Administrative Council

So, tomorrow morning is our first Administrative Council meeting of the new school year. Ad Council (because we shorten EVERYTHING in TX to a nickname or acronym!) meets monthly, and the group is comprised of principals, directors, coordinators, cabinet and senior council. It is quite a diverse group, and over the years, the purpose of our meetings has been a bit unclear to me.

I am the principal of a wonderful public school. We meet as a staff about once a month and in teams much more often than that. We are starting our PLC (another acronym....Professional Learning Community) time next Wednesday for our weekly discussions about what students know, what they don't know, and what we are going to do about it! Principals dig meetings - it's how we communicate the culture and beliefs about our school with the internal and external customers we serve. So I am VERY sensitive to planning effective meetings. You know...agendas, goal setting, reflection, discussion, decision making...all very important to me as a leader.

So, when I head to these meetings, sometimes I know the agenda, and sometimes I don't. Sometimes we talk about leadership development concepts, but most of the time we haven't. I need this man! I need to sit with my peer group and learn together. We need a common understanding about the structures of our organization so that we can effectively and consistently lead our staff in the direction our district is headed....without this compass, we drift and float, relying on our own instincts to carry us through the lonely times as a principal.

Not that I want to add any pressure to our leadership, but I want this to be worth my time. I want to feel smarter, or better equipped to lead, or more informed, or more something! I don't want to be talked to, but rather talked with. I want to talk to someone I don't know and learn from him/her, or get some expertise from someone I already know, but maybe didn't know that part! So here's the challenge friends....lead me to greatness! I am already a very willing participant who WANTS this to be the best year of my career!