THE KIDS SEEM OK - BUT WHO'S LOOKING OUT FOR THE PRINCIPAL

2022. School is back, and six weeks in, for the most part, things seem to be going well. The kids seem OK, loving being back with their friends. Parents seem relieved to be relieved of their home-schooling responsibilities, and teachers – as they do – are just getting on with it, even if in some schools, they are running hybrid classes with absent Covid-positive pupils on-line at home. Most of the time they are remembering to look at the online camera at least some of the time as they present their exposition to the class in front of them.

But who’s looking out for the Principal?

Two years of patient, enduring oversight of a constantly-changing playing field of rules and regulations, of off-again, on-again schooling, of severe challenges posed by students suffering mental discombobulation and emotional trauma, and unpredictable staff shortages caused by individual illness or their having to manage illness at home, have all taken their toll. A less than harmonious commencement to the 2022 academic year across Australia left many Principals in dread – unable to be certain they could actually do it all again for the third year.

Indeed, the situation for Principals is much worse in the USA. A survey?of more than 500 Principals late last year by the National Association of Secondary School Principals found nearly four in ten expected to leave their post within the next three years. More than a third said they would leave education as soon as they can find a higher-paying job.?Dubbed by NASSP a looming “mass exodus” of principals, numbers were even higher for principals with four years or less on the job: 62 percent of early-career principals said they will leave within the next six years. As in Australia, many baby-boomer principals are approaching retirement.?Research reported by Rand suggests the crisis has hit principals of colour and women particularly hard, as well as those leading schools with higher proportions of students from lower-income families and students of colour. They are more likely than their peers to have experienced job-related stress during the pandemic.

Washington State High School Principal Derek Forbes began his third school year as a high school principal in Washington state in the latter part of last year. He found he was facing an uptick in disruptive behaviour — kids talking back to teachers, getting into disagreements with their peers.?He wondered whether his young people had lost some maturing time in pandemic isolation, since their behaviour was more typical of younger students. Or maybe, like him, they were exhausted.

In fact, according to NASSP’s survey, 91 percent of principals were very or extremely concerned about student wellness, which topped all their other challenges. More than a third said there were not enough student services staff, like nurses and counsellors. Principals told The 74 ?the exodus may begin as early as the end of this US school year in June. Some may want to leave now, but, understanding the stress it would cause for their schools, are waiting until the summer break.?

Teachers are suffering too. The positions Principal Forbes advertised to fill vacancies left by teachers who had left for mental health reasons stayed vacant for five months. He and his principal colleagues in his School District were logging upwards of 60 hours a week, taking on responsibilities of counsellors, nurses, subbing both as teachers, and as food service workers. What was harder to wear was being verbally attacked at local school board meetings over curricula and mask guidelines.?On the other side of the country, educators in Wyoming are tapping out, too.?This school year alone, Brian Cox, who heads up Cheyenne’s only predominantly low-income middle school, has hired seven new teachers; at least two “left the field of education altogether, mid-year.” ?Cox reports that his workday starts at 2:30am some days to address daily staffing challenges.?

Forbes’ primary concern, however, was his students. My students aren’t learning the way I want them to. ?They’re dealing with their own mental health issues that I can’t help them with, my staff are struggling with those same things. And more and more stuff just continues to pile on, he told The 74s newsletter (School Leader Crisis: Overwhelmed by Mounting Mental Health Issues and Public Distrust, a ‘Mass Exodus’ of Principals Could be Coming, in The 74’s Daily Newsletter, 20 Feb 22).

?For the first time in his 22-year education career, a dejected Forbes has thought about leaving the job he loves, to pursue district leadership.?I always thought that I would always stay in education, and I have no doubt that I will continue… but, I thought about what else might be out there. And I never thought I would do that, he said. His experience is hardly rare. Across the country, many principals are preparing to leave the field altogether.?

The surveys and widespread stories of principals’ plummeting well-being point to the need for mental health support, mentorship and leadership development programs for principals, according to NASSP CEO Ronn Nozoe. He points to numerous red flags for the profession throughout the pandemic: fewer candidates are entering teacher training, higher education and teacher preparation programs. School District Superintendents are also experiencing burnout and reaching retirement, so some principals will go on to district roles, Nozoe asserts.

