The Other PPP: Principal-Parent Partnership

New York City school principals have the most challenging jobs I can imagine. I thought so way before COVID threw our school system into chaos, maybe because I've depended on our public schools from PreK to high school for both my kids. The NYC school system is a megalith with over 1.1 million students and 135,000 employees. I experience the challenges almost daily.

Principals manage the safety and learning of hundreds, if not thousands, of children every day. They depend on reliable highly functioning staff every day. They must answer to parents with wide demands and capacities for engagement. Principals must also follow the political whims of their elected overseers, not to mention the bureaucratic hurdles of their administrators at the Department Of Education.

But principals also have a lot of latitude in deciding how to make things work. Every school functions as its own ecosystem, with infinite opportunities to create community and solve problems collaboratively.

Collaborative problem solving doesn't mean everyone jumping in at once. But everyone (students, parents, teachers and staff) should feel that their experience matters and their voices are heard. Each constituency has a perspective that can contribute to solutions.

Parents and guardians are one of a school's greatest assets in finding solutions and offering help in a pinch. They volunteer time, share skills and donate money, benefiting all students (not just their own). A big part of what made my kids' elementary school so successful was the collaborative spirit of our families, principal and teachers. So it frustrates me when I see a school that needs help, and its principal fails to take advantage of the help that many parents want to give.

I don't blame school principals entirely for not accepting help when its needed. They were probably never trained in the kinds of management and leadership skills required to build community and consensus in a school environment. But if principals and the DOE saw parents as allies, and the school environment as a real community, with us working towards common goals, think how much more we could accomplish, together.