Clarification

Lectrice pointed out in these comments that I might have hurt my principal's feelings by telling her I thought she should stay later, if in fact some family or home crisis had been her reason for leaving. That's completely valid - but she's been leaving early most days for the past two years, and it has led to some conflict among our staff. Since we specifically committed as a staff to communicating clearly, honestly, and before things become emotional or personal, I felt comfortable bringing it up with her. Also, to my mind it would have to be a pretty extreme family emergency to justify leaving at the same time as the students on the first day of school! There are always situations that arise after school, but particularly in the beginning of the year. I know that most schools, and most organizations and businesses of any sort, are not run in the kind of way where teachers can be honest like this with their administrators, or employees with their employers. I feel lucky that although the conversation was very tense, we were able to have it.