Greetings, I'm glad you're here. I'm gonna be spending a few moments on going over Opening A School With The Principal, I encourage you to read pages 60 through 80 in the playbook for more effective strategies and always remember principals are very busy so that makes it a challenge for you to meet with the principal and that is really the only person you want to meet with. You'll meet all kinds of CPS staff such as custodial maintenance, uh, the clerk. So you want to be friendly and try to make some friends. I'm gonna be focusing on pages 67 through 69 in the playbook and to start off with, I want to go over the two items you need with you in addition to your badge. First it is the school opening binder on the first page, the cover pages, the Chicago Teachers Union letter, um, endorsing us as their provider of voluntary benefits. Inside there are pictures of previous events, principal report cards and testimonials. The second item you need is a leave behind a packet in, there's a setup form, the school pledge, group enrollment planet brochures and the QR Code QR Code QR Code Please make note that the set-up form needs to be filled out and removed before leaving it with the principal. Now the best time to meet with a principal is either early morning before school, mid morning, mid afternoon or even 20 to 30 minutes after dismissal and a good way to know if the principal is in the building is, if there was a car parked in the designated principal spot, Never try to see a principal when near the time students are arriving or being dismissed. So first off time is critical if the principal is not available and if the principal is available both times you want to sound and act like you have an appointment so you'll probably be meeting with the clerk and again sound and act like you have an appointment. Your goal is to meet with the principal so it might sound something like this. Hello I'm here to see Principal Dr. Jones and they may say is the principal expecting you and you say she should be, I'm back out for our annual service call. Well she know what this is in reference to. We are the Chicago, Teachers Union endorsed benefit plan provider and show that letter on the first page to show them that this will only take a couple of minutes and we're gonna coordinate an appreciation day for both teachers and staff. Well the principal is not here. Can you leave a card? Oh no worries I'll come back. When do you expect her to return and you would leave it at that. So some tips on when the principal is not available is do not leave a card. Do not leave the folder, explain very little exit quickly. Thank them for their time and do not linger now on the other side of the coin this is what you want is when the principal is available. You want to show the front cover of the CTU the CTU the CTU Letter um and get to the point quickly because again the principles do not have much time and always seek to set up a faculty meeting or professional development. Always called the principal doctor. Now they may not be a doctor but you know google is not always correct and if not a doctor make light of it. So for example it may sound something like this. Hello Dr Jones. Oh you're not a doctor, oh you look like a doctor. Well Mr Jones um I just wanted to stop by and let you know we are the endorsed provider for the Chicago Teachers Union and if there's time to chit chat briefly, if the principal does not indicate he is short on time you kind of wanna chit chat. How long have they been there or they from Chicago those kind of things. So you want to go on and say well Mr Jones, we other endorsed providers of the Chicago Teachers Union for the group, voluntary benefit plan. Great news. Mr Jones say it with enthusiasm. We are providing a lunch or breakfast for all of your teachers and staff. Would your teacher and staff prefer breakfast or lunch during the professional development day meeting. The only thing we ask is you allow us to make five minute announcement at the beginning of your meeting. Now a tip here is letting the principal, know the announcement is brief and it's more to talk about the appreciation, how we're providing lunch and breakfast. We're providing prizes for all to be put in the drawing for all teachers and staff such as a $25 gas card or $25 movie card or for cash. So let's say the principal says well breakfast would be nice then you would say well what time are you having the meeting and what days it on and then ask instead of taking the principal's time ask who would you like me to coordinate the details with? And it's usually the clerk and then you may go on to say also Mr. Jones we'll also be donating school um money to your class for classroom materials through donors choose. I'm gonna leave this folder behind for you. It explains a little bit about us and what we offer and then go on to meet with the clerk and fill out the setup form with the clerk now on the setup form that you pull it out of the leave behind packet and I circle the items that you definitely need to fill in to avoid having to go back and ask these questions. Staff size, how many teachers and staff will will I need to be prepared to serve? You want to write down their name, their email and their contact number, the date of the event and the time and please note here if it's a professional development day or you're going to be making an announcement at the meeting, ask what time they would like you to come to make your brief five minute announcement. This is very important. For example, I set up a school where I came in and gave the announcement at 7:45 AM And then they wanted me to have lunch ready to be served at 11.30. So that's always a very critical point to clarify and then ask where the setup location is and asked to see it. So you know how to prepare accordingly. So then after you get all of that information, you're gonna start planning, you're gonna send the email to your contact person to confirm the lunch or breakfast, ensure that the school's name is in Benselect, you're gonna make sure you have enough lead cards, order and purchase Food, get balloons flyers, um have them printed and then you bring them to the school and you yourself put them in the teacher's box, select a theme and on page 105 in the playbook is a complete checklist. So just to recap in some tips again, best time to see principal is early morning before school, mid morning, mid afternoon, 20 to 30 minutes after dismissal and go into details only with the principal. And when going into the school asking to meet with the principal sound and act like you already have an appointment, have enthusiasm, Get to the point quickly and get a date and time the first time. So don't just dream it, be it because remember anything is possible.
