Oanh Diep

Educational Leadership Interview

EDAD 615

This is my fourth year at North Mesquite High School and it is the only school I
have ever worked for, and I am fortunate enough to have Emmy Ellis as my principal.
Emmy has been the principal over science department for five years now and North
Mesquite High School, and this year marked her ninth year as a principal. Emmy have
taught science classes from freshman to seniors, and she calls herself a hidden science
nerd. She is not only wise but she is the most patient and compassionate principal I
have ever worked with. She assured me during my first year as a Biology teacher that
this is the only profession that I live in the past, present and future at the same time. The
best advice I have ever heard.
Emmy has a sense of humor that second to none so interviewing her was very
enjoyable. Before we began, Emmy told me to mindful of her wit when I transcribed this
interview because she did not want me to receive an unsatisfactory grade. It was a
learning experience and an eye opener for me to listen to her responses.
I constructed the interview based on the competencies and discussed each on
thoroughly with Emmy. Competency one states, The principal knows how to shape
campus culture by facilitating the development, articulation, implementation, and
stewardship of vision, of learning that is shared and supported by the school community
(SBEC, "Texas Principal Competencies", 2013).
Emmy explained that as a principal, she designed staff developments and
meetings with one goal in mind.

She emphasized the importance of creating an

atmosphere where others will understand their role in a bigger picture, and be willing to
do what you are asking of others. Emmys principle is very apparent in every meeting,

and she truly practices what she preaches. She values teamwork and unity among staff
members.
Competency two states The principal knows how to communicate and
collaborate with all members of the school community, responds to diverse interest and
needs, and mobilizes resources to promote student success (SBEC, "Texas Principal
Competencies", 2013).

Emmy expresses concerns for this competency because our

school has little parent involvement due to language and the fact that seventy percent of
our students are below poverty.

However, we have a new committee called The

Councilio where Spanish speaking parents can become more involved in their kids
learning by hosting cook outs for staff and attending free English lessons. The Concilio
consistently show appreciation to staff by providing breakfasts and lunches for teachers.
This improved students behaviors greatly in the classroom knowing that their parents are
involved in their school. North Mesquite High School also has a smooth running PST
(problem solving team) that meets weekly to discuss at-risk students. We also include
parents, counselors, coaches and principals in these meetings.
Competency three is The principal knows how to act with integrity, fairness, and
in an ethical and legal manner (SBEC, "Texas Principal Competencies", 2013). Emmy
cleared her throat as she explained that this is the most important competency to her.
Being a good leader means you have to be ok with having those difficult conversions
with people when they are not meeting expectations. Her values honesty, integrity and
calm under pressure. It is always about the bigger and better picture for the students and
community.

Competency four is The principal knows how to facilitate the design and
implementation of curricula and strategic plans that enhance teaching and learning,
ensure alignment of curriculum, instruction, resources, and assessment; and promote the
use of varied assessments, to measure student performance (SBEC, "Texas Principal
Competencies", 2013). Emmy and I share one big common interest is that we love
Biology. Our district provide very thorough curriculum for each subject areas offered at
North Mesquite. Emmy reminded me of our two very efficient online document-sharing
systems, Eduphoria and Google Drive. Teachers and specialists can upload lesson plans,
power points, and data through both of these mediums and share with anyone throughout
the district. Emmy talked about one of her walk-through procedures would be to pull up
lesson plans uploaded onto Eduphoria by a teacher and evaluate according to Mesquite
B.I.G. expectations.
Competency five is The principal knows how to advocate, nurture, and sustain
an instructional program and campus culture that are conducive to student learning and
staff professional growth (SBEC, "Texas Principal Competencies", 2013).

Emmy

exclaimed she is required to attend common planning for our Science Department and it
is her favorite part of the day. She gets to evaluate test scores and analyze data to
improve instructions in the classrooms. She also emphasized the importance of staying in
touch with technology offered to improve efficiency and better construct future staff
development.
Competency six states The principal knows how to implement a staff evaluation
and development system to improve the performance of all staff members, select and
implement appropriate models for supervision and staff development, and apply the legal

requirements for personnel management (SBEC, "Texas Principal Competencies",

2013).

Most school systems adopted the Professional Development and Appraisal

System (PDAS) to complete this competency. Emmy is required to observe one fortyfive minutes evaluation over each Science teacher. Emmy explained that the observation
must be at random times and graded according to PDAS criteria. She would schedule for
a debrief session with each teacher and gave very constructive feedback.

Emmy

understands the importance of positive reinforcement and motivation among teachers.

