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Managing the expectations of students, staff and parents can be a daunting task for any principal, but what about when the challenge is not human, but natural?
Whether it’s catastrophic storms, earthquakes or heatwaves, principals are the ones who have to make the tough calls associated with protecting everyone in their school.
Below, Andrés Alonso, the former superintendent of the Baltimore City Public Schools, explains how school leaders can navigate these crises. Harvard University’s Usable Knowledge summarises his advice below.
Put safety first
"The safety of children always comes first. But because there are no guarantees, you are also weighing families and home care, you’re weighing children who are eligible for free and reduced meals and their access to food, you’re weighing issues with teachers and their travel and their ability to get to school and deal with their own family responsibilities in an emergency. So there are going to be dilemmas. Normally, you have a bias toward keeping schools open and keeping kids in schools. That should be the default. Kids generally are safest at school. On the other hand, there are going to be some circumstances where that’s not true.”
Don’t worry about people pleasing
“You will never make everyone happy: In every year, in every school system, you’re going to have to make a set of calls around closing or opening schools where you could be right or you could be wrong. Most of the time you’re going to have 50% of the people happy and the other 50% of the people unhappy. Whether it’s snow, water main breaks, Halloween pranks — no matter what you do, you’re going to have a sector of the community that thinks that you acted in the wrong way, because it impacted their lives in a negative sense.”
Communicate
“You should always be in communication with your community about your decisions. You should be in constant conversation about the whys and the hows. It shouldn’t just be about these fraught situations when you have national attention focused on one decision. It should a part of everything that you do. If you’ve established that constant, two-way communication as a routine element of what you do, then you build trust, and trust is critical in these situations.”
Account for your students and assess their needs
If possible, track the status of all the students in your classroom or school, advises NASP. Did their houses get damaged? Are they living with another relatives, or in a shelter? Think about how to address needs through classroom discussions, and by referring students to counseling. Identify ways for students to keep in touch with classmates who have been displaced.
Account for the grown-ups, too
School staff, including teachers, will need time to process the events and what it means for them, and serving as crisis caregivers is an extra emotional drain. Allow time for the adults in the school to discuss their own experiences, share their own stories, and find mental health support, says the NASP guide.
Establish routine
Re-establishing routine is key to helping kids recover from majorly disruptive events, according to FEMA’s Safer, Smarter, Stronger, a guide for schools on managing natural disasters. While schools might have a hard time getting back to normal – especially if their physical space was damaged or is being used as a shelter – many children are actually craving routine and order after the chaos of a hurricane. Still, be flexible about enforcing some rules – schools in the wake of Katrina, for example, let dress codes fall to the wayside, understanding that many children had lost most of their clothing in the storm.
Prepare for the next one
Schools can be key resources after a storm and a source of strength for the entire community – if they’ve prepared. Schools that have taken steps to reduce their risks and have adequately prepared for emergencies can respond effectively, recovery quickly, and help support the entire community to recover from a disaster.