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ASD Connect — APRIL 2010

Compassionate, flexible, hardworking administrators

Assistant principals critical to creating positive learning environments for students

Who has one of the least understood positions within the district—someone who may schedule a thousand games a year, plan next year’s curriculum schedule, make sure the school is properly accredited or who addresses parent concerns, sometimes very emotional concerns, every day? You’d be correct if you guessed, “assistant principal.”

The U.S. Department of Labor characterizes the role of the assistant principal as “aiding the principal in the overall administration of the school.” These few words describe the enormous task of the assistant principal, whose job duties to support the principal in day-to-day operations may range from curriculum and instructional support to student activities and staff and student services.

He or she assists the school’s principal to create positive learning environments for students by promoting critical communication and interaction between students, parents and staff.

While small elementary schools at ASD do not have APs, middle schools and high schools may have more than one, based on the numbers of students attending and on the amount and types of programs the school offers. APs have been called deans. The name has changed, but the role and vital contribution they make to a school remains.

Take West High, for example, the oldest high school in the district. It has one of the more diverse student bodies. With more than 1,700 students enrolled, it is one of the larger high schools in the district. In addition to an AP and Honors programs, it offers the district’s only high school International Baccalaureate program, Highly Gifted program and Spanish Immersion program.

West High students can participate in 19 sports, 28 clubs and 11 academic programs—from its School through the Arts, an arts-based curriculum, to WAVE, the unique West Anchorage Vocational Education program that combines online instruction, one-to-one tutoring and work-experience to help students graduate who are in danger of dropping out of school.

To manage all this, West High has an administrative staff of five—Principal Rick Stone and four assistant principals who assist him with: curriculum, Sue Holway; student services, Patsy Chapple; activities, Nancy Brain; and staff services, Craig Walker.

Even with five administrators and five security personnel, it’s easy to see how a single incident at a school so large and old could easily require the focus of several staff members.

“There may be a perception, by some, that an AP doesn’t have much to do but discipline a few students,” said Walker. “They don’t see the huge time sacrifice it takes to care for other people’s children. They don’t see how often our own families don’t see us.”

With cell phones, e-mail and other technologies, people expect immediate feedback. That means he’s always connected, sometimes conducting business by e-mail at midnight. He’s quick to point out that’s not unusual throughout the district. “Most of us work on Saturdays and Sundays and long hours during the week. Activities and curriculum, in particular, are huge time commitments,” he said.

He should know. Walker was named Alaska’s Assistant Principal of the Year this fall by the Alaska Association of Secondary School Principals. Walker began his career, typically for a district AP, as a teacher—in his case teaching math—before serving as an assistant principal with curriculum, activities and staff services duties at Bartlett, Service and West high schools.

Scheduling and advance planning is a huge part of the work of an AP. Brain, the activities AP at West, estimates that she deals with 20-50 e-mails a day from parents, other APs and staff. She works with other schools’ APs to schedule and account for all the logistics associated with sports and other extracurricular activities, such as music, drama and debate. She said that she’s responsible for scheduling at least 1,000 games. Basketball alone involves six teams playing 22 games each.

“While we don’t supervise everything, we have to make sure all the details are set,” she said. “Are there enough buses, parking spaces, coaches, tools and equipment in place?”

Curriculum APs typically deal with advance planning of the master calendar – what classes will be taught, and who’s teaching them? Holway works with Principal Stone in hiring teachers and making sure the school is offering the right mix of classes required for students to graduate.

Online scheduling tools, like Schedule Star, help, but, “Because West has so many different academic programs, it makes scheduling a challenge,” she said. Holway’s also in charge of testing and making sure graduation goes smoothly for roughly 400 students each year.

“I love my job,” said Chapple, AP student services. She’s the main disciplinarian, who works closely with security to ensure the safety of the 150 staff and 1,700-plus students at West High. Chapple is the first point of contact for many parents when their student’s behavior is of concern.

Most APs have master’s degrees or higher. All have been through additional district training and an internship. Several participate in the district’s Mentorship Program for APs.

Listening to Walker, one gets a sense of the collegial nature of APs in the district. Although working at different schools, they know each other through various working assignments. APs are deployed between schools every couple of years as people retire and the district needs to rebalance teams.

While some APs are eager to land a principal position at some point in their careers, others are content with the challenges of the AP position.

“There’s more demand now than 10 years ago,” said Walker. “Especially with current economic conditions, families and students are under more stress than ever.”

Sometimes this means students have to hold jobs to help the family, making it difficult for them to be successful in school.

While he especially enjoys working with at-risk kids, much of Walker’s time this year was spent making sure West High received its Northwest Accreditation, which high schools are required to do every six years.  He’s now preparing the school for a major electrical overhaul during the summer. As the AP in charge of staff services, he coordinates building maintenance and work orders, emergency preparedness and building safety, staff in-service training, School Business Partnerships, the IB/pre-IB program, student attendance, scheduling of the auditorium that is used by organizations statewide, drop out/at risk programs and more.

“Most of us personalize our jobs. We take it seriously and to heart. We’re very proud of what we do and like to be able to help kids. We never have a boring day,” said Walker.

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