A principal's job is never done

The heads of today's schools are a new breed - free-thinkers, good teachers and, increasingly, managers who can handle huge workloads. KAREN BURGE meets two of the best.

Sue McLachlan and Kataraina Wetere pull on gumboots with their smart business suits when they leave their office at Mountain View School in Mangere.

As the school's co-principals their prime goal is providing quality education for their 260 children. But at the moment they are also project managers on a new driveway and amphitheatre project.

These friends of 20 years -- one Pakeha, the other Maori -- are credited by the Education Review Office with rescuing the school, in Manukau City, that two years ago was broke and dilapidated.

Each works at least six days a week, often well into the night, because she believes education offers the school's children their only chance of escaping the poverty cycle.

Maximising that last chance means both principals spend considerable time out in the community working with students' families and sharing detailed information on their children's progress.

"I think they realise that we really do love them and care about what happens to them and we treat them as members of our families," says Sue McLachlan.

To make sure quality education is being delivered, the board pays for an assessment moderator and a research assistant.

They work with the children individually, in classes and school-wide, to find where their strengths lie and what needs more work.

But with limited funding, spending money on assessment means the principals pick up the extra work to compensate.

"At the moment we take on the extra work that needs doing because we can't afford to employ people to do it," says Kataraina Wetere. "We have saved an awful lot of money for the school. There has been a personal cost but we have chosen that."

And the rewards are evident as soon as they step outside their door.

"The children know we care about them and they care about us and that's why we come in every day -- it's what makes it all worthwhile," says Sue McLachlan.

"When we have had enough we go out and see the kids."

Together, Sue McLachlan and Kataraina Wetere personify the crucial role principals play in the success or failure of today's schools.

As the head of the Education Review Office, Dr Judith Aitken, points out, seldom does a school thrive when a principal is failing. But a school in crisis can be dramatically turned around by a new principal or an existing principal who "pulls themselves up by their bootstraps."

Dr Aitken says that, while the makeup of principals does not seem to have changed dramatically under Tomorrow's Schools, some younger, "quite stunning" principals are making waves in rural and hard-to-staff areas.

Indeed, says the president of the Secondary Principals' Association, Allan Peachey, Tomorrow's Schools opened the way for new, younger, "free-thinkers" to move through.

"Pre-Tomorrow's Schools there was a big green Department of Education manual, that pretty well told you everything to do in every circumstance.

"Nowadays, a lot more effort needs to go into making sure the decisions you make are right for the environment you find yourself in, and they are not necessarily the same decisions you would make if you were heading a different school in another part of town or a different part of the country."

Today's principals must have been good teachers and must understand teachers and the nature of learning, he says.

They must also understand their community's aspirations.

On top of that they must also be versed in a raft of legislation, sound financial management and the state's method of allocating resources.

For all this they earn a basic salary of between $52,000 and $87,000, depending on the size of the school, with additional grants available that may take the principals of some very large schools over $100,000.

"It's a big job and a big responsibility and you have to be ready for it," says Mr Peachey, who heads Rangitoto College in North Shore City.

"A good principal has got to throw themselves into the life of the school, and, I actually believe, their community, and always be positive, optimistic, encouraging, looking for opportunities, always trying to do a little better for the children and the teachers in that school.

"It's not a job you can do part-time or half-heartedly. It requires total, full-on commitment."

At Whangarei Boys' High School, principal Murray Lints describes his hours as "horrendous."

"On the other hand, my wife will tell you I really enjoy my job and I think it's because of the sense of satisfaction that I get from making an impact for the better on kids' education."

He is credited with changing the culture of the school he took over 51/2 years ago after a stint as a reviewer with the Education Review Office.

"My focus initially was on breaking down the image of a boys' school as a violent, confrontational place."

Since the education reforms began, a primary principal's average weekly workload has increased an average of 10 hours, to 59 hours.

Teaching principals work about 64 hours a week.

A 1997 report on the changing role of the primary principal, by Cathy Wylie of the Council for Educational Research, showed that administration now takes up more of a principal's time than educational leadership.

The report said there were clear signs that the continued high and intensive workload was taking its toll on principals and might be making promotion less attractive to teachers.

Indeed, research done for the Principals' Federation showed only 9 per cent of primary schoolteachers are interested in school leadership positions.

Those who are interested tend to be men. Figures from 1997 showed that, while women made up 81 per cent of primary and intermediate teachers and held 74 per cent of management positions, they made up only 34 per cent of principals.

In secondary schools, women made up 55 per cent of teachers and held 47 per cent of the management positions but only 25 per cent of principal posts.

Not only are principals answerable to boards of trustees, they also come in for close attention from the Education Review Office.

Dr Aitken says a principal staying in the same school for 20 years or a rapid turnover of principals are both good indicators that review officers should look closely at that school.

"That much-desired senior stability is not a plus in many cases."

While it would be "explicit" in review office reports if the principal was "found wanting," the next course of action was up to the board.

She expects that the Government would look more closely at the relationships between boards and principals where reviews show repeated failure or poor performance and ask what interventions are appropriate.

"Ministers are likely to become increasingly impatient with situations where the difficulty is actually moving the principal along or changing their performance."