You can Trust Him with the Keys

Did you ever wonder why so many coaches become principals? It isn’t because they know more about teaching than most teachers. It isn’t because they are knowledgeable of many different subjects. It certainly isn’t because coaching teaches how to deal with middle aged staff members.

Coaches become principals because you can trust them with the keys.

Coaches have to be at school at all hours of the day and night. They work well beyond the regular school day or week. Rarely do they have someone else around who can make decisions for them. They have to know how to make decisions on their own, and they can’t leave the building unlocked. For this basic reason, they are often considered administrative material.

I did not think about this when I became a principal, but I had been a coach. I did have to secure the building when I left. There was also an unwritten dress code which I had  mastered; the male teacher uniform (short sleeve shirts; multiple colored pens, and pocket protector) and coach's uniform (pants with a stripe and a whistle), and a massive key ring to open all the lockers, closets, rooms etc.

We had a consultant come to the district when I was a principal. He pointed out all of a coach's qualifications for administration, while trying to help us learn to be more than guardians of the building. He was hired to help us become educational leaders as well as keepers of the keys.

He did our training in a humorous way. Our consultant explained how, in Texas, the principal uniform required polyester pants and a white belt. This got all of us male principals thinking about how we dressed. It also got my staff thinking. The week after he left they presented me with a new wardrobe obtained from Good Will.

I had already ditched my key ring for one master key.

Sometimes a Principal Has To Think Fast

Contrary to what most students think, principals can rarely “make you” do things. When students are told to do something, they always have a choice to do it or experience consequences. If they do as told, they may not experience as much of a consequence, but they can still make that choice.

Those of us in education rely on kids making the better (for us and them) choice. We don’t really want things to escalate and certainly were not interested in things getting physical. Unfortunately there were times when it did.

I won’t go into those difficult times when I felt I had to make that choice. However, I will share a time when I was confronted with an unwinnable situation.

While working as administrator in charge of daily activities (basically the principal) at the Area Vocational Center at Bloomington High School, I received a call for assistance from one of the Cooperative Work Training classes. These classes provided instruction as well as employment supervision of junior and senior students. A female student had lost her temper at her teacher and began to swear at him. She refused to leave the classroom, and I was called.

When I entered the classroom, she turned her anger towards me. I told her to come with me, she refused, turned the air blue with swearwords. I approached her and it got worse, and then she decided to run from the classroom and out of the building.

Normally this would result in a suspension of the student and a call to the parent. The problem was she ran to another school, Centennial Elementary School, which was down the hill from BHS. The school housed the Child Care program which was another AVC program. This program served 3 and 4 year children who received care and teaching from the high school students enrolled. The swearing student was duel enrolled as a student in the Child Care program. Counselors would sometimes do that.

I saw her enter the school as I followed down the hill. When I got to the door, I could see she had entered the Child Care classroom. As I approached she began again to swear at me. I stopped, but the swearing continued.

What was I going to do? The little children should not be exposed to this, but she was in the back of the classroom. If I tried to remove her physically, it would only get worse. If I let her stay, she would not cooperate with the teacher and there was possible risk of harm from such an angry student.

Then I got an idea. “Control what you can control”. “Remove her audience”. I quietly went to the teacher and whispered to remove her little students from the classroom, “like a fire drill”. She quickly had the students line up and start to leave as I stood in the doorway. As the entire class left, including the other high school students, only the angry girl remained in the back of the room.

Her audience gone, she did not know what to do. When I could see that all of the other students were safe, I stepped back from door and told her she was suspended. As I stood between her and the hallway full of little ones, she ran from the building.

I called her home to inform her parents of the suspension and informed Bloomington High School administrators. I never saw her again. I am sure BHS dropped her from both programs.

I am forever grateful that this situation did not get worse. It was the quick response by the Child Care teacher that got it resolved. I felt relief.

I added this method to my bag of tricks, and later found it useful when dealing with behavior disorder students who refused to leave a classroom. Fortunately that was a rare occurrence.

Albany Grade School on “CBS Sunday Morning”

May reminds me of the week in 1981 when CBS News came to Albany,  Illinois. The week and the news show which followed gave us all insight as to how the media frames, or some might say slants, a story. In this case, the story certainly was about the students at Albany Grade School, but it is obvious the producers wanted viewers to look at the story as a frightening event.

Thirty-seven (37) years later, the students are all grown and most are parents. The first graders are in their mid-forties. Some are even grandparents. The town remains, but the school is closed. The school was not a victim of being close to the power plant, but rather because there are fewer students in the rural areas. The power plant remains operational, although the new owner threatened to shut it down unless the Illinois legislature offered tax breaks given to solar and wind electrical generation.

Was there ever a real danger? Readers have to decide for themselves, but consider this. No member of the public has ever died in the United States from a release of radiation from a nuclear power plant. Estimates on annual public deaths from coal fired plant pollution in both the US and Europe are roughly equivalent to the deaths from automobile accidents (40,000-50,000 each) Some of the  students in the drill have died way before their time, but not because of the plant. 

