Monday, March 13, 2017

Walking in Someone Else's Shoes

While our substitute list was surprisingly short, I'm grateful to say, our admin assistants were all out this morning - and my life as an Assistant Principal went into a tailspin.  Who runs the school really? Well, we all know that the front office staff usually has the best handle on what is happening, what needs to happen, and what may happen in the near future.

This morning sick children, sick staff, and doctor's appointments meant that I was manning the front office - eek!  It's a non-stop hamster wheel in there!  Students coming late, late passes, documentation of reasons why they are late, parent phone calls regarding sick students, parent phone calls period - and me not knowing how to transfer a call, parents dropping off lunches, or cheerleading shoes, or rsvp's for the sports banquet, or chorus money, and getting the right subs in the right place, finding replacements for the subs that didn't show, finding coverage for the classrooms where no sub was put in - but there was no teacher???, cobbling together schedules for subs, printing class rosters for subs, and making sure they had plans.  Whew, that was mostly in the first hour!

The half day in the main office left me grateful for the Admin Assistants' calm, positive, and efficient handling of the situations that arise when you have 963 middle school students entering your doors every day.  Jessica, Carla, and Kesha, you were missed this morning - Please come back tomorrow!

Umm, or I'll take a snow day?  Fingers Crossed

2 comments:

  1. They really are pretty amazing!

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  2. This is such a real post for every school everywhere. The real heroes who keep all those buildings all across our nation moving and learning and functioning are the front office staff and the teachers! Supervisory staff will serve as leaders but in education, it is the worker bees who will lead the way!

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