Making Time to Lead : How Principals Can Stay on Top of It All

Do your days seem increasingly shorter and your to-do lists increasingly longer? Do you struggle to find time to meet students and interact with staff? Do you wonder if you will ever see the bottom of your "in" box? This essential reference offers a multitude of ideas, tips, and strategies for organizing every aspect of a principal′s job―from controlling your calendar to creating newsletters.

Making Time to Lead shows the busy principal how to organize in order to lead more effectively. Simon and Newman introduce practical concepts to simplify managerial tasks:

• Organize to-do lists for use as future planning tools
• Customize your filing and scheduling systems to get more out of less
• Maximize your summer break by learning how to plan for the coming year
• Energize your staff with innovative ideas for faculty meetings
• Realize your leadership potential while encouraging your students
• Develop your faculty and build relationships with parents

In the complicated and demanding world of a principal, organization is the key to sanity―and successful leadership.

Richard A. Simon has been a high school principal for the past twenty years in three states. He is currently the principal of The Wheatley School, an 8^th-12^th grade public high school in Nassau County, Long Island. He has also served as principal at Allentown High School in Allentown, New Jersey, Amity Regional High School, in Woodbridge, Connecticut, and at Cherry Hill High School West, Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Mr. Simon holds a Master’s in Education from Harvard University. He has received a Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation Fellow for School Leadership Award and a National CBE Fellow for Independent Study in the Humanities grant. Mr. Simon serves as a chair for the new Accreditation For Growth Middle States process and is the co-author of The High School Principal’s Calendar (Corwin Press 2000).

James F. Newman has been an educator for over 25 years, working both as a teacher and a principal. He has been the principal of North Side elementary school in East Williston, New York, for the past 14 years. Prior to his current position, he was the principal of Centre Avenue School in East Rockaway for 2 years and an elementary teacher in a number of districts on Long Island for 12 years.

Dr. Newman holds a doctorate from Columbia University in the education of the gifted, and he holds 2 masters’ degrees from Hofstra University, one in elementary education and one in educational administration. The title of Dr. Newman’s doctoral thesis was "The Metacognitive Abilities of Gifted Educational Leaders".

Dr. Newman has been an invited speaker at a number of national conventions, and will be presenting in February 2003 at the AASA convention in New Orleans. The topic of this presentation will be, "The Top Ten Ways to Land the Administrative Job of Your Choice".

Dr. Newman is a longtime resident of New York, currently residing in Long Beach, Long Island. He is a partner in an educational consulting firm called, "Leading By Example" that helps prospective candidates find administrative positions. His firm also works with Boards of Education in the selection of superintendent’s and other administrative positions.