Cool Coffee w/ Kansas Principals

Cool Coffee: A Principal's Perspective 16 - Jenny Steele - Is this a sitcom?

In this perspective, Mrs. Jenny Steel, principal of Manchester Park Elementary School in Olathe, USD 233, talks about the unbelievable, the heavy, and the need to find the joy every day, no matter what's going on in your building. 
Mrs. Jenny Steele
Manchester Park Elementary School
USD 233, Olathe
Is this a sitcom?
 
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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.

Cool Coffee: A Principal's Perspective 15 - Jenny Woolever - Building Morale through the Holidays

In this perspective, Dr. Jenny Woolever, principal of Frontier Trail Middle School in Olathe, USD 233, shares many ideas on how to build up morale during the second quarter and through the holidays. This episode is packed with ideas for the building principal to consider. 
Dr. Jenny Woolever
Frontier Trail MS
USD 233, Olathe
X: @WooleverJenny
Building Morale through the Holidays
 
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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.

Cool Coffee: A Principal's Perspective 14 - Stacey Green - The Disciplined Pursuit of Less

In this perspective, Principal Stacey Green provides insight on a book called Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKoewn. Stacey provides the listener an opportunity to discern their location on the spectrum of essentialism and explains how this can impact our own performance as a principal. 
Stacey Green Pre-K-8 PrincipalStockton Grade SchoolUSD 271 StocktonX: @usd271sgsEssentialism- the disciplined pursuit of less
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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.

Cool Coffee: A Principal's Perspective 13 - Krista Dueringer - The Power of Student Service

Listen to Mrs. Krista Dueringer, assistant principal of Chisholm Trail Middle School in Olathe USD 233, describe why she views community service as an essential part of a student's school experience and development. In this perspective, Krista shares about her passion for serving and for promoting a building that values student service in the community. 
Krista Dueringer
Assistant Principal/Athletic Director
Chisholm Trail Middle School
Olathe Schools, USD 233
X: @kdueringer
Topic: The Power of Student Service
 
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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.

