Article PDF | | 
View on Single Page
Building the Skills to Work with Partners
Q: Did your preparation as a principal provide you with the skills you need to serve this role as a facilitator and manager of partnerships, or did you learn that along the way?
SHERMAN: No, I learned that along the way. My training programs did not address the use of partnerships at all. But my interest in bringing outside opportunities in for kids is something that began when I was a teacher. And I think that was one of the things that actually helped me get into the principals’ program and into the leadership role that I do today.
Along the way, in the past three years as a principal, I’ve learned how to say no to partnerships that don’t really work in our best interest. I’ve learned how to negotiate prices. I’ve learned how to look at relationships and figure out which are sustainable and which ones aren’t, and who do I have on my staff who will feel comfortable doing whatever is required, and who will not.
I’ve learned not to jump at every possibility and to prioritize. For example, we had an opportunity last year to do a tae kwon do program. We do a study of Korean and Asian culture, so a tae kwon do program, all expenses paid, would have been a good thing for us. Except the partner wanted to do the classes in an off-site place fairly far from the school. They couldn’t guarantee that it was going to be a multiyear partnership. I just looked at it and thought, gee, this is a great opportunity, but it takes about a year to get a partnership up and running, and if they can’t guarantee funding for the second year, I’m going to be burning a whole lot of kids and their parents who are going to get all gung ho and jump into the first year and, in the second year, the partnership pulls out, then I’m going to be the one left holding the bag. The kids are going to be the ones who are going to lose. So, rather than taking that risk in year one, I just said no. I’m looking for sustainable partnerships.
One of the problems of doing the partnership is points of contact. Ideally, when my school becomes involved in a partnership, I want my organization and the other organization to grow together. We start off with a single point of contact – me and someone in the organization – and then expand the contacts so that it’s me and a teacher or two plus their main point of contact and lower-level people, and then expand it so that we start to mesh and communicate at many different levels. If, over time, that’s not happening, then that’s an indication to me that the relationship really is not building. It’s not happening.
The real danger there is, if their person leaves, then we don’t have a relationship anymore. That happened with an outside organization that we worked with in year one. We had kids going to this off-site nonprofit a couple times a year, helping to plant a community garden and interacting with members of the community. Then the main point of contact, a social worker, left for another job elsewhere, and the whole relationship just disappeared overnight. That forced me to take a look and see where the problem was. The problem was, the relationship was really me and this one person. We had a relationship, and she was not able to grow the relationship on her side. So, as soon as she left, the whole thing collapsed.
So, now, that’s always in my head: are there particular points of contact with the partner, and how does the partner want to change and want to grow as a result of the relationship? And how can we hold each other accountable?
Outcomes and Accountability
Q: How do the school and the partners hold one another accountable?
SHERMAN: It’s primarily through face-to-face meetings at scheduled points along the way. So there are scheduled checkpoints. There are typically reports that the partner creates – annual reports or semi-annual reports – and at these checkpoint meetings, it’s “How’s it going? Where are the difficulties? Are there teachers who are involved in the relationship who are causing difficulties or not doing what they’re supposed to be doing? Or is everything going okay?”
Q: Are there certain outcomes that everyone is supposed to achieve?
SHERMAN: Yes, there are always outcomes. There are almost always quantifiable outcomes. And if the outcomes aren’t being achieved, then the questions are: Why not? Where’s the stumbling block? What can I, as the principal, do in moving things along? Or what can the partner do in moving things along?
For example, with iMentor, they monitor the number of e-mails that go back and forth – the number of e-mails the mentor writes and the number of e-mails the student mentee writes. They monitor the number of times that the mentors meet with their mentees. They monitor the number of times the students can get on the computers or can’t get on the computers, and they hold me accountable for that. And I hold them accountable if the mentors don’t show up or if the mentors don’t write back.
It works, but sometimes it’s uncomfortable. There are uncomfortable conversations that happen between us, or between me and my teachers.
Q: Have you had a situation where you found the partnership wasn’t working out and you had to end it?
SHERMAN: Yes. We’re involved right now in severing a major relationship with an outside organization that in our opinion really has not worked to meet the needs of the school. We’re actually using the third party that brought us together to help facilitate the meetings to facilitate a non-aggressive disengagement – to help keep us from getting to each other’s throats. To disengage gently, which is difficult.
