A Reader Asks... The Principal's Contract

A new LYS Principal asks the following:

SC, 

At the end of the summer my district informed principals that their contracts would not be addressed until February. Historically, principal contracts are renewed (or extended) during the summer for two-year terms. Needless to say, this is more than a little nerve racking.  Especially since I am about to buy a house in the district.

Honestly, I am no longer sure how committed the district is to me or any other principal here. The district has experienced some significant turnover, some of it voluntary, some of it not. I thought the district had removed the questionable and bad apples, but evidently it does not think so. It sure feels like I am walking on unstable ground!!!  You have more experience in situations like this, what is your analysis?

SC Response

In regards to your two-year contract, with annual extensions, I was never lucky enough to have that made available to me. In the districts I worked in, I always had a one-year contract. And that safety net was removed when I went to work for Dr. Neeley. At that point, not only was I an at-will employee, it was understood that the position would go away, most likely with no warning. So I don't know what to read into your situation.  But I can tell you that a one-year contract is not unusual.

As for purchasing a house, if you plan on being upwardly mobile (bigger campus and/or higher position) and if the housing market in your area is weak, DO NOT BUY!

If you plan to stay in the district for at least five years and/or you can sell or lease a house in your area in a timely fashion, they purchasing a house is a little less risky.

Here is what you must understand with perfect clarity. The principalship now resembles the Superintendent and Head Coach position more than ever before.  As a principal, your job is only as safe as your most recent results. If under your leadership your campus does not move forward at an acceptable pace, assume that the clock is ticking.  That is the current reality of the job, no matter which district you work for.  The principals that embrace this enjoy a clarity of action-oriented vision.  The one’s that do not operate in a state of perpetual discomfort and/or fear. Welcome to the arena of leadership.

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction.” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/Fundamental5 
• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “Look at Me: A Cautionary School Leadership Tale” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/lookatmebook 
• Now at the Apple App Store: Fun 5 Plans (Fundamental 5 Lesson Plan Tool); PW Lite (Basic PowerWalks Tool); PW Pro (Mid-level PowerWalks Tool)
• Upcoming Presentations: Region 10 ESC Fall Leadership Conference (Keynote), TASSP Assistant Principals’ Workshop (Featured Speaker), American Association of School Administrators Conference (Multiple Presentations), National Association of Secondary School Principals Conference (Multiple Presentations)
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation

A LYSer Submits... The Hidden Agenda of Choice

A LYSer submits the following:

It can be argued that a significant number of charter schools are not truly open enrollment campuses.  This fact is more than just academic, what this means is that on a daily basis many charters violate the ban against “separate but equal.” Schools like KIPP maintain a facade of open enrollment, but they maintain soft (but real) requirements of continued attendance of the child and regular participation by the parent.  Such requirements would be deemed unconstitutional for a traditional public school. 

Charters get to do this because they operate “outside the bureaucratic entanglement of government bodies.”  That sounds reasonable and even innovative. However, if advocates of charter schools are saying that the reason traditional public schools can’t effectively operate is due to unnecessary bureaucracy, the simple fix is to decrease the bureaucratic entanglements placed upon traditional public schools, not to create an entirely separate school system.

What is conveniently forgotten is that many of these “bureaucratic entanglements” are the manifestation of civil and constitutional rights. And there is the rub, civil and constitutional rights bind states, but not parents.  By putting the onus of “separate but equal” on the backs of parents via the vehicle of “school choice” (charters and vouchers), those pesky civil and constitutional rights are nicely sidestepped.

On the issue of vouchers, they are a method to include parochial and private schools on the “school choice” bus. The logical conclusion of this “school choice” agenda is to once again create a “separate but equal” school system.  But in this enlightened era, parents now drive segregation and discrimination, through a mechanism created by the state.  A slick and tidy sidestep, don’t you think? 

The "school choice" agenda should be admired for its duplicitous simplicity.

Step one: Convince the country that public schools are “failing.”

Step two: Demand “school choice” to save students from “failing” schools. 

Step three: Recreate separate but equal, through parent demand.

Fifty years ago, the battle for equality and civil rights in our schools made a significant leap forward.  Now I watch as those victories are being systematically dismantled on a daily basis.

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction.” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/Fundamental5 
• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “Look at Me: A Cautionary School Leadership Tale” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/lookatmebook 
• Now at the Apple App Store: Fun 5 Plans (Fundamental 5 Lesson Plan Tool); PW Lite (Basic PowerWalks Tool); PW Pro (Mid-level PowerWalks Tool) 
• Upcoming Presentations: Region 10 ESC Fall Leadership Conference (Keynote), TASSP Assistant Principals’ Workshop (Featured Speaker), American Association of School Administrators Conference (Multiple Presentations), National Association of Secondary School Principals Conference (Multiple Presentations)
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation

A Reader Shares... The Power of the Fundamental 5

A LYS Assistant Superintendent shares the following:

SC,

I was sitting in on a PLC meeting at one of our campuses as teachers were discussing the continuous refinement of the Fundamental 5 in our classrooms. The conversations were as powerful as any I have been a part of in a PLC, but there were two teacher comments that I have to share with you.

