What Do Public School Principals Do? I Finally Found Out.

During my years in education, I have intermittently wondered what public school principals do--as in what is their job. (I only wonder this when I work directly under a principal--never when I am a district-based, itinerant worker.) I could never find anyone who would could give me a thorough answer. But have I ever asked a principal? No. Do I want to? No.

My RBF Principal's job seemed to be "supervising" students and staff [though interestingly not in the classroom unless it was a required observation]. What this looked like during transition times was standing on some corner or in the walkway and staring at everyone. If she wasn't motionless she was walking fiercely somewhere while still staring and getting ready to bark orders and bitch out on someone. I want to compare the Dark Cloud with my previous Principal who would stand outside greeting staff and students and then float around the school checking in on everyone and everything while chit chatting. If she approached us and we stopped talking, she would joke and say that we were talking about her. We were!

RBF Principal would do announcements over the intercom in the morning and afternoon. Her voice was so unpleasant that students commented on it. They weren't listening anyway because they all had ADHD and also they didn't give a fuck about anything, particularly her. And with it being a school with a high population of ELLs, that just was not the best method of communicating information. Surely she knew that. I want to compare Satan's Minion with my previous Principal who made sure the Media Specialist broadcast a daily morning show online involving students and staff. She made sure accomplishments were noted and rewards were given. There was always something to look forward to, so everyone was attentive.

During meetings, RBF Principal would look minorly interested and sometimes annoyed as people talked. Often times, she was on her laptop or phone. She had mild enthusiasm when she talked; but if others were not in agreement, she quickly became oddly rancid. I want to compare this Crazy Karen to my previous Principal who was 100% engaged during meetings and committed to problem-solving. She was always so reflective and striving for self-improvement.

As I have previously stated, when I would pass through the office, 99% of the time, RBF Principal was in her office. I could never find my previous Principal in her office. So, this year, it was about time I discovered the answer to my question...because maybe RBF Principal--in the District's eyes--was doing her job. I turned to Reddit to find the answer.

Apparently the job of a Principal is to fulfill the mission of the District. Simply put:

The Principal is the School District's bitch.

And the Principal must do this by whatever means necessary including lying, taking no personal accountability, placing blame on "subordinates," making life miserable for people who may outshine her, etc. This isn't the Principal being unethical. This is the Principal behaving in accordance with the climate and culture of the District. This is why the Principal puts on her smiley face, takes the stick out of her ass, and even laughs a bit when the Superintendents come on campus for their photo ops walk throughs. Her transformation was always unsettling.

Here I was thinking that Principals "owned" their schools...that Principals were to bring fresh ideas...that Principals did things that made sense for their school population even if it went against the grain. I thought Principals were to be like Joe Clark from that movie with Steal from Juice and that one teen that got pregnant who played on the Cosby show a time or two...Oops. No. That was my idealism showing again.

A Principal is a manager...or a secretary...a slave to test scores and dollar signs...a buzz word performer and a new $80k software liaison...a for profit prison warden. A Principal is a robot...and a traitor...because the most of the staff do not know the Principal is playing on a different team. And ohhhhhh, gawd, how they use that word "team" in order to fulfill their selfish mission.