Our school council had the opportunity to interview the principal and offer their opinion. I think it was more of a promoting her type of thing than really wanting to know whether they liked her or not. She pretty much had the job from the get go. Our school board handled everything. I think a survey might be a good idea though, and you can present the results to whoever does the hiring.
I don't know how it would work in a charter public school but in our private school, a search committee was formed. Let me preface this by saying they made the WRONG decision and boy, did it become apparent after a year. We had a nationwide search and they hired this man who turned out to be a TOTAL LOSER. After this loser flaked out on us and got canned, the assistant principal filled in and then took the job. She was a retired principal from a local public school and she is wonderful, although I don't think she'll be with us long (simply because she wants to slow down). The thing we learned was that we needed a good local person who had connections to attract and hire good teachers. She has definitely done that and we now have lots of fabulous teachers that she has lured away. This was the main difference for us--the flake from out of state knew no one and the local person knew everyone. It's been a good partnership.
We had no say in our new principal, neither did any of the parents. We didn't know of the new principal until a week or so before school. Our principal took the assistant superintendent position and now our new principal is leaving at the end of this year also.
Our Principal is retiring at the end of this school year. And he has been wonderful and will be missed. Does anyone have any experience in being part of the hiring process of a new Principal? We have a strong committee in place but are looking for input on others' experience in how they went about it. Did you survey parents on what they wanted in a new Principal? How involved were parents in the process? Where did your school post the position? We are a 475-student elementary Charter Public School, k-4. Thank you.
