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Background & objectives: The concept of the competence in schools as an educational organization is different from other organizations. Mental health is one of the components of leadership competence that helps to improve quality of services in different setting particularly in the educational organization. Despite importance of this competency, it has not been completely evaluated. Therefore, this study was conducted to identify the effective high schools competency components of having a mental health approach.
Methods: This study was conducted using sequential exploratory mixed method. The sampling framework of this study was the Ardabil’s public high school principals with work experience more than 5 years. Information was collected primarily by focus group and indepth interview. Later 178 subjects were interviewed using a 5_degree Likert questionnaire with 56 items.  Data were analysed using the SPSS-22 & Amos softwares.
Resultes: According to this study, there is four components, (knowledge, skills, attitude & mental health) for effective school leadership competencies. Mental health with six sub-components is the highest priority in terms of importance with 98.16% of respondents from focus groups. The fitting index of this component with the 30.44 indicates its suitability for fit.
Conclusion: In order to increase the productivity of work force, it is necessary to do some revision in schools to promote mental health. These changes are; facilating legal conditions for appropriate staffing in school, as a learning / teaching organization, revision of student selection criteria at "University of Farhangian" to select candidates who are likely to demonstrate higher quality in their future careers. Revision of Article 46 of the State Service Act, focusing on mental health, graduation and recruitment of an employee under the title of director and finally providing facilities to improve mental health of manpower in the school for better performance.