KEY POINTS:
When little Johnny's lunchbox disappears from the school field, it's often the principal who gets a knock on the door. It's the same when the pool is too cold for swimming classes or when a tongue-piercing ruling is needed.
Being a principal may seem cut-and-dried to many parents:
it's about creating an environment for their kids to learn and excel and, at times, laying down the law. But increasingly it's become a whole lot more than that - and weary principals are voting with their feet.
The turnover rate of New Zealand principals is seven per cent a year. It's estimated that up to half of the country's 2570 principals will leave their jobs in the next five years.
The exodus is such that some rural schools are appointing principals who are not even fully registered teachers.
"Principals have become everybody's property," sighs Liz Horgan, principal of St Joseph's School in Otahuhu.
"People seem to think we're on tap. We're accessible, and I like my door to be open, [but] there is less respect for authority now. Everyone wants to blame [schools] but no one will take responsibility.
"The position's vulnerability, and the layers of accountability and bureaucracy, mean conditions and remuneration for principals must be as attractive as possible."
Horgan passes up doctor's visits and time at her elderly mother's rest home to finish her paperwork. Even so, she remains fulfilled by her job.
The Government has recognised the issue and created a raft of leadership initiatives in the past five years to make it easier for teachers to make the transition into the larger office with the view of the playground.
The Aspiring Principals' Programme is to be piloted this year. The initial response has been positive.
But principals say more pressing is their ever-increasing workload.
An Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development survey found that New Zealand's principals spend almost twice as much time on administration as their OECD counterparts. Five principals approached for this report all said they worked between 70 and 80 hours a week.
A large chunk of that time is devoted to personnel, finances, assets and technology - tasks that parents may not consider. The Government has increased planning and reporting requirements, requiring time and staffing.
"I don't think these issues of recruitment or leadership are exclusive to men or women," says Theresa Shaughnessy, principal of Avonside Girls' High.
"Women are more visible in every occupation, but this is a difficult job to do with large family responsibilities. There is new emphasis on family-friendly employment, and people have supportive partners who take more of the burden of managing family life. [But] a lot of people see the [workload] and say, 'I'd rather keep my life'."
Liz Millar, head of the New Zealand Principals' Leadership Centre, notes that before shortages took hold in the health sector, doctors raised similar concerns to those of principals today. She hears of principals who move to Dubai and Qatar for a change of pace and others who fear their schools will become stagnant due to their own tiredness and disillusionment.
"I spoke to a retiring principal the other day who said, 'If I don't go, it'll kill me'," she says.
"Very few principals talk to each other about the emotional side. You can't sit down with a [less senior staff member] and say, 'Gosh, I simply don't know what to do'. They're hardly going to follow you if you don't know what you're doing. And your family doesn't understand what you're talking about. So it's not the workload itself; it's the growing intensity and the complexity of the job."
It seems principals are also required to be social engineers, charged with speaking out on, and sometimes solving, problems from boy-racing to binge-drinking. This is partly the community's doing, but Government initiatives have also caused headaches.
The revised national curriculum, launched in November, requires all intermediate students to be offered a second language. Principals were caught off-guard by the release of guidelines to restrict the sale in schools of food and drink high in fat, sugar and salt; they say there was no consultation.
"Principals must change not only their school's culture," says Liz Millar, "but the focus of each teacher, to make a difference to kids' learning. I suspect the community has no idea. We're clearer about what we need to do, but we need to be careful not to raise expectations beyond the capacity of principals to deliver. There is good support, but it has only been there for five years."
Arthur Graves, the chair of the Secondary Principals' Council, says a principal shortage could take hold within six years. He believes a centralised recruitment strategy would help, and that many of the Government's current initiatives are "band aids".
Graves says the number of people applying for principal positions has been dropping away for a decade or even longer.
The median salary for primary and secondary principals, who are on the same pay scale, is $100,457. The Government has just ended a pay standoff with secondary principals by offering a 4 per cent pay rise for each of the next three years. Additional bonuses for "realising youth potential" will be termed "allowances".
