Tom Lenarz has been the assistant principal of Cloquet Middle School in Cloquet, MN, for more than 20 years, all but one of them alongside principal and NASSP Board Member Tom Brenner. During years in the role, Lenarz has gained a lot of wisdom about the assistant principalship. To kick off National Assistant Principals Week, we asked him to share his top five tips for new and aspiring assistant principals.
1. Your relationship with your principal is key.
I get to go to work with my best buddy every day, and I realize not many people get to say that. But our personal relationship really is vital to our success. We complement each other in terms of what we do well. He’s good with the staff and the curriculum, and he’s an amazing leader. I’m good with relationship stuff. I also handle the lion’s share of the discipline issues and that frees him up for other things. It helps if you can each do things that the other person wouldn’t necessarily like.
2. Specific roles are important but so is flexibility.
We’ve both learned over time that flexibility is the key to long-term success in education. We have our set roles, for example, like Tom with teacher evaluation and me with student discipline. But there are times when we’ll cross over those lines and address issues as needed. When it comes to students, we both understand how important it is to know the student and the family, to understand how what we say and do is going to impact them on the other end, and then to do what’s best for the child.
3. Disagreements are healthy.
One thing I’ve learned from him is that we start with what’s best for kids, and that doesn’t necessarily line up with what’s easiest for teachers. Sometimes people are going to be asked to do hard things because that’s what’s best for the students or the building overall. There are times when we disagree, and I will make my case. He’s tremendous at listening to what you have to say. If it makes sense, sometimes he will not be afraid to change his mind. Other times he’ll stick with his initial decision, and that’s OK too.
4. Don’t look at the assistant principalship as a steppingstone to something different.
Being a good assistant principal isn’t about putting in time until you can jump into a principalship. You need to love the job for what it is and really learn what this job entails before you start thinking about a higher-level position. Don’t be the person in the room who is always looking around to see if someone more important is there to talk to. Take the time to be great at being an assistant principal before you decide what the next step is. I work for a great principal, and love my job, so I haven’t spent a lot of time thinking about that. But if I ever took on that role, I’m confident the time and energy I have put in as an AP would provide me with the knowledge and skills I would need to be a successful principal.
5. It’s not about winning.
This is something that new teachers and new administrators should understand: Stop trying to win. You don’t need to win in discipline situations. One thing I’ve learned from using restorative practices is that there are always going to be consequences for the student’s behavior, but it’s more about getting to the root of why the situation happened in the first place. That’s what will help you stop it from happening again. The same goes for when you talk to parents. Stop trying to win. We’re supposed to be working together.