monthly PA meetings in 2012–2013. The principal can take control of these
PA meeting dates by having the dates for the next year approved at the last
June PA officer meeting. Then, he can add these dates into the calendar—and
two weeks before each, make a note to prepare and distribute the agenda.
Likewise, by preplanning in June, he can do the same for all required
committee meetings: cabinet meetings, supervisory staff development
meetings, Academic Affairs Committee meetings, monthly meetings with
the union, School Leadership Team meetings, and so forth. The dates need
not be reinvented each year, since the cycle of the school year does not
change. If any committee met in the third week in September the past year,
it probably should meet in the third week in September the next year.
By the end of his first full year as principal, near the end of June, this
neophyte can take the previous school year’s weekly planner and use it
to schedule items for the next school year. As time goes on, he will add
more items for the cyclic events of the school year: freshman orientation,
the Career Fair, visits to ninth-year classes (and tenth-, eleventh-, and
twelfth-year classes as well), School Sing dates, Multicultural Festival
Day, and so on. By the beginning of his third year as a principal, the
weekly planning calendar should provide him with a blueprint for the
upcoming school year and nearly eliminate unpleasant surprises. He will
have control of his daily, weekly, and yearly schedule.
The principal can use the weekly calendar to plan other aspects of his
job. This calendar will tell him which weeks are the busiest and which
the lightest. He can use this information to plan observations, required
reports, evaluations of the supervisory staff, and so forth. Most principals
find that May and June are very busy times. However, canny use of his
calendar can help a principal deflect some of the tasks of these busy times
to times earlier in the school year.
For example, Ms. Hildebrand’s superintendent required principals to
meet with their assistant principals in May and June so these principals
could prepare and submit their final evaluations on them by the end of the
school year. Careful calendar review told Ms. Hildebrand that she could
complete most of this task in December and January, less busy times ac-
cording to her calendar. She scheduled mid-year evaluation meetings with
her assistant principals for this time. She had ample time to meet with
each and create an interim evaluation on each. Then, in early May, she
sent each a copy of this report and requested updates. With these incorpo-
58 Chapter 5