This sllldy looks at the managerial practice of school principals' in secondGlY school ofrnAwassa Town. The study pictures the practice and the difficulties faced by schoolrnprincipals based on the perception of teachers, students, educational officers. In trying tornunderstand the practice of the principal this study uses managerial functions (planning,rnorganizing, directing and controlling) as a ground base criteria with their qualification,rnexperience, and skills. The study uses survey as the methodology for investigating thernprincipals' managerial practices. The study employs open and close ended questionnairernand document analysis to collect data. The questiol1lzaires were tested using percentagernand t-test. The data gathered ji'Oll1 the respondents helped to measure the practice of highrnschool principals in the area. The finding of the study revealed that: first, aggregatelyrngovernment and mission school teachers were rated moderately and above moderately onrn27 out of 40 managerial practices. Second, as a comparative analysis the study has alsornfound that government school teachers rated their principals below the average on 18 outrnof 40 managerial practices. In contrGlY, mission school teachers rated their principalsrnfairly a bove the average and high in all managerial practices. Third, government andrnmission school teachers rated principals high particularly on controlling thal1 the otherrnmanagerial practices. On top of that, the study has also found that educational officersrnrated principals fairly above the average in all aspects of managerial functions.rnAdditionally students rated principals moderately and below moderately on 14 out of 16rnmanagerial practices. However, as a comparative analysis, government school studentsrnrated principals below the average on 12 out of 16 managerial functions. The study hasrnalso shown that principals seen budget deficit as prime disadvantages to pelform theirrnmanagerial practices successfully and to turn poor situation in school beyondrnexpectation. Finally, the selection and placement process of school principals was foundrnto be blurred. However, in reality teachers and parents were not involved actively in thernselection process. Rather totally the process is carried out at education office only.rn;/ccordillgly, the majority teachers' perceived the current placement of school principalsrnas political appointment.