Jodie Villemaire

Every principal spends at least part of the summer replaying the year that just ended. You think about what worked, what didn’t, where your team made progress, and where you thought, Well… we are definitely not doing that again. And then, somewhere between closing out one school year and preparing for the next, you start thinking about what you want this year to look like. More time in classrooms. Stronger PLCs. More consistent coaching. A culture you’re proud of. A leadership team that is...

School leadership can feel heavy. There are days when a difficult parent conversation sits with you long after you leave the building. A staff member is frustrated with a decision you made. A student issue did not go the way you hoped. You replay a conversation in your head all evening wondering if you should have handled it differently. Then there are the bigger moments. A difficult personnel situation. A major campus challenge. A year where student growth is not happening as...

Every principal I know works hard. The problem is that hard work alone does not guarantee you are spending time on the work that matters most. You can run all day, solve a dozen problems, answer the urgent emails, handle the parent concern, cover the duty gap, and still leave the building wondering why you never got to the leadership work you meant to do. The difficult part of school leadership is that almost everything feels important while it is happening. Schools are busy, emotional,...