Team lead question - am I overreacting?

I saw someone else ask the same question (though with a different story) and wanted to ask strangers on the internet for their opinions. I feel utterly devastated by this, and I honestly don't know how to come back from it or rebuild a positive relationship with my principal.

In December of 2024, shortly prior to the retirement of the previous team lead, my principal called me and asked me to be the team lead. For the following semester, I filled my duties well and with pride. As is typical at my school, I expected to continue serving in the role for the new school year.

Recently, teachers reported for our first workday of the 2025-2026 school year. The related arts team decided to gather for an informal meet and greet, as we had several new team members. I had prepared a list of topics to address, but we were sitting around waiting for one person. The principal stepped in and began to talk. Near the beginning of the meeting, he announced that he “had asked Mrs. MadeUp Name to serve as team lead at the end of last school year” as she had so much experience with it in her previous post. Mrs. Name is a former core teacher who had just transferred to the related arts team.

I was devastated and in utter shock, as this had in no way been communicated with me. I continued to sit in the meeting for approximately 30 more minutes, well after the principal stepped out and as the team chatted, feeling completely blindsided.

A few hours later, when I mistakenly felt I had collected myself, I texted the principal and requested a meeting. We held the meeting in his office shortly after.

After he asked me what was up, I told him that I understood it was his building and all staffing decisions were entirely his, but that he absolutely did me wrong by blindsiding me in that meeting with the team lead announcement. Unfortunately, I do admit to have tears and being unable to look him in his face. 

He said he apologized “if there was no communication on that,” and said that it was nothing that I did or didn’t do, he just had always pegged Mrs. Name as team lead due to her experience with it and the fact that she has her students walk in lines. He said that he’d intended for her to be the related arts team lead all the way back in the winter of 2025, which would align with the time he asked me to do the job. There was never a statement on my position being an interim one.

I asked if he could tell me what qualities she possessed that I did not. He could not name any, and reiterated that I had done a good job and that he and I had worked well together.

He did continue to apologize for not communicating with me, and stated that if it was any consolation, nobody else knew other than himself and Mrs. Name (it was not).

I thanked him for his time and left.

Prior to this event, I genuinely felt that the principal and I had a working relationship built on trust and mutual respect. While I understood that he had a full building to run, with many considerations, and therefore not all decisions would be in my favor, I trusted him to keep my needs in mind and treat my program with respect.

Following this event, I feel like this trust is completely broken. I do believe that he did not make this change with any malice, and that he just simply forgot. However, I cannot comprehend why he would even have a mind to replace me if, as he stated, I did well in the position. Further, he made this change and never once considered my feelings on the matter or the need to communicate with me.

Rather than feeling like a trusted, respected person, I now feel disposable to the school.