Friday letters: Keeping in touch
Every Friday for ten years I published a letter to the staff and community, first at La Sierra High School (Riverside) and later at Magnolia High School (Anaheim). The letters are free for all to use, peruse, and take inspiration. They are saved as Word documents and are indexed by month and year of publication. Writing to staff takes discipline, but it pays off. In ten years as a principal, no staff member ever wondered what I thought; they knew me through my writing as well as through my regular presence in their classrooms. Ironically, the time spent writing actually freed me up to spend more time in classrooms.