Cool Coffee 8 - Mrs. Kelly Whittaker - Ottawa High School

Mrs. Kelly Whittaker, 7 year principal of Ottawa High School, USD 290, discusses the success they've had with parent-teacher conferences, her time with the KPA, and the upcoming KPA conference where she'll lead a session for new and early year administrators. Conversation leads to the mutual value for new and veteran administrators to share ideas and work together as they navigate the "fire hose" of administration.
Contact Kelly Whittaker: whittakerk@usd290.org
X: @kelwhitt217
Kelly's favorite quote: Optimism doesn't mean that you are blind to the reality of the situation. It means that you remain motivated to seek a solution to whatever problems arise. --The Dalai Lama
Chapters (time stamps do not account for the Cool Coffee intro--full transcript of the show below)
00:00 Innovative Student-Led Conferences02:52 The Journey to Leadership05:56 The Value of Networking in Education09:05 Insights for New Principals11:50 Optimism in Leadership14:45 Celebrating Ottawa High School's Achievements
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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 (AI produced)
Rick Sola (00:01.666)Hello and welcome to another edition of Cool Coffee with Kansas principals. Today I'm with Miss Kelly Whitaker of Ottawa High School USD home of the cyclones. Hello Kelly.
Kelly Whittaker (00:15.226)Hello, Rick. Thanks for having me today.
Rick Sola (00:17.494)Yes, great. Appreciate you jumping on here. And you had told me earlier in the week that this is conference week for you.
Kelly Whittaker (00:25.326)It was, yep, we had our parent teacher conferences. So we do student led conferences at our high school, ninth through 12th grade. And so students call their families after they've worked for several weeks on those individual plans of studies and they invite them to come meet with their advisory teacher and they go over that information. So.
We had over 85 % attendance this year, which is the best attendance we've ever had. And then the really cool thing was my teachers were turning in their attendance sheets saying, hey, I've got a meeting scheduled with this parent next week before school and this parent after school. And a lot of them were very motivated to get 100 % of their students to join us, which is just really encouraging. And it shows the value of that work.
Rick Sola (01:08.494)So that's awesome. And that wasn't really even the topic I was, we were going to spend some time on today, but we are also just finishing conference week. It's a Friday, it's October 18th. And this is a day off here where I'm at. We had just finished a week long conference week and it's fairly similar through the grade levels and it's by appointment. And then we have some common time on a Wednesday evening where it's open arena style. But I love that IPS approach and you said you had 85 % attendance.
Kelly Whittaker (01:38.822)Yep, we've hovered around 75 to 82 % the last four years and this year we really got over the bar which was exciting.
Rick Sola (01:47.822)So when did this begin?
Kelly Whittaker (01:49.638)We started when we were a school redesign school. So we would have started this. This is my seventh year at Ottawa High School. So we would have started six years ago. This is our sixth year doing it. And we've done different iterations and variations, but we kind of like the process that we have in place right now. We've done a lot of reflecting on it, gotten a lot of student and parent input.
And the most important thing is my teachers are pretty bought into our advisory process. We have pretty high expectations around that, but without them being bought into it, we wouldn't be able to, I think, have the success we do with our kiddos.
Rick Sola (02:23.692)Yeah, no, I really like that. I'm really intrigued. That might have to be another topic for a show sometime because we do the conferences here and, going back, I'm in my, I don't know, 14th, 15th year in administration. And at the very beginning, I definitely remember, you know, as, you know, learning management systems were kind of, were kind of pre in existence or not quite fully there. It was a little bit more of what, you know, kind of the
for kids coming in or parents, is it going to be a surprise night or what are we going to expect? But now there's really no mystery. I've said that for a long time. There's not much mystery for a parent who wants to know how their child is doing. They can find it almost in real time. And so I love that new approach with more of a presentation at conferences or a demonstration or a product being displayed.
Kelly Whittaker (03:20.12)Absolutely, no, we have found a lot of success in it and so we just, don't know, we're not, I'm not all about reinventing the wheel. And so now that we've kind of gotten a groove and we stole a lot of what we do from different schools and we've kind of made it our own and then reflect on it every year to make sure that it gets better. And then more importantly, keeping up with whatever the individual plans of study, guidances from the state. We try to make sure we're adding those new components each year.
Rick Sola (03:47.064)So you mentioned seven years at Ottawa High School. What is your road to the chair that you are in right now?
Kelly Whittaker (03:55.332)My road to this chair. So I was a special education teacher in Indiana for six years.
And then I actually was only taught at the elementary and middle school level. And my first high school experience was I did a lot of coaching, high school basketball and track when I was a teacher. But then I jumped into being an assistant principal at a really large high school in Indiana. And I did that for six years. And then my husband and I relocated to Kansas and I spent two years as an assistant principal at Shawnee Heights High School in Topeka. And then I have now been the principal at Ottawa High School for seven years.
And I really enjoy my job because I live in the community of Ottawa and I know that is not everybody's jam, but I enjoy being three minutes from work and interacting with all of my students and parents at the grocery store and everywhere else that I see them in town. And my son goes to school with, you know, a lot of my students' siblings and I just enjoy that aspect of it.
Rick Sola (04:54.028)That's interesting. I originally worked about 20 minutes away from my house and then had the opportunity to become principal at the neighborhood school where I currently do have one of my kids here. And it was one of the biggest parts of the decision was, is this going to be a good thing or not? And I tell people all the time, because that's a common question, is there are far more perks and far more advantages and
Kelly Whittaker (05:11.301)Yeah.
Rick Sola (05:22.638)Just just being in the community and being a part of it and I'm about a two minute drive from from the building and it's it's awesome so it's cool to hear you say that because I know there are some that's like, you know, I want to be across state line and You know go to my own little area, but that's cool
Kelly Whittaker (05:35.865)Absolutely.
And I don't want to make it sound like rainbows and butterflies, but I agree with you. There's pros and cons to everything, and there are, in my opinion, just way more pros to just being immersed in the community than if I lived 20, 30, 40 minutes away and I felt disconnected from what was happening outside of the school day.
Rick Sola (05:56.598)Right. So brought you on here because we are just a few weeks from the KPA conference, the principals conference, which I attended last year, presented at last year, loved it, had a really great time. It is such a valuable conference, I feel like for principal development. You are presenting and so I wanted to give you an opportunity to share a little bit about the conference you're going to be presenting at, but also you've been in the KPA for several years and just
what you have found and gotten out of it over the last however many years it was.
Kelly Whittaker (06:28.549)Yeah.
Absolutely. know I was saying, I think this is my sixth year as a member of the Kansas Principle Association. And it was, I was about six years ago when I was at a conference and I really didn't know anybody. And I was kind of just freelancing around by myself and a couple of the principals that were on the board of directors, they invited me to dinner, invited me to hang out. And really what
I think got me is it's for me. It's a lot of the networking opportunities. It's just being able to connect with principals from all across Kansas. I think of my relationship with you, Rick, and you're a principal that I would have really have no reason to ever get to know or be able to learn from if I wasn't a part of an organization like KPA and just the idea sharing and the sessions at the Kansas Principals Association. To me, those are some of the most valuable sessions because there are other principals talking to you about
know, just programs and inspirations that are happening in their building and really giving you some food for thought to bring back to your building leadership teams, to bring back to your assistant principals as you guys are just continuing to, you know.
