#1 · Jun 14, 2013 13:30 UTC
Landed that principal job yesterday. It was absolutely the wildest chain of events that I had been part of and man do I feel vindicated. Some of you know I've been trying for about a year to land this job and haven't had much success. It's been the classic, "Hiring but you need 5 years experience" thing. I've lost a few jobs just to experience. Been very trying at times trying to stay chipper and not burn bridges when you are not getting what you feel you've earned the right to do.
At any rate, I got a call last week from my Super. He's been a big fan and supporter ever since I took over my school when our then principal had serious health issues. He asked if I was still interested in an administrative job. He had been shuffling people around, but had to be really cryptic about WHAT the job was. HE said he'd call me the next week to have a sit down if things panned out. Seemed like he was waiting on someone else to make their mind up.
The best thing I could figure was there was a guy at the High School that put in for THAT schools Assistant Principal. He and I both lost out to a lady that had more experience. I figured he was pissed that doing the administrative job he had been doing didn't yield him what he wanted and was thinking about quitting and going into the classroom again. I figured I was going to be asked to be the Program Review Coordinator. Not the job I wanted but a step in the right direction and damned good experience for me.
so he calls me in and immediately starts talking about my good friend that is a principal at the Middle School. I'm thinking to myself, "Why the fuck are we talking about this guy??? Surely he isn't going to offer me a principal job. That's insane. There is no way he's going to offer me that job. Then he says to me, "Long story short, I want you to take his place. Are you interested? You DID tell me that you wanted to be a principal didn't you?"
After I finally got my jaw off the floor and stopped shitting myself, of course I said yes.
He then proceeds to tell me the process to making this happen. He says he sent a letter out to all administrators in the district that had all the people in the district that were qualified to be principal. There are several of us. He asked them to be ranked according to whom would be the most successful. He said I came back number one on every list!!! He took the info to the guy I am replacing and of the names on the list the only name he wanted to talk about was mine as to him I had already proven myself worthy.
Then shit got interesting. What is basically happening is the guy I am replacing is going to a new job. But due to the nature of the working relationship of the schools and this new job he has a year to try it out. IF he likes it after a year he stays on. IF he hates it he comes back to his old job and I go back to teaching in the district but now I have the year of experience under my belt!!!
In all likelihood he won't come back. He's been looking for an out and he found it. It appeals to all his strengths and hides all his weaknesses. But in taking the job he really pissed the Super off. The Super tells him that he has to take the list of names to the Site Based Council. They must vote for a principal. He said, "If they come back with Fenderbender as the name I'll write the MMO and you can go do your thing for a year. If they come back with any other name than Fenderbender's then you can turn in your resignation and go do your thing somewhere else."
I got it. It went through a day faster than I thought it would.
Man I've spent years trying to get here and now that it's here it's almost scary. But it's been the highest on life I think I've ever been.
I've applied for 3 different jobs in the past year in my district. I lost to experience every time. Now I get to run my own thing and I can't wait to kick those other schools asses when my school outperforms them. Oh yes, we are going to dominate.
At any rate, I got a call last week from my Super. He's been a big fan and supporter ever since I took over my school when our then principal had serious health issues. He asked if I was still interested in an administrative job. He had been shuffling people around, but had to be really cryptic about WHAT the job was. HE said he'd call me the next week to have a sit down if things panned out. Seemed like he was waiting on someone else to make their mind up.
The best thing I could figure was there was a guy at the High School that put in for THAT schools Assistant Principal. He and I both lost out to a lady that had more experience. I figured he was pissed that doing the administrative job he had been doing didn't yield him what he wanted and was thinking about quitting and going into the classroom again. I figured I was going to be asked to be the Program Review Coordinator. Not the job I wanted but a step in the right direction and damned good experience for me.
so he calls me in and immediately starts talking about my good friend that is a principal at the Middle School. I'm thinking to myself, "Why the fuck are we talking about this guy??? Surely he isn't going to offer me a principal job. That's insane. There is no way he's going to offer me that job. Then he says to me, "Long story short, I want you to take his place. Are you interested? You DID tell me that you wanted to be a principal didn't you?"
After I finally got my jaw off the floor and stopped shitting myself, of course I said yes.
He then proceeds to tell me the process to making this happen. He says he sent a letter out to all administrators in the district that had all the people in the district that were qualified to be principal. There are several of us. He asked them to be ranked according to whom would be the most successful. He said I came back number one on every list!!! He took the info to the guy I am replacing and of the names on the list the only name he wanted to talk about was mine as to him I had already proven myself worthy.
Then shit got interesting. What is basically happening is the guy I am replacing is going to a new job. But due to the nature of the working relationship of the schools and this new job he has a year to try it out. IF he likes it after a year he stays on. IF he hates it he comes back to his old job and I go back to teaching in the district but now I have the year of experience under my belt!!!
In all likelihood he won't come back. He's been looking for an out and he found it. It appeals to all his strengths and hides all his weaknesses. But in taking the job he really pissed the Super off. The Super tells him that he has to take the list of names to the Site Based Council. They must vote for a principal. He said, "If they come back with Fenderbender as the name I'll write the MMO and you can go do your thing for a year. If they come back with any other name than Fenderbender's then you can turn in your resignation and go do your thing somewhere else."
I got it. It went through a day faster than I thought it would.
Man I've spent years trying to get here and now that it's here it's almost scary. But it's been the highest on life I think I've ever been.
I've applied for 3 different jobs in the past year in my district. I lost to experience every time. Now I get to run my own thing and I can't wait to kick those other schools asses when my school outperforms them. Oh yes, we are going to dominate.