Although, for educators, the 2022-23 school year is already half over. In some respects, we’ve seen a welcome return to “normal” – meaning pre-pandemic schedules, teaching, and learning. Slowly, educators and students are retreating back to their comfort zones. So even though businesses and, to some degree, government offices, still struggle with decisions around hybrid work, remote work, and returning to the office, K-12 education is back, and feels familiar again. There’s a lot we are eager to cast off from the past two years. But there’s also great comfort in being able to embrace the familiar again.

The principalship is already so demanding and complex that I can only imagine how much easier it is to focus on what truly matters — educating and supporting students — now that many distractions and unknowns are out of the way: The work can be the work again. That goes for us, too.