New Principals Face County Schools' Challenges

To become the principal of a Montgomery County school, it's not necessary to amass decades of service or be more experienced than most of the teaching staff. It is, however, helpful to know how to work a spreadsheet, how to juggle the often conflicting needs of teachers and parents and the demands of statewide testing, and, most of all, how to bring out the best in your teachers.

"I can say that today we want people who have it all," said David I. Steinberg, director of the school system's leadership development team. "We want people who are analytical, but we also want people who are very people-oriented, because it's a people-oriented business."

The county has one of the nation's most intensive principal training programs. Trainees must complete a two-year assistant principal development program, then work as an assistant principal or enter a year-long principal internship program, working under a seasoned principal, before applying for a permanent principal's job. Throughout the training period, the future principal meets regularly with a team of administrators who serve as coaches and evaluators.

Nearly 90 percent of the county's principals are homegrown. The training program assembled by School Superintendent Jerry D. Weast has generated dozens of new principals, in many cases comparatively younger than the teachers at the schools. Some of the 27 principals who started work this fall, for example, are in their early 30s; the average age of the county's teachers is 42.

The new generation of principals is generally regarded as smart, energetic and skilled at dealing with the concerns of county parents. Here are the profiles of seven recent graduates of the principal training program.

Sarah Sirgo Woodlin Elementary School Silver Spring

¿ Age: 32.

¿ Hometown: Silver Spring.

¿ Education: BA, MA, University of Maryland; administrative certificate, Johns Hopkins University.

¿ Year as principal: first.