Overview
Deans and school leaders (divisional heads, principals, assistant principals) often do very different work depending on the school. In some schools, the dean handles most day-to-day discipline and behavior while the divisional head focuses on bigger-picture academic and operational leadership. In others, those lines blur or reverse entirely. August gives you separate roles for Dean and School Leadership so each person's documentation stays scoped to the work they do.
This article walks through what each role is designed for, why we keep them separate, and why documenting consistently in August, no matter which role you hold, matters for spotting patterns and supporting students holistically.
Why does documenting in August matter?
When deans and school leaders log behavior incidents, support conversations, and interventions in one system, patterns become visible that would otherwise stay hidden in someone's email inbox or a private notebook.
Spot patterns early: a student who has three "small" incidents with three different staff members is easy to miss until it's all in one place
Coordinate instead of duplicate: a divisional head can see what a dean already addressed, and vice versa, instead of re-litigating the same conversation
Build a full picture over time: behavior management works best when it's holistic, not reactive to whatever happened most recently
Support transitions: when a student moves between grade levels or divisions, the next adult in the room isn't starting from zero
Be ready when a parent calls: when a family reaches out with questions or concerns, you can pull up exactly what support has already been given, instead of piecing it together from memory
Consistent documentation is what turns individual incidents into a picture you can actually act on, and it means your school always has a clear, accurate record to stand on.
Why separate the Dean and School Leadership roles?
Because deans and divisional heads or principals don't do identical work, and their documentation should reflect that.
Cleaner reporting: when roles are distinct, it's easier to pull a report on "everything the dean's office handled" versus "everything a divisional head weighed in on"
Flexible by school: some schools have a dean who owns discipline outright; others split it across the leadership team. Separate roles let each school configure who does what without relearning the system
Clear accountability: everyone can see who's responsible for following up on a given incident, without ambiguity
The Dean role
The Dean role is built around day-to-day behavior management and discipline: the ongoing work of tracking incidents, following up with students and families, and managing consequences.
Typically used for:
Logging and tracking behavior incidents
Managing follow-ups and consequences
Communicating with families about discipline matters
Reviewing a student's behavior history across the year
The School Leadership role (Divisional Head, Principal)
The School Leadership role is built for a broader, higher-level view: patterns across a division or school, not just a single incident.
Typically used for:
Viewing trends and patterns across an entire division or school
Overseeing how deans and other staff are handling behavior management
Stepping into individual cases when needed, without owning day-to-day logging
Reporting up to heads of school or boards on behavior trends
Dean vs. School Leadership at a glance
| Dean | School Leadership (Divisional Head, Principal) |
Primary focus | Day-to-day incidents and discipline | Division- or school-wide patterns and oversight |
Typical documentation | Individual incident logs, follow-ups, family communication | Trend reports, cross-case visibility |
Best for schools where | One person owns discipline for a grade band or division | Leadership wants a bird's-eye view without owning daily logging |
Best Practices & Tips
Assign roles based on actual responsibility, not title alone. If your assistant principal handles daily discipline the way a dean would elsewhere, give them the Dean role.
Encourage documentation as it happens, not at the end of the week. Patterns are only visible if the data is there.
Revisit role assignments as your team changes. A new hire or a shift in responsibilities is a good moment to double check who has which role.