I start this post with an apology to Zac Chase — who I gave a lot of (mostly good-natured) grief to as I worried about whether or not a new idea would work.

Last night, we had our 9th Grade Back to School Night. Zac had the idea of splitting up Back to School Night so that the 9th Grade parents could do a potluck dinner where they could sit with the other families in their advisory and eat and talk with them. They could meet with their advisors for the first time where it’s not a report card conference. It was all fantastic theory, but it as it got closer, I kept seeing all the things that could go wrong — parents might not bring food…. the conversations may not happen… it meant two Back to School Nights, which is taxing for staff… it was more planning at the start of a school year with a million things going on… new parents often are looking for a Back to School that feels like something they recognize… the list goes on. It’s a classic administrator trap — which is looking for all the reasons you shouldn’t do something, rather than looking for the reasons to do something.

But we’d committed to doing it, and while I was worried about it, we were going to make it as special as possible. A lot of people, from Zac to me to Home and School parents did a lot of planning. Upper class students ran around after school to make sure the place looked great. We got the schedule of events to everyone. And I worried.

And then the funny thing happened — parents came. They bought food. They sat together and shared stories of the first few weeks. They talked about why they came to SLA… or how they found out about it… and advisors talked and listened and learned about the families their students came from.

In short — it was the best part of the evening. I’m sure the parents loved following their students’ schedules, and I know how passionate and inspiring SLA teachers are when they talk about their classes, but as lovely as that part of the evening was (and I did manage to hear most of our teachers talking about their classes), the highlight was watching our new families make themselves part of our community along side students, teachers and returning parents. And the food was amazing too.

So, at a time in the school year when it would probably be really easy to fall back on what we know works — and the time of SLA where we are starting to be able to say, "We’ve done it this way in the past" — it’s important to remember to keep trying new ideas. And it’s important to be able to see the best reasons to do things, not just think of all the reasons not to. And it’s important to have people on faculty who are willing to experiment and dream big and see ideas throught. And it’s important to know how to nurture those people and their ideas. And it’s also important to remember when, as principal, you just get out of the way and let the moment happen, even when you’re worried.

And the best thing is that by doing that, I got yet another reminder of how much I love the community of SLA… and how much I can believe in the strengthen of this community we’ve built, and how everyone — teachers, students, parents — are so invested in bringing in the new class of SLA teachers and students into that culture.

Tags: SLA, leadership, innovation, community