Monthly Checklist - All months

August

Newsletters: Prepare staff welcome letters and school newsletters for mailing early in August.

Supplies and Teaching Aids: Review purchase orders and make sure materials are present or scheduled for delivery. Supervise but delegate the work. Make sure teacher supply lists are ready.

Building Walk-Through: Delegate responsibilities for upkeep and maintenance to your custodial and maintenance team, but be aware of the codes and needs.

Opening Day Activities: Make a plan for how students and parents will be welcomed back on the first day. Make arrangements for enrolling new students and handling the many questions that will arise in the main office. Make a back up plan in case of rain.

Administrative Duties: Meet with the assistant, secretary, and other team members to divide duties. Assign yourself the duty of instructional leader; otherwise, management details will rule your time.

Welcome Other Staff: Schedule time to meet with new itinerant staff members who come to your building such as bus drivers, social workers, nurses, food service personnel. Make sure all feel like a part of the staff.

Handbooks: Verify that student and staff handbooks are printed and ready for distribution. Create a master list of any changes to distribute at the first staff meeting. Review and include your code to student conduct and any contracts for dissemination to parents.

First Staff Meeting: Plan the first staff meeting. Build in team-building time as well as professional development. Set the tone to focus on instructional and academic issues. Print memos to cover the “administrivia” announcements.

September

Safety Issues: Practice your fire drills, tornado drills and emergency procedures. Make sure all students and staff are aware of the procedures.

Staff Newsletter: Plan a form of daily communication to your staff such as a daily bulletin or notice board. These can cut the time devoted to “administrivia” at staff meetings.

School Newsletter: Monitor and Manage the publication of a school newsletter. Include upcoming dates and safety issues for students.

Weekly Lesson Plans: Collect copies of all lesson plans, read them, and put a quick thank-you in mailboxes. Click for more.

Principal-Staff Conferences: Schedule a few minutes to sit down with every staff member, including support staff, to discuss goals, needs, what's new with them.

Parent Organization: Work closely with parent leaders to organize open house nights, meetings, and parent outreach plans. Use an interactive parent- communication web site to share school news and spread your message about Maximum Teaching and Learning.

Booster Groups: Meet with these groups and assign staff members who will be the liaison with these groups. Spell out policies for money handling and student supervision rules.

Volunteers: Make sure all volunteers are processed according to the district guidelines for using volunteers. Organize an orientation for all volunteers.

Parent Groups: Schedule with parents their meeting dates and special events. Hold a coffee hour to address concerns and invite suggestions from parents.

New Student/Parent Breakfast: Schedule it early AM to accommodate working parents. Make sure that your assistant, guidance counselor, and parent organization leaders are involved.

Free and Reduced-Price Lunch Program: See that paperwork and family notification are completed quickly and confidentially. Encourage all eligible families to participate. Put a copy of your numbers in a School Profile folder. Click for more.

Building Walk-Through: Do this once a week with your assistant and head custodian. Make sure that you're aware of needs, but delegate supervision to custodial and maintenance work. You need to focus on student achievement.

Formal Observations: Create a plan and schedule for formal observations of teachers as stipulated in the Master Contract.

October

Academic Progress Tests: Administer diagnostic tests that align with learning outcomes on state Proficiency tests. Test every grade level for instructional planning and intervention. Assist staff in scoring and interpreting test results.

Lesson Plans: Continue reading weekly lesson plans and writing notes. Do this throughout the year. I'll remind you.

High-Visibility Supervision: Put a student desk and chair in each hallway for doing paperwork—like reading lesson plans. Students and teachers will appreciate your being visible and accessible.

October Count Make sure parental excuses are turned in for any student absent during the week. Be thorough, as Average Daily Membership will determine your state funding.

Parent-Teacher Conferences Schedule per district calendar and follow time requirements laid out in Master contract. All families should receive invitations from you and your staff.

Formal Observations Conduct pre-observation conference, formal classroom observation, post-observation conference, and conference summary per Master Contract.

November

Proficiency Diagnostic Tests: After you and your teachers have scored the tests, meet with teaching teams and curriculum departments to review results.

Parent Communication: Mail second-quarter academic progress reports. Include a letter with each student's Proficiency Diagnostic Test results, along with an explanation of how the tests are scored. Invite questions or concerns, and encourage e-mail communication.

Staff Workshop on Assessment: Prepare school workshop to launch rubric-based assessment across the curriculum.

Staff Appreciation: Hold staff appreciation breakfast last Friday before Thanksgiving break.

Second-Round Formal Observations: Conduct and document second-round classroom observations within time frame stipulated by the Master Contract.

Performing Arts Programs: Review schedule of Performing Arts programs to prevent conflicts. Hold in-school performances prior to evening programs.

December

Teacher Evaluation Narratives: Summarize formal observation write-ups by 1) performance strengths and commendable professional characteristics, and 2) performance areas needing improvement. Commendations and deficiencies noted outside classroom observations should also be addressed in evaluation narratives. Note timelines and Master Contract language. Click for more.

Mid-Year Student Recognition Program: Review qualifications and involve staff in selecting recipients. Calculate length of program, develop and announce assembly schedule well in advance.

Student Attendence: Inform parents by letter if their child has exceeded district limits on the number of acceptable absences. Tell them about medical excuse requirements and potential academic failure.

Supplies and Teaching Aids: Update needs and complete requisitions for second semester. Thumbs down on Proficiency preparation workbooks! Appropriate daily instruction and assessment will have a much greater impact on student performance.

January

March Proficiency Tests: Make sure all test materials are ordered. Conduct in-service training with staff members who will administer and proctor the tests. Even if you have a test coordinator in your building, take a leadership role in all aspects of Proficiency administration.

