A yes vote for the Battle Ground School District (BGSD) levy places an assistant principal at every school and two at each high school. The role of assistant principal is essential to safety programs, efficiency of school instructional programs, the identification of learning needs of students, and the evaluation of teachers and support staff. Assistant principals are key leaders in school safety programs. They are trained in the proper methodology of conducting fire and earthquake drills, and lockdown drills, making certain that our children are well practiced as to how to behave during an emergency and evacuate a building with swift efficiency. Assistant principals are called to make changes in drill protocol where necessary to ensure that in the event of an actual emergency, our children are safe.
Assistant principals are poised to participate vigorously in the newly state-mandated Teacher/Principal Evaluation Project. They will design professional development to meet the needs of the stringent new standards of performance for Washington teachers. These new evaluations called TPEP are time intensive, and designed to build the capacity of our teachers and ultimately, our students.
Assistant principals work daily to know the names and faces of their students and are an integral part of each schools positive behavior team. Students and families are encouraged to communicate freely with their school’s assistant principal in an effort to build relationships and reinforce the expectations of positive student behavior.
Assistant principals start out as teachers, spending at least three years in the classroom prior to pursuing their administrative credential. They are vital to the success of our schools and necessary for safety, parent/student communications, program development and teacher evaluations. Assistant principals add value to the function, success, and safety of our schools. A yes vote for the BGSD levy keeps an assistant principal at every school. Vote yes.
Jill Ziegler
Battle Ground
