Time To Start Again (08-09-11)

Last week, at the Colby Walmart, I had a bit of a surprise.  My cashier recognized me by name.
 
“I used to live in Hill City,” the woman explained. “You used to write the Principal Perspective column.  Whatever happened to that?”
 
Uh oh. My rather long hiatus from this column had been noticed.  Sigh.
 
This is a good week to start again.  Enrollment is this week, and this is not only an exciting time in our school calendar, but it is a moment where our small town school shines over our big city counterparts.
 
I know this because when I was at Wichita State taking my classes to become a principal, I was required to spend some time in schools of a different size than the school where I taught. For me, that meant spending time in large, urban school districts, and the day I spent at Hutchinson High School just happened to be their first day of enrollment.
 
With over two thousand students, the Hutch High enrollment reminded me more of the cattle call of enrolling at KU.  They had tables and lines, and a virtual maze for the parents to follow as they collected this form and that, paid this fee or that bill, and picked up various pieces of information.  About the only words spoken between the army of workers behind the tables and the throng of enrolling families were, “Name?” and “Next!”
 
Contrast that against the enrollment at Hill City Grade School.  Our dedicated secretary, Melanie Kennedy, meets with each family at her desk.  There are a few chairs set up in the hallway for overflow and there are clipboards provided so that forms can be checked and completed while waiting.  When a family meets with Melanie, she has time to explain the paperwork and answer questions.  But more than that, she has time to reconnect with the families, to ask about vacations and rec sports, to listen to stories about weddings, funerals, and jobs, to compliment the kids on just how tall they gotten over the summer.
 
Mrs. Kennedy values the face time and feels that her time is best spent visiting with the families who walked through the door.  She is proud of the fact that by the time she enrolled all of the students, she has physically seen and spoken in person to almost every family in our school.  She not only knows the faces and names of each parent and student, she knows something about them.
 
In a small school, enrollment is so much more than simply processing paperwork and collecting fees. It is more than just starting a new school year. At our school, enrollment is about starting up again those all-important relationships and lines of communication between the school and families who trust us with their children.
 
This time of starting again is a time of great pride and celebration.   I am just glad I ran into someone who reminded me that, in terms of my principal perspective, it was time for me to start again as well.