Two weeks ago I participated in the Torrance Chamber/Torrance Unified School District collaboration Principal For the Day event where business owners worked with school principals to see the ins and outs of what happens on a daily basis. I enjoyed the principal I worked with at Yukon Elementary. I had to say I was a bit surprised at what I saw.
What I expected was quite a bit of administration/supervision involving the staff, students, and perhaps parents. What I didn’t realize was how much more the principal did.
The Principal and I met at the Torrance Chamber office where all participants started the day with an overview of the program. We then headed over to the campus. She took a quick check of her e-mails to find 166 unread messages since the night before (she of course works late into the evening communicating with those who have sent messages), but didn’t have the time to deal with those first thing in the morning. She tried to call another district employee for an answer she had been waiting for, but was unable to reach the person at that moment. We then headed outside to see what was happening on the playground before the start of school. There were two little girls who decided to play dress-up with one of their mom’s make-up cases and they needed some help cleaning up before class. After that we took a tour of the campus and entered each class.
I found out Yukon Elementary has an intervention program where they analyze the students each week to see where they are with their learning levels. If they have not reached 80% mastery of a concept, it is re-taught to them until they understand it. This is especially important in math where one concept builds on another. This takes additional teaching staff as the regular teacher moves ahead with the lesson plans. The intervention teachers assist the students who need additional help. Unfortunately, funds have run out, and the school was losing quite a few teachers as of Friday.
I was surprised to hear staff would be let go before the end of the year, but I understand budgeting and cash management as a business owner. If there aren’t funds, there is no way to pay for needed services. It’s just hard to see those with the most need are going to be hurt because of funding issues.
One thing that surprised me about my day was how much the principal was involved with the students. At recess she was in charge of the structured play where students who’d had a discipline issue came to play at recess rather than having free play. However, the activity is so much fun that other kids wanted to participate as well. The kids played toss ball (like baseball but the kids throw the ball from home plate) and the principal was the umpire. After recess she tutored two students who needed extra assistance with reading and spelling. By this time it was lunch and we had to head over to meet with the other participants and discuss what we saw and experienced. She had to leave early due to the intervention meeting to analyze the students’ performance over the last week. Keep in mind she hadn’t even had time to look at her e-mails yet. I’m sure that number had increased considerably over the hours we were together. Most likely she spent her evening in front of a computer reading through them and responding.
I’m thankful I had the opportunity to participate in this event, but it makes me wonder what else I can do to help. As a busy entrepreneur, I don’t have a lot of free time, and my company isn’t large enough to be able to make a significant financial contribution. I’m pondering what I can do in my situation (besides sharing what I learned with others.)
I look forward to participating in this event again next year.
Candy
