The ins and outs of Brian Alexander, principal of Wylie High School, are not quite known to the students. A typical morning for a student would involve waking up around 7:00 am, eating breakfast, and then heading to class.
But administrators like Alexander have a different approach. “I get here between 7:45 and 8 or so. I come in and check emails from the night before because usually I’ll have 10 to 15 from the time I left to the next time I come back in the next day.” Alexander said.
Subsequently, during the second period, Alexander reads the school announcements and posts on social media.
“I read my Google Sheets that have all the announcements put into them, copy and paste them in there, get all in there, see if there’s anything that happened overnight that I need to post on social media.” Alexander said.
Although the announcements were initially terrifying for Alexander. “The first, honestly, first few weeks, I was terrified. Terrified, because you don’t know how you sound. You get nervous. You talk too fast. But as I’ve gotten, you know, after I’ve done it, this is now year six, I’ve gotten better,” Alexander said.
Next, it’s time for lunch. “I’ll also then go to lunch duty. So I’ll be at, you know, wherever locations our administrators rotate every lunch, or every week, to make sure that we’re seeing everybody in every part of the building,” Alexander said.
You would think lunch would be chaotic, but for a seasoned admin, it’s not. “You just have to get used to people just walking around,” Alexander said.
“And then probably by the end of the day, just checking in to see if there’s any discipline things that need to be taken care of, or if there’s something that needs to be updated, Ms. Clark needs to update me,” Alexander said.
At least once a week, Alexander makes an appearance at a varsity game. “So I’ll be the only administrator going, but I will also be taking pictures and doing those things, too. So, yes, I do, at least, I would say, on average, two times a week, I’m here for an event,” Alexander said.
All of these are a day in the life of an Administrator. Overall, a day in the life of a principal involves a lot of communication with their peers.
“I’ve learned is the communication, the communications parts I’ve learned as being a principal like I’m just you know you’re getting the job and you figure out how to make things work how to do it the best way you can,” Alexander said.