probably work on your path towards whatever your strategic plan looks like. And so that's probably for me, like the biggest. then I think when I really outside of that is that professional development and not when I being a member of Kansas principal association has brought me so many opportunities that I would have never been connected to. I was fortunate enough last year to be a Kelly mentor through case state where I got to mentor a brand new assistant principal that was 40 minutes from Ottawa.
Kelly Whittaker (08:08.552)and I got to visit his school and he came to my school and we met weekly and it just was, I learned so much from him despite him saying he learned a lot from me being a brand new administrator. It was a really cool opportunity. Kansas Principal Association is even more associated with USA Kansas now and just the professional development opportunities for principals in the state of Kansas, to me it's...
I don't know any other state that offers what we do. I have had luxury of spending some time on some state committees where I can really advocate for our profession and voice, you know, an opinion that might lead to some positive change for teachers and for administrators. And so really all of those opportunities without the Kansas Principles Association, I don't know that I would have been afforded those opportunities. And really for me too, it's just about serving my profession. I'm a big boy.
and giving back to your community, probably why I enjoy living in Ottawa and being the principal at the high school. But I also believe in giving back to our profession and being a member is just to me one of the many ways that you can do that.
Rick Sola (09:19.734)You mentioned the idea sharing and you know that's what to me this conference is like the value. There's a lot of conferences in education. There's I mean they're all over there all the time. And what I really like about this is it's it is specifically designed for the building principle and it's it's for promoting that that idea sharing that conversation and the common challenges that pop up day to day and.
connecting with people from across the state. That's what I have enjoyed. Like you mentioned, you're right, you and I probably have very little opportunity to have paths cross except for this. And now we have had some conversations, communications of potentially sharing candidates and things like that. And it just builds that network. It's got just such great value.
Kelly Whittaker (10:16.166)Absolutely, I couldn't agree with you more.
Rick Sola (10:19.054)So you are presenting, talk about your topic that you're presenting with one of our other members, I believe, Dr. Dane.
Kelly Whittaker (10:28.602)Yeah, Dr. Dane and I are.
We decided to team up to do a presentation. And he's another person that I've become very close with and I don't know that I would have had the opportunity to do so for any other reason. But Dr. Dane and I are together. We've got over 20 years of high school administrative experience and we by far do not know all the things and we are learning every day. Both of us, think, are lifelong learners. So we wanted to put together a presentation for principals that are in years one to three and really our goal
is to provide some insight and some advice, but more importantly, we've got some scenarios built that we want to give the administrators in the room an opportunity to collaborate with one another and process those scenarios, and then us be able to talk as a whole group. And those scenarios are somewhat aligned to some of the advice or tips and tricks of the trade that we are going to be giving those new principals. And so we really just want to encourage anyone who's in years one through three to come in the room.
We'd love to hear and learn from them. Just give them a little bit of advice and have some time to be able to connect and process with some scenarios that we feel like are pretty common amongst those first three years that you're in administration and you just need help processing and listening to other people's advice on how they might handle things.
Rick Sola (11:50.574)That's awesome. The first three years, it's funny, you mentioned like learning from them and that, you know, I have the opportunity, most years we have kind of a grow your own administrator program and to be a mentor for a week with one of the candidates and I love it. And I kind of try to put myself back 14 years, 15 years ago when I was in that position. And I was just perceived that the principal or the administrators, I mean, they just do it. They just know it.
you know, boom, boom, boom. And reality, we're picking up the phone and we're calling people. We're calling. If it's not within our district, it's people like you or Dr. Dane, even if it's, you know, if you've got those kinds of connections and it absolutely is an opportunity to learn from us as veteran principals, to learn from the one to three year, because that's a whole different perspective too. And there's a lot of like, huh, I hadn't thought about it that way before. You know, I've thought about this way for, for years and
Kelly Whittaker (12:28.88)Yeah.
Kelly Whittaker (12:45.784)certainly.
Rick Sola (12:48.814)What a great session.
Kelly Whittaker (12:49.062)then fresh, fresh energy. Don't you think fresh energy too? A lot of new principals have fresh energy and I think sometimes things are working well in our schools and we're kind of in a groove and maybe a rut and we don't wanna be perceived as adding too much to our teachers' plates. And so I really appreciate that fresh energy and fresh perspective that new principals bring to the table. Cause it really challenges you to be reflective of what's happening in your building.
Rick Sola (13:14.518)Absolutely. And just given the opportunity for some scenarios, know, I go back, I went to Baker for my, my leadership degree and just all the scenarios. And there were some that were fairly wacky and then you kind of get into it it's like, you do see it. You see a lot of the wacky, but I always enjoyed those and that'll be a really great session. You, you mentioned tips and tricks that are going to be shared. Do you have one or two that you could kind of give us a sneak preview of or like some advice?
Kelly Whittaker (13:41.792)sneak preview of. we were, so we've been problem solving and all of it is, it's all research based and so we really want to talk about like things that you're tight and loose on. We think it's really important when you are a brand new administrator to figure out what are you going to be tight with, what are you going to be loose on, because as you know, Rick, we can't hold our teachers
extremely accountable on every little thing. We gotta figure out what is that value that you have in the building. So we wanna talk a little bit about that. We also wanna just talk with them about decision making strategies. As you know,
I, there are days that I, sometimes I wish I could keep track of how many decisions we make in a day, because they just are constantly coming at you and we want to just give them some strategies and some tips about kind of quick and efficient ways to make those decisions. and then really talking about leaning on your team. So whether that's your team within your district, whether that's colleagues that you're meeting through organizations like Kansas principals association. but this is my 13th year as a high school administrator and I don't know that
I have a week that goes by that something occurs that I have to stop and think. And it stumped me and it's something new, something I've never had happen before. And I might be calling my superintendent. I might be calling Dr. Dane. I might be calling one of my league colleagues in Spring Hill to say, hey, have you ever had this happen before? And like, how have you handled it? So we really want to just encourage that networking and that collaboration as well throughout kind of our time with these new principals.
Rick Sola (15:16.814)those early years and especially I kind of, don't know the first very first year principal it's like you're drinking from a fire hose and you're just trying to kind of get your feet under you. When I made the transition to the building them and now had the opportunity to really have some experience to draw on and I just remember of course it was kind of a crazy time it was 2020 but I just remember like every decision is potentially precedent setting.
Kelly Whittaker (15:44.26)correct.
Rick Sola (15:44.558)And so you don't want to rush into just every, any decision, I guess, and be very selective. And I even share that out loud. There were times I kind of just want to think about this because there could be some unintended consequences. And I think that's part of our job to be kind of, to kind of evaluate the decision and what that might lead to. So no, that's great. That'll be a really interesting session.
Kelly Whittaker (15:57.211)Yep.
Kelly Whittaker (16:13.678)And Rick, I love that you said the title of our session is drinking from the fire hose, insights and strategies for new principles.
