When Nicole Paxton was training to be a principal almost two decades ago, she spent a lot of her internship supervising school dances and basketball games. She was supposed to shadow an existing principal but could only see brief snippets of what it was like to run a school.
“I wish I would’ve learned more about budgeting, how to build relationships with students, or give teachers feedback,” said Paxton, who’s now principal of Mount Vista Community School in Colorado Springs, Colo. “I wish I’d learned how to have difficult conversations.”
While Paxton has since acquired these skills over her 20-year leadership journey, she wants the new generation of aspiring school leaders to have a fuller picture of the highs and lows of the principalship.