DCPS News
Superintendent Tells Principals 'This is Our Year'
A two-day summit involving every
Duval County elementary, middle and high school
principal began this morning with empowering remarks by
the superintendent. Dr. Joseph Wise urged the
administrators to be strong instructional leaders in
their schools and not allow distractions from this focus
that originate in the central office or elsewhere.
“This is our year for
breakthrough,” Wise said, and a principal’s role as an
instructional leader is “non-negotiable.” He said that
he and central office staff have worked to give schools
the tools and guidance necessary for the reform efforts
underway to boost student achievement, but any principal
is the key to instructional improvement at a school.
“Don’t let one minute of your time be lost, not one
minute taken away from instruction,” he urged.
But that’s easier said than done,
the superintendent admitted. He related a principal’s
recent revelation to him that administrators suffer from
the three Ds: “Too many directives from too many
directors in too many directions.”
To allow principals to focus
increased time on instructional leadership, Wise has
ordered that central office leaders reduce the number of
meetings that pull principals out of their schools and
to limit necessary meetings to after-school hours.
Wise ended his remarks by saying
that the effects of successful education reform extend
beyond school walls. “We must fix the disparities
between the haves and the have-nots. This is our year in
Jacksonville,” he said.
The two-day summit at the Schultz
Center For Teaching and Leadership in Jacksonville is
focusing its agenda on information that will strengthen
principals’ roles as academic leaders at their schools.
Teachers return this coming Monday, Aug. 13. Duval
County public schools re-open one week later. |
