CC#112: Advocacy in DC w/ Principals Heath Henderson (Skelly Elem) and Kurt Seiler (Independence HS)

This episode of Cool Coffee w/ Kansas Principals features principals Heath Henderson of Skelly Elementary School in El Dorado, Kansas and Kurt Seiler of Independence High School in Independence, Kansas sharing their recent advocacy trip to Washington, DC. They highlight the importance of genuine connections with policymakers, the impact of advocacy on education, and their personal experiences touring the Capitol and meeting with officials. Principals Henderson, Seiler, and host, Rick Sola, also discuss their 2026 principals of the year award for the state of Kansas and the honor it has been to receive such an recognition.

Connect with the guests:
Heath Henderson
Kurt Seiler

Contact host Principal Rick Sola: rfsola@olatheschools.org or 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.

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Chapters

00:00 Introduction to the Principals
01:00 Reflections on the Washington, DC Trip
05:44 Key Advocacy Topics Discussed
10:34 Engagement with Elected Officials
18:10 Personal Experiences and Recognition
27:35 Looking Ahead: Future Opportunities

 

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Rick Sola (00:01.707)
Hello and welcome to Cool Coffee. I am here today with Principal Heath Henderson from Skelly Elementary School in El Dorado, Kansas, USD 490. Heath?

Heath Henderson (00:13.102)
Hello, hello.

Rick Sola (00:14.529)
There you are. And then also principal Kurt Seiler of Independence High School, USD 446. Welcome, Kurt.

Kurt Seiler (00:23.464)
Thanks, Rick. Thanks for having us on here.

Rick Sola (00:25.993)
and both of whom were just named recently, 2026 Principal of the Year, in their respective level. Congrats and welcome to both of you. And we'll talk more about that here in a bit. But you guys just got back from Washington, DC. We're recording this on February 23rd. And you just took a visit to the nation's capital. And I saw a lot of pictures being put out by KPA. It looked like a really good time. I was able to hear a little bit about it last Friday at our board meeting.

would love for you to be able to share a lot more about the trip here, but how did it go? You went to Washington, DC. How was it?

Heath Henderson (01:04.514)
Well, I thought it went pretty fantastic. I think the structure of our organization and the streamlining of the message of what we're trying to advocate for was very, very impactful. And it was eye-opening to me, my first time visiting this conference and having that opportunity. And I'll let Kurt say something here, too.

Kurt Seiler (01:31.858)
Yeah, I mean, it far exceeded my expectations. I had heard from, you know, Rick Rivera, who was the then ASSP state rep before me of how beneficial it was to go on these advocacy trips. But I really had no idea of, you know, the level at which we were going to be given the respect. mean, we had two, Representative Schmidt and Representative Mann were in

the hearing with Pam Bondi that day, and they stepped out of that hearing to sit down to talk with us. And I just thought that that was pretty cool that they would give us the respect to step out of a hearing of that magnitude to sit down to have our voices heard. you know, the whole trip just far exceeded my expectations and being not only in the Capitol, but being in the tunnels that go under the Capitol that connect

the Senate and the representatives and being taken by staffers in the tunnels, it just, the whole thing was very humbling and it was a great experience.

Heath Henderson (02:41.068)
And then to kind of piggyback on that, I don't think people realize the scope and of the size of what's happening in the Capitol every day. and thinking specifically about the size of the staff for the senators and the reps and the information that they're given. and so that ability to really get in front of them with a streamlined message of the importance of public education and specifically a few things that,

that bills that are coming up and topics that are hot button topics that are sometimes in the newspaper, sometimes on the news, and sometimes a lot of misinformation for people who are outside of education. So really being able to sit down and talk. And like he said, Mr. Mann came out and from that hearing,

But I appreciate it because he had a specific question for us that we had an opportunity to answer. Not just, here's what we want to talk to you about, but like, would you like to talk to us about? And he took that opportunity to do that. And so those are just things that I think are amazing opportunities. And obviously when you're surrounded by really, really good leaders from across the country.

that a networking ability was also pretty impactful and amazing.

Rick Sola (04:08.041)
What did you do or how do you prepare for a trip like this? you given anything in advance or you just go in there or you're meeting with high level people, I say, walking out of a meeting to meet you from Pan Bondi, they're taking some serious time with you. And actually, Kurt, the other day when you were sharing about this, you used the phrase genuine time and you just felt like the time you were getting was very genuine, which I made a note of. I thought that was a really nice way to put it.

