Linda Cliatt-Wayman - Lead Fearlessly, Love Hard: Finding Your Purpose and Putting It to Work

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Is Available

Hardback ISBN: 9781119288534

ePDF ISBN: 9781119288831

epub ISBN: 9781119288817

Cover design: Wiley

Cover image: Ready Set Productions

In memory of Mona Cliatt, my mom

Thank you for providing Andrea, Denise, and me with the foundational tools to LEAD:

Faith, Love, and Education

I want to take this moment to thank my publisher, JosseyBass, for providing me with the forum to tell my leadership story. A very special thank you to my editorKate Bradford, copyeditorKathleen Miller, and production editorHaritha Dharmarajan, who had the task of getting this book ready for publication. Their patience and insight were extraordinary. Thank you to the organizers of the Pennsylvania Conference for Women and TED.com for giving me the first platform to tell my leadership story.

To all of my leadership team members over the yearsthank you for your dedication and intense focus on the success of every child under your care. Success happened because of all of you: Michelle GarconMcCoy, Vanessa Green King, Annetta Jackson, Syida Johnson, Evan Kramp, Kenesta Mack, Jameka McGrawByrd, Melissa Schafer, Jacqueline Palone, Anna Shurak, Susan Skraitz, Jennifer SpeirsRobinson, Mike Spangenberg, Sonia Szymanski, Orick Smith, and Terri Wiley.

Thank you to my school police officer, Kevin Dancy, and to Philadelphia police officer William Eib, for keeping my students and staff safe each day, and for providing an exemplary model of commitment to the welfare of children for law enforcement officials everywhere.

To my wonderful family, my husband, Dana, my two precious daughters, Paige and Sasha, and my two sisters, Andrea and Denisethank you for your unconditional love and patience during this project. To all of my friends, without your listening ear this could never have been accomplished. To my best friend, Winona HurstWaldonthank you for your love, friendship, and unwavering support for over 30 years.

To Principals past and presentthank you for your selfless service to your students and this nation. Because of your sacrifice, children get to live their dream. How special is that?

And last, but certainly most important, I would like to thank God and his son Jesus for the source of my strength and the purpose for my life.

Sincerely,

Principal Wayman

You go! The voice in my head was so loud, bold, and so unusually clear that I stopped in the middle of the hallway and responded to the voice with a grammatically incorrect question: Me go?

You go! the voice repeated. As I walked slowly to my office, calm but confused, I kept repeating the words I heard from the voice, You go, you go, you go! With every step it became clearer to me that the reason why I could not find a candidate for principal was because I was the candidate. I was the leader I was waiting and searching for.

Persistently dangerous was the label placed on the school I was chosen to lead. As of March 2015, the Pennsylvania Department of Education lists a school as persistently dangerous on its website if it exceeds a certain number of dangerous incidents in the most recent school year and in one additional year of the two years prior to the most recent school year. A dangerous incident has been defined as either a weapons possession incident resulting in arrest (guns, knives, or other weapons) or a violent incident resulting in arrest (homicide, kidnapping, robbery, sexual offenses, and assaults).

Strawberry Mansion High School persistently dangerous! Was it really?

From 20102012, I was Assistant Superintendent for High Schools in Philadelphia, the leader of 52 principals and 61,000 children. I joined a central office team that was already well underway in finding ways to cut costs in the school district budget. Their attention was fixated on the schools that were underutilized. A company was hired to collect data on each existing school building. They were charged with recording the building capacity of each school and comparing it to the number of students who were actually attending the school, as part of a project called the Facility Master Plan.

After the company revealed their findings to the superintendent it was decided that one high school would close, another would relocate, and the two would merge into a third school, forming a threeway high school merger. There was one major problem with this planthe decision was decided solely on building usage and financial gain, not the facts of each school involved in the merger.

The three schools that were set to merge were located in North Philadelphia, one of the most violent sections of Philadelphia. This area was known for its rival gangs, high drug use, high crime rate, and a poverty level that is among the highest in the nation. Sure, the school selected to house the threeway merger had wonderful features. It was huge. It had five floors, newly renovated science labs, a brandnew culinary facility, and a beautiful, new library. The construction of the building was ideal for a stateoftheart school, but there was one more very important fact about Strawberry Mansion High School: it had been on the nation's Persistently Dangerous Schools list for five consecutive years.