More Staff or More Training

The question that every principal wrestles with come budget time, do I invest in staff or training?  What your Assistant Superintendent, Business Manager, HR Director and Title I Office want you to do is fill up on staff. 

It’s the easy solution.  The budget is allocated, class size is reduced, and operational stuff and things get done.  I’m not saying they are wrong. But I’m not saying they are right.

More staff just facilitates the status quo, just a little more efficiently.  But more staff rarely changes anything.  Sub-par instruction for 28 students isn’t made better by providing sub-par instruction to 21 students.  And operational stuff and things being taken care of have next to no impact on the classroom.

What I suggest (and did) is follow the advice of Great Principals.  Go LEAN.  That’s right, don’t add staff.  Instead invest in training.  Train like there is no tomorrow.  Improve the skill set of every adult on the campus.  Make them more effective and more efficient.  That way when the budget is squeezed and everyone else has to cut staff, you have a staff that is better prepared to handle adversity and effectively teach any student in any setting.

Here are two, field tested ways to make this happen.

1. Absorb a position. This is what E. Don Brown would do.  If his staff allocation was 100 teachers he would hire 99. Then with the unused salary, he would have $50,000 to $60,0000 as a training budget.

2. Capture your vacancy.  This is the solution that I used.  Everyone has a vacancy pop up during the school year.  The vacancy is never filled immediately which creates a budget surplus (Central Office knows this and loves this).  But while this surplus is growing, everyone on the campus has to work harder.  What this means is that the campus suffers while the district reaps the reward.  So, I went to my Superintendent (Bob Brezina) with the following proposal, since the staff was having to work harder and was short-handed, let me use the vacancy surplus to bring in on-going training to reward the staff for stepping up. Brezina loved the idea and my staff were among the best trained in the city.

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 
• Upcoming Conference Presentations: Texas ASCD Summer Conference, TASSP Summer Conference, Virginia Middle and High School Principals Conference; The National Principals Conference; The Fundamental 5 National Summit (Keynote) 
• Now at the Apple App Store: Fun 5 Timer (Fundamental 5 Delivery Tool); PowerWalks CLC (Networked Formative Observation Tool) 
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook

Legendary Leadership Badge - 2016/2017 School Year

There are those that don’t understand the power of reflective observation.  They mistakenly believe that there is nothing to learn after a few cursory visits to a classroom.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  In fact, the most important key to building insight and deeper understanding about teaching and learning is to engage in a steady volume of daily classroom observation.  What we have learned over the past ten years is that after about every 300 classroom observations, the observer will notice, discern, and/or learn something new... something that was previously hidden. It is the “Eureka” moment, and there is nothing else like it in instructional leadership.

In this pursuit, there is the PowerWalks Legendary Leadership Badge that is earned every 300^th PowerWalks Observation. The following instructional leaders earned the Legendary Leadership Badge for the 2016/2017 school year!