Pupil Progress Conferences: Develop a schedule based on active student participation in the conferences. Student-led conferences offer clear advantages for resolving achievement problems and maintaining high performance.

Student Recognition Program: Send home notification letters for all recipients. Fold in a no-cost-to-you perk like allowing recipients to go to lunch with their parents after the program.

Budget Requests for Next School Year: Involve team and curriculum leaders as you identify purchasing needs in curriculum, instruction, and assessment. Use a four-question test for purchases: (1) How will materials advance what students should know and be able to do? (2) How will we assess that? (3) What knowledge will teachers need to use materials effectively? (4) What do we want to purchase?

February

Second-Round Teacher Observations: Conduct and complete formal observations beginning February 10.Be mindful of spring break and Proficiency testing weeks when scheduling observations.

Proficiency Testing: Develop and distribute March test schedule and duty assignments.Make sure provisions are in place for any modifications required when testing special education students.Communicate with all parents about theramifications of these tests under the new intervention/retention requirements.

Time Schedule for Next School Year: Involve teachers, counselor, and technology support to develop a time schedule appropriate for your students' cognitive development levels.Look at longer, flexible blocks of instruction time to increase learning and reduce hallway discipline issues related to class change.

Student Scheduling: Use demographic and student performance data when compiling grade sections, teams, or course sections.Your goal is to create “learning communities” that reflect a cross-section of your total student population.If your teachers differentiate instruction, learning will be optimal for every student.

March

Second Evaluation Summary: Complete the evaluation narrative by April 1. Conduct the post-observation conference and provide a copy of the evaluation to the teacher by April 10.You will be making contract recommendations based on the evaluations, so give yourself plenty of time to be specific and thorough.

State Proficiency Tests: Administer tests and conduct make-up sessions within required time frames.Assist with check-in process and take responsibility for proper organization, packing, and mailing completed test documents.

Transition Programs: Project enrollment figures. Plan and conduct transition programs at your school's entry level: kindergarten "round-up," grade 6, grade 9, etc. Involve students, teachers, and your parent organization in all activities.Classroom web sites with Q & A boards are great for follow-up contact.

Requisitions: Call for requisitions from teachers, preferably by team and/or curriculum area.Complete office and general supply orders for next year. Review building budget report and make any fund transfers before you submit requisitions.

April

Teacher Evaluations: Complete formal appraisals within the time frame stipulated by your Master Contract. Click for more.

Summer School: Build your summer program, keeping in mind the new intervention requirements for students not passing Proficiency tests. Provide enrichment and advance-credit courses as well as intervention programs.

Awards Program: Prepare for end-of-year student recognition programs: awards, qualifying recipients, speaker, presenters, program, and schedule.

Staffing: Identify probable staff vacancies for next school year. Develop criteria to guide selection of new staff members.

Budget: Involve staff in identifying needs for next year. Require purchases to align with student learning outcomes.

Supplies: Prepare paper orders, lesson plan and grade software or books, general classroom and office supplies. Use consortium purchasing to reserve funds for quality instructional resources and professional development.

May

Classified Staff Evaluations: Complete evaluations for your clerical and custodial staff. As required to meet time stipulations in the Master Contract.

Budget for Next Year: Know the cut-off date for processing requisitions from this year’s funds. Collect all, or as many as possible, requests and monitor the requisition process. Approve, sign, and deliver your requisitions personally to the district office.

Student Supply List: Have departments or grade-level teams review the current list and make any revisions or additions for next school year. If your Parent Organization runs the back-to-school supply sale, make sure the list gets to the right person well before June. (This is a great fund-raiser, and it gives busy parents a one-stop-shopping opportunity.)

School Safety: Develop a Special Duty roster for the last few days of school. Every teacher should have a specific location that covers the following: all exterior doors, restrooms, fire alarms, pass-through's (gym, auditorium, library, cafeteria, etc.) bus areas, parking lots, and bike rack. Click for more.

Celebrations: Communicate your appreciation loud and clear to teachers, classified staff, parents, and students. Write notes. Bring in bagels. Voice your thanks to all who will listen. They’ve earned your gratitude.

June

Summer Interventions for Students: Make up lists of students who can benefit from summer interventions. Counselors and staff members should recommend resources such as camps, special education summer programs and school- planned interventions for these students. Summer is a good time to catch up on IAT referrals and student multifactor testing.

Staff Vacancies: Monitor and/or verify (1) postings of such vacancies, (2) identification and recruitment of qualified candidates, and (3) selection and employment of new personnel.

Budget for Next Year: Collect any remaining budget requests. Sign and deliver all approved requisitions to the district office.

Student Handbook: Review the current handbook and make any revisions or additions for next school year. Make sure administrators do this as a team, keeping in mind developmental differences between elementary and secondary students. Submit revised handbook for approval.

Summer Facility Care: Make sure staff members know the plans and what needs to be stored or covered in classrooms. Project a work timeline, letting staff know when they can prepare classrooms for the new year.

Special Events Calendar: Make sure all programs, performances, meetings, and athletic events are posted on the district calendar. Do this as soon as possible to avoid possible conflicts with events in other schools.

Principal’s Closing Report: Completing this form is required by the Ohio Department of Education. Get together with other district principals if necessary to make sure the information is consistent. Check out the archives for End-of-Year Reports: Guidelines for You and Your Staff.

Summer Professional Development: Submit purchase orders to pay for summer workshops for you and your staff. Check on registration materials and finalize travel arrangements. Check on reservations for local professional development retreats or planning meetings. Collect summer addresses and phone numbers from staff members so that you can communicate with them if necessary.