Students know little about Brian Alexander, Wylie High School’s principal. A normal morning for a student might be waking up at 7:00 a.m., eating breakfast, and then going to class.
But administrators like Alexander take a different approach. “I arrive around 7:45 or 8. I come in and check emails from the night before because I normally have 10 to 15 between the time I leave and when I return the next day.” Alexander stated.
Later, during the second period, Alexander reads school announcements and publishes 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 stated.
Although the announcements first terrified Alexander. “I was afraid in the first several weeks. Terrified because you have no idea how you sound. You become apprehensive. You spoke too quickly. But, you know, now that I’ve done it for six years, I’ve become better,” Alexander explained.
It’s time for lunch. “I’ll also go on lunch duty. So I’ll be at whichever spots our administrators rotate every lunch or week to ensure that we see everyone in every part of the facility,” Alexander explained.
Lunch can seem chaotic, but for a seasoned administrator, it is not. “You just have to get used to people walking around,” Alexander explained.
“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 reported.
Alexander attends at least one varsity game per week. “So I’ll be the only administrator there, but I’ll also be taking photos and doing other stuff. So, sure, I do, at least twice a week, for an event,” Alexander stated.
All of this represents a day in the life of an Administrator. Overall, a principal’s day entails a great deal 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,” Mr. Alexander said.
