TEMPLE, Texas — The Temple Independent School District’s has been preliminarily selected to be awarded the Texas Education Agency’s Principal Residency Grant. If selected, this funding — valued at about $700,000 — will help the administrators nurture existing leaders within the district and build an internal leadership pipeline.
An educator’s typical road to principalship includes time in the classroom, a master’s degree, a principal certification and some experience in a position of leadership on campus. With this grant, Temple ISD would be afforded the opportunity to identify 10 educators, through a targeted recruitment and selection process, and start them on an expedited track of leadership development. This includes a master’s degree and principal certification through Dallas Baptist University’s Dorothy M. Bush College of Education, as well as a year-long, full-time principal residency on a Temple ISD campus.
Temple ISD Superintendent Dr. Bobby Ott is thrilled at the possibility of implementing such a comprehensive leadership development program. “We are always looking for ways to develop and retain future leaders in the district, and this is an opportunity to build a program that identifies talent and allows them to have hand-on experiences designed to support their course work,” he said.
These principal residents would be practicing administrators on their designated campuses and have the opportunity to work with and learn from existing campus leadership.
Donna Ward, incoming assistant superintendent of human resources for Temple ISD, also believes the Principal Residency Program will help grow leaders from within the district. “Teachers chosen to participate in this full-time residency program will be provided with invaluable experiences focused on instructional leadership in a diverse educational setting, allowing the district to create a strong, diverse leadership pipeline for the future” Ward said.
The district plans to implement the program during the 2021-22 school year pending successful completion of the fiscal and programmatic review and negation with TEA.