Last week I interviewed 16 candidates who were vying for four of our principal vacancies. Although the interviews made for a long week, it was good to move to this stage of the hiring process. The public turnout, with the exception of the one at Spring Creek Prison which was private, was great. It was impressive to walk into the various school libraries and see it packed with parents, community members and teachers. The good attendance is evidence of the importance of the events; thanks to everyone who took the time to attend and thanks for the excellent audience input on our candidates’ interview responses. This input has been both thoughtful and insightful; it is good to gain the various perspectives
My decision on who to select is based on the consideration of three things: the feedback and recommendations of the district administrators who closely listen to the responses, the audience’s input and the reference checks on the candidates. This last item often takes time since I usually look beyond those people who are listed on the application. As mentioned in a previous post, the job of principal is difficult. Thus far, we are fortunate to have good candidates who are up for the job.
Communications Survey
One of our on-going challenges is to maintain good communications with the public. In the past year we’ve made several improvements to this area. We are now seeking our stakeholders’ feedback on how we are doing.
We are participating in a new study to help school districts improve communication with parents (and others) in our school community. The research is part of a communication accountability program of the National School Public Relations Association (NSPRA). NSPRA is a non-profit organization dedicated to improving all facets of communication in school communities. The survey firm, K12 Insight, Inc., is donating its services for this project to NSPRA. We are able to participate in the survey for free.
All responses are confidential. Our school officials will receive the results from our community survey in late spring. We plan to use the results to refine our current communication effort and improve its effectiveness. The compiled results from the 100 school districts will be announced in July by NSPRA and no identification will be given to individual school districts.
The survey will be offered by NSPRA’s partner, K12 Insight, Inc. through an email system beginning on March 20th. We will be providing the confidential list to K12 Insight, Inc., who will implement and tabulate the survey. All parties have signed confidentiality agreements to assure the privacy of all concerned.
I encourage you to sign up for the survey. To do so, go to the homepage of our website and click on the NSPRA Communications Survey sign-up.