Rick Sola (16:20.642)Perfect. That's... Yeah, no, it's...
Kelly Whittaker (16:21.606)It is, so I love that you said that. I think that just proves though, because it really is truly, those first few years of being an administrator, you truly are drinking from a fire hose and you are just trying to keep moving and keep going and be methodical in your thought processes and your decision making while continuing to keep up with the pace of everything that's happening around you. So I love that I heard you say that, because that was exactly where our minds were.
Rick Sola (16:45.292)And that was not planned. I did not like scope it out. like, hey, I'm gonna plant this fire hose line. You know, it's, now I lost my train of thought, because I'm thinking about the no, just that first year, think part of the fire hose is kind of that feeling, like I mentioned, as a teacher envisioning my administrators. They just make the decisions. No, I think part of that fire hose is
Kelly Whittaker (16:50.726)That's great.
Rick Sola (17:14.561)kind of feeling like I have to know everything. I have to make a quick decision. I don't know everything. And so then it just compounds on itself. And that's what I love about, well, the session you're talking about, the conference that we're talking about, and the KPA in general is it is about building that network because it's, there's so many things and we don't.
Kelly Whittaker (17:17.158)coordinates.
Rick Sola (17:37.61)It may be a first time for us, but it's not the first time in education, but having that network and people to draw on both within your district and without outside of your district, there's just so much value. And at the end of the day, it makes us better leaders, which at the end of the day then helps our building become better and it's better for students.
Kelly Whittaker (17:51.225)Absolutely.
Kelly Whittaker (17:55.8)No, absolutely. And I just think too, especially with the Kansas Principal Association Conference in November, it's also just when we really think about our school year.
Our evaluations are winding down for those first round new employees that we have. There's been a lot that's going on and kind of just to take a day and a half for yourself to build and grow your own network, building your own professional development, and also just laughing with other people that can really relate to what you're dealing with or going through. That is huge and I think it's important for our mental health, right? We talk about self care a lot for our teachers and really
going to the KPA conference for me is kind of part of my self care, right? I go and I get to relax and I get to maybe challenge some of my colleagues and maybe do a presentation. I get to go and learn from my colleagues and then we all get to spend some time in the evening together, you know, just kind of laughing together, telling stories and really getting to know each other. And I value that. And I just, I always try to encourage every principal in my league, every principal that I come in contact with that it's not
We're not being cheesy. We're not just trying to increase our membership because we want every principal part of KPA. We really want every principal part of KPA because of what it means and what we know that it could do for them professionally. There is a lot of sincerity behind the work that the board of directors do when we come together to really promote our organization.
Rick Sola (19:27.086)Yeah, like you said, it's a professional refresh or restart or it's energizing. You go to those and then ultimately we are better for it. So I'm gonna shift gears just a little bit here to a quote that you had shared was your favorite quote. I'm pulling this from last year, but I thought it was interesting as I looked at it again. Optimism doesn't mean that you are blind to the reality of the situation.
Kelly Whittaker (19:31.376)Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Rick Sola (19:54.496)It means that you remain motivated to seek a solution to whatever problems arise. Do you remember putting that down?
Kelly Whittaker (20:01.574)I do remember putting that out, I do. I do, that's one of my favorite quotes, because I think a lot of time as educators, it's easy for us to focus on the negative. And sometimes as a leader, when you choose to be...
optimistic. think sometimes your fellow colleagues in your building, they assume that you're ignoring all of the maybe issues or the struggles that are happening, whether that's within your own building, within your district, maybe within education in general. And I just, I truly believe in looking and thinking at the best of every situation. Even when students come to my office for really egregious behaviors, I
Our goal with my assistant principals and I, goal is we're going to address the behavior. We're going to give consequences if we need to, but more importantly, we need to figure out how to learn from this situation and maybe build a little relationship with the family in the meantime. So that way we can wrap around this student to move forward. And that doesn't mean that we're happy with whatever consequence or whatever behavior or action that they maybe did to another student in our building, but we're looking for the best in every situation. And I truly believe in that. Just really believe in
and optimistic. I think if we are pessimists in education and focus on all the things that are driving us crazy, you're not going to find yourself to be able to have a very longevity of career within education because there's a lot of negative feedback we get. There's a lot of negativity out there about being an educator and being an administrator. So I really believe in focusing in all the good that we do for students and for our communities.
Rick Sola (21:37.454)Yeah, it's a great quote and you hitting on a lot of things, you know, I always find it's a balance between just what you said and just what the quote says of, you know, being positive, but also kind of acknowledging the things that aren't positive and not with blinders on or being perceived as head in the sand about really important issues, but kind of being able to finesse what's really going on, but staying positive because it's so important and critical for.
Kelly Whittaker (21:49.51)Hmm.
Rick Sola (22:04.05)what it is we do and who it is we're working with, which is our students. So I want to give you a chance, to brag on Ottawa High School, USD 290, home of the cyclones. Brag about your people.
Kelly Whittaker (22:17.914)Yes, let me brag about my people. So Ottawa High School is a really special place. I've been there for seven years. Like I said, I live in the community. We get, we are fortunate enough to offer over 20 college and career pathways, CTE pathways to our students. And I always like to brag on that because the only reason that happens is because I have amazing CTE educators as well as amazing math, science, social studies, English teachers that are willing to teach some of those introductory
level or technical level courses so we can offer more opportunities to our students during the day. Over the last six years, we have done a lot of work with our individual plans of study. We've implemented a really robust advisory program. We have a student success team, is basically it's our sit process and at a high school, that's a really difficult sometimes to get a good process in place, but we believe in what we do. And because of all of those things that everything
that the teachers at Ottawa High School do. We have been fortunate. We've had over a 90 % graduation rate for the last four years. And I'm really proud about that because that echoes the hard work of not just my teachers, but my students. And we are bringing over 90 % of our students every year entering the community of Ottawa with that next step, right? They've got opportunities because they have graduated from high school. So it's not about them just earning that piece of paper, but helping them really.
analyze and think about what are my next steps, what could I, can I believe in myself, and what could I do with this. So that's what I'm probably the most proud about and I just have some phenomenal educators like we all do at Ottawa High School.
Rick Sola (24:03.596)Great. Well, you're just up the road here and it sounds like some really great things happening in Ottawa, Ottawa High School. And I really appreciate your time on, it's always a busy week, but conference week tends to be, you know, kind of different types of hours and potentially long. And I know you work this in. So I really appreciate your time and all the best here in a few weeks at the KPA conference and it'll be a great time.
Kelly Whittaker (24:21.615)Yeah.
Kelly Whittaker (24:32.738)Absolutely, I look forward to seeing you then. I think we've got a Zoom KPA meeting before that as well. So I appreciate you, doing this. And I just appreciate all of the hard work that all the educators across Kansas do, because our kids really do need us.
Rick Sola (24:45.486)Well hey, have a great day and a great weekend and we'll see you soon. Alright, see you, Kelly. Bye.
Kelly Whittaker (24:50.886)All right, perfect, you too.
 

Cool Coffee: A Principal's Perspective 12 - Courtney Weber - The Art of Tapping Out

In this "perspective," Assist Principal and AD of Spring Hill Middle School, Dr. Courtney Weber, shares about the art of "tapping out" as an administrator and why that shouldn't be considered giving up.
 
Courtney Weber
Assistant Principal/Athletic Director
Spring Hill Middle School
Spring Hill - USD 230
@DrWeberSHMS
Topic: The Art of Tapping Out
 
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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.

Cool Coffee: A Principal's Perspective 11 - Lindsay Cravens - The Principal Champion

Mrs. Lindsay Cravens shares her perspective on the power of the principalship through the power of a principal who is a champion for their kids.
Lindsay Cravens
9-12 Principal
Republic County USD 109 
JH/SR High School
 
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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.

Cool Coffee: A Principal's Perspective 10 - Heath Henderson - Control vs Influence

Mr. Heath Henderson, principal of Skelly Elementary School in El Dorado, KS, USD 490, shares his perspective on control versus influence as it relates to the building principal. 
Heath Henderson Principal USA Board of Directors Skelly Elementary USD 490
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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.
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Cool Coffee: A Principal's Perspective 9 - Rick Sola - "The Principal in the Arena"

Principal Rick Sola from Chisholm Trail Middle School in Olathe USD 233, shares a quote he has found impactful and applicable to the principalship. A quote from (then former) President Teddy Roosevelt in a 1910 speech popularly known as "The Man in the Arena" is shared with intentions to both encourage and comfort the building principal as the challenges of leadership are navigated.
Perspective by Rick Sola
6-8 Middle School Principal
Olathe Public Schools, USD 233
Connect with Mr. Sola on X: @MrRickSola
Perspective Topic: "The Principal in the Arena"
 
"Citizenship in a Republic" -
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
― Theodore Roosevelt 1910
 
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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.

Cool Coffee 7 - Mr. Kurt Seiler - Independence High School

Mr. Kurt Seiler of Independence High School, USD 446, talks about their success tackling the issue of chronic absenteeism. Incentives for attending school as it is tied to their "good standing" policy has produced the results they hoped. Kurt shared some of the details and adjustments they made along the way to finetune their approach to solving one of the most talked about issues facing education right now.
Contact Kurt Seiler: kseiler@indyschools.com
Chapters (time stamps do not account for 30 second intro)
00:00  Introduction to Chronic Absenteeism
01:59  Independence High School's Strategies
06:02  Good Standing Policy Explained
11:53  J's for Days Initiative
18:09  Community Involvement and Support
21:45  Celebrating Independence High School
(full transcript of show below)
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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.
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TRANSCRIPT (AI produced)
Rick Sola (00:01.866)Good morning and welcome to another edition of Cool Coffee with Kansas principals specifically today with Mr. Kurt Seiler of Independence High School, USD 446, home of the Bulldogs. Good morning, Kurt.
Kurt Seiler (00:15.425)Morning, Rick.
Rick Sola (00:17.23)And it is bright and early, just about a 645 start time here on a Friday, October 4th. Kurt, I've got my morning coffee. What is your morning drink? Okay. Whatever it is, we all have it and we got to have it.
Kurt Seiler (00:28.974)I've got a Dr. Pepper.
That's right.
Rick Sola (00:37.046)Before we get started on really an important topic, excited to talk about it, but important topic today of chronic absenteeism facing education, I do want to draw attention to the show notes for this and every show. There you're going to find a full transcript of today's show here with Mr. Seiler and also contact information for him and also a Google form to leave feedback or provide input or even express interest to be on this show. So please.
check that out in every one of our show notes. So, all right, Kurt, we had talked to each other a little bit through email before, and you had shared some interesting things, some positive things going on in Independence High School where you're at regarding chronic absenteeism, which is something not even just statewide, but nationwide where we're spending a lot of time.
working with and just for that definition of chronic absenteeism, any student who misses 10 % or more of the school year for any reason, including excused, unexcused suspensions and kind of a typical example is 180 days of instruction, student misses 18 or more, that's about two a month. So it adds up really quick, but share a little bit about Independence High School and
what has led to some of the things that we're about to talk about.
Kurt Seiler (02:03.82)Yeah, so just like I'm sure most of schools across the nation after COVID hit, the absenteeism numbers just shot up and you know, I attribute it to kids were at at home for an entire quarter and ours, you know, some schools it was a lot longer than that, but an entire nine weeks learning from home, it's hard to pull them back to get them to come to school on a regular basis. And so our chronic absenteeism numbers are tardies are
really just our ADA, our average daily attendance, was extremely low from what we were wanting. So we sat down, you know, as an admin team and as a building leadership team to really try and target on how we were going to improve those numbers. And we came up with two really good policies in my mind. One is our good standing policy and another is what we call Jays for days. So I'll talk about the good standing policy first.
Rick Sola (02:49.118)And we can not work too.
Thank
Kurt Seiler (03:03.256)So our good staining policy is you cannot have more than two in school suspensions in a semester. You cannot have an out of school suspension. You cannot have more than six tardies to all your classes cumulatively for a nine weeks. You cannot be ineligible academically. So not pass five new classes the previous semester.
Rick Sola (03:26.431)you
Kurt Seiler (03:32.234)If you do all of those things and you're in none of those categories, you are what we call in good standing. And so if you are in good standing, you can attend any of our school dances. We also have a good standing event every single month. So for the month of September, we had a cornhole tournament, kids signed up, we drew out, made their teams.
They came in, had a cornhole tournament. had a door prize. So we always give a door prize at our Good Stain event, because not everybody wants to compete in cornhole or whatever we're having for that month, but they just want to come and watch. So we give a door prize. That's also how we track the data of how many kids are coming, because we give them a ticket. We keep a ticket. So that way we know how many kids are attending. And then we gave out a nice set of cornhole bags, like
Rick Sola (03:58.346)Thank you.
Thank you.
Kurt Seiler (04:26.382)you know, a professional set of bags to the winners and had really good attendance. I think we had 70 to 75 students show up. And so for everybody that doesn't know Independence, we have 560 kids roughly in the high school. And so we want all those kids to be able to come enjoy these events, but do the right things to be able to enjoy it. it's.
Rick Sola (04:31.028)I'm happy.
Kurt Seiler (04:52.992)In the past, it's always been outside of the school day. This year, we're going to have a couple inside of the school day to allow the kids to get out of an advisory class and to come and do it. But just for reference, we've shown, you know, when the new Top Gun movie came out a couple of years ago, we showed that in our auditorium, just like a movie theater. We've had pumpkin carving contest. We've had Madden tournaments. We've had Mario Kart tournaments.
Rick Sola (05:00.539)Thank you.
Kurt Seiler (05:20.27)You know, we've had a lot of different things and we actually have what we call a fun club that gets together and organizes these events. And that way we're getting kids feedback on what's interest for the kids. But we track how many kids come in and we want to make sure that we're rewarding kids for doing things the right way. You know, those positive reinforcements. And so we've really seen an uptick of
Rick Sola (05:26.294)you
Rick Sola (05:33.974)Thank you.
Kurt Seiler (05:47.886)The number of referrals going down, the number of in-school suspensions and out-of-school suspensions have gone down because of it. And so we're trying to reward those kids for doing things the right way.
Rick Sola (05:52.854)Thank
Rick Sola (06:02.186)That's awesome. There's a lot of different, just a lot of different incentives I'd like to get into. But question I had, you mentioned the good standing and what criteria that qualifies for. Does that reset each nine weeks that you mentioned that for the TARDIS? Is that same with ISS, OSS and so forth?
Kurt Seiler (06:22.336)I'm glad you brought that up. So the OSS is for the year. ISS resets at semester. The TARDIS resets at the nine weeks. The grades resets at semester. But here's the thing about it, Rick. We don't want kids to feel like, you know, because they did something wrong, they're just out, right? So they can, what's the word for not not lobby. They can, they can write a letter.
to their administrator. And so before we have a good standing event or before we have a dance, the week and a half prior, they can put a letter, submit a letter to us writing basically what they've done wrong and how they're writing the wrong. So if they didn't pass five classes the previous semester, they write us a letter. I always tell kids that actions speak louder than words.
So we'll pull up their grades. If they're currently failing no classes and they took the time to write us a letter, chances are they're probably going to be reinstated into good standing. If they're failing a class or two classes, we tell them, hey, at this time, you're not making the progress we want to see. Next month, go ahead, submit another letter, make the progress, and you can be back in good standing. So we allow them to try and, I can't think of the word that we use.
Rick Sola (07:40.272)that to track that.
Kurt Seiler (07:46.924)basically just write a letter to try and get back in good standing. So to answer your question, it does reset, but they can do it beforehand if they're doing things the right way.
Rick Sola (07:56.394)Great. You had mentioned the Top Gun movie. So going back a few years, which by the way is one of my favorite movies, that movie's fantastic. Seen it multiple times, probably more than most movies. So you've had this in place for a little while. What kind of adjustments did you see early on that you felt like you either needed to calibrate or even change wholesale to fit where you're at today?
Kurt Seiler (08:03.5)Me too.
Kurt Seiler (08:09.154)Yeah.
Kurt Seiler (08:23.992)So a lot of it is reinstating the students back into good standing, working with the kids to make sure that they don't lose hope too. Because in the beginning, we were pretty dead set on, hey, you're not good standing for the semester. You can try again next semester. And we're like, that's a long time for a kid to sit out.
Rick Sola (08:38.196)young and with the community.
Rick Sola (08:47.51)late.
Kurt Seiler (08:49.258)if they're doing things the right way. You know, we're doing this to try and move the needle, to try and get kids to improve as always, do things the right way. So one major adjustment we had was we allow those kids each month if they want to, to submit a letter and we look at their, you know, their data, what they're doing. And if they're doing things the right way, we want to reinstate them. And so that was one major change that we made up front.
Rick Sola (09:15.316)Yeah, great. You mentioned J's for days. And I'm pretty sure I know what that's all about. But talk about that.
Kurt Seiler (09:25.324)Yeah, so last year was the first year that we did it and it actually came from our middle school assistant principal Sam Carnes. He he did J's for A's and so they do it for grades at the middle school. We just adjusted it for attendance at the high school and so. Last year we did it by semester so we had one boy one girl and actually one staff member.
Rick Sola (09:37.238)So, the grades have to be.
Rick Sola (09:44.48)So.
Kurt Seiler (09:52.61)that if you had over 95 % attendance and for students, the 95 % attendance was specifically for the staff. For the students, if you had over 95 % attendance, you had no first hour tardies, you have no more than six tardies in a quarter, and let me pull up my...
Rick Sola (10:04.246)So if you had.
Kurt Seiler (10:21.314)I'm forgetting one Rick and I don't want to. Yeah. Yes, Jays or Jordans. And so we put the kids names in a drawing and so it's no first hour tardies, no unexcused absences. Now we do it each month this year. So we changed it a little bit and I'll talk about that here in a minute, but no first hour tardies, no unexcused absences.
Rick Sola (10:23.252)Well, just while you're doing that, J's are Jordans, right?
Kurt Seiler (10:48.588)which is defined as not turning in a professional note. You cannot be Mark Truant, not be considered a Truant student, no ISS or OSS, and no more than two tardies to all classes. So last semester we did, or last year we did it by semester. We wanted to change it this year to do it by month. And so we put their names in a drawing, we draw it out, they win the chance, or not the chance, but they win a pair of shoes.
Rick Sola (11:00.65)I think.
Rick Sola (11:13.014)We'll back.
Kurt Seiler (11:18.454)And so they come to the office, I explain it to them. They can go on Nike.com or The Goat and they can order a pair of dunks or Jordans or whatever shoes they want for $150 or less. And we order it and then they get a pair of shoes. And so we did it by semester last year and what we were seeing was kids forgot about it, right? It was that same thing that we did for good standing. They kind of lost the hope after a while.
Rick Sola (11:20.438)and I'm just putting them in.
Rick Sola (11:32.192)we are.
Rick Sola (11:44.02)yeah.
Kurt Seiler (11:46.35)And so we changed it monthly this year, but we got sponsors. So Hugo's Industrial Supply here in town and Edward Jones, they are switching off months. And so we actually did our first drawing two days ago and had a boy and a girl winner. And out of those, we had 166 boys that qualified and 161 girls.
Rick Sola (11:47.542)Thank you.
Rick Sola (11:53.59)Thank
Kurt Seiler (12:15.662)for the Jays for Days drawing this month. And so it was exciting to have that first drawing this year. And then next month we'll do another drawing and that's that's kind of going back to the same thing. We don't want kids to lose hope, so we're doing it monthly this year and we're really targeting that attendance because as you know we can put every every intervention everything in place we want. But if kids aren't in school, you can't. You can't teach him so we want kids here.
Rick Sola (12:37.174)Thank
Kurt Seiler (12:44.798)and really seeing that positive effect.
Rick Sola (12:49.256)Do you record the reactions or video stream or anything when you're doing these drawings?
Kurt Seiler (12:54.678)We don't, we do it Facebook Live on the drawing, but then whenever the shoes come in, we always like to go Facebook Live this year. We're doing that differently. And the sponsors are actually going to be here to take a picture and get a photo op with the kids. But it's pretty exciting to see those kids come to the office after they've won.
Rick Sola (13:19.614)Yeah, I mean, I would be thrilled at this point. can imagine kids winning Jordans or choice of their choosing. That's a pretty nice budget too that they get to work with.
Kurt Seiler (13:31.476)It is and it it were very fortunate for the sponsors that we have here in town to be able to do it monthly because I think it's it's really going to to make a difference and I have kids that come up to me and they're like I didn't qualify this month but I'm going to be I'm going to be in that drawing next month so I know it makes a difference because as I'm sure you're wearing your school those shoes are important to those kids so they get a nice new clean pair of Jordans or dunks and it.
they just, they walk around a little differently.
Rick Sola (14:03.976)Yeah, I don't know the turnaround time on once they order and they come in probably pretty quick, but I imagine once they start wearing them, kids start to notice. you mentioned the monthly versus semester. we have not done anything like J's for days where I'm at, but we do in some of our district schools. But some of that is the balance of you don't want to just, it's September, a student gets in bad standing, if you will.
And then it's like, well, I guess I got to wait until January. You know, that's a really a positive to kind of keep keep things moving along with them. You mentioned. go ahead. Go ahead.
Kurt Seiler (14:37.452)Yep.
Kurt Seiler (14:44.046)And so to tell you a little bit about the data that we tracked behind it, so the school year before last year, for one semester, we had like 456 tardies. And in one year's time of implementing this program, it went down to 182 tardies. So it just cut down on the tardies huge. mean, big time.
Not only that, but our average daily attendance the year before we were at, we were at 92.47 ADA, which is not good at all. And we jumped in one year to 93.58. So we jumped over 1 % in our average daily attendance, which, you know, to a non-educator, that doesn't seem like very much, but.
When you look at average daily attendance and you're talking 560 kids over seven hours a day every day, like that's a pretty good jump for one school year. So the data is backing up what we're doing.
Rick Sola (15:40.608)understand.
Rick Sola (15:49.514)Yeah, you know, some of the things that I look at as, first of all, when you define chronic absenteeism and you see just two absences a month, you know, someone can get sick in the middle of January and be out for four days. you know, so it really puts it into perspective. Some of the things that I have seen as challenges sometimes is when we have our long, our natural long weekends, maybe around a president's day or a labor day,
there's cheaper flights or there's cheaper deals if you leave just a little bit earlier. And so we see some of that as well. Have you ever had any students come up and talk about adjusting family plans for any of your long weekends as a result of this policy?
Kurt Seiler (16:37.152)We have a lot of kids that choose not to miss maybe because they have a haircut. We've seen that before where they go miss school to go get a haircut or they do things. Those have all been eliminated. And it's not us harping on the kids. It's the kids not wanting to miss and take their name out of the running. And we tell them, we understand that you have doctors, dentists, appointments.
Rick Sola (16:40.502)future is not.
Kurt Seiler (17:03.916)Bring us a note and that's excused so you're not out of the running. So not only are we, you know, cutting down on the overall absences, but we're getting more doctor's notes, dentist notes, professional notes turned in to us to excuse the absences, which is what we all want as educators. And so it's, yeah, to answer your question, we don't have a lot of kids that travel out of town in our community. a little bit lower socioeconomic, but we definitely have kids that...
Rick Sola (17:06.294)Thank
Rick Sola (17:09.814)you know, down and out.
those minutes to turn it up.
Kurt Seiler (17:32.696)that are not choosing to miss because of certain things because they want to be in that drawing for the Jays for days.
Rick Sola (17:40.194)Well, ultimately too, you're encouraging good life skills. If you're going to miss work, it's important that you communicate that. You do it the appropriate way, the way it's expected. It's not that you can't, it's just that there's a process of doing it. Going back to earlier in the conversation, digital, what has led to this, the COVID, the digital platforms that we had several years ago.
I have seen that it's an annual conversation where I'm at as far as parent teacher conferences. And, you know, I've said for a long time, there's really not much mystery as to what goes on in our schools anymore between sharing out on social media, Google Classroom, platforms, LMSs, whatever, that everything is accessible to parents who want it. And that is a challenge as well as getting students in to see the relevancy of
Now there's value to you sitting in the chair of your teacher's classroom.
Kurt Seiler (18:44.47)Yeah. Yeah. And not only that, but showing up to school on time, you know, correlates to showing up to work on time. Our first hour tardies were just astronomical before we started this. And we'd have kids walk in there like, I'm late. Now with this policy, we have kids running into the building because they don't want to be late to first hour. And I tell them, if you're late to work,
your boss is not going to like it. And we're just trying to teach you how to be successful in the professional world after this. And so that the first hour tardies is big for me being to school on time correlates to being to work on time and having no first hour tardies for an entire month. That really is big on getting kids here and being in the seat on.
Rick Sola (19:33.46)Yeah. Well, that's great. There are a lot of really, just a lot of really good ideas and thoughts. and you know, we just had our, our district site council this week. So we bring the community together. The, the overarching topic was chronic absenteeism and, we had several breakout sessions all with a different angle to it. And, just a lot of really good things here and you've got the data to back it up and,
really intriguing the monthly giveaway because that that keep those the months go quick and and to be able to celebrate that on such a frequent basis I'm sure keeps it at the forefront.
Kurt Seiler (20:05.73)Yes, they do.
Kurt Seiler (20:13.612)Yeah, and so to talk about chronic absenteeism, our number is probably twice as high as what most schools are. So before last school year, which would have been the 22, 23 school year, we had a 27 % chronic absenteeism in one year of implementing the J's for days that went down to 22%. And so we're hoping to get that number down into the teens after this year.
Rick Sola (20:30.838)want you
Kurt Seiler (20:39.732)It's way higher than I want it to be even still with these policies, but any positive movement is good movement. So we are hoping to get that chronic capstan T as a number down even further.
Rick Sola (20:51.954)One thing I like too, you mentioned the supporters or sponsors of the Jays for days and just that community involvement as well. think it's good for kids. It's good for the community. And that's always something that has interested me is how do we bring in our community and what a fun thing for them. I mean, they get to stand there and be with be with a kid who just won Jordans and nothing's more exciting than that really.
Kurt Seiler (21:16.814)Yeah, and our local businesses understand if kids are in school, they're not doing the wrong thing out in the streets that are affecting their businesses. And so it was not hard to find two businesses that were willing to sponsor us. And I suspect after this year, we'll probably get a few more sponsors that want to jump on board. so, I mean, you think about it, it's $300 a month for a business. And so that over
know, a couple months they they write it off, but it's the positive interaction with the kids that they want to be in our building. They want to help out and Hugo's industrial supply here in town. They you know we do all of our business through them for buying all of our custodial supplies. Everything that we do. Not only that, Edward Jones has all of our teachers on there, so it's businesses that already have a foot in the door that wanted to help give back.
Rick Sola (22:15.422)Yeah, and I love the tie-in conversation you have when a student is tardy or if it's a frequent concern and it's like, hey, where are you going to be in a few years? And do you think this is going to fly? before we wrap up here, I want to give you a chance to talk about Independence High School. Bragging your school, your people, your community. Let's hear about independence.
Kurt Seiler (22:37.516)Yeah, I tell it anytime I go talk in town, anywhere I talk in the state, we're very fortunate with the kids that we have. You you hear a lot these days, people talking bad about this generation. I don't think people understand all the good that these kids do. I mean, these kids are involved. They do service learning as a part of a graduation requirement.
and they give back to the community. You walk down our halls, you don't see kids pushing other kids. You see kids helping, know, somebody drops their books or their papers, two or three kids stop to help pick it up. I can't say enough of how good of kids we have here in Independence. And not only that, but community involvement. You you go to a choir concert last night, our auditorium is full.
Rick Sola (23:21.768)I don't
Kurt Seiler (23:27.854)We have, you we see over 700 people in our auditorium, it's full. We have a Friday night football game, the stands are full. It doesn't matter what event we have, the community comes out, they support our kids, our kids know it and they're very fortunate to live in the community that we have. If you ever come through Independence, Kansas, we have a free zoo. Not a lot of towns can say that and we're not a large town. You know, we have...
Rick Sola (23:28.31)Thank
Rick Sola (23:39.062)that happens.
Kurt Seiler (23:55.758)8,500 people in town, we have a free zoo. You can stop by any time and go through the zoo, see a lot of different animals. But not only that, our chamber of commerce has events that happen every single month, you know, sometimes weekly live music events, different things. So it really is a great small town feeling, but it's just, it's a close knit community.
Rick Sola (24:01.014)Thank
Rick Sola (24:09.526)here.
Kurt Seiler (24:22.226)And I tell our kids all the time, you know, they say, I just want to get out of this town. said, you might want to get out of this town, but I'll tell you, there is nothing like living in a small town where people stick up for one another and help each other out in hard times. And our town is that town and our school is that school. And I'm proud to be a Bulldog and live here.
Rick Sola (24:22.845)I tell you.
Thank you.
Rick Sola (24:40.897)That's great. Thanks for sharing all that. Just awesome. Who are you playing tonight? I'm playing with Jim Nipton. He's to get played tonight. OK. Is that a big rival for you down there?
Kurt Seiler (24:47.822)We were playing chenille and they're going to be tough.
Kurt Seiler (24:54.91)It is a rivalry. It's not quite as much as us in Coffeyville who we had last week, but it definitely is a rivalry and they're tough this year. How about you guys? Who do you guys have?
Rick Sola (25:05.238)You're putting me on the spot. So we feed into a late the South and it's homecoming weekend. I should know this. I'm going to the game tonight. Kurt, can't tell you who South is playing tonight, but it is homecoming. I've got a freshman son up there. he's my oldest. So it's our first kind of getting back into the swing of things. I went to South. I'm a South grad. So I'm a Falcon through and through.
Kurt Seiler (25:17.134)That's alright.
Rick Sola (25:31.52)Darta, you just outed me here. don't know who we're playing tonight.
Kurt Seiler (25:33.102)Well, I understand. We got a lot of things on our minds, so I understand completely.
Rick Sola (25:38.752)Yeah. Hey, I really enjoyed this conversation and on a at the end of a long week and early in the morning, I appreciate you getting on here and really sharing some things. I hope that others will hear and if they're not, you know, they're struggling with some of the same issues that we're looking at nationwide. You shared a lot of really good ideas and thoughts that that are applicable everywhere. So I really appreciate your time.
Kurt Seiler (26:05.154)Well, thank you. And if anybody wants to reach out and get more information.
I'm always available. Email is usually the best way to reach me, ksiler at indieschools.com. That's K-S-E-I-L-E-R at indieschools.com. You can reach out anytime and I'll give you any information you want to know. We definitely don't have it figured out by any means and I'm always open for suggestions from anybody that wants it. any way we can help each other out as fellow educators, I'm always for it.
Rick Sola (26:36.854)Yeah, I love that. And I'll put your email in the show notes here too. People click on that. So, Kurt, happy Friday to you. I hope it's a good Friday and we'll catch you next time. All right. Thanks a lot.
Kurt Seiler (26:49.1)You too, Rick. I appreciate it.