She believes that genuine appreciation can go a long way for any teachers.
Competency seven states The principal knows how to apply organizational,
decision making, and problem solving skills to ensure an effective learning environment
(SBEC, "Texas Principal Competencies", 2013). Emmy advised me that the biggest
challenge in being a principal is effective multi-tasking. She explained her day include
with bus duties, hall monitoring, handling discipline issues, calling parents for
attendance, common planning, committees meetings, and many more. Many of these
things overlap and she must handle them accordingly. There are many moving pieces in
a school and it takes more than a village to run it efficiently.
The principal knows how to apply principles of effective leadership and
management in relation to campus budgeting, personnel, resource utilization, financial
management, and technology use (SBEC, "Texas Principal Competencies", 2013) is
competency number eight.

Our campus has adopted the B.Y.O.D (bring your own

device) policy that encourages technology use in the classroom to increase student
engagement. In addition to that policy, all core teachers are assigned twenty iPads to use
with their students. Emmy expressed concerns about maintaining the iPads and the

school budget. Luckily Emmy has implemented many fundraisers, for examples students
and staff pay a dollar to wear jeans on Fridays, to create a cushion in our budget for
technology.
Finally we covered competency nine, which states, The principal knows how to
apply principles of leadership and management to the campus physical plant and support
systems to ensure a safe and effective learning environment (SBEC, "Texas Principal
Competencies", 2013). We have a very big campus that house over twenty five hundred
students. We have installed high quality security cameras in every corner and stairways
of the school. Emmy mentioned that it does not take but three minutes to identify an
intruder inside our school because our system is so efficient. She is also in charge of
monthly fire and severe weather drills. We have a committee that is the Crisis Team that
takes care of making sure all doors are locked and restrooms are empty during code red
situations. Emmy talked about doing three minutes sweeps during such drills can get
hectic but it vital to our students safety.

Appendix
Transcribed Principal Interview with Emmy Ellis
Me (Oanh): Thank you so much Emmy for taking time out of your busy schedule to sit
with me for this interview. I just want to cover all the nine principal competencies
and learn more about what being a principal is all about. I sure hope I can
translate your wittiness through this interview because it is never dull moment
when you speak at staff development.
Emmy Ellis: Thank you! I try to keep it light because we have such stressful
responsibilities so I know humor can break down barriers. I will try my best to
clarify each competency with you and keep it in mind the quality of our time.
Me: Can you tell me about your experiences as a school leader?
Emmy: I have been here at north for five years as a principal over Science, and this is my
ninth year as an administrator.
Me: Thank you Emmy. Lets start with competency one, which is the principal knows
how to shape campus culture by facilitating the development, articulation,
implementation, and stewardship of vision, of learning that is shared and
supported by the school community. How do you fulfill this competency on our
campus?
Emmy: I like to create as many committees as possible to share the responsibilities
among staff members. It is more proactive to allow staff members to create
solutions to their problems, and it helps promote teamwork. We have something

new this year called Stallion Newsletter that we post on our website and send
home weekly that notify parents of any school activities. Our school also has a
twitter account that update severe weather and school cancelations. I believe
competency two is similar to what I have just mentioned, am I correct?
Me: Yes you are! Competency two talks about effective communication to parents and
staff.
Emmy: One of the committee that is really effective on our campus is the Councilio
Committee. We have over sixty percent Hispanic students and most of their
parents are not fluent in English. This committee provides free English lessons
after school for those parents. The Councilio also host many of our staff
appreciation lunches and cook outs. We also have a good PST that handles at
risk students and implement different intervention strategies. I believe you are on
that committee also, right?
Me: Yes I am and I have learned so much from other teachers on that committee! I really
do enjoy seeing improvements from students by implementing some of those
strategies. So on to competency three: the principal knows how to act with
integrity, fairness, and in an ethical and legal manner.
Emmy: If you want to be an administrator, you must learn the perfect the art of having
difficult conversions when expectations are not met. You are not going to be liked
by all staff members just like your students. However, you can always provide
constructive criticisms to struggling teachers and appreciation for their dedication.

