81Chapter Seven
Be Aware of Workplace Issues
Teachers legitimately complain that it doesn’t take long for a school leader
to forget what it was like to be a teacher with a full program. As one climbs
up the administrative ladder, it is important to focus on school-wide is-
sues, but in doing so, one must always pay attention to items important to
teachers—items that make their school year and professional lives easier.
Let’s take the example of a school program. Once the budget issues are
ironed out, you, as a school leader, try to create a program that meets the
needs of the students; that is, it provides course offerings to meet gradua-
tion needs and student course requests with few, if any, conflicts. As time
goes on, you and your staff become proficient at this. For example, you
soon realize that students advanced in one subject are usually advanced in
almost all subjects. Therefore, in your program you schedule honors and
“advanced” classes during different periods so that, let’s say, qualified
seventh graders could take Honors English, Honors Social Studies, Hon-
ors Math, and Honors Science. You would make sure that other classes
they need to take are scheduled in periods when these singletons are not
offered. You would do the same for those classes intended for students
who need special academic support. However, you also have to consider
teacher preferences and talents.
Almost any teacher will tell you that the schedule he receives in Sep-
tember will make or break his entire school year. This is not an exag-
geration. It is an important workplace issue that will impact the quality
of instruction each teacher will provide. In most school districts, it is
also a contractual issue. There is a deadline whereby administration must
provide teachers with a “program preference sheet” for their programs for