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Principal Leadership Academy Graduates First Class

Aspiring School Leaders Graduate From Principal Leadership Academy

Assistant principals prepared for top leadership role

 CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. – Thirteen aspiring school leaders have spent the last year working with business mentors and participating in leadership training in preparation for the enormous responsibility of running a Hamilton County school.

“I’m really pleased to announce this graduation,” says Hamilton County schools superintendent Dr. Jim Scales.  “I’ve wanted a training academy for principals since the day I arrived in Hamilton County, and it’s exciting to see this first class graduate.  I can’t think of anything more important that we can do for schools than to give them strong, well-prepared leaders.”

The Principal Leadership Academy is the result of a partnership between Hamilton County schools, the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce, the Public Education Foundation and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.  Launched in the summer of 2010, the Academy works to help prepare aspiring principals for the rigors of taking the helm of a school.  It has been structured to include a focus on achieving high academic standards, but also includes a significant business component to help principals with tasks like finances, human resources, and management.  Each Academy participant has been assigned a business mentor over the course of the year to provide input and advice regarding leadership issues.

 Unum Executive Vice President Bob Best is mentor to Orchard Knob Middle assistant principal Blake Freeman.  “Mentoring is a part of our talent development plan and I, along with others, like to formally mentor three to four high potential people a year.  So, this was a natural extension of what we do,” says Best.  “It was also an opportunity for me to get out into the schools and get a good hands-on view of the challenges principals and teachers face every day.  The experience has verified for me how important highly effective Principals are in achieving everything that’s expected from our education system.”

“The opportunity to sit with an executive vice president of a Fortune 500 Company and hear the best practices of his leadership has been priceless,” says Freeman.  “We have discussed how to increase employee effectiveness, how to hire effective teachers and the importance of visionary leadership and its direct correlation to the product we produce.”

“This new relationship with Bob has been one that will continue to influence my career long after my time with the PLA is over,” he adds.

Dr. Godfrey Saunders has worked closely with the graduates as Director of the Principal Leadership Academy.  “When I reflect on the fact that many thousands of students and hundreds of teachers will owe some measure of their success to these thirteen leaders, I feel honored to have had the opportunity to work with them,” says Saunders. “We are blessed to have them in our educational community.”

2011 Graduates of the Principal Leadership Academy and their mentors include:

In addition, first-year principals Zac Brown of East Ridge High School and Saunya Goss of Battle Academy received support through the Academy and partnered with business mentors Tom Thompson of Unum and Henry Smith of BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, respectively.

Funding for the Principal Leadership Academy includes support from Unum, Joe Davenport of Pointer Management, an anonymous donor, Hamilton County Department of Education and the United Way of Greater Chattanooga.

About the Hamilton County Department of Education
The Hamilton County Department of Education is a diverse school system, providing roughly 42,000 students with a world-class education. The system is nationally renowned for urban school success as well as middle school and high school reform. The district offers a variety of educational programs for all students including magnet schools, career academies and gender-based classes as well as a focus on individual student success and the goal of preparing all students to compete in the Global Economy.

About the Public Education Foundation
The Public Education Foundation is a local non-profit that works closely with Hamilton County schools and other partners to improve student achievement.  PEF has been a major partner in designing and implementing the elementary Benwood Initiative, Middle Schools for a New Society, High Schools for a New Society, the Leadership Initiative for school administrators and teacher leaders, the College Access and Success Initiative and TEACH/Here, a teacher residency initiative designed to recruit and train highly qualified math and science teachers.

About the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce
The Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce is the organization where local business focuses on job creation and education.  For more than 125 years, we have brought Chattanooga area businesses together to support economic growth.  We are more than 1,600 members, ranging from single employee operations to companies with more than 3,000 employees.

About the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga is a national model for metropolitan universities. In collaboration with our many regional partners, we offer our students an experiential learning environment graced with outstanding teaching scholars in bachelor's, master's, and doctoral programs.

Principal Leadership Academy 2 (Class of 2012)