Three Badges

Susan Finkle: May 2017; February 2017; November 2016

Margaret Havard: May 2017; February 2017; January 2017

Janie Snyder: May 2017; March 2017; February 2017

GayLynn Holt: April 2017; March 2017; February 2017

Jillian Howard: April 2017; April 2017; January 2017

Edward Husk: April 2017; April 2017; February 2017

Patti Ward: April 2017; January 2017; October 2016

Tom Jaggard: February 2017; January 2017; November 2016

Two Badges

Glenda Henry: May 2017; January 2017

Blake Maxwell: May 2017, December 2016

Steve Sherrouse: May 2017; February 2017

Lisa Weaver: May 2017; February 2017

Kenneth Bryant: April 2017; November 2016

Shele Coburn: April 2017; February 2017

E. Cormier: April 2017; December 2016

Tonya Cummings: April 2017; February 2017

Lisa Fain: April 2017; December 2016

James Kisner: April 2016, December 2016

Kevin Odea: April 2017; December 2016

Patsy Sanchez: April 2017; December 2016

Sheila Stephens: April 2017; February 2017

Monta Bonham: March 2017; November 2016

Kenneth Bryant: March 2017; February 2017

Sean Cain: March 2017; January 2017

Sheila Ochoa: March 2017; February 2017

Denise Poland: March 2017; February 2017

Robert Urbanowiez: March 2017; February 2017

Jacinda Waldrip: March 2017; December 2016

Tamika Washington: March 2017; February 2017

Michelle Casas: February 2017; November 2016

Christopher Collins: February 2017; November 2016

Pattie Myers: February 2017; Fall 2016

Christina Spears: February 2017; November 2016

John Speck: February 2017; October 2016

Nassrin Spencer: February 2017; Fall 2016

Donna Price: January 2017; November 2016

One Badge

Ashley Boothe: May 2017

Layne Dickens: May 2017

Roberto Gonzales: May 2017

Juan Gonzalez: May 2017

Valerie Hairston: May 2017

Iris Jimenez: May 2017

Stephanie Kayser: May 2017

Leslie Ackman: April 2017

Joanne Anguiano: April 2017

Stephanie Bard: April 2017

Edith Carrillo: April 2017

Sarah Castillo: April 2017

Amy Crippen: April 2017

Brandon Enos: April 2017

Joyce Freddie: April 2017

Donny Hearne: April 2017

Marie Hernandez: April 2017

Derieco Irvin: April 2017

Wiley Johnson: April 2017

Todd Jones: April 2017

Laura Juarez: April 2017

Kelli Maikell: April 2017

Tera Marburgh: April 2017

Kimberly Martin: April 2017

Gilbert Martinez: April 2017

Brian Meers: April 2017

Donisha Miller: April 2017

Marilisa Moore: April 2017

Nicole Newsome: April 2017

Brian Odom: April 2017

David Pena: April 2017

David Pierson: April 2017

Ivan Ramirez: April 2017

Earl Sanchez: April 2017

Jessica Shugart: April 2017

Mindy Sides: April 2017

Charles Simmons: April 2017

Jordan Thiem: April 2017

Josh Tovar: April 2017

Kae Walker: April 2017

Stacey Baughn- Hunt: March 2017

Marissa Bell: March 2017

Rose Maria Chavez-Avedician: March 2017

Nancy Delosa: March 2017

Amanda Gordon: March 2017

Doris Graves: March 2017

Genevieve Harris: March 2017

Mike Laird: March 2017

Jenny Morris: March 2017

Angie Quinn: March 2017

Thomas Redlinger: March 2017

Lorena Sandoval: March 2017

Jesse Teran: March 2017

Tara Thompson: March 2017

Grisel Wallace: March 2017

Dennis Williams: March 2017

Sarah Williams: March 2017

U. Alvey: February 2017

Pete Armstrong: February 2017

Glenn Barnes: February 2017

Courtney Berry: February 2017

Lorie Bratcher: February 2017

Norma Briseno: February 2017

Carla Butler: February 2017

Stella Chen: February 2017

Brandon Cobb: February 2017

Denise Collins: February 2017

DeDe Conaway: February 2017

Linda Cox: February 2017

Larry Crabb: February 2017

Tami Davis: February 2017

Remy Godfrey: February 2017

Jeff Groseclose: February 2017

Naomi Esparza: February 2017

Greg Hatch: February 2017

Karen Ivy: February 2017

Caleb Jackson: February 2017

Roshon Jackson: February 2017

Paige Johnson: February 2017

Chris Johnstone: February 2017

Van LeJeune: February 2017

Erica Lewis: February 2017

Valerie Luckett: February 2017

Stephen McCanless: February 2017

Daniel McKee: February 2017

Kimberly McKnight: February 2017

Alejandro Olvera: February 2017

Rebecca Osborne: February 2017

Robin Rice: February 2017

Scott Rogers: February 2017

Dawn Roy: February 2017

Chesta Scheider: February 2017

Rebecca Smith: February 2017

Jan Spears: February 2017

Cheryl Sterrett: February 2017

Rose Tran: February 2017

Bridgett Valenzuela: February 2017

Monica Waggoner: February 2017

Tom Weed: February 2017

Benita Allard: January 2017

Destiny Barrera: January 2017

Derrick Brown: January 2017

Jennie Currin: January 2017

Linda Ernwine: January 2017

Ranae Lane: January 2017

Amanda Lisso: January 2017

Cortney Lucas: January 2017

Gina Reuter: January 2017

Ryan Searle: January 2017

Ernest Smith: January 2017

Kelsey Smith: January 2017

Rob Stephenson: January 2017

Cynthia Childers: December 2016

Tim Merki: December 2016

Rhonda Mieth: December 2016

Jenny Morris: December 2016

Melissa Myers: December 2016

Diane Ranft: December 2016

Lois Redden: December 2016

Michelle Schreiner: December 2016

Joel Thomas: December 2016

Tra Hall: November 2016

Christal Hammond: November 2016

Brian Odom: November 2016

Tisha Piwetz: November 2016

Angie Quinn: November 2016

Gina Vilches: November 2016

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 
• Upcoming Conference Presentations: Texas ASCD Summer Conference, TASSP Summer Conference, Virginia Middle and High School Principals Conference; The National Principals Conference; The Fundamental 5 National Summit (Keynote) 
• Now at the Apple App Store: Fun 5 Timer (Fundamental 5 Delivery Tool); PowerWalks CLC (Networked Formative Observation Tool) 
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook