A Day in the Life of the School Principal

Being a school principal is a twenty-four hour job because the school is constantly in your thoughts. It has to be because, as the leader, you are responsible for faculty, staff and most importantly, the students. In many ways you are always “on the job” even when you are not in school. You must make every effort to delineate work from home.

Ms. Carmelita "Melit" A. Gustilo is the school principal of St. Francis of Assisi School of Silay City.

Ms. Melit (as everybody calls her) starts her day by waking up at 4:30 in the morning, take a brisk, quick shower, fuels herself with a cup coffee, leaves the house before 6 A.M. and makes sure that no matter what happens, she’ll have a nice day. Usually arrives in school around 6:15 A.M., she would go into her office to get settled before the day begins, check email from the administrator and makes sure that all class would run smoothly throughout the day, goes home around 5:30 P.M. and gets some rest to gear up for the  following day.

“The simplicity of our lifestyle hooked me here in SFAS” shared Ms. Melit. Serving the school for 35 years and still counting, despite the offers to work in other schools, both private and public, she never had a doubt to leave St. Francis. "Teaching here makes a big difference because it’s an hacienda school. I am serving the poor children and I believe they deserve quality education, too.”

Every day is different for a principal, but what is the same is that you are the leader of that institution and everyone looks up to you for everything. It is an exciting, rewarding, and exhausting job, but it is one that most principals love doing because there is no other job quite like it.