School leaders must be prepared for the upcoming school year before it even begins, which means creating and reviewing numerous documents in advance. These documents are critical for ensuring that schools have the resources to provide high-quality education to all students.
Remember
This is not a complete list but should be an excellent start for you and your leadership team to get going.
It is an outstanding guide for new principals or people wanting to become principals. We suggest you download, print, or bookmark it!
Although the summer is a great time to prepare for the upcoming school year, we suggest you take time during the last week of school to go through this list. Then you can feel confident when you come back from break.
40-Critical-Documents-for-Effective-School-Year-Planning-For-Principals-New-Principals-and-School-LeadersDownload
40 Important Documents for School Leaders
- Budget
- Master Schedule
- Bell Schedule
- Discipline Policy
- IEP Compliance tracker
- Emergency Evacuation and School Safety Plan
- Fire drill plans and schedule (and all others required by the district e.g. tornado, earthquake, active shooter)
- Schoolwide intervention plan
- Testing Schedule
- Coaching and Supervision schedule
- PD plan
- School site council plan
- School Improvement plan from the previous year
- SST Plan
- Schoolwide rules
- Behavior intervention
- After-school plan/structure
- Staff handbook/student handbook
- HR Policies
- Back-to-school letters and event planning (student and parent orientation, etc.)
- Hall movement
- Room assignments
- Supply replenishment
- Student and staff logins
- Lunch duty schedule
- Book room inventory
- Class lists
- Formal and informal observation schedules
- Inventory of curriculum guides
- Template for newsletter/announcements
- SEL plan
- Dismissal management (stations, assignments, pick-up/drop-off protocols, etc.)
- New teacher onboarding
- Plan and schedule leadership meetings
- Committees: establishment, meeting schedules, structure, and budgets
- Tech Management (updates, repairs, etc.)
- Professional Learning Communities schedule by content areas, data analysis plans/ review, and schedule
- All staff forms (trips, supply requests, etc.)
- School Calendar – (Consider creating a school calendar committee that can be responsible for creating a yearly calendar that includes all the annual events for the school.)
- Vaccination and physical alerts
