Eugene Blalock kept a daily journal during the 2000-01 school year, his first as principal of Mount Healthy North Middle School. He hopes to publish it to help other first-year administrators. Here are excerpts:

Aug. 18, 2000

       I received my first administrator's paycheck and I am ready to celebrate. All I have to do is put the special education students into the schedule, but this schedule will not work and school starts Tuesday. I promised myself I would not work 10- and 12-hour days. Reality has now set in. After 12 hours, the schedules are ready.

Aug. 22, 2000

       The school looks a mess and school starts tomorrow. Teachers are asking for lesson plan books, grade books, locker assignments, combinations and class lists all of which I cannot provide. Here we go again. Another 12-hour day. By the time I left the building, the teachers had everything they needed for opening day. This could not be done without the help of my secretary. Thank you.

Aug. 23, 2000 (first day of school)

       I arrive at the building at 7 a.m. — plenty of time seeing that school does not start until 8:15. Homeroom teachers escort their students to class, but there are still over 20 kids who do not have schedules. The police call because two young ladies are truant, and they are at their house trying to find them. The day goes smoothly; there are no major problems.

Aug. 24, 2000

       The day went well until the students were released to go home. Two students were posturing and trying to bully another student by flashing gang signs and taking his key chain. I will deal with them first thing in the morning.

Aug. 25, 2000

       A student came in late for the second time and I had to call his mother and explain that on the fifth tardy/absence we must turn her and the student's name over to the truancy court. She thanked me for warning her. There is some gang activity going on in the neighborhood, and the students were talking about it before homeroom. I called all the key players to the office one by one and called their parents. I explained to the parents that this is a positive phone call to tell them what is going on and to ask for their support and help in dealing with this situation here at school. I told the parents this is the only warning I will give them, and the next time their child comes to see me about fighting/gang activity, they will be suspended and possibly arrested. Each parent thanked me for calling.

Sept. 18, 2000 (day gun was discharged)

       I left the building at 9:50 to attend a meeting at the board office. At 10:35 I received a call from my secretary advising me to return to the building as soon as possible. There was a gun in the building. When I arrived back at the building the students were being evacuated to the football field. I was briefed on the situation and went straight into the classroom with the student who had the gun and told the teacher to leave. I talked to the student at length, asking what did he want me to do to help him out of this situation. The student wanted to talk to his brother, who was unavailable. I called the student's mother and allowed him to talk to her on a cell phone. I walked out of the classroom to tell the police what he wanted and was instructed not to go back in. I went to the football field to make sure the rest of the students were safe. The school resource officer was able to talk the student down and take the student into police custody.

        Now I have the job of getting the students back into the building and trying to have a normal day. First, I needed to get the students fed who missed lunch. Second, get the students back on schedule and follow our normal daily routines. Third, compose a press release and letter to send home with the students informing the parents of what took place and inviting them to a meeting this evening. Fourth, go around personally hand-deliver the parents' informal letter and thank the students once again for their cooperation. Fifth, call all parents who had a child in the room when the weapon was discharged and tell them that their child was safe. Sixth, tell the media to leave the school grounds. Finally, take a breath and dismiss students for the day, have a brief staff meeting and prepare for tonight's meeting.

        The (evening) meeting was hot and heated. Most of the questions were about our safety plan and what would the school and/or district do in the future to prevent this from happening again. After the meeting, even the parents who were most vocal came up and hugged me or shook my hand expressing their gratitude for getting their children home safely.

Sept. 19, 2000

       I started the day with a brief teachers' meeting, where I explained that all teachers would start the day with an open discussion about what happened yesterday. This allowed the students to talk about their feelings openly and put to rest all rumors. During this process I had a number of counselors talk to students who needed more professional assistance. The students and staff held up well under the circumstances and we were able to have a normal day. I did get bombarded by the media. Everybody wants to interview me. I decided not to grant any on-camera interviews.

Jan. 8, 2001

       I arrived back from a Board of Education meeting where there was an open discussion about a Uniform Dress Code. My vision is to create a stricter dress code of black pants and white collared shirts next year and it looks like my vision will become a reality. I discussed the research explaining that school disruptions decrease, violence in the school decreases and students' achievement levels increase. This is a great feeling knowing that I put the steps in motion that will take my students and/or my school to that next level.

Jan. 9, 2001

       I forgot about a meeting I had with the Alternative Development Program, which includes the court system, police and mental health agency. I arrive late and they understood. Then I had two basketball games. At the end of the last game I had to restrain about seven of my girl students who wanted to fight girls from the opposing team. Finally, I had my Parents Advisory Meeting tonight and informed the parents of the upcoming dress code. They were happy with our decision to move forward, and for the second day in a row I arrived home after nine. I am tired.

April 6, 2001

       My day started off with another parent who wanted to confront a teacher because she felt her daughter was being mistreated in class. I took control of the conference because I did not want us to lose sight of why we were meeting. The student has been insubordinate to the teacher and disrupting class. The teacher and I tried to have a conference with the student earlier this week about her behavior and attitude. I had to stop that meeting and call the mother because the girl was so disrespectful. I called the mother and explained that I have done everything I could do for her daughter and I was through trying. The next time she comes in my office I am going to suspend her.

        So that is why we were all having this meeting today. Once again the student became rude and disrespectful. I stopped the meeting and dismissed the teacher. I told the mother that this is why we are here and excused myself. The mother was so embarrassed she could not even look at me. I told the student that she disrespected her mother and made her look like an idiot. Coming all the way up to school to fight for you and you validated everything the teacher has been saying. I wished the mother luck and reiterated that if her daughter misbehaves she will be suspended.

April 9, 2001

       I had to suspend a student who decided that she would just hit another student because she did not get her way. Then I had to suspend two students who were disrupting class. They came to see me first period and I explained that if they came back to my office I was going to put them out of school. The next period I received a referral on both of them, therefore I put them out. One student had just returned from being expelled and it seems as though he is not going to make it. Then I had to suspend two students for horseplaying. I had just told the students that hit, touch, play fighting would not be tolerated and would result in suspension. Nevertheless, these two students decided to square up and slap box in the middle of the hallway.

May 25, 2001

       I had a parent conference. The mother called me last week requesting to speak to me about her child. I suspended him sometime last week. I was expecting a fight all week. I thought she wanted to complain about the way I was doing my job or the way I had treated her child. Neither happened. She simply wanted to thank me for everything I have been doing with her son. Then, she handed me a letter that her son wrote me. It reminded me that I truly love what I am doing.

June 1, 2001 (last day of school)

       I pulled in the (school) driveway with tears in my eyes this morning. It is hard to believe (the year) is over. I just sat in my car and said “Thank you.”

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