Principals' Office

The Principals Have Decided …

The winner of NAESP’s second annual Principal’s Read Aloud Award is Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type (written by Doreen Cronin and illustrated by Betsy Lewin). Over 900 principals from across the country voted for Click, Clack, Moo, a charming tale about Farmer Brown and his barn full of literate cows.

The Principal's Read Aloud Award program recognizes quality children’s books and encourages principals to read aloud to their students. The presentation of the Read Aloud Award will be made during NAESP’s Annual Convention and Exposition in Nashville on Monday, April 7 at 10 a.m.

To begin the selection process for the 2009 award, NAESP is asking members to nominate a favorite title. If you have a book that you have enjoyed reading to children, please submit the title, author/illustrator, and publisher along with your name to childrensbookaward@naesp.org. We are looking for books that are currently in print and therefore readily available to our members. We look forward to honoring great children’s books and appreciat e your participation in the process.

Pittsburgh Superintendent Focuses on Instructional Leadership

Pittsburgh Superintendent Mark Roosevelt has a plan for his principals—to transform them from building managers to instructional leaders, reports the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. During the past two school years, Roosevelt told principals about their new role, started the Pittsburgh Leadership Academy to help them adjust, and created a “School Plan for Excellence” for each school in the district.

NAESP believes that it is incumbent upon school principals to continue their professional growth in order to improve instructional leadership and model lifelong learning. What do you think about Roosevelt's plan?

Who Controls the School E-mail List?

Healthy communication between schools and parents allows both to collaborate in providing the best possible learning experience for students. Many schools find that using an e-mail list keeps parents in the loop. But The Washington Post reports that maintaining a school e-mail list can become problematic. Often maintained by a school’s PTA, conflict can arise over ownership if the list manager decides to leave the PTA or if there are stringent rules about who can post, for example. “As PTA Groups Move Online, So Does Dissension” describes some of the pitfalls of PTA managed e-mail lists. School administrators and PTA groups should work together when introducing an e-mail list. Establish ground rules and have people abide by them.

Help for Principals Seeking Grants

The lead article of the January 2008 issue of Communicator focused on how principals can find and apply for grants that will benefit their school. Here are a few sites that can help get you started on finding the right grant for your school. Let us know your experiences with finding and applying for funding.

www.grantsalert.com
This site is dedicated entirely to education funding and features a Grant Writers’ Directory—searchable by state or key word—that lists individuals and organizations experienced with writing winning proposals.

www.fundsnetservices.com/educ01.htm
This site provides links to companies and foundations whose funding interests include education. Both large (e.g., Pfizer, Motorola) and smaller, lesser-known (e.g., Bowling Foundation, Frey Foundation) organizations are listed.

www.ed.gov/fund/grant/find/edlite-forecast.html
This site lists virtually all programs and competitions under which the U.S. Department of Education has invited or expects to invite applications for new awards for fiscal year 2008, and provides actual or estimated deadline dates for the submission of applications under these programs.

www.naesp.org/ContentLoad.do?contentId=917
The NAESP Web site lists several more resources to help principals obtain funding for their school.