Barbara M. Parramore: Students need good leaders

I agree that “Principals need a boost” as you wrote in your Jan. 3 editorial and an increase in pay. Principals set the tone for a school and provide leadership in many ways.

You review the principal’s tasks as: being on campus at all times, attending all events, meeting with parents, choosing and keeping teachers and overseeing the physical plant of a school. You did not mention the school curriculum nor the safety and security of students.

The longtime emphasis on principals as managers is wrong-headed as well as not expecting a school’s leader to be knowledgeable about what students are to learn. The principal’s decisions will be more responsive to teachers, even in larger schools, and responsible to students when he or she knows whether or not what is to be learned is indeed being taught and learned.

Students, our future, deserve principals who understand the scope and sequence of the subject areas of the school curriculum. We should expect no less from those who hold a very important position in students’ lives.

This story was originally published January 7, 2017 at 5:20 PM with the headline "Barbara M. Parramore: Students need good leaders."