Modern Loyalty

My View

Most principals or vice principals who want to meet with me simply send me a text or an e-mail to set up a time. On rare occasions, they set up an appointment through my executive assistant in the office.

I’ve discovered three reasons they typically go through her for a meeting: (1) they want to let me know they are pregnant; (2) they want to let me know they are retiring; or (3) they want to let me know they are applying for a job outside the district. I appreciate how difficult all three of these can be to discuss with your boss. Of course, pregnancies are wonderful to celebrate and so are retirements.

And then there’s that third group. I appreciate how nervous people are to discuss their pursuit of a job somewhere else.

A Badge of Honor

There is a widely held mindset in school communities, as in many other professions and workplaces, that loyalty to the district is a paramount value. I’ve always had a different view of loyalty in education. It is for that reason, to the surprise of almost everyone who comes to my office to talk about an opportunity elsewhere, I treat it like a celebration. While I am highly competitive and want to have the best possible staff, I also want to work in and model an organization that encourages risk-taking and pursuit of new challenges.

When someone’s application is successful in another school district, the message to me is that we are doing something right. When looking out across the landscape, I know school districts want to attract candidates from good schools and good school districts. It is a badge of honor for our district when our teachers and administrators are being recruited from other districts.

I also believe, that while we in public education divide up into public and independent schools and organize our schools into districts, when it comes to the children who attend, they all truly belong to all of us. We want all kids to have great teachers, principals and schools.

Of course, professional movement is healthy, and new people bring new energy. Those leaving bring new energy to their new location, and that leaves opportunities for new people to take their positions, also bringing new excitement and new ideas.

Growth Options

I recently was reviewing the appointments we have made in leadership positions over my last nine years in West Vancouver. About 80 percent of the time, we have hired from within our school system, about 20 percent have been candidates from outside.

A generation ago, education leaders were far more loyal to where they worked.

Modern loyalty in education is about being loyal to people and being loyal to the work, but it recognizes that sometimes you have to leave to grow.