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Keeping tabs on students, cutting budgets, backing up teachers: demands on principals constant

Amid budget cuts and constant testing, leaders strive to connect.

April 23, 2017 at 1:15AM

Just try to keep up with South High School Principal Ray Aponte on a typical morning. One minute he's handing out pats on the back and hellos to students between classes. Then he dashes into his office to check e-mail and ponder student schedules. Next he pops into rooms around the building, pausing as he recognizes that one kid's teeth are newly covered with braces.

Aponte called this recent morning a slow one. Gone are the days that principals stayed in their offices and knew the names of only the troublemakers. School leaders have seen demands on them grow in recent years as they work to bolster student achievement, support teacher development and ensure their buildings feel safe and welcoming.

"There's nothing more gratifying than having relationships with students that you know are going to change the world, and you're just kind of trying to be a little piece of that," said Aponte, in his third year as South's principal.

As the role has grown, so has the pressure on the person holding the school's top job.

"Education has changed drastically," said Minneapolis Superintendent Ed Graff, himself a former school principal. "The way that the principal engages with students is quite involved and comprehensive, and more than just that office that sits at the corner that you go and visit once in a while."

In the spring — the season of budget cuts — stress grows higher, said Dave Adney, executive director of the Minnesota Association of Secondary School Principals. Principals must balance finances with existing programs and personnel as the end of the academic year draws closer.

'Affirmative relationships'

Schools nationally struggle to hang on to principals, who typically turn over every few years. But Aponte said he isn't going anywhere. He promised some South sophomores and freshmen that he'll be there when they cross the graduation stage.

Karen Seashore, a University of Minnesota education professor, said that school principals' effect on student achievement is second only to that of teachers. They're responsible for building bonds with teachers and staying accountable to them.

"Somebody like Ray knows in his bones that if he's going to have a school that's going to be a productive place for both students and a place where teachers feel that they can do their best work, that he has to actually invest an enormous amount of time out of his office in affirmative relationships," Seashore said.

Turnover rates nationally are steep, research shows. A 2014 report from the School Leaders Network, a group that aims to improve school leadership, found that one-quarter of all principals in the U.S. each year leave their schools, and half of all new principals quit in their third year on the job.

In Minnesota, teacher applications have remained steady, Adney said. He hasn't observed an increase in principal turnover, but rather a "normal exodus." Some principals who've served for a while are retiring; others can be drawn away to superintendent spots.

Unflappable Aponte

Principal Donna Andrews at Marcy Open School has been a principal for 11 years and senses heightened stress. Her on-the-job adaptations included looping teacher observations onto her to-do list.

Webster Elementary Principal Ginger Kranz feels pressure when it comes to her kids' success. "Every day, there's something like, 'Whoa, that's different,' and you gotta react and make sure you do it in a timely fashion," she said.

Aponte sticks his head into classrooms for hellos and happy birthdays. He remembers to ask student athletes how their games went the previous night.

He even takes up a place in the lunch line. The kids call him "lunch lady."

He's a steady, "unflappable" force at South, Seashore said.

Math teacher Morgan Fierst loves his commitment to kids. Aponte once walked to a student's house to find out why he had missed a week of school, she said.

Aponte, who's been a principal at various schools since 1993, is pulled in even more directions back in his office. Graff's plan to fix the district's $28 million budget gap included a 2.5 percent reduction in school allocations, meaning Aponte had to cut support staff this spring.

South is in the midst of finalizing school schedules, and Aponte is trying to keep classroom sizes small while boosting learning opportunities for kids. He's an advocate for Advanced Placement exams, because student college credits save kids and their families money in the long run.

Yet the school is already in the middle of other tests: the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments, the statewide standardized exams that South High students have skipped at skyrocketing rates. Last year, 60 percent opted out of the MCA reading tests.

"I have to be OK with it," Aponte said. "I'm an advocate for South High School."

Beena Raghavendran • 612-673-4569

Sitting in on a class, South High Principal Ray Aponte listened to students talk about what it’s like to be a young black man in today’s world. (The Minnesota Star Tribune)