#432 – A Principal’s Journey, with Brett Bowers

In honor of National Principals Month, Unpacking Education is kicking off a new series this October to spotlight school leaders making a difference. In this episode, Brett Bowers, Vice President of School District Leadership at AVID Center and a former principal of two award-winning high schools, joins the conversation to reflect on his leadership journey.

Through the lens of a powerful “general contractor” analogy, Brett shares what it takes to lead a school with vision, adaptability, and trust. This episode offers valuable insights for any educator committed to building schools that truly serve students, as Brett discusses empowering teacher leaders, navigating budget constraints, and sustaining long-term success. Tune in for practical strategies, candid stories, and a celebration of the unsung complexities of the principalship.

Elevating principals, transforming schools.

The theme for National Principals Month, a shared endeavor between AFSA, NAESP, and NASSP

Resources

The following resources are available from AVID and on AVID Open Access to explore related topics in more depth:

• Recalibrate the Culture, with Jimmy Casas (podcast episode)
• Lead From Where You Are, with Dr. Joe Sanfelippo (podcast episode)
• Personal and Authentic Learning, with Thomas C. Murray (podcast episode)
• Recruiting, Supporting, and Retaining Elementary Teachers, with Dr. Teddi Beam-Conroy (podcast episode)
• Recruiting, Supporting, and Retaining Secondary Teachers, with Anne Beitlers (podcast episode)

A General Contractor

According to Brett Bowers, successfully leading a school is a lot like being the general contractor of a building project. To support this analogy, Brett unpacks the critical role that principals play in building strong school communities where vision, coordination, and collaboration all come together to serve students.

Drawing from his years as a school leader and his current work with AVID, Brett explores how principals can create a shared vision, empower teacher leaders, and stay responsive to the evolving needs of their staff and students. “The only person who has the wide view to really understand all those parts and pieces is the principal,” he explains. Listeners will gain practical insights into leading through change, sustaining momentum, and keeping students at the center of every decision. The following are a few highlights from this episode:

