School leaders face many challenges in today's education environment. As educational leadership is just coming to grips with the accountability components of No Child Left Behind, our new administration promises to create even more requirements for public schools.

The school year has officially begun across Arizona and the rest of the country. Discussion topics have shifted from vacations and summer camp to homework, school leadership and new teachers. Parents (and most likely your school administrator) have suddenly found new enthusiasm for carefully comparing notes on everything from math curriculum to testing policies. Parents agonize at length about whether their child's teacher is the best match to the needs of their children. No detail regarding the school, teacher or curriculum is left unanalyzed.

I took my children to the first day of school yesterday morning. It was a new school for all of us and our proud and excited kindergartner’s first day of school ever. Despite having already met with the school administrator, I have to admit that I felt nervous as did my wife and second grader (the kindergartner was too excited to be nervous). We had moved to a new school and knew very little about what to expect. How did drop off occur? How did the little ones get, physically, to the classroom? Where we allowed to go with them? Where did the newly purchased supplies go?