engage in a vocal disagreement over some issue; nor was it unusual for
a chairperson to disagree with the principal. Less than one hour after
the meeting ended, most teachers in the school knew who said what to
whom. School leadership was seen as fragmented, disagreeing on major
issues.
To prevent this, Ms. Niles-Perry established a new procedure. The
principal and chairpersons would meet alone to reach consensus. This
was called the “supervisory staff development” meeting and was held
one week prior to cabinet meetings. Here, the principal and chairpersons
would discuss the issues on the agenda for the next cabinet meeting. The
ground rules were simple. Anyone could say what he or she wanted,
no holds barred, but at the end of the discussion, when a decision was
reached, everyone would support the decision. Whatever anyone had said
at the meeting would not be discussed elsewhere.
It took time, but this meeting, held on Friday afternoons, became one
all the supervisory staff looked forward to because it was the one time
each month when they could take off the masks they wore and be them-
selves. They could share their frustrations. They could see that their col-
leagues, each with offices far from each other, faced the same problems.
They could share their strategies for solving them.
The principal and her supervisory staff came to know each other as
people and not just chairpersons of this or that department. It wasn’t
long before they began ordering lunch so they could relax and talk about
anything—children, planned vacations, new cars, home repairs—for the
first hour or so. They came together as a team.
All had different ideas and opinions, but all realized that each was a
professional committed to making the school a better place for students to
learn and teachers to teach. Principal Niles-Perry said very little at most
of these meetings, but she listened and then facilitated the team toward
the final decision, which wasn’t always the one she envisioned before the
meeting began.
One month, Mr. Coral, a legal expert from the district, came to run a
workshop. He was surprised that the administrative staff treated him to
lunch. After the meeting, he took Ms. Niles-Perry aside and said, “You all
actually like each other!” Mr. Coral had been to over twenty schools, and
for him to make such a remark made Ms. Niles-Perry wonder how other
schools could function if the school leaders didn’t “like each other.”
34 Chapter 3