Lead with Love: Why the Principal of the Year Reads His Mistakes to His Staff

Can you lead with love and be a successful principal? Jason Johnson, principal of Orange High School in Hillsborough, North Carolina, shows us that you can. I found some of the things he does shocking (but refreshing, actually).

Jason is the 2026 US National High School Principal of the Year. So, what does he do that is shocking?

• He once read all the mistakes he made one year at the last faculty meeting of the year.
• He tells brand-new teachers to make mistakes (and how he works with them).
• If kids want to drop an AP course, he wants them to talk to him personally.

In his 29 years in public education, most of them in Orange County Schools, he has built a school where the state performance grade climbed from a C to a B, and proficiency rose for every student group.

Jason also shares the one thing his principal said to him when he was a teacher that caused him to immediately go get an application for grad school to seek to be a principal. He also shares his ideas for giving effective feedback to teachers and tips for relating to students and teachers.

Even if you're a teacher, things he says in this show (like about math class) will be things you can use as you speak to students and colleagues.

What you'll learn:

• Why every faculty meeting at Orange High starts with two claps
• What his own teachers call him out for
• What he wishes he'd known in his first principals' meetings
• The 30-minute intervention block built on essential standards
• Why he thinks kids who hate math are really afraid of mistakes

Full show notes, transcript, and resources: https://www.coolcatteacher.com/e1021