Written by Duane Vance

Administrative release time (ART) and its importance has been a key issue discussed heavily within our circles for the past decade or so. Greg Schmill (2009) identified some alarming statistics about WELS principals that could be leading to burnout and ineffective practices. In response, the Commission on Lutheran Schools created a guideline for appropriate administrative release time. Each school should provide its principal with one hour per week for every 7.5 students enrolled. The synod convention adopted this recommendation in 2013. Dr. John Meyer (2014) has identified five ways that proper release time will help principals improve their schools. They are as follows:

1. Improved communication with families, faculty, and congregations.
2. Instructional supervision of faculty.
3. Curriculum planning and oversight.
4. Long-range planning and school improvement.
5. Faculty development.

Administrative release time also receives important emphasis in the synod’s new program, “The 21^st Century Lutheran Principal Initiative.” (Optional: To learn more about this program, please see Dr. Meyer’s blog linked here.)

The purpose of this blog is to give the reader one perspective of a school principal who receives appropriate release time and how he uses it. My church and school began providing adequate release time based on synod recommendations two years ago. In fact, this year I receive nearly 12 hours each week in release time. Our school has 77 students enrolled, so we slightly exceed the recommended standard. The school and I have benefited from this greatly. To show the practical use of my release time, I will demonstrate my time based on the five areas Dr. Meyer identified.

Improved communication with families, faculty, and congregation
This may be the area where our school has improved the most since implementing our use of ART. Monday mornings are allotted for making sure schoolwide communications are complete and accurate. Our secretary does a fantastic job managing our school communications materials so I assist her by suggesting changes, adding important information, and editing as needed. Each day, I have at least one hour of ART after school begins. This allows for answering emails and texts, making necessary phone calls, and scheduling meetings. This has proved to be an ideal time to give school tours to new families as well.

Instructional supervision of the faculty
We require our faculty to have two formal observations a year. Having the proper amount of ART has allowed for convenient scheduling of pre-conferences, observation, and post-conferences. I also use some of my ART to be visible in the school. I try to perform several informal walkthroughs to catch a snapshot of the faculty’s classrooms to see if they have the needed resources to succeed. During these times, I am also able to observe students and get a glimpse of their progress. This usually leads to conversations between teachers and me about how to best serve the needs of individual students.

Curriculum planning and oversight
Admittedly, this is the area of the five improvement categories where I spend the least of my ART. This is because I have very talented staff members who take the lead in curriculum development and possess greater talents in this area than I do. Two years ago, we created the position of academic dean within our faculty, and the job description clearly defines this person’s role as a curriculum director. I work very closely with our academic dean to make sure curriculum study rotations are followed and that reliable resources can be found when changes need to occur.

Long-range planning and school improvement
Our school recently completed the WELSSA accreditation process. As an accredited school, we are now accountable for documenting and following through on long-range plans and improvements. I devote release time twice a month to review our progress on our school improvement plan. Progress is shared with the faculty, and necessary adjustments are made at monthly faculty meetings.

Faculty development
Usually two weeks before faculty meetings, I devote some ART to preparing an agenda that includes faculty professional and spiritual development activities. As our current study is winding down, I am now spending some release time on researching future development. Recently, I began looking at MLC’s “Professional Development Series” (found here) and will be recommending that we allocate budgetary resources so that we may partake in the program. The use of this program might even save me a bit of release time as it provides “ready-to-go” monthly inservices.

All ministries are different and have their own sets of circumstances and challenges. I have found wide differences on how other principals use this time. I rarely find the use of my ART to be completely ideal, either. For instance, I do have to spend a few hours a week managing the financial aspects of the school. Tuition billing, bill payments, payroll, state and federal taxes, and preparing monthly financial reports are my responsibility because we lack a person with the gifts or desire to take on the task. I’m sure most principals would agree that they have similar situations that take time away from focusing on the school’s mission. However, this is why this release time is so important. I am confident that I would not be able to manage all of this effectively if I had to devote most of my time to instruction. Our school has seen the great blessings that ART can bring, and we are always seeking ways to give the principal more time when resources are available.

Duane Vance (MS Ed ’16) is currently serving as principal at Jerusalem-Morton Grove IL. He is a 2002 graduate of University of North Florida. He has served as a public school teacher. He completed WELS teacher certification in 2007.

References
Meyer, John E. (2014). Continuing Education and Remaining in Christ. Retrieved from http://www.wlstc.org/home/180017202/180017202/Images/14meyerj1.pdf

Schmill, G. (2009). ART for WELS Principals. Milwaukee: Northwestern Publishing House.