Dozens of Harford County school administrators will be ready for retirement in the next few years, leaving the system scrambling for ways to replace them.
At least 11 middle- and high-school principals and 11 more assistant principals will be entering the “retirement zone” ? about 30 years or more of experience ? within the next three to five years, said Superintendent Jacqueline Haas. About 20 more principals and assistant principals will reach the same level in the county?s elementary schools.
“It?s like a ?bubble? of people all of the same age, reaching either 30 years of service or 60 years old,” said schools spokesman Don Morrison. “There?s a big bubble that?s going to go soon.”
The sudden surge in retirement-ready officials is due to a school recruitment boom in the 1970s, Haas said, when Harford underwent a period of economic growth and expansion at Aberdeen Proving Ground ? not unlike the growth expected in the next few years as a result of BRAC changes at the base.
Haas emphasized the need for more leadership training and succession planning in her “State of the System” address to the Board of Education Monday night. As temporary solutions, she pointed to programs that let teachers do “job sampling” by shadowing administrators and the county?s Leadership Academy program that puts administrative candidates through two weeks of training in management, budgeting, procedure and policies.
An employee must have a special administrator and supervisor certification to fill those posts, Morrison said, but those who earn the certificates don?t always become principals and assistant principals. Some take on supervisory roles as “instructional facilitators” to work directly with teachers andstudents, he said.
Another source of future leaders may be an increased pool of administrative candidates ? employees who earn their certification but have no administrative posts to fill, Morrison said. Teachers in the pool continue at their regular jobs until a job opens and they can move up.