1. "I never thought about Framing my Lesson before this year.  Now, I can't imagine teaching anything without it!"

2. "The Power Zone is more than just walking around. It is walking around your class with a purpose and focus."

SC Response

Thanks for sharing and keep up the great work.  The shared focus of central office, campus administrations and teachers on the daily execution of great instruction in all of your classrooms is not only inspiring, it is beginning to pay dividend that were unimaginable even just last semester.

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction.” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/Fundamental5 
• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “Look at Me: A Cautionary School Leadership Tale” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/lookatmebook 
• Now at the Apple App Store: Fun 5 Plans (Fundamental 5 Lesson Plan Tool); PW Lite (Basic PowerWalks Tool); PW Pro (Mid-level PowerWalks Tool)
• Upcoming Presentations: Region 10 ESC Fall Leadership Conference (Keynote), TASSP Assistant Principals’ Workshop (Featured Speaker), American Association of School Administrators Conference (Multiple Presentations), National Association of Secondary School Principals Conference (Multiple Presentations)
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation

Top LYS Tweets From the Week of October 14, 2012

Two things happened last week that convinces me that you must speed up the implementation of bootleg technology in your classroom and on your campus.

The first was the announcement that Newsweek will cease publishing a paper version of its magazine at the end of this year.  Starting in 2013, the easiest to read Newsweek will be on some bootleg technology device.  This isn’t the tip of the iceberg, this is the tipping point.

The second was a conversation I had with a LYS principal, who is by all accounts one of the top-five high school principals in Texas.  This principal told me, as a statement of fact, that in three years, his campus will no longer issue textbooks to students.  Instead, the campus will issue an e-reader of some sort.  Unless the student already owns such a device, which most of them currently do.  In that case, they will just give the student access to the required texts and resources.  He’s not worried about the cost, because he estimates that as of right now, this plan is revenue neutral.  In three years, the plan will represent a significant cost savings, allowing the plan to fund itself.  Again, this isn’t the tip of the iceberg, this is the tipping point.

A number of you in the LYS Nation are now using your own bootleg technology devices to follow Twitter.  If you haven’t done so yet, we want you to join us.  To let you see what you are missing, here are the Top 10 LYS Tweets from the week of October 14, 2012.

1. Homework is an equity issue. Students without adequate support at home will not be able to complete it. (By @jackson_carrie)

2. If your students keep making the same mistakes, at some point you have to change the mode and content of the instruction.

3. It's funny how many "good things" we do in schools that get in the way of student learning. (By @jaredpeters23)

4. The 1-yr student suspension has nothing to do with restorative discipline and teaching and everything to do with the adult need for revenge.

5. Instead of accountability loopholes that lower the floor for low SES students, how about step-ups that raise the ceiling for high SES kids?

6. Frequent Small Group Purposeful Talk builds academic language by fostering academic interactions and fortifying academic output...are your students talking or are you? (By @brandyjbaker)

7. Cain, awesome presentation today at the AIE Conference. They should have given you a longer session (By @PrincipalAlton)

8. Does credit recovery cheapen a high school diploma? Short answer - Yes. Complicated answer - Yes, but it doesn't matter.

9. Best presentation at the AIE Conference, The Fundamental 5 by Cain. Need to have them next year. (By @PrincipalAlton)

10. Voucher proponents are all about "School Choice". As a believer in the sanctity of public schools, I am "Pro School".

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction.” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/Fundamental5 
• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “Look at Me: A Cautionary School Leadership Tale” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/lookatmebook 
• Now at the Apple App Store: Fun 5 Plans (Fundamental 5 Lesson Plan Tool); PW Lite (Basic PowerWalks Tool); PW Pro (Mid-level PowerWalks Tool) 
• Upcoming Presentations: Region 10 ESC Fall Leadership Conference (Keynote), TASSP Assistant Principals’ Workshop (Featured Speaker), American Association of School Administrators Conference (Multiple Presentations), National Association of Secondary School Principals Conference (Multiple Presentations) 
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation

Early Voting - The "Pro School" Litmus Test

I AM PRO SCHOOL!

Early voting begins today in Texas (my home state). As regular readers know, though I have always abhorred the use of candidate litmus tests, for now and the immediate future, public education and public education funding are my sole candidate litmus tests. 

Here is my PRO SCHOOL formula:

• Cut education funds – I vote for your opponent
• Don’t fund education – I vote for your opponent
• Unfunded education mandate – I vote for your opponent
• Increase school accountability without increasing education support – I vote for your opponent
• Devalue educators – I vote for your opponent

With that being the case, I submit to you the list of candidates running for the U.S. House of Representatives, Texas Senate and Texas House, who as members of the Texas Legislature orchestrated and supported the gutting of public education funding in 2011. 

