Memorandum from Mary Kay Murphy
Mary Kay Murphy, Ph.D. District 3  School Board Member

July 12, 2005

More about The Role of the Principal

   In William J. Bailey and Kenneth D. Jenkins book, Seven Significant Positions in Education, they identify key focal points for Educational Reform. In their view, seven positions from preschool through graduate school have the potential for providing educational leadership for the 21st Century.

   These positions include the following: Directors of Preschools; Elementary School Principals; Public Middle School Principals; Principals of High Schools; Private/Independent School Headmasters; Deans of Community Colleges; and Deans of Colleges of Education.

   Authors Bailey and Jenkins note that leadership is the key to significant educational reform in the 21st Century. They note that classroom teachers are very important to student achievement. They state that college presidents, trustees, and others are important. But, they argue, without significant leadership from the middle managers of education, no real, significant differences in the quality of the school experience can be made. 

   The authors selected these seven positions because they are closest to where the success of schooling will be determined: teaching and student achievement. They work directly with faculty, have ongoing contact with students, and are in the best position to provide appropriate interventions when needed.

   Principals of elementary, middle, and high schools are most likely to know teachers and students better than anyone else in the school organization. The authors note that “if we accept the dictum that America’s schools will improve one school at a time, these people will be the front-line coaches for educational improvement.

   Also, principals are positioned at levels of increasing power. As schools become move decentralized, principals have increased levels of accountability. With Gwinnett County Public Schools’ commitment to local school site-based management, principals are leading figures of educational improvement. As local school managers, they are leaders of collaborative communications and planning.

   Most importantly, as Bailey and Jenkins point out, elementary, middle, and high school principals are in a position to lead school communities in developing and communicating the school’s vision, in setting challenging but realistic goals and expectations, in establishing procedures where accomplishment brings empowerment and needs generate coaching. 

   Finally, the authors note, for principals as leaders to be effective, they must be in settings as close to teachers and students as possible—the local school in a system that promotes local site-based management.

   In Gwinnett County, we subscribe to local school site-based management. We believe that principals are in the strongest position to provide transformative leadership—that they are closest to the faculty and the students and the community to provide collaborative communication, planning, goal setting, and accountability.

   August 2005 marks the opening of Gwinnett County Public Schools with a record projected 143,000 students—7,000 more than were enrolled in May 2005. In District III, we applaud the leadership and acknowledge the importance of the principals who will lead the Duluth Cluster and Norcross Cluster schools in 2005-06.

   These include in the Duluth Cluster: Lee Westcott, Berkeley Lake; Cindy Burgess; Chattahoochee; Pat Blenke, Duluth High; Kay Harvey, Duluth Middle; Nancy Hammond, Harris; and Gwen Tatum, Hull Middle. The principals in the Norcross Cluster include: Esther Atapka, Beaver Ridge; LaVerne Watkins, Norcross; Mary Anne Charron, Norcross High; Kathy Eichler, Peachtree; Nancy Martin, Pinckneyville Middle; Bron Gayne Schmid, Simpson; Donna Ledford, Stripling; and Dana Pugh, Summerour. 

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