On Taking a Position as a Principal

A few weeks ago I finished facilitating a session at my 4^th year of a Leadership Training and this year, over half of the attendees were from districts adding not one but multiple New Tech schools.  I love seeing this effort expand and see the influence that these communities have and will continue to have on national education.  It took a long time to get here, but the evolution of K-12 work has come directly from schools demanding support, exciting work that has evolved over the years.  

And yet, the more I see this transformation taking place, I cannot help but feel a longing to return to a school setting.  Each time I meet a community, I feel connected to the people and want to stay and work with them.  It is hard to leave these communities and know that I might not ever make it back to see the results of their planning and implementation.

The more students and educators that I meet across the Network, the more that I feel the pull of one community, one place to serve and share what I have learned from the network and put down my own roots in a neighborhood school.

As I think about all of the leaders I have known in schools, I am moved and inspired by their examples.  I have watched them struggle to balance work with life, face disappointment at the missteps of just one student, strive to learn and grow continually, and celebrate every success.   It has been an honor to know these individuals and the best way to repay that gift is to take what I see as the best of those efforts and make them my own.

As I have learned from these educators, I have also started to collect the characteristics of the ideal setting for me. Those characteristics have serendipitously come together in one community where I will be honored to serve as the new principal starting March 16^th: Bonsall High School in North County San Diego, California.  Bonsall offers:

• A smaller school district where I can learn the district office structures more quickly
• A district leader that values partnership with schools and wants to collaboratively solve problems together
• A neighborhood school where all students have access to the kind of outcomes that will lead them to a successful future
• A new high school still in implementation so I can grow with the school community
• A small, family friendly community for my own children to land softly
• Within driving distance of multiple universities where my husband can pursue his own career
• Close enough to our family and friends that I can drive home for the holidays

I didn’t know that it would be possible to find all these characteristics in one place and in fact, Bonsall HS is the only school in the country that has this particular collection of attributes for me.  I know that there will still be challenges serving in this role, but I also know that everything has aligned in the right time and space for me to take this position.  I have been warmly welcomed by the district and school staff and look forward to getting to know the students and parents of this beautiful community in the coming months.  I can only hope that I will be able to serve them well and attend to their needs to the best of my ability.