Acting Principal

My first week as the Site Manager of the Early Education Classes at three sites in San Francisco of largely holding down the fort, largely meeting people and ensuring paperwork. The best part was to engage with the 3- to 4- year old students, who are so cute. The teachers and paraprofessionals are quite dedicated to their charges. In the afternoon, the children take naps and I do paper work-like making sure the licensing forms are up to date.

I did have a false fire alarm on my first day at SF Montessori, where I pretended to be in charge as I followed the clerk around to the fire department and to the construction crew. I realized how important it is to know your people and resources on site and off.

My first week, I had to deal with a little drama between the head custodian, and my staff, who kept walking through the courtyard. She had been trying to set up signs and DO NOT CROSS tape in the courtyard so she could clean it. And it came to a head that she raised her voice to the staff. I too had walked down the stairs through the courtyard. She was upset and I tried to calm her down and asked her what I could do to help her. I asked that she let me know what the access for the EED and school age class would be and we would set that up. I set it up and she seemed grateful. The EED staff gave me an earful. “What we have here is a failure to communicate.” Much of my job is addressing this very issue.