But what did you do to prepare for this trip?

Kurt Seiler (04:40.646)
Not a lot. was, I kind of felt a little unprepared going into it, but I think that was intentional on their part. They didn't want to coach us up on anything before the trip. Now, when we went on the trip, we arrived on a Sunday and they had an opening speaker Sunday afternoon. And then Monday and Tuesday, we went through listening to a lot of speakers come and visit with us about

different things that were of importance on the federal level. So we all know on the state level, we hear it all the time, of all the things that are happening in education committees and everything else, the federal level is such a different level because they don't deal with a lot of the things that were used to them dealing with. And so it was interesting to get a listen to the speakers and talk about, you know, what the federal level controls, what

bills are in place that they're talking about education wise and the importance of it. You know, that was probably the most beneficial part of the trip was those two days of getting to listen to these people who were in very important roles on the federal level and lobby for education on daily basis. And so that's where most of our training and them talking about the educational agenda that we were wanting to talk with each rep. And so that

Heath Henderson (05:54.126)
you

Kurt Seiler (06:08.54)
Those two days were beneficial for us.

Rick Sola (06:12.395)
So you mentioned the speakers and the agenda. You had some priorities that you were there talking to and about. What did that look like and what were some of those priorities that you conveyed to our elected officials?

Heath Henderson (06:27.138)
Well, there was a few bills that were either up in front to continue or new. And, and I'll just, I'll speak to the last two and I'll let Kurt speak to the one he spoke about with, with our representatives. the ones we went to were, you know, the mental health, services, and it was, it was about access to counselors and then access to early, childhood, headstart.

And so thinking about that kindergarten readiness and so that's a huge one that we wanted to put in front of them and then talk about how those things impact our building specifically and give real examples of why that's so important to us. And then the other one was that I'll talk about was the Title VI funds and that opportunity for continued professional development for our teachers, our leaders, teacher retention and thinking about the state of education with all the shortages we have now.

and how important that is to the state of Kansas and our public education system here specifically. And then I'll let Kurt talk about the one he talked.

Kurt Seiler (07:32.486)
Yeah, so my agenda item is kind of hit home with us because our students have free meals in the six years since COVID or five years since COVID. We've only had one school year where our students have not had free lunches and that's through a community grant that we've received. And so the first agenda item that we talked to them about was free meals for all students nationwide.

Heath Henderson (07:34.285)
Ahem.

Kurt Seiler (08:02.546)
We firmly believe that all kids need to have the ability to eat a meal and through the COVID process and us having all students eat for free and then seeing that taken away and how that's affected a lot of our kids not having the ability to eat lunch or they know who's free and reduced because this kid's eating every day and this kid's not eating every day and so then it's a have and have not and.

We really push that home that all of our kids need free meals nationwide. There's eight states that currently do that statewide. And we're really trying to push that nationwide just because we know a lot of our kids, the best meal that they get or the only good meal they get is at school. And it's hard to do anything when you're hungry, especially learn. And so we really tried to push that home. And within that same agenda item, there was another bill that talked about

the funding for school nurses at every building across the nation. We know a lot of districts may have one nurse and they have three or four buildings that they have to share that one nurse. We have so many students now that are diabetic, that have POTS, that have so many medical issues. We've got to have a medical personnel in that building at all times to deal with medical emergencies because, know.

God forbid the loss of one life because we don't have medical personnel is just not acceptable. And so we were really pushing for the nurse and the free meals and the two that Heath talked about, especially the, you know, the title one, Kara was there with us and she got to really talk about how much professional development they provide to administrators across the state of Kansas. USA is just knocking it out of the park when it comes to states on their administrative professional development.

And she specifically was talking how we have over 50 open superintendent positions in the state of Kansas, which we know are probably going to be filled with principals and then qualified, highly qualified teachers will move up into those admin roles. And so you get the trickle down effect and you just need to make sure that your people are trained and ready for those positions when they're named. so that was all three of the topics that we talked about were so important.

Kurt Seiler (10:21.872)
and it was nice because we split it up. I talked about one, Heath talked about one, and then Kelly and Kara talked about the other one. So it was kind of nice that we each had one that we were, you know, quote unquote experts on and could talk about and all have a story that related to us in our own buildings.

Rick Sola (10:40.555)
So you just referenced the others that attended, just for for clarity of this conversation, who all were you with? What was the group that you were with and who made up?

