Principal Leadership Academy

It's tough being a principal.

A principal is like the CEO of a good-sized company, responsible for the productivity of dozens of teachers and hundreds of students. Yet principals receive very little preparation for their jobs. For this reason, it had long been a key goal of former Hamilton County superintendent Dr. Jim Scales to build a Principal Leadership Academy to help mentor and prepare assistant principals to take over the job of principal.

PEF, in partnership with Hamilton County schools, the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, is glad to be able to help.  In 2009-10, PEF hosted a series of Principal Leadership workshops for elementary and secondary assistant principals. This series of half-day workshops served as a "bridge year" and focused on topics such as leadership and decision making, budget development and appropriate use of funds, and personnel management and the evaluation process, among many others.

Thanks to funding from Unum, Joe Davenport (Pointer Management), an anonymous donor, Hamilton County Department of Education and United Way, a full-scale Principal Leadership Academy began in summer 2010 to provide more intensive training, mentoring and support over the course of one year to assistant principals interested in moving into a principal's role.  The monthly topics covered are:

• September - Instructional Leadership
• October - Cultural Leadership
• November - Managerial Leadership
• December - Financial Leadership
• January - Human Resources Leadership
• February - Strategic Leadership
• March - External Development Leadership
• April - Micro-political Leadership
• May - Presentations and Graduation

We are proud to welcome the second class of protégés to the Principal Leadership Academy!

Protégés and Mentors in the Principal Leadership Academy, Class of 2012

Kelly Coffelt - CSLA / Jim Weigert - Comcast
Chrissy Easterly - East Hamilton Middle/High / Thomas Loafman - Volkswagen of America LLC
Cheri Grant - Red Bank Elementary / Kathy Owen - Unum
Vanessa Harris - Brown Academy / Kim White - River City Company
Jacqueline Hauth - Westview Elementary / Sydney Crisp - Unum
Tammy Helton - East Ridge High / Monique Berke - Unum
Andrea Johnson - Lakeside Academy / MaryStewart Lewis - AT&T
Kimberly Roden - Battle Academy / Van Wardlaw - TVA
LeAngela Rogers - Hunter Middle / Rosemarie Bryan - Chambliss, Bahner & Stophel, P.C.
Greg Wilkey - Tyner Middle / Robert Main - Siskin Hospital for Physical Rehabilitation

Read about the graduation of assistant principals in the first class.

As reported in the Times Free Press, all of the newly appointed principals for the 2011-12 school year are graduates of the PLA Class of 2011 or Leadership Fellows - congratulations!

Protégés and Mentors in the Principal Leadership Academy, Class of 2011

Randall Bell – Hixson Elementary / Susanne G. Schaefer - Volkswagen Group of America, Inc.
Haley Brown – Normal Park / Tom Griscom
Zacery Brown - East Ridge High / Tom Thompson - Unum
LaKesha Carson – Orchard Knob Middle / Jim Steffner, Jr. - Steff’s Co. & Electric Motor Sales
Robin Cayce – moved out of district / Ron Harr - BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee
Rachel Duke – Sequoyah High / Ryan Rose - Volkswagen Group of America, Inc.
Blake Freeman – Normal Park Upper / Bob Best - Unum
Preston Gonter – Central Office / Michael Mathis - Regions Bank
Saunya Goss - Battle Academy / Merri Mai Williamson - Application Researchers, LLC
Katrina Gravitte – Daisy Elementary / Jim Sattler - EMJ Corporation
John Pierce – Red Bank Middle / Tim Arnold - Unum
Crystal Sorrells – Orchard Knob Middle / Jim Hobson - Memorial Healthcare System
Jennifer Spates – Brown Academy / Darrell Moore - Parkridge
LaFrederick Thirkill – Orchard Knob Elementary / Howard Levine - Miller & Martin PLLC
Cindy Wages – Hunter Middle / Sonya Nelson - BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee

For more information on the Principal Leadership Academy, contact:
Bill Kennedy, Interim Director
423.668.2429