I was troubled by the psychologist. It appears she somehow equated nuclear power plants with nuclear war. She asked "if ever a generation had to face annihilation". From a power plant? I wonder if she even gave a thought to those Jewish kids facing concentration camp during war! What were her thoughts when “ethnic cleansing” occurred in Bosnia, during war. It seems she had an agenda and it was not clear to me how we were facing annihilation. 

They interviewed the science teacher’s spouse and watched their children play at the park. They interviewed the banker and his spouse, the principal, the fourth grade teacher and his spouse and none of them said they were afraid. Yet the story makes it seem scary. The spokesperson for the company seemed pretty nervous, and I do feel she was shook up by all of the cameras. She might have been the only victim of the drill.

Who wasn’t interviewed? The science teacher, who, along with his buddy the fourth grade teacher, weekly collected environmental samples for the nuclear power plant. The science teacher who was responsible for teaching students about nuclear power. The science teacher who was cut from the scene as he followed his students on to the bus. It was nice they interviewed Connie and she interviewed well especially since she had no warning of the filming.

Feel sorry because I wasn't filmed or interviewed ? Don’t. I have been on TV more than a person should be as you may see if your continue to follow this blog. It is nice to see my family and my friends when they much younger and enjoy the fashions and hairstyles. Fortunately everyone who was interviewed is still alive to remember this show.

The tape was made before we all had cell phone cameras, video recorders or even  VCRs. It was copied from a local station tape, and because of that the video is poor quality, and cut a little bit too much in the beginning and end.  

It made for an nice segment on CBS Sunday Morning. The  story was edited to state a position, probably to help ratings shortly after 3 Mile Island had a partial meltdown, and it didn't lie; that is, it wasn't fake.  I shared it because it was an interesting thing to happen in a small rural Illinois town. Enjoy the video and see what you think. It is about 12 minutes long, and you will need to go back to Facebook to see it.

May 4, 1992 Tornadoes all day

Testing weather sirens this week reminded me of a school day exactly twenty six (26) years ago. School started normally. Students gathered outside on the playground and lined up by class. With the teachers in front of each group, we said the Pledge of Allegiance together.  The students in classes on the first floor entered through the left Mason Street (front) entrance, those on the second floor entered through the right door, or walked around to the west (parking lot) door entrance. It was all orderly and routine on a beautiful spring day.

Around 11:00 am the first siren sounded.

Our tornado drill had been practiced in early March, so all of the teachers and students knew what to do. We evacuated all the classes on the second floor. They crowded the hallways alongside the first floor classes. The second floor grades, 3-4-5, were bigger students making for a tight fit. I could barely walk down between the groups of students. I paced nervously waiting for the threat to end. When you are a principal you feel personally responsible for the safety of everyone.

.

The students were orderly and I told the teachers we would stay in the hallways until we had an all clear. I also said it was not necessary for the students to have their heads down and covered. This was an uncomfortable position and I felt it should only be used when a tornado impact was imminent

The problem this day was the threat didn’t end. I had dispatched teachers without students to watch  at the entrances for any sign of a tornado, but to stay inside. We did not spot anything, but instead of an all clear, we got a second tornado siren.

We had a radio on in the office starting with the first siren. We were aware that tornadoes had been sighted in two locations in the county. I knew we were going to need to stay in shelter for a while.

11:00 am was the beginning of our lunch periods. The food was all prepared and the students were likely hungry. I had previously used the cafeteria as an alternative shelter. This was necessary when the student population at Irving exceeded 550, just before the new junior high building had opened.

While in college, I chaired a disaster planning committee for the university residence halls. From that I experience I learned the need to keep people out of rooms with high ceilings. For this reason, a gymnasium is not a good shelter.

The exception to the high ceiling recommendation occurred if the large room had additional  rooms over top. This provided a barrier that would provide more protection for  the room below.

Although the cafeteria had a relatively high ceiling, the entire library learning center sat above it. The cafeteria was not the safest place in the building, but it was a reasonable alternative. I elected to begin to move one grade level at a time into for a quick lunch. The remaining grade levels were to stay in the first floor hallways.

This began a form of musical chairs. As the first class moved into the cafeteria, the next class moved and  took their place in the hallway. The remaining classes would follow moving down the hallways.

The movement worked fine until the first class left the cafeteria. They had to move back to their original location, while another class moved into the cafeteria.

This day demonstrated the quality of the Irving staff. The teachers had impressive control and the patience with their students. Students were relatively quiet, and moved orderly. There were no complaints about the crowded conditions.

I can still see the teachers standing or sitting on a chair in the hallway as they read to their students, conducted math skills drills, or discussed items from reading. Not only was the school orderly, education was occurring!

During the lunch periods, there was a third siren. This kept us in shelter for over two(2) hours. Eventually the all clear was given and everyone returned to their classrooms.

That day had 5 tornadoes sighted in McLean County. Fortunately none of them hit the city. Damage was quite small as the tornadoes stayed in rural areas and did not cause damage there. The last one was sighted around 5:00 pm, well after dismissal.

It was not a tragedy. It was a demonstration of the effectiveness of a quality staff to manage a difficult situation.