UpDate - Vol. 14, No. 2, Page 6
September 8, 1994
Academy principals take new ideas back to school

     Schools throughout the United States opened with a rejuvenated
spirit this fall as several principals face the new semester armed
with fresh ideas and insights gained from the 1994 National
Principals' Leadership Academy, held at the University this summer.
     The academy, now in its third year, is a model program designed
to develop effective principals as leaders of change in education. To
be selected for the prestigious academy, principals must demonstrate
innovative leadership in bringing about changes to improve education
in their schools.
     The academy offers a combination of the theoretical and the
practical through lectures, panel discussions and hands-on problem
solving.
     "People look at me like I'm strange when I say this, but for me
the Principals Academy was a life-changing experience," Anna Hicks,
principal of Irmo High School in Columbia, S.C., said.
     "It gives you time to reflect and develop plans-time that you
don't get on the job. It helps you audit your school's vision and get
it going again," Juan Fonseca, principal of IS 184, a middle school in
the Bronx, N.Y., explained.
     Hicks and Fonseca, both graduates of the academy, returned to
Newark, Del., this summer as academy speakers.
     Although Hicks is principal of a 1,875-student high school
(grades 9-12) in the South, and Fonseca runs a 750-student inner city
middle school (grades 6-8) in New York, both found inspiration through
involvement with the academy. They are proof of one of the academy's
philosophies that school principals have a lot in common despite
divergent school locations and student populations.
     Fonseca also said he met principals at the academy who came from
schools with play yards the size of his entire building. Hicks
remembers hearing about the distinct needs of a principal she met at
the academy who came from an Eskimo village school in Alaska.
     Still, both Fonseca and Hicks say the similarities far outweigh
the differences.
     "Part of the nature of a principalship is isolation," Fonseca
said. "You're the only person in your position in you building, and
outside your building your colleagues may be in a competitive mode.
Here, when you share with others, you see that isolation produces the
idea that 'this problem is unique to me,' when in fact it isn't. It's
part of the working reality.
     "I remember the time someone brought up the problem of kids
setting off firecrackers in their building and another principal
letting out a groan and saying his son had just been suspended at
another school for the same thing," he said.
     "The main thing I took back home from the Principals' Academy was
courage," said Hicks, who has twice been named South Carolina's
Principal of the Year in a local newspaper readership poll.
     "I had just spent all this time with principals from across the
nation who were risk takers. It really was one of the peak experiences
of my life. It really forces you to get out of yourself. It also made
me more patient. It helped me see why it takes so long for some things
to change," she added.
     Fonseca said he came away from the academy armed with ideas for
changes in classroom practices and ideas for motivating and equipping
staff.
     In their return speaking engagements, Hicks spoke on the three-
year reform attempt she has initiated at her school, and Fonseca spoke
on "Getting to the Instructional Core, Lessons I Learned on the
Journey."
     Principals attending this year's academy represented Delaware,
Washington, D.C., Georgia, Maryland, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico,
New York, Texas, Wyoming and Virginia.
                                                          -Beth Thomas