Educational Leadership

School Closing

we needed to understand what they were feeling and reassure them. One George Washington parent who was involved in the school came to tears at every board meeting. She worried that she would not be able to be as involved at Poestenkill.

To her, all those years of hard work would end when George Washington closed.

But to me, she was a new parent with great ideas, and I wanted her to understand how much she would be welcomed.

The George Washington principal and I learned to communicate with families in ways that built trust.

For instance, we always
delivered the same message
at the same time. Nothing
is worse during a transition
than one group of parents
believing they aren’t getting
the same information that
other parents are. A certain
amount of this perception
is inevitable because some
parents will always mistrust
administrators, but we
strove to avoid it. Through
e-mail blasts and postings on my principal’s blog, we notified
both sets of parents frequently about upcoming school board
meetings; parent teacher association (PTA) meetings at both
elementary schools; and daily transition events we were
holding for students. We also notified students about tran-
sition events for adults.

I used my blog to defend controversial decisions, and I was open about the fact that people in both school communities had to get past some hard feelings and focus on bringing two

Communicating to Build Trust

In this charged atmosphere, the George Washington principal (Barbara Goldstein) and I did all we could to make the transition as smooth as possible. We worked with teachers and fellow principals to create events that would help students and parents weather the change. We formed “transition teams” of parents, staff, and students in both schools.