Principal Spotlight: Christine Knox, Head Elementary

As initiations go, Christine Knox's has been somewhat unique.

Beginning her first principal job at Lilburn's close to the end of the first semester -- a less common time of the year to take over -- last year gave her a perspective others who start with a new school year don't get.

She was thrust into an interesting duplicity: continuing last year's path set by retiring principal Leigh Wescott, while planning her own course anew for this school year.

Knox, though, felt it was ideal.

"I thought it was a great time to step in," the former Mason Elementary assistant principal said. "The school year was well under way and the students were moving right along. Starting in January, though, I was planning for the next year. Immediately, I went in with one foot in this year and one foot in next year."

Knox says that taking over in early December -- not even upon return from Christmas break -- was actually easier than at the start of this school year in early August. Those initial months of what she called "Keep, Tweak and Delete" meetings individually with 90 staff members helped her chart an informed course this fall.

"It was awesome she did that. I'd never had a principal do that before," fifth-grade teacher Amy Fleming said of the one-on-ones. "Every teacher felt empowered by that because our voices were heard individually."

Running a school of 558 students can be an initiation by fire, no matter how prepared a first-time principal is by Gwinnett County Schools' Quality-Plus Leader Academy. But like being a wife of 18 years and mom of a high school sophomore and an eighth grader -- there's invariably that cleave between theory and on-the-job reality.

"Many days are eaten up by the business of running a school," Knox said. "You're putting out those fires all day long. If you don't have a routine, you get caught up in those interruptions and distracted from your job of being the instructional leader.

"Some days, you feel like Swiss cheese," she explained, "You have holes all in you because someone asked you for this, and someone else asked you for that."

That first day was certainly a whirlwind.

"I came home and said to my husband, 'I think I just had my first day as a principal,'" she joked. Other times, like last week, she enjoyed one of her most fulfilling days that went almost precisely as planned, strategizing with teachers how to improve math curriculum.

And as for putting her mark on things, she said that's always a collaborative effort. She believes principals set the tone, but considers input from her veteran staff essential.

"You're not going to be a leader unless people are following," she pointed out. "They need to feel respected and heard and like they've shared in the decision making, which in our case, they really do."

With input from her staff, Knox has tweaked some things, like having students in the Gifted program go daily for language arts and math enrichment, instead of weekly. Though small, it was a beneficial change.

"I didn't want to make large, wholesale changes, but instead, wanted to build on what was in place," Knox said. "I didn't fight the urge to make changes, but we had a lot of good things working already.

"Most people think change has to be night to day," she added, "but there are little changes that make a big difference that people might not even be aware of."

Knox said she loves each day at Head and doesn't see herself having any job not in direct contact with kids. Sure, the job includes fielding tough questions from parents. And, hard as she tries, "I can't relieve the stress and pressure my teachers have on a daily basis. I can't take away that overwhelming sense of responsibility," she said.

On balance, though, being a principal is distinctly different than four years as Mason's assistant principal and some 20 years as a teacher in Gwinnett and Cobb Counties. It's somewhat a rebirth, like hers at Mason in 2002, when her family's financial circumstance returned her to teaching after a few years of running her start-up company, a Moms and Tots program.

"When I walked back down that hallway in January," she said of returning, "it struck me. 'This is where I belong.'"

And while several unexpected challenges might occur every time down the hallway, her measure for success as Head's top administrator never wavers.

"If students and teachers are inspired to learn, then it's all worth it," Knox said. "That's my role: to continue to inspire people to learn. We all need to be life-long learners."