• National Principals Month: October is National Principals Month. To honor that, Unpacking Education will feature principals on each show during the month of October.
• About Our Guest: Brett Bowers is the Vice President of School District Leadership at AVID Center. Prior to joining AVID, Brett was a teacher and administrator for almost 25 years, more than half of which he spent as principal of two award-winning high schools in the Milwaukee, Wisconsin, area.
• “General Contractor” Analogy: Brett likes to compare the work of a principal to that of a general contractor. He says, “The job of the principal is a huge one. You’re carrying so many things on your shoulders, and that, to me, is very much like the general contractor who’s building a house, or some commercial building, or whatever it is.”
• Sharing Responsibility: Because principals can’t be experts at everything, it’s important that they empower others to use their areas of expertise. Brett says, “I don’t need to know how to do everything. I need to know who those people are. I need to know the role that they can play, and then I need to be the person who helps bring them together to make sure the parts and pieces fit together.”
• A Unique Viewpoint: Brett points out, “The only person who has the wide view to really understand all those parts and pieces is the principal. . . . They have a view that nobody else has. They have that widest point of view on the school [and] the school community, and when they use that perspective to help that assemblage of subcontractors, if you will, succeed individually and collectively, that’s when you build incredible things, incredible schools.”
• Architect: As a principal, says Brett, “You’re kind of the architect and the general contractor at the same time. And I think, sometimes, you have to have a vision for 5 years out, but then you’ve got to have a clearer, more specific vision for the next year. And that one-year vision is really, in my mind, that true blueprint where you know exactly the moves you’re making.”
• Flexible Vision: While principals need both clear short- and long-term visions, they also need to remain flexible. Things may not always go as planned. Brett adds, “As you’re working through that year, you’re already thinking about the next, and ‘Where can you go to the next level? Where can you add the next story? Where do you have to go back to the foundation and strengthen it?’”
• Trust: In order to work well as a building, the principal needs to build a foundation of trust, which can then lead to teacher empowerment and shared responsibility. Brett says, “When people show you that they can do great work, let them continue to do it.”
• Leveraging Teacher Leaders: Leveraging and empowering teacher leaders has many advantages. Brett points out, “One of the things that I think makes them really special contributors is that they have an authenticity and a credibility with other teachers that even the very best principals cannot have. No matter how much teachers might respect you as a principal, at the end of the day, they still know you’re not in a classroom with students day in and day out.” He adds, “When teacher leaders talk that talk, they can ground it in their current practice. . . . They can move the masses in ways that administrators can’t. . . . We want to support them, and then we need to recognize and realize they bring some magic that we just cannot manufacture.”
• A Key Focus: Brett strongly believes that principals need to make a commitment to be in classrooms. He says, “If we know that teachers are the most important adults in a school building, we need to see the work that they’re doing.” He adds, “I always say that the best sign of a successful administrator or successful principal is when they walk in classrooms and nobody even bats an eye. Teachers keep teaching [and] kids keep doing their thing because everyone’s so used to seeing them that it doesn’t even surprise anybody that they’re there.”
• Monitoring Inputs and Outputs: To keep a school on track, the principal must monitor both how teaching takes place and also how learning is measured. Brett says, “If we’re monitoring the input from educators, we also have to be monitoring the outputs from kids and figuring out how kids are learning and developing throughout the process—not just waiting until summative assessments at the end of a school year or grades at the end of a term.”
• Teacher Turnover: “I think that’s an ongoing issue and one of the most challenging things about doing work like implementing AVID,” Brett says. “You get things going. You get people moving. The momentum starts, and then people leave you.”  Because of this, he says, “You’re rebuilding while you’re trying to build further, so it can feel overwhelming and daunting. I think that’s why it’s so important that you’ve got those subcontractors, particularly teacher leaders—and a large cadre of teacher leaders—because you, as a building administrator, do not have the time, or the capacity, or the specific expertise to onboard every new teacher every time you bring them in.”
• Budgets: Another constant challenge is budgetary limitations. Brett suggests spending very thoughtfully, while also focusing on innovation that doesn’t require additional purchases. He says, “There’s a time, and a place, and a need for that financial expenditure, but to really make sure that that does its job, we’ve got to build internal professional learning, and coaching, and support for educators within the system we already have.”
• Launching Versus Sustaining: Launching a new initiative requires a different form of leadership than sustaining current programs. While it can be exciting to launch something new, it can also be overwhelming to continually change. Brett says that it’s important to sustain a good program, and it’s also important to continue moving ahead: “We have to think about what’s next on the horizon. How do we extend that work into something else?”
• Students at the Center: Brett shares, “I think the easiest way to keep students at the center of the work is to keep talking to kids, to keep having conversations with students, to see them in their environment, but then to pull them out of their environment. And I’m a huge proponent of things like focus groups, and listening sessions, and ‘Come eat lunch with me,’ or ‘Can I just sit down at the cafeteria table with you?’”
• Student Insights: When talking about students, Brett says, “They’re brilliant; they’re so insightful. They will tell you what works. They might not describe it the way we would describe it as educators. They don’t know the lingo, but they know when they’re learning, they know how they’re learning, and they’ll tell you when they’re not. If they trust you, they’ll tell you when they’re not.”
• AVID Programs for Administrators: Brett says that AVID recognizes, “The role of a principal or assistant principal is unique and different than the role of a teacher leader.” Because of this, AVID has developed leadership learning opportunities specifically designed for school principals. Brett explains, “We’ve got collaboratives across the country—almost 40 active principal collaboratives—where principals get together with other AVID principals in their same geographic location a couple times a year to talk specifically about their work, their success stories, trade secrets as to their success, and then get some support from us in the middle of the year to keep them feeling empowered, and sustained, and learning throughout the year.”
• Supporting New Learning: Brett says, “The number one thing is: Who do you surround yourself with? Who is a sounding board? Who makes you better?” He adds, “The best way to learn and grow and to continue to evolve as an administrative leader is to find people you respect, and share space and time with them, and talk with and learn with and learn from them.”
• Supporting Teachers: For his toolkit item, Brett says, “If you can give [teachers] what they need to be great, a school will be great. They are your greatest resource, and they deserve your investment, and they deserve your trust, and they deserve your respect, and they deserve the best you can give them.”
• Being Nimble: “Leadership and leadership strategy changes at different stages or seasons of the work that we’re doing,” Brett reflects. “What worked at one point won’t always work, and if it worked before, don’t assume that that means that’s a replicable strategy. It worked when it worked. What do you need today to make it work today?”