Leading school
climate from turmoil
to tranquility
When a principal’s time
and energy are devoured
by operational and
student discipline issues,
there is little left for
acting and serving as the
learning leader. However,
a number of general
guidelines can be widely
applied to turn a school’s
climate around.
12
Leadership
When I took over as principal
of a school in early November, my super-
visor confided, “There may be a few prob-
lems with the school climate. I’ve noticed
things like kids running in the halls.” Little
did I imagine that from the first day, a vast
amount of my time would be consumed with
office referrals and student fights. There
were a host of other problems, too, but stu-
dent discipline was typically the most im-
mediate and pressing demand on my time.
Fortunately, I had just left a school where
I had worked under a most inspirational
principal, Carolyn Ruis, who had inher-
ited almost exactly the same kind of chaos,
and in a couple of years had engineered a
turnaround. If I hadn’t experienced that
firsthand, I would probably have given up
before my first year was over because some
days were so hard and exhausting I felt like
just resigning.
As I worked in later years with schools in
sanctions, I found that many also suffered
from problems with school climate, and my
experience allowed me to coach these prin-
cipals toward successful change. Although
no template can exactly fit a given school, a
number of general guidelines can be widely
applied for success.
Without a safe, secure learning environ-
ment, teaching and learning cannot possibly
thrive, and if the principal’s time and energy
are devoured by operational and student
discipline issues, there is little left for acting
and serving as the learning leader. I should
also mention that, as an elementary princi-
pal of a school of about 650, I had no assis-
tant principal. But be assured, even a lone
ranger principal can do this.
Guideline No. 1 – Share leadership.
School climate problems cannot be
handed off to an AP, even if there is one, or
several. Certainly, all members of an admin-
istrative team must be consistent and work
in concert, but it is of the utmost importance
that the principal is personally involved,
and shares leadership in this endeavor with
teacher leaders.
I advise inviting teacher leaders from all
grade spans or departments to serve on a
School Climate Committee. Our commit-
tee also included parents, since parents were
contributors to certain facets of the problem,
By Terry Wilhelm