Principal assessment and the notion of “fit”

Abstract

In the winter of 1991, a brief announcement in a local Virginia newspaper indicated that an elementary principal had requested to be removed from her duties because of health reasons. She was reassigned to a teaching position in another school. Insiders acknowledged that the stress of school administration and its impact on the principal's health was only part of the reason for the reassignment. What lay behind the stress was a disjunction between the expectations and desires of a rural community on the one hand, and the beliefs of the principal and her faculty on the other. It seems parents wanted to retain a school honor roll, despite the fact no other elementary school in the school district had one. Learning of the parents' concern, the principal met with her faculty to determine their feelings. The faculty expressed their desire to eliminate the honor roll. Meanwhile parents requested a meeting with the principal to discuss the issue. They arrived at the appointed time expecting to receive an open hearing. The principal opened the meeting by announcing that the faculty had voted not to continue the honor roll. Parents became upset, sensing that a decision had been made prior to the hearing. From that point, the parents began to make life miserable for the principal, complaining to her supervisors and waging a campaign to discredit her leadership. Those who see school administration strictly in behavioral terms might argue that the principal simply acted inappropriately. Better training in group dynamics and how to work with the public could have