On May 13, 2014, Grady Principal, Kristine Dosal, was awarded the Hillsborough County PTA Elementary School Principal of the Year Award for 2013-2014. In addition to having our school win the Principal of the Year Award, Grady Elementary PTA won the following awards: Volunteer Hours Award, Grandparent Gold Membership Award, Golden Participation Award and Golden Early Bird Award.
Congratulations to Mrs. Dosal, the 2013-2014 Hillsborough County PTA Elementary School Principal of the Year. If you would like to read Grady Elementary PTA's description of why Mrs. Dosal deserves the award, it is below.
WHY PRINCIPAL KRISTINE DOSAL OF GRADY ELEMENTARY SHOULD WIN THE LOCAL UNIT PRINCIPAL OF THE YEAR AWARD
The Principal at my school is a driven achiever. She was a long-time teacher and assistant principal before assuming control of the school 4years ago. She and her children attended the school. In addition to her personal investment, in terms of the years of her life spent at the school, she has an overarching commitment to continuous improvement at the school.
The Principal spends nights and weekends at the school doing landscaping and other beautification projects. She has spent significant sums of her own money on plants and landscaping materials. We often see her, and occasionally a member of staff or other volunteers out on weekends trimming up the landscaping. She cares greatly about the appearance of the school because she thinks that a beautiful school will attract parents and make them more interested in having their children attend the school. She understands that the outside of the school has a great impact on each person’s experience at the school.
She has made safety and security a priority and has worked with our PTA to help replace the rusting chain link fence around the perimeter of the school with a wrought iron-style fence with spire-shaped tips at the top of each fence post. She listened to teachers who asked for the spire-tipped fence and who asked for keypad entry boxes to help control who enters and leaves school grounds. She is putting all of these ideas into action in conjunction with our PTA.
She, with the financial assistance of our PTA, extended and improved the afterschool tutoring program at the school. She strongly encourages the teachers join the PTA, but also ensures that the teachers have equal access to PTA mini-grants so that educational enhancements such as author visits, books and special projects are funded by the PTA. She ensures that special projects including for the school’s ESE/ASD population are brought to the PTA for funding. She helps us ensure that the PTA serves the entire school population. She tirelessly promotes PTA membership and events. Her leadership sets a true example of how the collaboration between parents, administration and teachers leads to greater success for a school.
She is an advocate of big ideas, but is full of love for people. She, the assistant principal and the staff know the name of every student. She greets students by name each day. She even knows the cars that parents drive so that she can help the carline move more quickly. She has financially sponsored the PTA by donating $150 of her own money to sponsor our major fundraiser, a walk-a-thon. Rather than put her own name on the sponsorship, she put the sponsorship in the name of the Grady Family. The staff loved seeing The Grady Family on the t-shirts and sponsored items and it reinforced that the school is another form of family.
The tremendous investment that the Principal has made in our school is paying off. Our school is riding high, reputation-wise, and it looks like that trend will only continue. Recent reviews on a school ratings website showed that our school has elevated its reputation substantially based upon our Principal’s improvements. Just in this year, a parent said in an online rating that the "principal is outstanding, approachable, extremely hard-working, and displays tremendous leadership." Another parent said "the Principal is fabulous, she pours her heart and soul into the school." Another parent said "the Principal is serious about quality at every level." The reviews have also praised our PTA for working well with her. These reviews let us know that is it not just PTA board members who think that she an organized, inclusive, high-achieving leader – her leadership has been noticed and appreciated by a substantial number of people at the school.