My thanks also for showing much more respect to our children and to all of the parents. My belief is that a successful school has a successful principal. If you want to change a school, change the principal. I believe also that the victory is in the classroom, but is facilitated by a strong instructional leader. We will continue to focus on building level leadership.
Principals are responsible for supporting, developing and hiring strong teachers.
We are implementing a new performance-based teacher evaluation process this year that will give principals more latitude in helping teachers improve the teaching and learning process. Getting results with children who come from homes that can provide them with multiple enrichment experiences and other support systems certainly makes an educator's job easier. However, we are trained to educate all children well and we must believe in our own efficacy and skills to make that happen. There can be no excuses. I believe that a leader has the responsibility to lead and I try to do that.