Whether this information enters into your decision-making or not, as a reasonable, thinking LYSer, make sure you get out and VOTE. 

Running for the Texas Senate – Voted For Slashed Education Budgets (as either a State Senator or State Representative)

Name	Party	Running For
Brian Birdwell	Republican	Texas Senate
John Carona	Republican	Texas Senate
Bob Deuell	Republican	Texas Senate
Robert L. Duncan	Republican	Texas Senate
Kevin Eltife	Republican	Texas Senate
Craig Estes	Republican	Texas Senate
Troy Fraser	Republican	Texas Senate
Kelly Hancock	Republican	Texas Senate
Glenn Hegar	Republican	Texas Senate
Joan Huffman	Republican	Texas Senate
Jane Nelson	Republican	Texas Senate
Robert Nichols	Republican	Texas Senate
Dan Patrick	Republican	Texas Senate
Ken  Paxton  Jr.	Republican	Texas Senate
Charles Schwertner	Republican	Texas Senate
Kel Seliger	Republican	Texas Senate
Mark M. Shelton	Republican	Texas Senate
Larry Taylor	Republican	Texas Senate
Raul  Torres	Republican	Texas Senate
Tommy Williams	Republican	Texas Senate
Juan Hinojosa	Democrat	Texas Senate
Royce West	Democrat	Texas Senate

Running for the Texas House – Voted for Slashed Education Budgets (as a Texas House Member)

Name	Party	Running For
Allan  B.  Ritter	Republican	Texas House
Allen  Fletcher	Republican	Texas House
Angie Chen  Button	Republican	Texas House
Brandon  Creighton	Republican	Texas House
Bryan  Hughes	Republican	Texas House
Byron  Cook	Republican	Texas House
Charles  'Doc'  Anderson	Republican	Texas House
Charles  Lee  Perry	Republican	Texas House
Charlie  L.  Geren	Republican	Texas House
Connie  Scott	Republican	Texas House
Dan  Flynn	Republican	Texas House
Daniel  G.  'Dan'  Huberty	Republican	Texas House
Daniel  H.  'Dan'  Branch	Republican	Texas House
Diane  Patrick	Republican	Texas House
Doug  Miller	Republican	Texas House
Drew  Darby	Republican	Texas House
Gary  Elkins	Republican	Texas House
George Edward  Lavender	Republican	Texas House
Harvey  Hilderbran	Republican	Texas House
Jason  Isaac	Republican	Texas House
Jim  Murphy	Republican	Texas House
Jim  Pitts	Republican	Texas House
Jimmie Don  'JD'  Aycock	Republican	Texas House
Jodie  Anne  Laubenberg	Republican	Texas House
John  C.  Otto	Republican	Texas House
John  E.  Davis	Republican	Texas House
John  L.  Kuempel	Republican	Texas House
John  M.  Frullo	Republican	Texas House
John  T.  Smithee	Republican	Texas House
John  V.  Garza	Republican	Texas House
John  Zerwas	Republican	Texas House
Kenneth  Sheets	Republican	Texas House
Lance  Gooden	Republican	Texas House
Larry  Gonzales	Republican	Texas House
Larry  Phillips	Republican	Texas House
Linda  Harper-Brown	Republican	Texas House
Lois  W.  Kolkhorst	Republican	Texas House
Lyle  T.  Larson	Republican	Texas House
Myra  Crownover	Republican	Texas House
Paul  D.  Workman	Republican	Texas House
Phil  S.  King	Republican	Texas House
Ralph  Sheffield	Republican	Texas House
Rob  Orr	Republican	Texas House
Sarah  Davis	Republican	Texas House
Tan  Parker	Republican	Texas House
Thomas  R.  'Tom'  Craddick	Republican	Texas House
Tim  Kleinschmidt	Republican	Texas House
Tryon  D.  Lewis	Republican	Texas House
Walter T. “Four” Price  IV	Republican	Texas House
Wayne  Smith	Republican	Texas House
William  'Bill'  Zedler	Republican	Texas House
William  A.  'Bill'  Callegari	Republican	Texas House

Running for U.S. Congress – Voted for Slashed Education Budgets (as a member of the Texas House)

Name	Party	Running For
Randy Weber	Republican	US Congress

And circle it on your calendar, the general election date in 11/6/2012.

Vote! Vote! Vote!

Your turn...

• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction.” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/Fundamental5
• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “Look at Me: A Cautionary School Leadership Tale” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/lookatmebook 
• Now at the Apple App Store: Fun 5 Plans (Fundamental 5 Lesson Plan Tool); PW Lite (Basic PowerWalks Tool); PW Pro (Mid-level PowerWalks Tool) 
• Upcoming Presentations: Region 10 ESC Fall Leadership Conference (Keynote), TASSP Assistant Principals’ Workshop (Featured Speaker), American Association of School Administrators Conference (Multiple Presentations), National Association of Secondary School Principals Conference (Multiple Presentations) 
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation