Cool Coffee w/ Kansas Principals

Cool Coffee 5 - Mr. John Cannon - Ellsworth Jr/Sr High

Mr. John Cannon, principal of Ellsworth Jr/Sr High, talks about the school year that just started, some of his favorite quotes, and his new role as KPA's president. John provides insight on his time with the KPA, how it's been so valuable for him as a professional, and how it can be valuable for any school administrator in Kansas. Listen to this episode for further explanation of how you can invest in yourself through the KPA. 
Book: The Wisdom of the Bullfrog: Leadership Made Simple (But Not Easy) by Admiral William H. McRaven
Connect with today's guest: jcannon@usd327.org
Connect on X: @BearcatPrin
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The mission of the Kansas Principals Association, an organization committed to educational excellence and the lifelong success of all students, is to develop and support all principals through optimized learning, collaborative leadership, networking, and service.
Read more about the KPA HERE.
Transcript is not available for this episode.

Cool Coffee 4 w/ Mrs. Stacey Green - Stockton Grade School

35 year educator, Mrs. Stacey Green, talks about how excited she still is to be in education, some lessons and advice along the way, and the value of promoting gratitude amongst staff.
Reference book by Shelly Miller: Rhythms of Rest: Finding the Spirit of Sabbath in a Busy World
Adam Grant quote: 7/12/2022 X post
https://x.com/AdamMGrant/status/1546873796895723521
Connect with today's guest: sgreen@usd271.com 
Connect on X: @usd271sgs
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Contact the host: KPACoolCoffee@gmail.com
The mission of the Kansas Principals Association, an organization committed to educational excellence and the lifelong success of all students, is to develop and support all principals through optimized learning, collaborative leadership, networking, and service.
Read more about the KPA HERE.
 
Transcript is not available for this episode.

Cool Coffee 3 - Ms. Megan Hankins - Louisburg Middle School

Ms. Megan Hankins, principal of Louisburg Middle School in the Louisburg USD 416 school district, just completed her first year as principal. This was also her first "official" year as an administrator. Listen in as Ms. Hankins discusses how she prepared last year, what she'd do different, and how she plans to move forward in year 2 on the job.
00:00 Introduction and Background04:45 Taking on the Principal Role08:46 Preparing for the First Year12:46 Lessons Learned and Advice for New Administrators16:57 Balancing Work and Family Life19:40 Looking Ahead to Year Two23:17 Pride and Support in the Louisburg School District
Connect with today's guest: hankinsm@usd416.org
Connect on X: https://x.com/LouisburgMS416
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The mission of the Kansas Principals Association, an organization committed to educational excellence and the lifelong success of all students, is to develop and support all principals through optimized learning, collaborative leadership, networking, and service.
Read more about the KPA HERE.
FULL TRANSCRIPT
Rick Sola (00:04.152)Good morning, Megan, and thank you for joining us today.
Megan (00:09.194)good morning!
Rick Sola (00:11.502)Good to have you. I've got Megan Hankins here. She is principal of Lewisburg Middle School, USD 416, home of the Wildcats. And that just makes me so happy as a Wildcat graduate of K -State myself. And that I know we go way back and I know that you are a Jayhawk. And so that just makes me smile to know that. But Megan, I appreciate
Coming on here and looking forward to a good conversation because you just wrapped up your first year as a principal at the middle school there in Lewisburg and so much value I think could be shared here about your successes. As I say, the glows and the grows of the school year and what you've learned. But let me turn it over to you. Tell us about yourself. Introduce yourself, where you went to school, your background on
to the chair that you are currently sitting
Megan (01:11.617)Hi Rick, thanks for having me on today. I just wanted to address the Wildcat Jayhawk situation. I want to thank Chisholm Trail and the 23 years that it took me to get used to wearing a Wildcat slash Power Cat. Thankful for those 23 years that they were green. I am now at Lewisburg and we are purple, so I've had to stomach the purple Wildcat, but I'm 100 % proud to wear it every day. But yeah, so thank you for...
for getting me used to that wildcat. Yeah, I, you know, born and raised in Olathe, I went through my career there as a student and off to KU I went for undergrad and master's degree and to Baker for doctoral classes, which I'm finishing up a dissertation through Baker.
right now and be done with that in April. So that's kind of my history as far as schooling goes. And then I started my first year as a PE teacher in Gardner at Nike Middle and really enjoyed that school district and came back to my roots in Olathe and hired on at Chisholm Trail in 2000 and had 23 amazing years there, a few of which we were
peers and of course we worked together as you were there as a first year teacher and I got to boss you around a little bit so that was very enjoyable and moving forward you came back to boss me around a little bit so and then on to Lewisburg and the 22 -23 -24 school year as a principal and getting ready to start back on Monday for my second year so that's a little bit about my career and
Rick Sola (02:43.778)Yes.
Megan (03:03.551)And how I got there, started in the teaching process and kind of decided I need a little bit more and went and got an Ashley board certified and that filled up my bucket a little bit and decided I needed to go back again to get my doctorate in administrative leadership and sat on that for little bit, tried to raise a few kids here and there and then decided it was time to make the leap and with a lot of support, that's kind of how I landed in Lewisburg.
Rick Sola (03:31.884)Yeah, that's awesome. I just wrote down to myself, stay professional. You and I go so far back that there's just things I want to say that, you know, we've got a professional podcast going here. So no, actually, we do go way back and starting my career here. It's amazing the impressions that people make when it's your first year in teaching. And you and I did lunchroom supervision together along
the other PE department, the other ninth grade teachers at that time, because we were a junior high. But yeah, I got to know you that way. And then it's been awesome to come back. And you are now principal at Lewisburg. And it was really exciting, Juan, to see you go through that process and the interview. And truly, think Lewisburg hit a home run in hiring you, because it was kind of unorthodox in some ways, because you came from the classroom.
and you jumped straight to the principle that there was no AP in between there. talk about that a little bit, just kind of your feelings at that moment. Really, it was like this time last year that that all occurred.
Megan (04:45.939)Yeah, absolutely. I remember reaching out to a friend and some advice and I said, hey, there's a principal opening in Lewisburg. Surely there's going to be an assistant principal spot. The assistant's going to bump up and you think I should go for that assistant principal? And she's like, no, go for the principal. And so in that moment, are you sure I should do that? She said, yes, I think you should. And I did and went for it and just, you know, really appreciative of the opportunity
Dr. Bierman and Lewisburg community gave me to be the principal of the building. But at first, I feel like I questioned myself whether or not that jumping straight into that role was something that I could handle right away. being in this role now for the last year, I realized that a lot of what I was doing for 23 years and the mentorship that you and other principals gave me.
allowed me to, you know, for the most part, I feel, be very successful in the run as principals as far as, you know, what I did in the coaching world and the teaching world and, you know, building those relationships and forming a climate and a culture that everyone wanted to be a part of was something I didn't realize I was doing daily in
job as a teacher and it just filtered right over into the principal part. And as you know, making decisions is never very hard for me. And so I was able to then, know, tack on my strength of being a leader to make hard decisions and potentially get in situations that aren't always easy. I was to thrive in that based off of what I experienced at Chisholm as a teacher.
Rick Sola (06:36.558)Yeah, it was interesting for me thinking through the process because truly, as I thought about when you were going through this last year and this was becoming more and more of a possibility than a reality, it was like you've been an administrator for the last 23 years through your dance program. mean, people who are in this area know how robust of a program you ran, but there's so much management that goes into that, so much leadership. So, I mean, everything.
So much of what you deal with now as a principal, you've been getting trained on the last 20 some years as a dance head dance coach. You also referenced just like just like you said, going for that principalship. And I'm classroom teacher jumping straight there. And you can basically what I hear is like that imposter syndrome that I think I think we all feel if we're all honest with ourselves, I think we all probably.
at times feel that imposter syndrome of, man, am I the person for this job or is this, when you look around and see so much greatness? But the thing I thought when they made that decision was they absolutely made the right call with you as principal there at Lewisburg because I knew you were ready for it. In the hindsight, seeing you go straight
where you were here at Chisholm on up to the principalship at Lewisburg Middle School. It's been awesome. And I know you're killing it out there. So that's actually why I thought it would be so fun to have you here because you just finished your first year as a principal. And there's so many lessons in that first year. And so I'd love to just get your insight. I might do some some just quick Q &A, but I'd love to just hear your thoughts this time last year. So I say this time is July 19th right
You are already named principal and I know you are putting in the hours. For those who may be listening to this and they are in your shoes this time last year, getting ready for the upcoming school year, what was going on in your mind or what were some of the things that you were doing in late July to prepare yourself as a first time administrator?
Megan (08:46.675)You know, I got this job and I had a trip planned to Greece. So I had to do my best to enjoy myself in Greece because coming back I was going all in. you know, the first thing I knew my contract didn't start till mid July and I got back from Greece and it was just I kind of hit the ground running. But I had to tell myself one day at a time. So it was like I woke up and what I could accomplish in that day I had
make sure that I felt good about that. If I looked at the big picture
I think it would have been way too overwhelming. I just started basic and I thought, you know what, I need to sit down and have as many meetings with people that will allow me to meet with them. And I'm just so really appreciative that people came in when they weren't on contract and they weren't getting paid to come in. But I sat down with my custodian, I sat down with my secretaries, I sat down with PTO presidents, I sat down with other admin in the district and everyone was just so gracious and giving of their time.
But they just allowed me to just dabble in those conversations. And it was really crazy to see, would sit down with the PTO president and then we'd have great conversation. And that led me to having conversation with another person in the community and getting community sponsors. TJ Solander who works in insurance in Lewisburg was just so gracious to be a community sponsor. just one conversation led to the next opportunity.
which then I knew it was just really heading the right direction.
Rick Sola (10:20.654)That's awesome. Yeah, you said dabbling in conversation and I think that's a really good way to describe what's necessary. You're going into a new building, a new profession in many ways, in the field of education, but a whole new role, talking with so many people and all the while they're all trying to figure you out too. And what are you all about? the way you gathered information, is there anything like if you could tell yourself a year ago what you know now?
What would that be? What do you wish you knew then that you know
Megan (10:54.355)I think I was definitely focused on the job. I was definitely focused on trying to understand the community and what their strengths were and what they were needing. But I think that if I would have just told myself a year ago, be you, be who you are, continue to exemplify the work ethic and bring to the table everything of truly what my roots are.
then I might have gone in a little bit more with a little bit more faith and trust that everything was going to be okay versus worried about, know, not necessarily being judged, but not coming in as a without experience and maybe a little bit on the insecure side of wanting to do the job so well. But I really think if I would have just trusted my gut is who I am and what I was bringing to the table, I would
Maybe then I feel like I was authentic in my job, but it might have been come through a little bit more.
Rick Sola (11:59.31)I think that word authentic is so important in education, especially working with, well, working with people in general, but especially with kids, especially with middle school kids at authenticity, which you clearly have, but a really good word to describe that very beginning, those very beginning steps of, you cause you also, I think the balance as a new administrator is always, you want people to have confidence in you. So you want to have answers.
And sometimes the right answer is, know what, I need some time. I need to take a moment on this.
Rick Sola (12:36.96)Is there anything in the course of the school year that was a big surprise for you? Didn't expect
Megan (12:44.865)I don't think I expected, I know that my job and my passion is to be a support system for all the staff
you know, be their biggest cheerleader. I just, my biggest surprise is the amount of staff members that I felt like were cheerleaders for me in the job on a daily basis. it just, truly, I just appreciate knowing that they wanted me to succeed just as much as I wanted to succeed. And they were,
a cheerleader is like part of me wanna be like, no, no, no, that's my job. My job is to support you and cheer you on. Your job is not to do the same for me, but they came out of the woodworks and did that. That was definitely my most unanticipated surprise, I think.
Rick Sola (13:35.938)That's awesome. That's also humbling too, I'm sure. When your staff come out there for you. Talk about, you know, we have some overlap in administrators we've worked with, and I know you've got some really good advice you've gotten from some that we have shared probably a bunch since you started out in Lewisburg. But what would you say is the best advice? I'm going ask you two advice questions. The best advice that you've received as an administrator.
Megan (13:39.453)Very much so.
Rick Sola (14:05.334)And then what would you, what advice would you give for an administrator right now, especially one that might be starting their first job?
Megan (14:13.729)I have received so much advice over the years. feel like a lot of the advice that I feel like I've received has been in the actions of other principals that I've just watched and I've learned from. Some great advice is basically go in and learn the climate and the culture and don't try to change too much right away. Just get a feel for, you know, what your staff needs from you, what your students need from you, what the community needs from
learn it, digest it, and then maybe this year I get to go in and make some more changes with confidence and ones that I know that will be great for the building. You know, some advice I'd offer, you know, principals, you know, coming in. A lot of people say, hey, welcome to the dark side, but I truly...
You know, do not feel like I'm on the dark side. I do not feel like I'm alone. I do not feel. So I think the more that you embrace your, people that you work with, everyone, your kitchen staff, your custodians, your secretaries, your teachers, your paras, the more you embrace them and the more vulnerable you're willing to be to let them know truly who you are and what you want to do for your school. I think you will not be alone and nobody wants to be alone, right? And,
Nobody wants to be on an island. And I work in a smaller school where I just have one assistant principal and I don't, and there's not a lot of, most of the people I work with are my teaching staff. And so I've just, just be vulnerable. And your relationships will come and it won't be dark. Nobody wants to have it be dark.
Rick Sola (15:37.752)All right.
Rick Sola (16:01.102)It's good. if anyone's listening who's starting their first year, I think that's really good to remind yourself. It doesn't need to be dark and you've got a whole bunch of people around you that are there to support you. yeah, being vulnerable, I think it goes back to being authentic. we're not robots. We got to be measured and we need to make good decisions and things.
Certainly the input and the relationships that you build are so critical. You're very busy person and that's aside from the job that you hold. You've got three kids. You're involved in so many things and I know what kind of worker you are. You're the 110 percent, 100 percent of the time. And how do you balance all that? You've got two now going, you got two in college.
Is that right? And then one in high school, but one recent high school graduate. And so this past year, I know it's been super busy, but what do do to balance out and still be able to be
Megan (16:57.633)Two of them.
Megan (17:08.949)You know, first, I think all the things that I've gone through to get to this position, my own children have seen the rise and the falls and the struggles and wanting to pursue this position. And so they respect my wanting to work and to do right by everybody.
My number one thing to my staff and I stood up the very first day and I said who I am and what I represent and I represent family and I expect all of my staff members to put their family first and I have that conversation day in and day out. I live by that. I treat them that way and in turn they also treat me that way and I put as much effort and organize my schedule so
Everything that I need to be at and that I want to be at, I can give 100 % to. And then things that I know that I need to be out for my own kids, I do have to trust other people in my building. My assistant principal to help me out, he's got kids as well. And so we just do a really great job of saying,
You go be with your family, you go to your kids games and I'll cover these events or I'll be here supporting our community and he does the same for me. And so I think it's great having that relationship with him, but family first and I'm a mom and I love watching my kids grow and yeah, Rosie was in her senior year
I really don't think I missed anything her senior year, but I also feel like I didn't miss anything in my building. So just that organization piece and just letting everyone know where you stand and I support you and your family and I do that when they need me to support them and they support me. So I think that's very important.
Rick Sola (19:05.026)What a great message for your staff to hear and then a positive example on the flip side of it, just that you live your words to because it's really it's really easy to not live that advice. And it's really hard sometimes to step away from from your job because you feel that ownership. And so now I'm sure your staff loved love to hear that. Your.
on the cusp of starting year two as principal Hankins. What's on your mind right
Megan (19:40.053)I feel like last year was a year of grace and everyone gave me grace. feel like Dr. Beerman gave me a lot of grace, my staff, the parents, the students, everyone did. And I just, know more.
And I have to do better and I have to keep what was good, good. And I have to grow in areas that need work and I'm here for it. And I'm able to own and recognize areas in which I feel like I need to get strong. I spent the summer kind of going to different trainings trying to grow in areas where I need that growth and not afraid to ask for help. But also know that the community is behind me and they support me but
I know more, I just gotta keep doing better and I'm gonna keep learning.
Rick Sola (20:30.69)That's awesome. All right, a couple more questions, some quick headers. Tell me you're a principal without telling me you're a principal.
Megan (20:42.645)Well Rick, you should
You know, a couple things. One, I got a checklist a mile long and I go into a day and I'm going to complete that checklist and I'm going to knock everything out. It's going to be a great day. And I leave the building and I come home with the same exact checklist and nothing gets checked off. However, you know, I put out.
a lot of fires. You know, I joke one day I walked into work and I had a staff member was like, hey, I appreciate all you do. It's the end of the year. Eighth grade is going to worlds of fun. Here's a Dunkin Donuts coffee. And I was like, oh, that's my favorite. You're the best. And I start to drink it and I don't think 30 seconds went by. let's just say there was a little bit of entertainment in the hallway behind me and the coffee went one direction and I went the other.
And I didn't get a sip of the coffee that day, and I don't know that I remember anything else happening that day. was just, know, a wind of events, but I missed out on the coffee.
Rick Sola (21:52.172)So I did not put you up to sharing that story. That's like the inspiration behind the name of this podcast, Cool Coffee. It's kind of double meaning. I hope this podcast is super cool and everyone wants to hear this cool new podcast. But it's really about our coffee that we all have our morning drink. I'm a coffee drinker. I come in, I brew the coffee, I put it my desk and then something happens. by the time you get back to your coffee, it's a little cool. So that's the inspiration. So it could have been spilled coffee.
or like knocked out of my hand coffee podcast. don't know,
Megan (22:25.185)Yeah, ironic that that is the story I chose to tell. Yeah, I agree. Coffee gets cold on the regular, but by gosh, I'm drinking that thing no matter if it's eight or if it's 11. Bombo, put that coffee down.
Rick Sola (22:40.428)Yeah. So I'm to give you a chance here before we wrap up. You have you and I have we've connected off and on over the last year. And every time I talk with you, one, you're so energized and like you've got so much energy, but you're energized. I can just see it with with the job that you're doing. But you always speak so highly of the place that you're at. Lewisburg, Lewisburg Middle School, but the district. And so I want to give you a chance just
Bragging your people and just for anybody who's listening, tell us about
Megan (23:16.193)I'm like I said, I'm sold on purple Rick. My closet's purple, my shoes are purple. I'm in that Wildcat Jayhawk Pratt and all. I mean, I'm in it. The school district is small. We just have one high school, one middle school and two elementary split K235. It's small. I never realized coming from a Latha which I
Rick Sola (23:25.07)It's a great color.
Megan (23:42.433)I love the district, it's big. always felt like I was also meant to be in a Latha, which I still believe that with my career up until this moment. a small district, the support system I feel is overwhelmingly there. I have so much gratitude towards Dr. Beerman, the superintendent.
who gave me this opportunity and felt like I was the right person to take this job over. Our middle school is great. We don't have about 371 kiddos in there, grade six, seven, eight. Teaching staff of about 32. Staff is great. They work so hard. We're number one in the state at our grade level for assessments and in the Frontier League. our
Teachers are always up for the challenge to keep pushing hard. But not only that, they build relationships with our students. their ability to, a lot of them have grown up in Lewisburg. teach in Lewisburg, their kids go through Lewisburg, they live there. And man, Friday nights, it's Friday night lights. It's like, kids show up with boots and jeans and proud football jerseys. And the whole community goes out to those football games. And so it's just something I'm really proud.
to work for every single day and I go to work and I'm energized, I'm passionate. But man, I loved my time in Aletha equally. And now I'm on to my passion in Lewisburg and so yeah, support, support, endless support.
Rick Sola (25:19.052)Yeah, that's awesome. And like I said, I definitely picked up on that. It's been fun to catch up. We just connected with another principal friend of ours a few weeks ago and just debriefed the school year a little bit. But yeah, it just sounds like amazing, an amazing district, amazing job. And I know you're you're just killing it out there. And year two is going to be every bit of year one and more, I'm sure of it. But
Megan (25:44.373)Well, I do. I do want to say and I not to float your ego by any means, I hate to even say this on a podcast out loud. Honestly, though, like without your support, and I would not be here and not a wholeheartedly believe that that your belief in me and faith in me and all the steps that
took the time to do to meet with me on a weekly basis for an hour and act like nothing else was going on. think about that all the time. Like, man, could I do the same thing Rick did for me on a weekly basis for an hour? And when I know that there's so many other things you could have been doing, but you prepared for those meetings, you took the time and it got me to where I am. And so I do wholeheartedly appreciate that. And don't let this get bigger than it is. I do appreciate
Rick Sola (26:34.554)No, please, please go on. No, no, it was was it was awesome. It was fun. And, you know, of course, and it's just it's just awesome to see see you out there in Lewisburg and then stay in touch. And I know we will. The building I'm at has 25 years celebration coming up and you've already reached out about that. And it's awesome to see not just you, but others
Megan (26:38.892)That's not it!
Rick Sola (27:02.23)And I think you'd see the same at Lewisburg the longer you're there that people, keep their roots and they revisit and, but no, thank you for that. But yeah, you are where you belong and kudos to Lewisburg for, I don't want to say take a leap. I mean, I know that in the interview you had to, you just conveyed, you were ready for that job, but it's unorthodox. You don't hear too many classroom teachers straight to a
when there is a position of AP in between and kudos to them for recognizing the skill set that you have and it was absolutely the right decision. I'm confident of that and it's awesome to hear. I know your staff love you. I appreciate it's summer for you. And so I really appreciate you taking the time to sit down here and share some things. And I want to wish you all the best on your school year up ahead.
Megan (27:56.799)Yeah, no problem. I'm glad to give you my last day off of contract. I start Monday. So I'm glad to give this to you and now I appreciate all your time and everything you do as well. And thanks for listening to me.
Rick Sola (28:09.174)All right. Take care, Megan. We'll talk soon.
Megan (28:11.465)Alright.
 

Cool Coffee 2 - Dr. Todd Dain - Shawnee Mission South HS

Dr. Todd Dain, principal of Shawnee Mission South High School and 2023 NASSP Principal of the Year, discusses school culture and the intentional efforts he makes to bring in new staff members at the start of the year. 
00:00 Introduction and Welcome to Cool Coffee
01:08 Dr. Todd Dain's Journey to Becoming a Principal
05:39 The Power of Building Relationships in Education
14:52 Onboarding New Staff Members: Understanding Student Backgrounds
18:29 Creating a Positive and Supportive School Culture
25:20 Being a New Principal: What to Be Tight On and What to Be Loose On
26:53 Shawnee Mission South High School: A Strong Culture of Diversity
27:57 Closing Remarks and Future of Cool Coffee
(FULL TRANSCRIPT BELOW)
Connect with today's guest: ToddDain@smsd.org  
Connect on X: https://x.com/SMSouthTDain
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Leave suggestions, guest recommendations, questions HERE!
Connect with us on...
X: @KSPrincipals
Facebook: KSPrincipals
Contact the host: KPACoolCoffee@gmail.com
The mission of the Kansas Principals Association, an organization committed to educational excellence and the lifelong success of all students, is to develop and support all principals through optimized learning, collaborative leadership, networking, and service.
Read more about the KPA HERE.
 
TRANSCRIPT
Rick Sola (00:02)All right, good morning as it is here July 19th. I'm sitting here with Dr. Todd Dain of Shawnee Mission South High School, USD 512, home of the Raiders. And Dr. Dain, this is kind of the first of these podcasts. You are the guinea pig, as I was just sharing with you. I really appreciate you being here. Welcome to Cool Coffee.
Dr. Todd Dain (00:29)Cool coffee, I love it. I'm excited to launch this thing and really just grow our network of school leaders here in Kansas.
Rick Sola (00:40)Well, that is the goal and Cool Coffee has kind of a, I guess a double meaning. Hopefully it's a good podcast and something people want to listen to. I thought of Cool Coffee because so many times in our job, by the time we get to our coffee, it's cooled off a little bit. you brew it and you put it down and then things happen and you get back to it it's a little bit cool. So hopefully we'll have a lot of fun on this podcast.
I don't wanna take up too much of your time. I know you're super busy. You just got back in town. You're part of what I'd like to do as we talk to different principals across the state is I'm really interested in hearing everybody's road to the chair, you know, and it's so vast. And just in a quick nutshell, can you share just a little bit about your road to the chair you're in right now?
Dr. Todd Dain (01:35)Yeah, absolutely it seems like it's been a long road now, but you know started out as a teacher obviously and and Was a teacher in Shawnee mission and began kind of exploring
my path towards my masters. And at the time I was teaching and coaching at Shawnee Mission West High School and my good friend and colleague, Steve Shelton said, hey, we need to get our masters. Let's get an administration. If we ever want to stop teaching and coaching, that gives us another option. so he got me to buy in and I did my masters and became part of the career advancement program in Shawnee Mission School District back in the 90s and went forward there and was an
football coach and then had an opportunity to become the head football coach at Shawnee Mission East High School and interestingly enough I was 26 -27 years old at the time and our superintendent Dr. Marsh Kaplan came to me and she said well Todd we're real excited that you're gonna be our head football coach at Shawnee Mission East but we really wanted you to be a principal and I said okay.
I appreciate that. She says, you sure you don't want to be a principal right now? And I said, Dr. Kaplan, I'm 26 years old. I still want to teach. I still want to coach. I still have a passion for those things and want to take an opportunity to complete my goals in that area. And she came right back to me and she says, well, just know that we won't ask again. And if you know Dr. Kaplan, that's just kind of the way she was.
And I dove into that and was the head football coach at Shawnee Mission East for three years. And then I had an opportunity to open Latham Northwest High School and was head football coach there. And later on became the head track coach at Latham Northwest as well and did that for 10 years. And Dr. Gwen Posse was our principal there. And I owe a lot of my career to Gwen and her leadership along the way. She's mentored a lot of leaders through the process for sure. And we got to a point and she kind of.
had an opportunity for me, she set me down, she said, Todd, what do you want to be when you grow up?
And I said, I know the plan is to become an administrator. And she created a position for me. And it was administrator and working with student services, maybe the AP coordinator driving all the assessments, working with the SIT team, driving the 504s and all the pieces with that. And my first reaction was like, Gwen, this is out of my wheelhouse. I don't know anything about these things. And she goes,
She looked at me in the eyes, she says, I'm preparing you to be a building principal. And it was the best thing for me because I learned all of those things in the fire. And that was an opportunity for me to grow. so from there, I became a assistant principal and activities director of Blue Valley Southwest High School. And I had an opportunity to learn from Scott Roberts, who's a dynamic leader in that school district and good friend and got a phone call.
Later on, said, Todd, we have a principal position open at Shawnee Mission South High School. We think that you would be a good candidate. You should apply.
And long story short, I did and interviewed and 10 years later I'm still here. So that's the pathway to my chair. And it's kind of unique because I was a teacher for nearly 20 years and coach for 20 years. And a lot of administrators don't spend that much time in the classroom. So I'd like to think that I still have a pretty good heart for what teachers feel and see every day in the classroom. sometimes
Rick Sola (05:10)It's awesome.
Dr. Todd Dain (05:30)building principals or working with folks at the district level, it seems like a lot of those folks forget what it's like to be a classroom teacher in the trenches.
Rick Sola (05:39)Yeah, that's awesome. You mentioned early on your conversation. Tell me that name with your buddy that you're 26 or whatever. Like, let's go get a master's degree. and, know, I. OK, and I can really. I can relate to that so much of just having the opportunity like, well, let's go, we got to get a master's, let's go get it. Well, might as well be in something we can maybe apply and have a have later. And I like to think of
Dr. Todd Dain (05:50)Yes, Steve Stilton. Steve Schilt. Yeah.
Rick Sola (06:09)throughout our careers, we build little doors and you may use them, you may not, but certainly that makes a lot of sense. And it's always fun at that time to go through with someone through those programs when you're young and all that. You mentioned O and W football and just a quick personal connection between Dr. Dain and I, my very first job in education.
Dr. Todd Dain (06:22)Yeah.
Rick Sola (06:35)was the assistant baseball coach at Olathe Northwest. And that's how I, that's when I met you for the first time. And I still remember, I remember I told you, and this isn't like an earth shattering impact or, or not so much impact, but influence. But I still remember you were the football head football coach and going over there for, I think it was spring conditioning. And I'm, just as green as green could be in the education world. I had a coaching job before I got the teaching job and I'm over
And I remember you going through, you had all the guys in the weight room and you were teaching them exactly what your expectations for them in the weight room and specifically the collars on the bars. And you went through, it goes here, not here, boom, not here, boom. And it just, it kind of resonated or stuck with me because I'm like, it was very clear and concise. Your expectations were so crystal clear because I was kind of in a mindset, it's like,
Dr. Todd Dain (07:14)yeah.
Rick Sola (07:31)you know, clean up after yourselves and that's good. Well, no, it wouldn't have been good enough. But it got us stuck with me. It's like, know, how sometimes explicit we need to be. But it was fun. It was just very, very early in my career. you know, had some impactful moments with the early Mr. Dain at that point. So. So, you know, I know you've been super busy. been out of town.
Dr. Todd Dain (07:53)Yeah.
Rick Sola (08:00)and with with NASSP principle of the year from from them as well. But what were you doing in Nashville here just this week?
Dr. Todd Dain (08:13)Yeah, so it's really been a year of lot of learning for me. I had an opportunity that really started with Kansas Principles Association and USA Kansas. Really got voluntold to do a lot of things and I went out of my comfort zone and said yes.
And I said yes two or three times and got involved at the state level and then had an opportunity to be honored with the 2023 Kansas Principal of the Year and that opened up some other doors for me. so I served the last year as USA Kansas President and learned a lot about state advocacy and the legislative platform there. And then continued to
get involved with NASSP, with the Principal of the Year Leadership Network and the recognition program with NASSP. then I was asked to apply for the NASSP board of directors. I applied and interviewed and just last week was announced as a new member of the NASSP board of directors. So it's been kind of a whirlwind learning a lot of these new.
opportunities and meeting a lot of people. And last week we were in Nashville for the NASSP, NAESP United Conference with over 4 ,000 principals from across the nation. And the board of directors was a big part of that piece and had an opportunity to share a couple of times and speak to an exciting audience. And those are opportunities that I relish. But the main thing is
You meet so many tremendous dynamic leaders from schools everywhere. And you learn so much from those connections. And all of the great ideas I think that I use, I stole from somebody else. And it's that network, it's the connection that has helped me the most in my journey.
Rick Sola (10:26)Yeah, that's awesome. You know, last time I saw you was about a month and a half ago at the USA, Kansas. And, you know, this is my first year finishing my first year with KPA. And that's I have just enjoyed so much just the connecting with with principals from all over the state and having having those conversations where we're so similar and what we do every day. But it's so different in the scope. And it's just it's been awesome.
Dr. Todd Dain (10:54)Yeah, and the one thing that I feel real strongly about, and I really just connected with NASSP, is that a lot of times building principles, especially principles in large districts like Olathe and Shawnee Mission, principles in large district oftentimes feel like what we do as educational leaders just stays in our building.
And that's the only thing we have to worry about. But the power is this, that I was really inspired over the last week, controversial week with everything that's happening in our world. But the reality is our schools are the most stable places in our society right now. And as building principals, we have the power to leverage that voice.
at a higher level. it's a difficult thing because, and my wife's a superintendent and I say this with as much affection as possible, but a lot of times principals are delegated to sit at the kids table.
and don't get to make decisions, and don't get to share their voice, and don't get to share their perspective. But the building principles are the ones that really make things happen. And NASSP is all about elevating that voice from the.
building principle to be able to change education and move education forward in our country. And I think that's an important message that a lot of principals that I talk to and I share opportunities with them and they say, Todd, that's above my pay grade. I'm here to tell you it's not. And building principles are the ones that make things happen and...
know, as building principals, we need to be trust willing with our teams. But I think it's also equally important that those superintendents are trust willing and willing to trust their building principals to share their platform and share their perspective.
Rick Sola (13:00)Yeah, I like that. we talk a lot about how schools really are that place for kids. We don't know what they're coming from, from their home or whatnot. But school, it needs to be that predictable place and that place of safety and all those things. And that's a really good point. We are heading into election year and different things. And the emotions.
you know, all over both sides, all the things at home, it gets brought into our buildings and that's where our job is. It's so valuable, important, but it can also be a lot of fun in there too, in connecting with kids. So yeah, I love that you brought that up. You were down there and I know you presented your culture wins. And I've seen that, I saw that I think at KPA Conference back in November.
Loved it really, really good. And I know you've gone around talking a little bit just about your philosophy. And I mentioned earlier, it's July 19th. Not sure when it's going to get flipped out, but July 19th, we are staring down the start of the school year. There's a lot of preparation and I'm really interested as part of your culture wins. And I see so much activity from not just you, but so many of your staff members on Twitter. mean, there's just so many things going on and that's an intentional.
culture piece that you've got going on there. I don't know how many new staff members you have joining Shiny Mission South this year, but what does it look like to bring in the new staff? They don't know Shiny Mission South. Maybe they've been following you a little bit. And then how do you bring them into the Shiny Mission South culture and kind of do that for your newest educators?
Dr. Todd Dain (14:52)Yeah, I think it begins with the hiring process and everyone's experiencing teacher shortage all over the place.
But I think it really begins in the hiring process. And the one thing that we are solid on through that process, every time we have a building interview with my team, we go through our process and the questions and the answers and our rubric and the tool. And at the end of that interview, when we escort our candidate out and we possibly give them a tour of the building, we come back as a team, as an interview team, and I ask the question.
Do you believe that this candidate loves kids?
And if the team says, yes, we believe they love kids, then we're moving forward with them. But if the team, if anybody on the team says, well, maybe, I think so maybe, then for us it's a no. And we move on to the next candidate or we find an in -building sub to get her done.
It really starts with that hiring process and making sure that the people that we bring to our culture are going to love kids, because that's what our culture is. It's about ensuring that every child will learn and every child will have multiple opportunities to demonstrate their learning. And that's the foundation of our culture and the relationship.
I was just up on our third floor. know not many of you maybe have been in our building, but we kind of have an academic tower with most of our core classrooms are in. on the third floor, I walked up to the third floor. And as I walked around the third floor, there's only three teachers out of 25 that I had not hired.
And so as a building principles and principles know, it's so crucial when you can bring in your people and the people that you select and sift through to help grow your culture. And then it just builds over itself. the one thing that we really strive on is the relationship between our adults and our young people. But as we bring in new teachers,
as we bring in new staff members, then it becomes imperative that we build those relationships together. Joe SanFilippo says, never underestimate the power of a staff that truly cares about one another.
And so that's one of the things that is a part of our culture. And so we try to build that family atmosphere and that culture around what we believe here at China Mission South. it's all about relationships. And that's the one thing that I share over and over again.
That's an interview question. For those that may be listening out there, you know that's going to be an interview question when you interview for a principal job or assistant principal job or whatever it is. How do you build relationships? The answer to that question is you build relationships one at a time. And that's the only way to really build deep relationships, positive relationships with
Adults with adults and adults with young people is one at a time. And so we spend our onboarding time with new staff trying to leverage those relationships one at a time with one another.
Rick Sola (18:29)When you're new staff and I'm sure ours started a few days earlier than everyone else, what are some of those intentional things that you do with them when they're, you know, maybe they're the 20 year educator you've gotten or maybe it's the, just graduated in May and here we go. What can they expect when they walk in the door for the first day at Shawnee Mission
Dr. Todd Dain (18:53)Yeah, the very first day. We actually started this my very first year 10 years ago now. Wow, 10 years ago now at Shiny Mission South. I started this the very first day when we brought in new teachers.
specifically we rented a charter bus, charter school bus, and we took our new teachers on the bus and we drove them to every neighborhood in our attendance area. We drove them to every elementary school. We talked about the demographics and Shawnee Mission South is very unique. We have families in Leewood that live in four million dollar homes and then we have families on the west side of our attendance area that are homeless and we're over
30 % free and reduced students. have title elementary schools in our district. so the diversity is really significant. And so we put them on the charter bus. We do a driving tour of our attendance area. So our new teachers know all the neighborhoods in our attendance area. And so they have that mental picture. They have that understanding of the students that are going to walk through the door on the first day. And they understand where they live, where they come from, all those. I think that's an important piece. And then after we did
at Shawnee Mission South, the district kind of took that over the next year and started doing it with all the high schools and the high school attendance areas. And so that's what we'll do on the first day with new teachers. We'll have a charter bus with air conditioning and a microphone and we go around and all of the elementary principals join us and kind of talk about their schools and talk about their elementary neighborhoods and what that's all about. And that's an important piece for us. And then, you know, just with the new teachers.
Rick Sola (20:06)Okay.
Dr. Todd Dain (20:30)We do onboarding and spend a lot of time at the building level just on our culture and how we support one another and the expectations we have for young people, along with the nuts and bolts of how we do business.
We spend most of the time at the building on boarding with our new teachers and our culture. And then we also do, we do a luncheon with our building leadership team and our new teachers just together and try to connect with our building leaders.
and our new teachers to make sure that they're seen and heard and they know who those building leaders are in our BLT and that's how we start. And then, of course, when the rest of the teachers come back, we spend a lot of time trying to grow those relationships and connect new teachers with veterans along the way.
Rick Sola (21:26)Yeah, that's awesome. I really like the charter bus idea and that can be so powerful. Yeah, but one of the one of my hopes with this podcast, aside from me personally, because I hope to steal a lot of ideas from talking with people, but is that these ideas are shared here in a medium that can be stolen from all over. You know, I mean, yeah, it's it's it's so basic, but to just take a tour and, you know, the high schools, they have such a vast attendance area like you mentioned.
Dr. Todd Dain (21:46)That's me.
Rick Sola (21:55)to be able to see that, know where your kids are coming from. You know, cause a lot of the people we hire, they're not from even Kansas City, know, or they're not from even, you know, Kansas, Missouri. And so, no, I love that. All right. We're going to wrap it up here real quick. I'm going to do some quick hitters, some real quick hitters here. And then I'm going to give you, you're going to, you're going to, you're going to wrap us up with a chance to brag on, your school and your, your district here. So what was the best advice you've ever gotten?
Dr. Todd Dain (22:15)my best.
Rick Sola (22:25)as an administrator, either as a principal, new administrator, current. Best advice.
Dr. Todd Dain (22:32)Well, I think there's a lot of things that you could take away. There's some pieces of advice there. But the best advice is this. As a principal, and this is I tell my team, think fast, act slow.
Think fast, act slow.
And a lot of times when we as administrators get into hiccups, we act too quickly. We respond too quickly to certain scenarios. And it's important to think quickly, process it, go through the decision -making model, work with our team, and then act slowly through the process and be intentional about how we respond.
Rick Sola (23:12)That's awesome. And I found that to be harder early on because you want to you want to know everything you got to. You're going to project your confidence and that you want confidence. OK, I got an answer right now. Well, sometimes if I did that, I made it. I just made a bigger mess on the back end of things. All right, this might be an easy one, but but I just was made aware of this. a movie is being made about your life. Who's going to play you?
Dr. Todd Dain (23:27)Correct.
John Cena.
Rick Sola (23:41)That was brought up at USA Kansas. I never even connected it. And now, now that's all, that's all I can think of. But, but awesome. Yeah. Very good. And Todd, you, you filled out the questionnaire that we, we featured here last year. So I know the answer to this, this question, I think, but what restaurant would you recommend to someone visiting your town, Kansas City
Dr. Todd Dain (24:07)yeah, so you know when I was in Nashville and meeting new principals from across the country, that's the question they asked me. Hey, if we come to Kansas City, where should we go to eat? I said, well, there's a lot of barbecue places. You can't go wrong with any of the barbecue places. for me, where we're located, we, Q39.
Rick Sola (24:22)Yeah, Q39. So quick, quick story is that the Royals game a few weeks ago, right in front of me, sat a family from San Diego. They were doing a stadium tour and they asked me, where should we go eat? And I was kind of put on the spot like here I'm a Kansas City and I'm going to represent. was like, well, you've got to go barbecue. And just like you said, you probably can't go wrong. But I mentioned Q39. I mentioned Jack Stack for kind of that downtown experience of barbecue. And then I was thinking.
all the others, Joe's and just everything. And at the end of that, I just hope I represented Kansas City well. I hope they they're not going to make a bad pick, but but definitely high on everyone's There might be I'm hoping this podcast listenership will grow beyond the tens and maybe maybe get bigger. But there might be some first year administrators or someone about to head
Dr. Todd Dain (25:13)Yeah.
Rick Sola (25:19)What advice would you give them? And I know I just asked you that, so maybe it's to think fast, act slow. But what would you give them right now, July 19th? Some advice.
Dr. Todd Dain (25:31)Yeah, think two quick things. Number one, it's all relationships. Don't make any changes. Don't make any changes your first year. It's all relationships. I say that and I did not follow that advice, but it's really about relationships and that's the end all be all. But the other thing I think as a new building principle, and it's different than being an assistant principal. As a new building principal, you have to decide going into it, what are you going to be tight on?
and what are you going to be loose on? And young administrators and new administrators are often those overachievers. Principles are often the overachiever mentality. I think sometimes young or new administrators get into problems when they try to do everything and they try to micromanage everything. And so you can't...
micromanage everything and you can't be tight on everything. But you have to make a decision on what are you going to be tight on and it needs to be just a few things that you're going to be tight on because you can't be tight on everything.
Rick Sola (26:42)Yeah, that's great. Hey, I know you got to run. I want to give you a chance. Bragg on your school. Tell everybody who's listening. What's so great about Shiny Mission
Dr. Todd Dain (26:53)I'd say number one, it's our culture and our diversity. Hands down, if you ask students why they moved to Shawnee Mission South area or why they transferred to Shawnee Mission South, they would say that they love the diversity and the culture at Shawnee Mission South High School, and that's number one. I could talk about the state championship that we just won. I could talk about the national debate championship that we just won, but that's all product of our culture.
Rick Sola (27:19)Hey, Dr. Dain, I really appreciate your time. Please say hi to the other Dr. Dain. we go way back. Say hi to your kids for me as well. we go back a little bit. But thank you so much for your time here being on the kickoff of this Cool Coffee podcast. I look forward to seeing you again. And have a good start to the school year too.
Dr. Todd Dain (27:27)Yep, she's smart.
YouTube, brother, it's so awesome to connect with you and I love learning from you and hopefully we can grow our principles network and cool coffee will take off.
Rick Sola (27:57)Yeah, absolutely. Hey, thanks a lot. We'll talk to you soon. All right.
Dr. Todd Dain (28:01)All right, take care.
 

Cool Coffee w/ Kansas Principals Ep.1 - The Intro

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