September 27, 2004
By Beverly A. Carroll - Staff Writer
Chattanooga Times Free Press

East Ridge Middle School principal Sharon Vaughn said the leadership skills developed in Hamilton County schools helped land her next job.

'I knew all the answers to the interview questions,' Mrs. Vaughn said. 'I feel like with the skills I learned at Hamilton County I could go anywhere in the country.'

Mrs. Vaughn resigned soon after the school year started, cit-ing budget reductions that ate into programs and cut assistant principals and consulting teachers. She will leave Oct. 8 to become assistant principal at Ringgold High School.

Her departure triggered questions by Hamilton County Commission Chairman Fred Skillern, who questioned whether the district is prepar-ing leaders to replace veteran principals who are eligible to retire. More than half the dis-trict's 81 principals fall into that category, school officials said.

'I am concerned that there's not people being brought up who can step in when these principals leave,' Mr. Skillern said earlier this month.

Gail Levin, executive direc-tor of the Annenberg Founda-tion, which awarded Hamilton County and the Public Educa-tion Foundation about $6 mil-lion for leadership development programs, challenged Mr. Skillern's statement.

'Chattanooga is one of the best examples in the country of educational instructional and management practices being applied in an urban school district,” Dr. Levin said. “what you have in Chattanooga is an extraordinary effort to up the ante.”

Hamilton Country Schools officials said there is a high level of quality principal applicants and trainees in the district. Sixteen assistant principal positions were eliminated, leaving the district with 73 among 79 schools.

'We have the best pool of principals and principal assis-tants we have had in years,' Hamilton County Board of Education member Debbie Colbum said.

Mr. Skillern and four other commissioners voted in June against a property tax increase that would have provided $20 million in additional money for schools and $9 million for gen-eral government. One of the commissioners' concerns was that the district had too many assistant principals.

'People who make that state-ment don't understand what our expectations for principals are now,' schools Superintendent Jesse Register said. 'The job description has changed so much.'

GROWING WITH THE JOB

Over the past several decades, principals' jobs have evolved from that of building managers to instructional leaders responsible for guiding teacher development, curriculum and student achieve-ment, education experts said.

'I've been in (education) for 32 years,' said Ray Swoffard, Hamilton County associate superintendent of elementary education. 'There was a time when (the job) was looked at as more of a management position. It was a joke that all you had to do was 'mind the store.''

In 1998, with the grant from the Annenberg Foundation, vet-eran school administrators worked with Public Education Foundation directors to create a program that provides principals with training on using test data, managing teachers, public rela-tions and curriculum develop-ment. There is training specific to leading urban schools — often those with high poverty rates and poor student achievement.

Orchard Knob Elementary principal Marthel Young said the program gave her opportunities she otherwise would have missed.

'I learned from experts in the field of change and school reform,' Ms. Young said. 'It gave me a broader view of the respon-sibilities such as matching the instruction piece to the (required state) standards piece.'

Without the Annenberg funds, Hamilton County proba-bly would have less formal, in-depth training, school officials said. In Knox County, where training is provided out of oper-ating funds, principal training is limited to people already serving as assistants or as principals, school spokesman Russ Oaks said.

'We have a lot of young prin-cipals,' he said. 'We've had a lot of retirements over the years, so as a result our level of experi-ence for the whole group has really decreased.'

KEEPING PRINCIPALS

The Hamilton County pro-gram also provides ongoing training and support for princi-pals on the job. Mrs. Colburn credited the program with improving recruitment and retention of principals.

I found there were a lot of people who would be excellent leaders, but because of the pres-sures of being an instructional leader instead of just a building manager they decided against it,' Mrs. Colburn said. 'They needed to see that they would have some support.'

Sale Creek Middle and High School principal Devota Bames one of the administrators involved in creating the leadership program, said the program provides an important bridge between the classroom and the principal's office.

'I came straight out of the classroom into the principal-ship,' the 22-year veteran prin-cipal said. 'With the demands today of the No Child Left Behind Act and changing tech-nology, the role is different, and the children would suffer while the principal got caught up on the learning curve.'

Retired principal Charlotte Stiles, also a leadership program founder, said principals need assistants just as do managers of large businesses or companies.

'If I have to go check three or four times a day to make sure there is soap or toilet paper in the bathrooms, I am wasting my talent,' said Mrs. Stiles, former Alpine Crest principal.

Dr. Register, who came to Chattanooga in 1996, said he began looking into leadership preparedness years ago.

'I found that there were assis-tant principals (in 1996 and 1997) whose experience level and age was as high as that of the prin-cipals,' Dr. Register said. 'There wasn't a lot of younger people in the pipeline to fill the vacan-cies when they happened. We have been building a leadership pool of people, and we've been very successful.'

Dr. Register also has removed some principals, transferring them back to assistant principal jobs. In the past two years more than a half dozen principals were moved to either assistant or asso-ciate principaL

'There are some people we did not let continue as principal because we didn't think they would be a success,' Dr. Regis-ter said. 'Our expectations are high, and we don't let people stay in the job if they aren't going to be successful.'

Under the employee contract with the Hamilton County Edu-cation Association, teachers have tenure, but principals do not. Principals serve one-year con-tracts. If their contract is not renewed, they may return to the classroom if they have tenure.

Parts of Hamilton County's leadership program are being replicated in other districts around the country. Dr. Levin said. Annenberg is funding two programs in Atlanta and the San Francisco Bay area where the districts are developing men-toring programs and focusing on training more assistant princi-pals, she said.

E-mail Beverly A. Carroll at bcarroll@timesfreepress.com