Servant leadership is a central focus of organizations in and outside of public education. This leadership philosophy is centered on the idea that a leader serves his or her stakeholders. While service in leadership is not a new phenomenon, it has gained acceptance in many areas of research and practice within public schools as a measure of both service to others and a plan of school improvement and cultivating a positive school climate. However, as this research illuminates, servant leadership in public schools can be affected by the daily activities of managerial duties, such as working with student discipline needs. The research has two sets of data, one from interviews conducted by the researcher with current principals in a rural, Midwestern, United States town, and one from a survey sent across the Midwestern state where the research was conducted to current K-12 building principals. Through the survey and interview process, data was collected and presented in this research project. The information from these two data sources, as well as current literature on servant leadership in schools, was reviewed for common themes and to begin the process of determining possible implications from the data and recommendations for future research and changes to practices in public schools. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]