Dave Trautman

Dave Trautman is the principal of Oneonta Elementary School in South Bay Union School District in the Greater San Diego Area.

When I last spoke to Dave, he was at school on a Saturday waiting for a student. The third-grader in question had had a skirmish with a classmate and Dave wanted to try his own version of Saturday school as an alternative to suspension, which seemed to him more like a reward of time off. He shared that they had read some books centered around how to deal with feelings, in keeping with Dave's desire to hold kids accountable in ways that don't necessarily keep them out of class.

Dave has been principal at Oneonta for four months. During that time he has found the school's support of ELLs to be one of their strengths. There is a transitional bilingual program which has had great results but is now phasing out in an effort to comply with family input, as many parents have reported a strong preference for having their children placed in English-only classrooms. All students break up into language fluency groups each day. They all also participate in the a leadership program which encourages them to take pride in keeping their school clean and safe and incorporates Steven Covey's Seven Habits. The curriculum also gives them a common language to talk out their problems and the opportunity to sit down and talk to each other face to face and take control of resolving their own conflicts.

As a director of adult learning, Dave feels that the staff at his school are working diligently towards the school's mission statement, which aspires to a community where students feel safe, cared for, and listened to. Teachers make a concerted effort to engage students in authentic dialogue, and students who had previously felt disconnected from the school community were beginning to show signs of engagement. Dave has been utilizing design thinking with his staff to collaborate on thinking about solutions to collective challenges and grounding the entire process in empathy with, for, and between students. He feels that teachers replicate what they experience, and that if administrators motivate from a place of empathy as opposed to compliance, teachers tend to do the same in their classrooms. He finds that most teachers who are dependent on traditional classroom models are willing to take risks if they are gradually exposed to alternatives and encouraged to relinquish their authority over the classroom in small steps.

Listening to Dave describe his school community, it is clear that his leadership style emphasizes communication, listening, and collaboration. For example, he reports that the teachers in his school participate in a student for a day shadowing challenge which gives them the opportunity to see what students need directly from them instead of being issued a directive from the administration. One teacher recently shadowed a Muslim student who wears a hijab and realized that she was only called upon to speak in class twice during that entire day. That teacher's observations and concerns shaped discussion and change that came directly from student influence, which Dave believes to be more effective than a top-down approach.

Of the many things we discussed in our conversation, the biggest takeaway about leadership came from a comment he made about what it doesn't look like. He noted that many principals fall into the habit of walking into a classroom and asking teachers for big practice "cures" - more small groups, more differentiation, more turn-and-talk. He favors listening to teachers and asking what they think could be done to make improvements, and starting with agreed-upon small steps.