After six months of planning, the School of Education yesterday opened a center designed to provide a variety of resources for elementary and secondary school principals in the Greater Boston area.

The center is "not a grand plan by Harvard to change principals in some way." Roland S. Barth, senior lecturer at the Education School and director of the Principal's Center said yesterday. Instead, he said, the center is a place where principals will meet colleagues and exchange "effective school practices" with "Harvard faculty, students, and other educators."

Although Barth said he expects "about 100" area educators to participate in the center's programs this year, several principals at the reception yesterday said the $100 membership fee might discourage them from joining. Barth said the fee was necessary to supplement the center's $90,000 first-year budget, which pays for the services of a small staff of researchers, the maintenance of a resource library, and honoraria for seminar leaders.

Located in Gutman Library, the center will offer monthly workshops and seminars, focusing on the theme, "Leadership at a time of declining resources." The center also will coordinate group discussion meetings, and provide funding and students to assist principals in preparing manuscripts for educational journals.

"I think it's a marvelous idea," Dr. Joseph Curry, headmaster of the Cushing Academy in Ashland, said, adding that he believes the center can help educators discover "what makes certain schools effective."

Judith Sandlar, a planner for the Educational Collaborative for Greater Boston and a member of the program advisory board which directs the center's activities, said the center will serve as a "morale boosting program" for principals.