Who would have thought we would be here.  That is the question I have asked myself hundreds of times.  Well, we are here. First, I must acknowledge the incredible work done by teachers, food service workers, principals and superintendents.  People have stepped up in incredible ways and the words I write here cannot adequately speak to how great you have been. 

When we first heard that we would be out of school beyond Spring Break I pondered how I would continue to be engage with our principals and encourage engagement with our principals to their teachers. I thought I did a marginally good job during the school year engaging our principals.  I used two Smores one on Monday and one on Friday.  On Monday I detailed the week and further weeks ahead and Friday I summed up the week with some strong inspiration and encouragement.  I also sent a weekly communication from all departments each Thursday.  I also spent time coaching or walking each week on most campuses.  So again, I asked how we could keep our momentum even though we could be at home for a couple of weeks (so I thought).  I called a trusted friend about his plans and he immediately passed down some of the great plans he was doing.  I did as I often did and listened.  I sat down and worked on a plan for engaging our principals. 

The plan is as follows:  We would have a standing Zoom meeting with all campus principals at 9:00 am- 10 am each day.  I sent this information out to our cabinet so that all parties would know to move their meetings around this time.  This meeting would be simple.  To keep our principals engaged, to keep them up to date on key district moves, to continuously talk about our at-home learning plan, and give them opportunities to learn and grow from each other (Principal PLC).  The major point of these meetings is not to be super long.  Check on them, encourage them, give them time to talk to each other, allow them to ask as many questions as possible and to give them fuel to lead their staffs during that day. 

I also spent time working on plans to engage their staff members.  It was important to me that our teachers would have full engagement from their administrative team.  Each campus developed an engagement plan for all of their teachers and staff.  This involved principals, assistant principals, counselors, team leaders and department chairs reaching out to teachers.  It is vitally important that each teacher has some type of engagement each day by someone that serves as a leader on campus.  This could be in writing, text message, phone call, zoom, or any other engagement tool. 

It was also important that principals continue to lead or participate in PLCs.  This time has been great for teachers and administrators.  They are able to talk about the district at-home learning plan, their successes and failures, and learn from each other as we go through this challenging times. 

In closing, the primary goal of consistent engagement with your principals is to keep them aware of what’s going on throughout the district and to keep the communication clear.  We have moved these meetings to Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays and it brings me great joy to see our principals each day.  If you aren’t meeting regularly with your principals during this time this is a great time to start consistent engagement with them.