But the biggest red flag, Nozoe continues, is that teachers across the country are expressing they are now offering the same care and concern for their principals and other senior staff that they express for students. “It’s the first time I’ve really seen it – our teachers saying, ‘We’re struggling, but man, I’m really worried about our principal,’ ” said Nozoe, ‘‘He or she is getting beat up, and he doesn’t look good or she doesn’t look good. They’re all stressed out and I don’t want to lose her or him.’’

Nozoe claims that having to plan, develop and implement strategies on how better to support students and staff mental health has had a ripple effect. Principals are now pointing the spotlight on themselves, taking stock of their own well-being, he suggests.

President-elect of NASSP’s Maryland chapter and principal at Winter Mills High School Michael Brown confirms this: “I have sought out and have been seeing a therapist, because I think it’s important — not just for me as a principal to talk to my kids about [their] mental health — it’s also important for me to walk that walk.” Brown adds that the “highly politicised nature of education” has taken its toll on Maryland’s educators, many of whom never fully clock-out, making evening calls and communications about the latest pandemic guidance to families. “You struggle to have positive days, positive thoughts,” he ruefully concludes.

Nadia Lopez, former principal of the Mott Hall Bridges Academy, a middle school in Brooklyn’s Brownsville neighbourhood, criticised the lack of support for principals: “Not once was there a convening of leaders to say ‘we recognise that there’s an issue that’s happening across our nation, and you all are having to shoulder a lot of this,’” Lopez averred. Now a leadership coach, she continually sees the impact of the pandemic on principals, especially in schools with disproportionately concentrated student needs. On New Year’s Eve, Lopez took a call from a distraught New York assistant principal colleague who regularly subbed for teachers on top of her usual duties. She told Lopez she was finally signing her resignation papers, accepting another offer. Another Principal friend in California left her post mid-year to become a consultant.?

They and dozens of others recounted their health issues, insomnia and depression to their mentor Lopez, who developed kidney disease from the professional stress. “I had to put myself first and say, this post no longer aligns with who I am as a person. It doesn’t represent who I am as a parent. It doesn’t represent the leader that I’ve been to my scholars and telling them that education is a form of liberation,” Lopez told The 74.In Wyoming, Brian Cox feels the same. “Some principals feel like the job is becoming untenable. Like there is no way to win,” said Cox.

?Supporting Principals Top of mind for all principals The 74 interviewed is creating more balanced workloads, to change the reality that they cannot succeed without sacrificing their own health.?

Michael Brown from Maryland suggests schools and education bureaucrats must also back ways to recruit and cultivate the next generation of teachers?and?administrators. Investing funds in teacher retention alone will not have the domino effect it once had, he adds.?

?Principals are also looking for more support to match students’ growing mental wellbeing needs, perhaps to extend and expand student support services that go beyond what schools can offer, such as forging partnerships with mental health providers or clinics.?Principals’ associations in Australia have stood by their members admirably during the pandemic, and they have a continuing role to advocate for principals as well as providing practical and collegial support.

Perhaps here as well as in the US, Australian education departments need to provide ongoing personal and professional support for principals. They need to draw on expertise from recently retired principals, or tertiary academics, some with expertise in teacher development along with others experienced in developing school leaders. Some of these experienced educators may be willing to partner with principals in government and non-government schools as professional mentors, and others may apply themselves to help re-imagine and reshape Australian teacher education programs so that graduate teachers are properly prepared and equipped to face down the challenges of contemporary education, and then are mentored as they strive to meet those challenges. According to Nadia Lopez, these kinds of initiatives have become a priority for principals debating their futures in the US.

Ronn Nozoe of NASSP agrees. The pandemic has brought us up short, as we have faced challenges as school leaders and school teachers across all sectors of schooling in Australia. “We need to have good programs to teach both teachers and principals. Then we need to have good mentoring programs to support them. We need to have great support systems across all schools,” ?he said.

We do.

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