Tuesday was no ordinary day for about 150 business and civic leaders from across the Metroplex, who got to spend the day with students on Dallas ISD’s 22nd annual “Principal for a Day.” From storytime to observing instruction and making morning announcements, this year’s honorary principals stepped into the shoes of campus administrators to further understand how they can help uplift students and ensure a quality public education for students.
The Principal for a Day partnership began in 1999 with about 100 participants; only one year was missed, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Inspired by New York City’s version of the program, Jon Dahlander, now Dallas ISD’s chief of Strategic Partnerships and Intergovernmental Relations, brought his vision to Dallas ISD while he was a member of the leadership class of the Dallas Regional Chamber (DRC). He and almost 50 classmates, including former Dallas ISD Board member Rafael Anchia and current Trustee Dan Micciche, were among the first guest principals.
Dahlander said the Chamber’s involvement has grown over time and that the goal from the outset was to get leaders into schools so that business leaders could lend their support to the hard work that staff members are doing to help students.
The experience of shadowing one of the district’s principals looks different for all participants since activities are tailored to the school’s individual day-to-day operations. Guest principals can choose to teach a class, meet with the student council, or address an assembly. Some of this year’s “principals” engaged with students in their school’s science lab, exercised in the gym at P.E. time, or got their hands dirty in art class.
After visiting David W. Carter High School, Dale Petroskey, the DRC’s president and CEO, said he feels it’s important for business leaders to step foot into schools and see with their own eyes what it’s like to be a school principal. He said that, from a company standpoint, impersonal data doesn’t tell the same story as the actual experience.
“Principals give 100 percent to try to educate our kids so that they can grow up to have a good education, good job and good life. There are so many opportunities in Dallas for jobs because this is a very economically prosperous community. We just need to get kids educated so they can get into jobs and do those jobs well.”
Toyota engineer Wendy Walker spoke of how Toyota’s involvement in the P-TECH program could help young scholars. “As students matriculate out of high school and into college or any career, I would love to see some students get into manufacturing and help us build cars and be a part of the mobility company of the future.”
Guest principals closed Principal for a Day in a reception with Superintendent of Schools Stephanie Elizalde, where they had a chance to talk about their experiences, potential commitments and plans for future involvement with their host school.
“Teachers are saints for giving their time to educating our next generation of kids, and we need to see that firsthand so that we can pat them on the back and say thank you, and also understand the challenges so that we as a business community can get behind them and do what needs to be done to improve the situation,” Petroskey said.
