three-ring binder, revised sections could be added and the old material
discarded; new sections easily could be added. Over time, after many
changes, he created a completely new second edition. Just before his re-
tirement, Principal Thelen created a third edition so his successor would
begin with an up-to-date teacher handbook.
By this third edition, almost everything a teacher needed to know (even
the history of the school) was included in his Teacher Handbook, still a
living and changing document. Mr. Thelen’s weekly bulletin, instead of
including pages of information on recurrent items, referred teachers to the
appropriate pages in the handbook to be read at certain times during the
semester.
The school leader who discovers his school needs such a handbook
should also follow Mr. Thelen’s example and write it himself. Staff mem-
bers, the Parent Association, students, and the district will contribute ideas
and information, but the principal should write the final version to make
it an organic whole, stylistically consistent. This is a theme that you will
see repeated elsewhere in this chapter. However many hands go into the
creation of a document, it is important that one person write the final prod-
uct. Documents written by committee rarely have internal consistency and
often have contradictions inadvertently incorporated. These problems are
eliminated when one person writes the final draft. With most documents,
this person should be the principal or his most trusted assistant.
Of course, even if a school leader publishes a Teacher Handbook and
a series of well-designed weekly bulletins, he will still sometimes need to
issue a stand-alone memo. No handbook could cover every situation that
arises. Sometimes, a topic will concern only a few teachers rather than
the entire staff.
After attending his first senior prom as principal, Mr. Chen saw that there
were several issues that had to be addressed in future years. As is common
practice, prom sites provide free meals for the chaperones, whose presence
serves to prevent untoward incidents. At Principal Chen’s Brooklyn school,
graduating seniors were asked which staff members they wanted as chaper-
ones and these staff members were invited to attend. In addition, the senior
advisor invited staff members who had volunteered during the school year
to chaperone other student activities, such as school dances. The principal
and assistant principals were also invited. Staff members could bring their
significant others as additional adult chaperones.
134 Chapter 10