Kurt Seiler (10:50.354)
So it was myself, Kurt Siler, Heath Henderson, Kelly Whitaker, principal at Ottawa High School and last year's secondary principal of year. And then Carol Leedy, the executive director of the KPA, and then Eric Sacco. Eric wasn't able to stay with us the whole trip because his son was playing his senior night game on Tuesday night, so he had to leave Tuesday morning, but was still there on Monday and Sunday.

you know, to do his part with NAESP.

Rick Sola (11:21.473)
So you mentioned talking with some of the elected officials or potentially representatives. So kind of go through that. I know you met with several. Were you talking with the elected officials themselves, some of their representatives? Who did you meet with?

Heath Henderson (11:38.892)
So we, get Kara told, because Kara's been several years, she said this is the most FaceTime that we've had in our organization's history with our actual reps. And so out of our six representatives and congressmen, we actually met with five of them in person and got their personal time. The only one that we didn't, we had to meet with their person was Senator Marshall, but everybody else, we actually got to sit down face to face with.

or stand and have a face-to-face with an opportunity to have a little bit of face time. And one of the things that I thought was, we talked about the genuine time earlier, we walked away really feeling heard by a couple, specifically by a few of them. I felt much more connected to...

that they're actually decent people. You sometimes we get so jaded by, again, go back to what we see and what we read and all those things, and then actually getting to sit down with people and have them talk to you and have real conversations with you about real things that are happening in areas that you know and they know and common people we have. And that humanizes them. like I thought, you know, Jerry Moran,

They had to, his people kept trying to pull him away from us because he was giving us all the time and wanted to continue giving us more time. And so just genuinely humbled by the generosity that they showed us. Cause when you walk in there, then you start seeing how truly busy they are. And we're all in roles where we know how busy our lives can get and making time for everybody is not always possible. But.

It was pretty awesome to get to sit face to face and really have those meaningful conversations.

Kurt Seiler (13:39.816)
Yeah, I thought one of the cool pieces too was Cherise David's, Kara had set up a lot of these meets, right? Well, for whatever reason, the emails that she had sent, I don't think the person was getting or something, something was mixed. So she's like, let's just stop by and just see, you know, we can hand them the agenda. We stopped by, she got done with the meeting and.

She didn't have us on her schedule and she sat down with us and she gave us She said how much time do we have in her staff? We're standing next to her said nine minutes and so it was just boom boom boom We were hitting it off as fast as we could but she gave us every minute that she had available She sat down. It was genuine time same with with Jerry Moran as he said but Tracy Mann and Derek Schmidt stepping out of their meeting to sit down with us

gave us genuine time. weren't trying to rush away. They were sitting there. They were listening to us. And then Ron Estes is another one. We didn't have a meeting on the books. And we just were sitting in his office waiting to talk with a staffer. And he got done with the meeting. And he gave us a few minutes of his time, took a picture, made a video with us. He didn't have to do that because he was rushing off to a committee meeting. I mean, we all know in our position, we're pulled in multiple.

directions and everybody wants a piece of our time, those representatives and senators, it's amazing how many different directions they're being pulled. And they did, they gave us a genuine time and it was much appreciated.

Rick Sola (15:14.849)
It's really awesome to hear kind of to Heath's point and I've talked with Rick Rivera on this before and he said he conveyed the same message where you know, we can easily get wrapped up and whether it's headlines or You know message boards or whatever and then when you meet the person Behind whether it's a decision or a party or whatever But the personal element and I think Kurt you referenced that the other day but to hear Heath bring that up of

you know, kind of regardless of party lines and just having that time, that genuine time to be able to sit down, you realize the person behind the position. And I think a lot of times I can get lost because we, you know, there's just so much noise that you've got to sift through. So for both of you to be able to get through the noise and just be able to sit and be with another person and have a conversation. And it's really encouraging to hear.

just really like everybody you met with and I think you got to all six of the Kansas legislature. Is that right? Or at least to be able to have that kind of time, whether it was nine minutes or someone breaking out of a meeting to talk with you, that's really encouraging that they're taking time to hear you and the way you felt about it.

Heath Henderson (16:19.159)
No.

Kurt Seiler (16:19.39)
you

Kurt Seiler (16:32.806)
Yeah, because I know not every state had the same experience that we did. And Derek Schmidt gave us a tour of the Capitol at nine o'clock at night on that Tuesday night or no Wednesday night. And just it wasn't a rush through tour. He was telling us stories. He was, you know, we got to sit on the house floor. We got to go down into the the crypt, Washington's crypt. Like it just the

Heath Henderson (16:46.988)
Wednesday night.

