Telling Someone They Are Being Fired

I am a Principal of a school here in North Texas. There are a million things I love about my job. I love working with kids. Yes even though I am the principal I have been known to jump in there and sub from time to time. I do have tutoring groups that I keep up with and of course I try to get into the hallways and classrooms as often as I can. I have a WONDERFUL office staff that has taken me 3 years to assemble but they make my life GREAT!! It has taken me 3 years but we have finally established a great culture in our building and the teachers have a lot of buy in into what we are trying to accomplish.

There is one part of my job that I hate. That part is telling someone that they are not going to be coming back. This is something that I have had to do each year. I have been in administration for 5 years now. There have been 4 people that I have had to say..."its not in the best intrest to continue this relationship." Now the responses I have gotten have been varied. It has ranged from acceptance....because they knew it was coming....to last year having someone file a grievance on me. The thing that is hard is that in each case personally I really like the person. These are good people. They just are not doing what they are supposed to be doing for a living or their style is not what I am looking for in a classroom teacher. When making these decisions I always ask myself....IS THIS WHAT IS BEST FOR KIDS?? Now don't get me wrong I don't just get rid of someone because they suck. If someone is not reaching their potential I will grow that teacher into a great teacher. That is one of the reasons I got my job. But if that person fights everything I tell them to do or does not do what I tell them to do or in some cases is negligent (SP?) in there job I have to say....its not in the best interest to continue this relationship. I have to have this converstation with two people tomorrow. They both know it is coming but it does not make it any easier. You are still dealing with people's livelyhoods. On the other hand if I don't do something it would be MY livelyhood and the kids that would suffer.

Do you have to make these calls in your job? What do you do?