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How Teachers and New Administrators Can Lead Together

By Cindi Rigsbee

A few weeks ago, the faculty at my school received an unexpected call from our principal. He used the synchronized messaging system that delivers phone calls to all of us at once, usually announcing weather delays and PTA meetings. And even though I was alone in my living room, I could hear jaws dropping far and wide as our faculty received the shocking news: Our principal is leaving.

As my phone continued to ring throughout the night and text messages vibrated, denial was in full force: It can't be true! Our principal opened the school! He chose every brick, every piece of furniture. He frontloaded us with the information we needed to form a mission and vision. I was standing right beside him the first time we sang our school's newly written alma mater. The school will surely implode without him in it. How will we go on?

Melodrama aside, it is difficult to face this change. We are excited for our now former principal, who will be taking on a great opportunity, yet many of us promptly fall into a "but what about me?" mentality. It is, my colleagues and I joked, "all about us." Where does this disruption leave us as the...