Kurt Seiler (17:02.366)
For him to take out his personal time and give us a tour, it was an hour and 45 minute long tour he gave us. Where he just, I mean, it was amazing that he gave us that time. And not only that, but we got to go in the Capitol at night when no one else is there. know, it just, the history of that building, it's just awe. You're in awe. If you know anything about the United States history and you step foot in that building, let alone get a go to the spots that he took us and tells us the stories. I mean, we got to look.

Heath Henderson (17:08.087)
Thank

Kurt Seiler (17:32.388)
up the stairs where the president walks down to get inaugurated. Like just the volume of the place that we're at, I'm a history buff. And so being able to get that tour and be in our nation's capital, I mean, it just gives me chills thinking back to it.

Heath Henderson (17:48.768)
Well, and I'm going to piggyback on what Kurt just said about that with with with Representative Schmidt. Like that was not something that we had scheduled or planned. He sat down and took time with us and just we just sat and we talked for a little while and then as we were getting ready to leave, he's like. Do you guys have a tour?

Are you guys haven't taken a tour? And we had missed our day tour because we had a staffer from another state, had, was going to do a tour for us. but we had missed it to meet with them. and we said no. And he, and he, he, you know, exchanged the numbers with, with Mr. Seiler here and sure enough, texted us. He's like, I got a late dinner, but if you guys are up for it, I can do it later. And sure enough, he met us up there at nine o'clock at night and then hour 45 minutes.

not rushed, taking our time, and it was pretty awesome to just, again, that genuine time. I'll also say that one other kind of fun connection piece is, you know, Kurt is the principal at Independence. Well, Derek Schmidt graduated from Independence. I went to same fourth grade, I went to fourth grade at Washington Elementary in Independence, and that's where he went. So it was kind of some, it was,

Rick Sola (18:56.613)
well.

Heath Henderson (19:05.344)
how small of a world it really is. In Washington, D.C., and you have two people who meeting with one of these people who have legit personal connections in some way, form.

Rick Sola (19:07.36)
Yeah.

Rick Sola (19:15.37)
That's really cool. That's really cool. And I'm hearing all this and I'm a former social studies teacher and I love history and I love following it. And I'm so jealous right now hearing all this like, my gosh, you got to do what? The nine o'clock tour, the Capitol. That's awesome. No, that it's really cool. And like I said, I was kind of following along. I saw some pictures put out, but really just a, a, it sounds like a really great experience, positive experience. And, and that's what I, I love hearing in,

a little bit from Friday when we were meeting with the board, but even more so now, just how positive it was across all the people you talked with. And let's hear from you and to be able to represent. So thanks for representing, but just also really awesome to hear about that. So anything else on your DC trip that's worth mentioning here?

Heath Henderson (20:07.586)
Well, anybody who gets, has a chance to go, highly suggest, Filomena's Italian food in Georgetown. the best I've ever had in my life and the, and as good as the food was the, the whole, the restaurant was even better. It was just such a neat, experience.

Kurt Seiler (20:26.81)
It was, and we got a tour of the White House one morning. It wasn't a lengthy tour just because construction that's going on, but that was, that was.

you know bucket list item for me and then we got to go to the Holocaust Museum one morning where we had a little bit extra time and that was Man, that was humbling. It just the Holocaust Museum if you're in Washington DC You've you've got to see it because it's just it it's I mean, there's no good word for it. It's just humbling there. It's just an eye-opening experience

Rick Sola (21:01.056)
Well, there is a trip being planned here in several weeks, I guess, back to Washington, D.C., as part of principal of the year recognition and trip. And Heath, I know your trip is at a different time, but is it still Washington?

Heath Henderson (21:18.518)
I have, yes, it's still Washington. Mine's next fall for that principal of year gala. Actually, it's the national distinguished principal gala, I guess, is what it's called. I'm still learning about all that. It's kind of weird and humbling.

to hear all of that. also you said something about us. I just want to make sure your listeners also know that Rick Sola, our guy right here, also the middle school principal of the year for the state of Kansas. So he's being very humble and trying to shine on other people. But we all know that all the great things that you're doing for the state of Kansas, not just your school.

Rick Sola (21:43.944)
yeah.

