Is It Inappropriate to Call a Principal About a Job Interview After They’ve Emailed You?
Last month, I met Lila, a third grade teacher I’ve known since our student teaching days, at the corner coffee shop off Main Street. We grabbed our usual oat milk lattes and slid into the sticky wooden booth by the window, but half her blueberry scone sat untouched on her plate. She twisted her phone between her fingers, staring at a new email in her inbox: the principal at the neighborhood elementary school she’d applied to had just confirmed her first-round interview for the following Wednesday. Her question, the one that had her stomach twisted into knots, was simple: was it inappropriate to call to thank the principal, and ask one quick question about where to park for visitors, after he’d already reached out via email?
Lila’s been working at an overcrowded charter school for five years, and this open position is exactly what she’s been looking for: smaller class sizes, a dedicated art room, a neighborhood where half the kids walk to school. She didn’t want to do anything that would make her look pushy or unprofessional before she even walked in the door. I got it. I’d had the exact same internal debate three years ago, when I was job hunting after having my son. I got an email confirmation for an interview at the local middle school, and stayed up until 1 a.m. scrolling through teaching forums trying to find a straight answer, half convinced a wrong move would cost me the job.
A couple weeks after that coffee with Lila, I ended up at a family barbecue, and my cousin Jake—who’s been a K-8 principal for 12 years—was there, flipping burgers and swatting flies away from the potato salad bowl. I brought Lila’s question up to him, and he leaned against the grill, wiping his hands on his jeans, and said it’s one of the most common points of confusion for new candidates, because there’s no one-size-fits-all answer—it all depends on what you’re calling about, and when.
He told me two stories from last hiring season to make his point. First, a candidate got her email confirmation, and called 20 minutes later with three quick questions: what’s the expected dress code for interviews, do I need to bring hard copies of my sample lesson plans, and where do visitors park that isn’t reserved for staff. He was between classes, had five minutes before his next meeting, and answered all three in 90 seconds. That candidate ended up getting the job, and he didn’t think twice about the call. The second story: another candidate called the same day just to “express how excited I am about this role” and launched into an 11-minute monologue about his approach to classroom management, right as Jake was in the middle of a confidential meeting with a family. He had to step out, cut the candidate off, and reschedule, and that’s all he remembers about that candidate, even a year later.
That lines up with what I’ve seen subbing in 10 different local schools over the past few years. Most principals are juggling 10 urgent tasks before 9 a.m. every single day: a teacher called out sick, a kid got hurt on the playground, the boiler broke, a parent is upset about a homework policy. An unexpected unplanned call isn’t just a minor inconvenience—it can throw off an entire morning’s schedule.
The general rule I’ve landed on, from talking to principals and other teachers who’ve been through multiple hiring cycles, is pretty simple: if the principal has already reached out to you via email, email is almost always the safest first choice. If you just want to thank them and express excitement, send a one-sentence reply to their confirmation email: “Thank you so much for getting this scheduled— I’m really looking forward to meeting you next week. Let me know if you need anything from me ahead of time.” That takes 30 seconds to write, they can read it when they have a free minute, and it gets the point across without interrupting anything.
Calling is only appropriate in a handful of specific scenarios, all of which are pretty easy to spot. First, if you’ve already emailed a question 48 hours before your interview and haven’t gotten a response, and you can’t find the answer anywhere else (on the school website, the original job posting, or the district’s visitor page), calling the main office is fine. Most of the time, the secretary will answer your question in 30 seconds, no need to even pull the principal in. Second, if it’s less than 24 hours before your interview and something urgent comes up—like your kid got sent home from daycare sick and you need to reschedule—calling is way better than email, because the principal might not check their inbox in time to rearrange their schedule. Third, if the principal’s original email included their phone number and explicitly said to call with any questions, calling is totally fine—they invited it.
Lila ended up checking the city’s parking website, found the information about visitor spots for the school on her own, and sent that short, polite thank you email. Her interview went well, and she got invited back for a second round a week later. When she showed up for that second interview, she saw the principal was covering a second grade class because their teacher had called out sick that morning. She later told me she was really glad she didn’t call him at 8:30 a.m. like she’d almost done the day of her first interview—she would have interrupted him right in the middle of taking attendance.
Lila’s still waiting to hear back about a final offer, and she still checks her email three times before she drinks her first cup of coffee in the morning. Sometimes she texts me to ask if she should call to check in, and I just remind her of what Jake said: if the date they said they’d get back to you has passed, send a short follow-up email first. Only call if you don’t get a reply and you need an answer to decide on another job offer you’ve already gotten.
There’s no magic rule that works for every situation, but erring on the side of letting the principal respond on their own time, instead of demanding their attention right now, rarely goes wrong.
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