‘Principals’ for a day see schools ‘exactly as they are’

Every Bibb County school had a guest “principal” for a few hours Wednesday.

About 40 participants, mainly business people, shadowed the schools’ standing leaders in order to learn more about their daily duties.

It’s been more than five years since OneMacon’s Business Education Partnership last held Principal for a Day, school Superintendent Curtis Jones said. Similar programs are held in other parts of the state and country.

Eric Bobo, vice president of lending for MidSouth Community Federal Credit Union, spent the morning with Bernd Elementary principal Chad Thompson and assistant principal Tawanya Wilson.

The credit union has a long history with the school system, having been chartered as the Bibb Teachers Federal Credit Union in 1936. The company wanted to strengthen its ties with the district, so about five other staff members also visited schools during the day.

Bobo toured Bernd, stopped in several classrooms, sat in on a mid-year teacher conference and observed lunchtime. Thompson and Wilson talked with him about their reading program, testing, bulletin boards, teacher learning targets, computer programs, attendance awards, Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports system, the new cafeteria, accountability — and more. Bobo, in turn, explained some of his business’s practices, from employee motivation and meeting goals to evaluations.

“We kind of work on some things to integrate people who are in the community more into the school so we can understand what’s going on,” said Blake Sullivan, Business Education Partnership co-chairman with Jones. “From the volunteers going in there, they get a chance to really look at what the principals do and how the schools (operate) on a high level,”

Community members were exposed to the inner workings of the education system, as well as some of the daily successes and challenges that leaders deal with, Sullivan said. The school system wants to be transparent, and guests saw the schools exactly as they are, Jones said.

With two children in elementary school and one in high school, Bobo has only seen the schools from the viewpoint of a parent. On Wednesday, he saw the administrative side instead. He said he liked what was going on at Bernd, including the emphasis on critical thinking, constant visual reminders for goals and positive behavior reinforcements.

“This is a difficult job,” Bobo said. “I truly respect what you all are doing.”

A lot of people mistakenly think principals sit behind a desk all day, but in reality, they are the ones who keep everything running, Wilson said. They’re not just punching a clock, he said. They’re investing in children.

“The amount of responsibility that Dr. Thompson has, you really have to have a lot of respect for that. Everything that happens is his responsibility,” Wilson said. “It’s just so much that he has to do.”

Principals interact with other educators regularly, but the program gave them the chance to connect with people in other fields who they don’t normally encounter. The principals may have learned something about business practices too, Sullivan said. Bobo and Thompson agreed there are a lot of similarities and overlap between how businesses and schools operate.

“This is an opportunity for the public to see what we’re doing,” Jones said. “I hope it creates a closer relationship between the school and the business. Hopefully, it will give (the public) more confidence that we’re doing the right kinds of things.”

Participants will talk about what they observed at the Business Education Partnership meeting in February. The organization hopes to turn the tables in a future event by having principals visit the businesses.

This story was originally published January 18, 2017 at 5:22 PM with the headline "‘Principals’ for a day see schools ‘exactly as they are’."