Have a Good Life

Bob Sonju is the Director of K–12 Learning in Washington School District in Southern Utah.

In this first part of the interview, we discuss the following:

• A little about Bob’s history and what he learned to help him become prepared for being a transformative principal.
• Bob focuses on making sure all students are doing their best, not just particular subgroups.
• What prepared Bob to be a principal: being a coach and a special education teacher.
• What barriers prevent a school from being ready for change.
• Three fundamentals that are needed to change:
  1. Why do we exist
  2. Describing a perfect school
  3. What are we going to do to make sure we get there!
• Conversations about structural change take time and informal and formal conversations with teachers, students, parents, and other stakeholders.
• All the voices have to be in the room!
• Establishment of norms are critical for the success of our school, and while we want to hear everyone’s concerns, we will move forward with the will of the group.
• The norms for Bob’s schools.
• The need for “critical friends”.
• How he deals with the fact of hearing that he is doing something wrong.
• One of the best interview questions: “Anticipate a mistake you are going to make, and how you will resolve that!”

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