I think a genuine gesture would go a long way to improve a teachers day, week,
and maybe year.
Me: While we are on this topic, I just want to express my appreciation for your thank
you notes at the end of each semester. It really motivates me. Lets go on to
competency four: The principal knows how to facilitate the design and
implementation of curricula and strategic plans that enhance teaching and
learning, ensure alignment of curriculum, instruction, resources, and assessment;
and promote the use of varied assessments, to measure student performance.
Emmy: Data and test scores is the how we measure performances in our district. While
this subject makes a lot of teachers uneasy, it is our reality. I enjoy very much
attending common planning in our Science Department, it is my favorite part of
the day. I get to provide ideas on instructions and observe how effective you guys
are in implementing our curriculum. The district use Eduphoria and Google Drive
for uploading lesson plans, test scores, and sharing different documents. They
both are very efficient and require little maintenance.
Me: I love the fact that I can share lesson plans with anyone in the district, and vice
versa. So competency five says: The principal knows how to advocate, nurture,
and sustain and instructional program and campus culture that are conducive to
student learning and staff professional growth.
Emmy: Very similar to competency four, I cannot get enough of common planning and it
really provide insights to future staff development needs. For example if we were
discussing how to explore the cell, I can research different staff development

training over different apps on the iPads. Data is a very good tool for dissecting
the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) and we can pinpoint areas
where we should re-teach.
Me: Having you at common planning really helps us stay focus and frame our lessons.
Speaking of observations, competency five says: The principal knows how to
advocate, nurture, and sustain and instructional program and campus culture that
are conducive to student learning and staff professional growth. This is very
similar to the ladder so Ill skip to competency six: The principal knows how to
implement a staff evaluation and development system to improve the performance
of all staff members, select and implement appropriate models for supervision and
staff development, and apply the legal requirements for personnel management.
Emmy: We use the PDAS for our evaluations and walkthroughs. You know as well as I
do that you are required to be observed by me once a year for forty-five minutes.
While you can not choose when the observation would be, you can tell me what
day would be more informative to be observed. Walkthroughs are much quicker,
it can be from five to ten minutes and there are certain categories we follow. For
example, are students engaged? Are lesson framed correctly? Who is doing the
talking? And what level of rigor are students working at? Many teachers get very
uneasy with evaluations, so I try to be as thorough as possible when debriefing
you guys.
Me: It is never an easy thing for you to observe my class, but sitting down with you for a
debriefing always assures me. The next competency states: The principal knows

how to apply organizational, decision making, and problem solving skills to

ensure an effective learning environment. How do you handle that?
Emmy: One of the hardest things that you have to master is effectively multi-task all day.
My day starts with bus duties, handling cafeteria traffic, hall monitoring, then off
to common planning, taking care of discipline issues, site based meetings, and
finally afternoon bus patrol. In between all those, you have be prepared for
surprises like problems in the hall ways (i.e. fights) and parental phone calls. Just
make sure you have very comfortable shoes on at all times.
Me: yes! I have two pairs in my room that I alternate between classes. Competency eight
says: The principal knows how to apply principles of effective leadership and
management in relation to campus budgeting, personnel, resource utilization,
financial management, and technology use. This reminds me of our new B.Y.O.D
policy
Emmy: You are on the money! We have implemented a Bring Your Own Device policy to
encourage more technology use inside the classroom. In addition to that, we have
provided core teachers with twenty iPads in each classroom to be used among
students. While this is a very big advance to our school, it is very tricky to handle
the maintenances on these devices. Students often complain of their phones
needing to be charged and that can cause disruptions inside the classroom. When
it comes to budgeting these maintenances, we have very good fundraisers to
create an emergency source. For example, we allow students and staff to wear

jeans on Fridays if they buy a wristband for one dollar. This has been a very
successful fundraiser for the last two years.
Me: I do enjoy those days, jeans days just boost morale tremendously. So finally the
ninth competency is: The principal knows how to apply principles of leadership
and management to the campus physical plant and support systems to ensure a
safe and effective learning environment.
Emmy: We have such a huge campus that the only efficient way to provide safety is to
rely on our very high-tech cameras. We have cameras in every corners and
stairways. We can identify an intruder within three minutes and alert the SRO.
Our officers monitor these cameras all every minute of the day and especially
during passing periods. We also have Crisis Team that take care of making sure
all doors are locked and bathrooms empty during code red situations. You have
to be prepared to do a three minutes sweep through during fire and severe weather
drills. The faster you can get these drills done, the more prepared and safe the
students are when real situations appear.
Me: Three minutes sounds very intimidating! I have to make sure I am in good shape.
We have covered all of the competencies Emmy! Thank you so much, I have
learned so much and still am learning from you.
Emmy: I am sure you will make a good administrator one day, and I am here to support
you!

Reference
SBEC Principal Competencies. (2013, January). Retrieved September 13, 2014
https://www.region10.org/r10website/assets/File/sbec_principal_competencies
(1).pdf