Principal Function: A Writer in Disguise

By: Chris Marsh and Megan Lockard

Announcements over the PA, greeting students as they file in for class, parent/teacher conferences, surveying the playground—anyone who has been through the elementary education experience can see firsthand what the duties of principal entail. There is, of course, a world behind this façade; a world comprised of communication, evaluation, confrontation, and more communication.

Nora Wright has being involved in the upbringing of our newest generations since the 1970s in some form or another. Whether as a teacher, principal, mother, or soon to be grandmother she has dedicated her life to the good of the future. Wright’s current position as the principal of Apple Ridge Elementary has been a whirlwind of chaos, excitement, and satisfaction.

Writing, editing, communicating in general take up at least 85% of her work week. “My role is to make sure that things run smoothly and to intervene before they get out of control.” In order to accomplish harmony between her teachers, students, parents, and other faculty members, written communication is the most basic and necessary tool for the success of her elementary school.

Getting Down to Business

Not only does she keep in contact with her teachers and staff through memos, but she also writes reports on them for evaluation purposes. Wright writes for sources outside of her elementary school as well. She provides articles for the quarterly school district newsletter in addition to the Monday Morning Memo which is a weekly update in the Apple press concerning what is new with the school.

Wright even wrote a letter of recommendation for a colleague who was then awarded by the state for the McCall Conference. “She’ll be presented with [the award] in March and I think I’ll be at that dinner because I nominated her.” The school’s webpage also requires a letter from the principle which Wright somehow makes time for. Do not forget letters to parents, and observations of her students. If a child is thought to have ADD, autism, cognitive impairments, or behavioral problems he is required to be observed and then documented. Presentations take up another block of Principal Wright’s week.

With administrative meetings, school boards, parental presentations, and community presentations, Wright spends a great deal of her time contacting and being contacted in order to keep in close communication with those around her. As a professional writer, Wright finds herself filled with the demands of the written and spoken word. She uses any means that will efficiently relay her message whether that is email, internet, memos, letters, conference calls, presentations, or the historic pen and paper method.

How to unwind after a stressful workweek (According to Nora Wright)

1. Visit the gym
2. Run circles around Grandville’s track
3. Plan a sit down dinner
4. Drink a glass of wine
5. Talk (keeping the topic relaxing of course)
6. Play music
7. Watch the squirrels play

Recently, Wright wrote a request for a grant—and was approved. The grant was offered through Forest Hills School District providing the school with a writing expert to instruct and overhaul the writing curriculum. The school’s focus this past year was, in fact, writing, so when Wright’s teachers expressed a need in helping teach the subject, she applied for the grant. Apple Ridge Elementary was one of three schools in Kent County to be approved.

Busy, Busy, Busy

Though the job includes a great deal of spur-of-the-moment activities, there is a basic schedule to which Wright adheres. When the kids come in every morning, she is there to greet them. “I’m always available over the lunch hour. I don’t eat with the teachers because that is the time I’m out in the halls with the kids or in the lunchroom.”

There is also a plethora of meetings to attend. In order to accommodate the varying needs of all the different types of students, there are meetings for the IEPC (Individual Educational Planning Committee) which focuses on Special Education programs. As an administrator, Wright attends administrative meetings every Wednesday. This is when the principals come together with Special Education, Physical Education, Maintenance and Food Service representatives. “After school we also have committee meetings. I head up the report card committee and also the Fine Performing Arts committee.”

A Writer for the People

As is the custom in this day and age, budgetary constraints have affected the way local schools operate. “It is a teacher’s job to teach every one of these kids, but in a classroom of 29, that is pretty tough. And the help that we have is being pulled away.” Some of that help includes the specialists who work with autistic, ADD, Special Ed, and At-Risk students. Wright recognizes the versatility that she and her staff must now possess in order for the school to function: “These teachers have to be everything; they have to be an instructor—and master it—but also a social worker, a nurse…”

She writes in the face of impending doom in order to secure a better education for her students. Wright says that due to the “No Child Left Behind” program, school districts are forced to continually improve in the way they instruct children. “We get more and more creative. We write grants or find any way to have companies subsidize what we do; we get parent volunteers.” She frequently meets with the staff who then dedicate themselves to offering these children the best education they can offer whether there is money out there or not.

Great Divide

Being a principal and professional writer, although time consuming, is not all that Wright does. She comments on the difficulty of dividing her attention between her work and her personal life. “Balance is always an issue with me,” she said adding that there is no way for all of the work to be completed within work hours. “There are some personality types who can put their personal lives on the sideline and say, ‘I’ll get to it when I get to it,’ but it is important to me.” She is expecting two healthy grandchildren this spring and remarks that family is her top priority.
“Working at a stressful job pulls your attention from the more important things—part of the stress is that it pulls your attention when you don’t want it to.”

A principal’s schedule is never set. Her day is never boring. In the ever changing world of education there is only one thing that remains constant and that is communication. Whether it is done with a typewriter, pencil, keyboard, or dry-erase marker, our educators and administrators will forever value the ability to communicate. Nora Wright’s energetic spirit allows her to move right alongside those fast paced youngsters and somehow she still finds the time to watch the squirrels outside her window. “Who knows what five years could do, holy cats. You could create a world in five years. But really, rather than speed up, I want to slow down so that I can stop and smell the roses.”