Aspiring Principals Program aims to teach future principals - Yahoo News

Jul. 4—The Aiken County Public School District has a way to help teach future principals.

The Aspiring Principals Program was started in 2019 as a way to increase the number of local principals, said Dr. Salvatore A. Minolfo, the director of administration for ACPSD.

"We started the program as an initiative ... The goal of the school board was they wanted to increase the grow your own program of future administrators of Aiken County principals," Minolfo said. "It was developed with that in mind at the time. At the time we were hiring outside of the district. Approximately 50% of administration and staff and our board felt like it could be good to do that, but we were looking at an 80/20 instead of 50/50."

There have been two cohorts of the program so far, and 10 people have completed it. The program has been designed by the state leadership standards, and Minolfo said he teaches the participants a variety of concepts related to the standard.

"For example, this year's group were the ones facilitating the renewal process for their schools, which is a huge undertaking," Minolfo said. "They had to ... develop school partnerships with outside organization and then we did a variety of presentations and interviews, just really building up their ability to do well in an interview and speak on items when required ... really trying to build their professional leadership abilities."

Minolfo said the biggest challenge for aspiring principals is shifting their mindset from being an assistant principal to being a principal.

"They have to look at a problem and come up with a solution, along with thinking about stakeholders, who will impact, mitigating factors to consider when handling the program ... the idea is to prepare them now," Minolfo said.

The year-long program meets at least once a month, sometimes more, he said. The superintendent, chief officer for instruction and administration, and assistant superintendents are all very involved in the program, Minolfo added.

As for who can participate in the program, Minolfo said it's open to people who have completed three years assistant principal or assistant principal like duties, including coordinators and interventionists.

The cohorts for this year were recognized at the Aiken County Board of Education meeting on June 14. Those recognized were Kimmerie Allen, Carla Dupert, Latonia Evans, Patrick Newsome and Charity Quattlebaum.

During the 2021-22 school year Allen was assistant principal at Belvedere Elementary School and will be the principal at Redcliffe Elementary School in the 2022-23 school year.

Dupert was the assistant principal at Kennedy Middle School for the 21-22 school year and will be principal at Jackson Middle School for the 22-23 school year.

Evans was the assistant principal at Leavelle McCampbell Middle School in 21-22 and will be the assistant principal at Schofield Middle School in 22-23.

Newsome, the 2022-23 Assistant Principal of the Year district winner, was the assistant principal at Warrenville Elementary School for the 21-22 school year and in 2022-23 will be the assistant principal at Ridge Spring-Monetta Elementary School

Quattlebaum was the assistant principal at Jefferson Elementary School in 2021-22 and has been named the principal at Parker Elementary School in Edgefield County for the 2022-23 school year.

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Aspiring Principals Program aims to teach future principals - Yahoo News
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