Hitting a Home Run: A Grand Slam Guide to Onboarding New Assistant Principals

Spring in public schools equates to the administrative dance. As administrators retire or move into new positions, openings for new assistant principals begin to emerge. Aspiring administrators begin looking for administrative jobs of interest and nervously decide which jobs to seek. After applying, going through the interview process, and accepting your first job, there may be a moment of sleeplessness as you immediately begin to wonder, "now what." What should I be doing to prepare, what will my job duties be, what will I do if I do not know how to perform my new job duties, what if my course work did not prepare me for this moment?

The answer. Ask your principal for an onboarding plan, including training sessions with administrative staff and key stakeholders in the school district. New APs require and deserve to be set up for success. To be successful new APs need training on various topics to allow them to "hit the ground running." The last thing you want to do is be vulnerable because you are uneducated about your job and leadership position. One of the quickest ways to lose face value with staff, parents, and community members are to consistently lack the on job skills necessary to know where to begin a task for a response. It is the principal's responsibility to ensure you are ready to eliminate the extreme vulnerability created by a lack of understanding of organizational norms you are unfamiliar with, how to use a software program to get the information/reports needed to do your job, or even how to monitor student attendance, navigate IEP systems, process, and protocols, how to draft a 504 plan, and much more.

In July 2021, I had the pleasure of onboarding two new assistant principals at Harrisonburg High School. Both were internal hires as they had both been long-term teachers at the school. The mistake here for many principals is to assume because they "already know the school," they do not need any introduction to their new environment. This could not be further from the truth, particularly in a school of over 1,900 students and 200 plus staff. To ensure our new assistant principals would be successful, I designed an onboarding program that provided critical training around key topics such as special education, the student information systems, curriculum, personnel, student discipline, teacher evaluations, school improvement, and much more. Sample plan shared at this link.

To help build relationships with existing staff, the trainer for each part of the onboarding workshops was me as the building principal, assistant principals, the associate principals, department chairs, school counselors, and central office staff as needed for support. Using a collective team approach to the training allowed the new APs to build relationships with key stakeholders in a meaningful and intentional manner. The training format also provided the opportunity for the administrative team to outline the 17-Inch plate lingo and reinforce the mantra, vision, and mission of the school.

Not a week goes by where our new assistant principals do not reference the onboarding training as a key to the success they have experienced this year. Be assertive in the interview process and ask your new principal, "what will my onboarding look like." Be persistent and ask for specific examples to ensure your first job and supervisor plan your career success and progression to the principalship intentionally. Working with a leader who is unwilling to invest in this process may make you think twice about their investment in your professional goals. Good luck and best wishes with your new journey as a school administrator.