Today schools go through a period of continuous reforms affecting management and pedagogical practices. In this context, the perception of change by school principals as key agents of educational policy is particularly significant. Researchers consider school principal leadership as a multidimensional phenomenon combining strategic thinking, pedagogical focus, social sensitivity, and a willingness to engage in collective reflection. Research on managerial leadership shows that principal's effectiveness is determined by a combination of professional competencies and institutional context. The authors aimed at identifying types of managerial perception of reforms in education and factors influencing differences in principals' assessments (N = 183 of Saint Petersburg school principals). The methodological basis of the study is the theory of resource conditions and managerial constraints, and approaches to educational policy sensemaking and enactment at the school level. Data analysis allowed to identify two typological groups of principals: "optimists" (48 %) and "skeptics" (52 %), who differ in their models of interpreting the reform agenda. Skeptics assess most changes in education as little or moderately significant, while optimists - as clearly significant. This perception of reforms is determined by the assessment of the principal's professional tasks: skeptics more critically assess all tasks, emphasizing resource constraints. The most significant differences are observed in the areas of management and evaluation, primarily in the "independent assessment of education quality": optimists see the greatest positive changes, while skeptics are more reserved. The study results show heterogeneity in managerial perception of reforms, pointing to two dominant managerial frames: "deficit-oriented management" and "development-oriented management".