Leicha San Miguel

The Principal Story on North Carolina Now highlights the leadership of three North Carolina public school principals and their execution of the seven principals of executive school leadership developed by the Wallace Foundation. In part three of the series, Heather Burgiss takes us to Morganton to meet Leicha San Miguel, a school leader who transformed a struggling Title 1 school into a high achieving model of success.

Morganton, NC

The brightly painted walls of Hillcrest Elementary School seem to match the shining smiles on the students walking to class, but it is also a sharp contrast to the dull pains of poverty many of the children are faced with on a daily basis.

Parents remember the school before the leadership of Principal Leicha San Miguel. Jevon Morris has two children at Hillcrest and is President of the Hillcrest PTO. He says four years ago the school was faltering and now thrives.

“This school, I couldn’t imagine it being the same without Mrs. San Miguel.
In the face of adversity, she was able to take an under performing school and turn it into what it is today and that is truly amazing. We have high test scores, and you can look at the way the kids behave well, this is a school that we need all across America.”

Leicha San Miguel’s twenty four-year journey as an educator began first as a classroom teacher, and then ten of those years as a school leader.

“As the school leader one of the biggest things we are is the instructional leader and the word principal means first teacher, so I think that the best thing we can do everyday is to know every aspect of our school,” San Miguel said.

As a classroom teacher San Miguel saw a way to make a difference on a bigger scale as a principal.

“I really believe that the biggest way to impact a child’s learning is to have a larger stake. Looking at the big picture I knew that the children in my care would be successful, but I knew someday if I could be the principal I could look at the whole continuum of what we do in schools and that is what I did.”

Leicha San Miguel has served her past four years at Hillcrest Elementary in Morganton’s Burke County School District in Western North Carolina.

San Miguel believes Hillcrest Elementary is a shining light in this community where a nearby housing development supplies much of the student body. She says most of the children come eagerly, but many weary from harsh realities of life.

“Our school is a very fragile school, precious children, precious staff, but the reality is in this district there is a concentration of need. We have a very high migrant population several of our children are first generation citizens.
At this moment we are about 70-80 percent second language learners and those children are capable and very bright, and smart, but their experiences are very limited.”

San Miguel says even with these language barriers the children succeed.
“The children here are to be commended because they are coming to school on a very uneven playing field, yet they are achieving right up there with the children of this county and really in this state.”

In education much has been written about the achievement gap that separates low income students and minority from other students, but at Hillcrest Elementary students are high achieving and many point to their principal’s leadership that influences that instructional result.

Adriana Morris serves as a family mentor and interpreter for the Latino families at Hillcrest.
“She expects the best of these children, she expects them to learn to read and write. She doesn’t accept that because they were not born here and English is not their native language that they can’t do that, she expects them all to succeed.”
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San Miguel also succeeds everyday in applying seven new standards of leadership principals across North Carolina are now using to evaluate their job performance.

With strategic leadership this principal affects her Instructional, Cultural, Human Resource and Managerial Leadership at the school.

San Miguel says one of her strategy is to get teachers out of comfort zones and into new professional learning experiences. She commonly will call a “reset” year for a teacher and move them to serve in another grade.
“I think in the same way that principals are sometimes moved to serve at different schools, we need to do that with teachers too.”

With community outreach San Miguel shows great talent with External Development Leadership. Her partnerships with community organizations and relationships with parents succeed under her leadership.

By weighing decisions and responding openly to issues that pull at a school’s resources and time, San Miguel also excels at Micro-political Leadership.

“The bottom line is the success of the school or the failure of the school lies on the principal’s shoulders, decision are so far reaching and we have to weigh out the checks and balances before we do things.” says San Miguel.

Principal San Miguel knows those decisions can have a lasting impact.

“If we can change one child’s life here, we can touch that future that we are not going to see. I don’t mean to suggest that we can fix every child, but we can give it our very best shot.”

Leicha San Miguel Bio:

Leicha San Miguel began her career in education 23 years ago as a sixth grade teacher. Her wealth of knowledge in the classroom shines through as Principal of Hillcrest Elementary School in Morganton, NC, a position San Miguel has held since July 2005. In her tenure at this Title 1 school, achievement has flourished and school culture and morale are thriving under her leadership. Over the past 10 years she has served as both Principal and Assistant Principal for the Burke County School District in Morganton, NC.

Principal:
Hillcrest Elementary School
Morganton, NC

• Conduct all formal observations using TPAI-R, Formative/Summative Data
• Create and annually update all system and State plans (ie: Title I, Safe Schools, Supplemental Funding, etc.)
• Conduct Individual Growth Plan meetings with all teachers
• Assist Initially Licensed Teachers to help improve their teaching and behavior-management strategies
  Organize the Kindergarten screening process, the Building Assistance Team process, and Exceptional
• Children’s Referrals
• Deal with discipline and bus referrals
• Direct the Science Fair Competition, Math Counts, Spelling Bee,Speech Contest, and all other extracurricular activities
• Annually make student and teacher placements
• Create weekly school-wide parent newsletters
• Conduct daily walk-throughs of the building
• Conduct interviews for all certified/classified vacancies
• Create school-wide schedules that prioritize literacy and math
• Conduct all responsibilities and activities to offer a safe, positive climate conducive to teaching and learning
• Coordinated the Hillcrest nomination/application for the North Carolina Reading Association’s Exemplary Reading Award
  
  Professional Memberships and Honors:
  
  Burke County Principals’ Association
  Burke County Public Schools, Principal of the Year, October 2006

Hillcrest Elementary School, Morganton, NC

Hillcrest Elementary School

Hillcrest Elementary School is located in Burke County, North Carolina. It serves kindergarten through fifth grade. The school population of 197 is 70% - 80% second language learners. According to Hillcrest's June 2009 principal monthly report, 52 percent of students were Hispanic, 28 percent white and 14 percent black. 99% of the students receive free or reduced lunch.

Students’ composite scores increased this year. Eighty percent of students made growth in 2008-09. A major part of the school’s success has been the involvement of the community.

Additional Distinctions

Project Boost – Project Boost provides after-school tutoring. After-school tutoring programs are organized to help students improve their academic skills. Studies have shown that these programs have a positive effect on the overall development of the students. The after-school tutoring programs not only assist the students, but also the parents and the whole community.

Family Mentor – The Family Mentor serves as a liaison between the
community and school through: multiple home visits, bilingual (Spanish)
services, parenting classes, and a variety of other assistance. This role is a
key component in making sure that all parents are actively involved in
their child's school life.

Multicultural Festival – The school provides an opportunity to celebrate the richness of its diversity through music, games, and food from around the world.