Collective voice of Principals and Administrators want a voice in policymaking

Troy LaRaviere is the President of the Chicago Principals and Administrators Association. He has served in this role since 2016. PHOTO PROVIDED BY TROY LARAVIERE.
Troy LaRaviere is the President of the Chicago Principals and Administrators Association. He has served in this role since 2016. PHOTO PROVIDED BY TROY LARAVIERE.

 

Collective voice of Principals and Administrators want a voice in policymaking

By Tia Carol Jones

The Chicago Principals and Administrators Association has served as the collective voice for Principals and Administrators in the city of Chicago.

The central organizing force behind the CPAA is to ensure the policies and resources that impact schools actually impact the school communities in a positive way so that the students can become the best they can possibly be.

Throughout the years, the Chicago Principals and Administrators Association has been in many different iterations.

Troy LaRaviere has been the President of the Chicago Principals and Administrators Association since 2016. He said that while in those years, the issues facing principals and administrators has not changed, the understanding of those issues has changed.

“It is our understanding of the root cause that connects so many issues that we often thought were separate,” LaRaviere said.

Principals are also dealing with circumstances that do not have anything to do with educating. Oftentimes, they have to deal with violence, truancy, literacy, before they can even do the work of a principal. Those environments can impact what happens at the schools.

“I’m responsible for taking what you give me and ensuring that it grows. But, don’t tell me I’m responsible for closing the gap,” he said, adding that he wants to see a city that provides resources for all it’s students so they can grow at the same pace.

He believes that principals and administrators know how policies that are made on the board and district level will affect the children in the schools.

“If we’re the ones implementing the policies, and we’ve been implementing the policies for decades, when they come down with these policies, we look at it and we know exactly the positives, the negatives and the challenges,” LaRaviere said.

 LaRaviere wants to see more input from principals and administrators when it comes to school boards and districts creating policies that affect them and the schools they serve.

LaRaviere wants the voice of the people who are actually tasked with implementing the policies to be at the table when the policies are being made.   To ensure the policies that are made actually have positive and beneficial impacts on the school communities those policies are meant to impact.

“The mission is to ensure these young people who are under our care are able to get the experiences that bring out the best of what’s in them,” he said.

 LaRaviere believes it is the role of the CPAA to articulate the obstacles and remove those obstacles that might stop principals and administrators from doing their job properly, from policies and procedures to the lack of resources within schools.

LaRaviere also engages with parents to find out what resources are necessary for students to reach their full potential. Because CPAA knows the innerworkings of the school system, they are able to advocate on the behalf of parents to get those resources. He believes that alliance building is essential in working to create policies for the students in the district. That alliance building requires bringing people with different perspectives and strengths together to influence decision makers.

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