that campus. I reached out to a school leader to brush up on some skills that would help me advance my career. One of the pieces of advice that he gave me was to get out of my comfort zone, meaning that if I really wanted to advance my career I would need to widen my search.

I followed his advice and applied for positions that were somewhat far away from where I lived. I also spoke with another friend that worked in school leadership that gave me a piece of advice that sticks with me to this day. He told me “Whatever you do, do it with excellence”. This helped change my perspective and set me on a different path.

As the school year approached I was excited to be back. Things were different with mask requirements and social distancing. I was ready to face new challenges. One day during staff development I received a phone call unexpectedly. The call was from a school district that I had recently completed an application for….

After the announcement of the new Principal and subsequent disappointment, the search for a new Assistant Principal began. The staff was sent a survey asking about qualities that they would like in an Assistant Principal. There was even a team formed to discuss campus needs.

I debated back and forth in my mind about applying for the position. There were several teachers on campus that asked me if I was going to apply. It felt good to have the support of so many teachers, but I was still unsure. I eventually decided to give it a try and apply for the opening.

A week after the school year ended, I was offered a chance to interview for the Assistant Principal position. I was told that it would be a phone interview. This took me by surprise, but I rolled with it. When I received the phone call, I was informed that the Principal had another engagement and could not participate.

I had a feeling during the interview that this was not going to be taken seriously. The two people conducting the interview were known allies of the current Principal. I was asked maybe five questions. I hung up the phone at the end of the interview thinking it was a complete waste of time.

I received a phone call from the Principal the next day informing me that I would not be considered for the position. This was probably a good thing. Now, I needed to begin the process of preparing to teach another school year.

As the school year began to get closer, I could feel the lack of enthusiasm to return to campus grow. How was I going to make it through another year? I focused on the two things that kept me going; the students and staff members that truly cared about the work.

I finished the school year without telling anyone what was happening. I was asked several times if I was coming back the following year. I answered the question, but did not give any indication about not being in my former position.

Just before we left for summer break, I was informed that I would be teaching fourth grade Math. That summer was tough. I applied for a few positions, but was not successful in landing any of them. I did not want to go back into the classroom, but I did not have much choice.

I was not in the right frame of mind returning for the upcoming school year. I was informed that I would be the fourth grade team leader. I guess this was a consolation for my former position being dissolved. I had never taught elementary school so I had a lot to learn. The only help I got from my Principal was that I would figure it out.

The first few weeks were ok. I loved the team of teachers that I was working with. Everyone was helpful and pulled together to make things work. It took me a month to really settle in and begin to figure things out.

Midway through the school year I interviewed for the Elementary Assistant Principal pool. After years of trying, I was finally selected. This was very exciting for me. I felt like things were starting to look up.

I had a very successful first year of teaching elementary. I did not expect to enjoy what I was tasked with as much as I did. My students were mostly successful and I learned a lot.

There was a major turn of events that I did not see coming; the current Principal was leaving to take a job out of state. Weeks later I learned that the school’s current Assistant Principal was going to be named Principal. This was a decision that did not sit well with a lot of faculty members.

There was the thought that the leadership would be the same as it was before. There was not a sense that all teachers were valued. Some could do what they wanted, while others were unfairly targeted for minor things. There was one other major unknown; who would be the new Assistant Principal?

We were now midway through the school year and I began to pay attention to the way that other members of the admin team interacted with some teachers. Some people were regularly greeted, while others would have to walk directly into their path to be noticed. This did not sit well with me. I continued to do my job and try to treat everyone with dignity and respect.

Some of the teachers that were not sure about me earlier in the year began to appreciate my presence. As we began to transition into the testing season, I was assigned a small group to provide math interventions. I did not see what was coming next on the horizon.

Two weeks before Spring break, the campus Principal came into my office to speak with me. I was informed that the campus would not have the funds to renew my position for the upcoming school year. This took me by surprise. My brain began to go into overdrive.

I began to think that accepting the position was a mistake. What was I going to do next? I applied for the Assistant Principal pool and also some positions outside of the district.

After I received the news, the Principal and Assistant Principal began to treat me very different. I was excluded from certain meetings where decisions for campus operations were being discussed. Communication also became strained. The whole situation escalated very quickly.

At this time I had a continuous contract with the school district, so I was not concerned about not having a job. I did not want to go back into the classroom. I began to feel defeated. What’s going to happen now?