As one secondary principal told the Weekend Herald, "They differentiate it [from bonuses] so we don't need to pass it on to primary principals. We [came] up with another name for it." This prevented primary principals from staking a claim.
"We're very disappointed," says Malcolm Milner, principal of Balmoral Primary School and an executive member of the Auckland Primary Principals' Association. "This is one of the few countries in the Western world that pays primary principals less than secondary principals. It's an indictment. Those secondary allowances are for 'realising youth potential'. Isn't that what we're all doing?
"Primary principals are tired of being differentiated from secondary principals. Parity is under threat, and it's sad. We shouldn't be paid based on the size of our students' feet."
The highly unionised primary school sector responded to a bargaining stalemate by refusing to complete training for the new curriculum. Principals were seeking hundreds of thousands of dollars in management units to support leadership in their schools. An agreement was reached with the Government in late December and the principals' pay dispute is settled.
"We know that if things continue as they are, we could have problems in the future," says Mary Chamberlain of the Ministry of Education.
"Currently, schools don't have problems replacing principals except in very remote and isolated areas and with high Maori populations and so on. We've done forward thinking so it doesn't turn into a recruitment issue. We're on the front foot."
Principalship, of course, is not the only form of school leadership. "Middle managers", including heads of departments and deans, are often principals in the making. But for teachers who don't fancy the top job, the options for leadership are limited. Those teachers are likely to find themselves behind a desk, not in the classroom.
A major OECD study to be released in May, entitled Improving School Leadership, suggests the creation of alternative leadership pathways in our schools to retain capable teachers. The ministry will turn its attention to this issue this year.
This month, the ministry will also release a draft of Kiwi Leadership for Principals, a document outlining the desirable qualities of school leadership.
The ministry acknowledges it will have to align its many initiatives to this central document to keep projects on the same pathway. As for the growing workload and complexity of principalship, aside from a ministry review of schools' compliance burdens this year, there appears to be no relief in sight. Cutting their kid's principal some slack over the lost lunchbox may be the best thing a parent could do.
"The task for a principal is to make each student achieve well," says Chamberlain. "If you focus on that as your central mission, other things can take their priority.
"Professional managers make choices [and] manage their health and lifestyle as well as the demands of the job. They are intelligent professionals; they can get support from a range of places, and share the responsibility with their leadership team. Because, ultimately, one person just cannot run a whole school."
SCHOOL FOR STRESS
A major study by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, to be released in May, reviews school leadership in 21 countries. The research and data on New Zealand finds:
STRESS
New Zealand Principals' Federation research indicates 40 per cent of principals describe their stress as high or extremely high; 42 per cent worked 60 hours or more, just under half experienced constant tiredness and half reported sleep difficulties.
However, 70 per cent were optimistic about their life and work; 36 per cent strongly agreed that their job gave them great satisfaction and 49 per cent agreed.
ETHNICITY
The student population is diversifying but this is not reflected in school leadership. The ethnic mix of principals includes Maori (12 per cent), Pasifika (0.8 per cent) and Asian (0.2 per cent); 79.8 per cent are European, even though, by 2021, just 51 per cent of New Zealanders will be European.
GENDER
The chances of becoming a primary school principal are six times greater for men than for women. The number of female principals has steadily grown but women are under-represented in leadership in larger schools; 80 per cent of teachers but only 40 per cent of principals are women.
DISTRIBUTION
Urban school boards, the OECD report says, "seem to prefer candidates who have had experience in urban schools", making it difficult for principals moving to the city from rural schools. Many new principals in rural areas have little previous leadership or management experience. Rural primary schools with high Maori student numbers are the hardest to staff.
RETIREMENT
A study of departed secondary principals found that most had been in the job for 11 to 15 years. Aside from retirement, respondents cited workload, personal reasons, enjoyment and health for their departure. A third said they wanted change or new opportunities.
