On May 4, the Advanced Leadership Program for Aspiring Principals (ALPAP), an ELI program, held its final seminar of the year to celebrate the 2019 Cohort. Graduating participants were joined by their year-long mentors and former graduates who shared the challenges they faced in their first year as principal.
Rory Parnell, a graduate of the 2015 Cohort, presented a case study on how she turned around August Martin HS, a renewal school in Queens. She shared that before she became a principal, she experienced self-doubt about whether she was ready for the job and explained why one must bat aside such doubt: “I’m going to tell you something. You’re never really ready.”
CSA President Mark Cannizzaro expressed the importance of public school “lifers” who remain the heart and soul of the system as mayors and DOE officials come and go. Chancellor Richard Carranza also came by the gathering and urged them to share their passion. “Nobody is going to want to know what you know unless they also know that you care,” he told them. “Talk about where you online injectable steroids grew up, your experience as a teacher, why you wanted to become a principal in the first place.”