Rick Sola (21:53.345)
Well, thank you. I'm going to tell you, I have never had such an injection of imposter syndrome as I had with this recognition. I was like, yeah, my gosh. It's very humbling. You said the word, extremely so, but an extreme honor. yeah, so I just wanted to bring that up as part of

the experiences, you know, all three of us have recently gotten into. And I'll just start with, in a nutshell, 30 seconds or so, how did you find out about this? Kurt, I'll start with you.

Kurt Seiler (22:35.334)
So my superintendent scheduled a meeting with us on, I think, like a Tuesday morning for us to meet in the middle school. it was us, me my two assistant principals, and he wasn't showing up. And I'm like, hey, are we still having this meeting? What's going on? And so he calls me a few minutes later. He's like, hey, something's going on down the band room. We need to come down. Now, our band is...

That's like what we're known for in our area, right? We got 115 kids in our band and they win all kinds of competitions. They're amazing. So I'm like, is a fire marshal here? What's going on? Cause we got a lot of kids in this room. And so I walk in the room and my wife stand there and I'm like, okay, something's up. And so then I see Carol Eady and I'm like, what are you doing here? And so then my superintendent presents me with principle of the year and the band plays our, our fight song. And it was, I don't, I don't get choked up very

often but I got a little choked up and it just yeah it was it was a cool way to do it because I mean that's where our most of our students are at one time and to have my wife there that was that was special for me because she's also a teacher in our district so it was pretty cool.

Rick Sola (23:45.44)
awesome.

Heath Henderson (23:48.086)
Well, so my school every morning where we are all together, every single morning, we're all together. We do our brain smart start and then we start, we do the pledge in the gym and then we release to classes. And so our kids were getting sat down and I was getting ready to start the pledge and then out the back door, here comes Carolini. And then here comes my wife and my kids and other people.

then they, you I will, I will echo what he said. I don't like to get emotional, but it's, it is really hard. When you look at your staff and your kids and we don't do this for that kind of stuff, but the, the pride that I actually had in them, because that only happens if they're doing good. And that means that they're doing good. And I was just so proud of all of.

them to be able to, I don't know, just to be able to share that moment with these people who you love, kids, staff, family, all of them, because that community piece is very impactful. And I could not get the pledge done fast enough afterwards so they could go. then it's just, and then of course I go down and then they have all these pictures and stuff all over through the building. So I had to.

Rick Sola (25:14.527)
Heath Henderson (25:15.232)
I had to make sure I got all that stuff down really as quickly as I could.

Kurt Seiler (25:19.474)
Yeah, I mean, he'd said it, I don't think any one of us three that are on this podcast.

like taking recognition for anything. I think that's kind of part of being a leader. But the only positive about taking recognition for this is we're a reflection of our building and that means our building and our staff and our kids are highlighted in a positive manner because there's enough negativity going around about education. So to have all three of our buildings highlighted because of good, even if that means we have to be the person in the limelight, I don't like it because I would like my staff

and everybody else to be recognized but I mean if there's any good that comes from it it's it's a fact that our staff and our students get to be recognized for their hard work.

Heath Henderson (26:03.2)
I do want to say I did have one other highlight from that moment. The following day, there was an elderly gentleman who came in my building, and he was the former principal of this building back in the 80s and the 90s. And he came to congratulate me.

And he was, he used to be involved with KPA and all that stuff and, he had been nominated, but he was just so proud that somebody from our district was recognized. But for him, and he was 91 years old and he took time out of his day to come up here. Cause he, and he just, and so I just took it and gave him a tour and we spent some time together and talked about our South side superstars down here. just, that was when you saw your, your community.

Rick Sola (26:38.122)
Wow.

Heath Henderson (26:51.702)
And not just the people you work with and know, but some of the people on the outside who just have history. So because I didn't know him from anybody and it was just, it was very, that was also very humbling. And so had to make sure I took it and wrote him a letter because I found out who one of his granddaughters were and I was like, Hey, I need his address.

Kurt Seiler (27:09.512)
Thank

Rick Sola (27:09.792)
That's really cool. It is neat. mean, there's so many people that reach out that are unexpected. you realize the, I mean, really kind of the impact this school has, like Kurt said, you're representative of the school. And I've never felt more strongly. I've seen a million awards shows and people recognizing all the team. And I never felt that so strongly as I did of like, this isn't possible at all with, and I look at all the people that were out there and we had an impromptu kind of surprise.

pep assembly and same kind of experience. see my family walking in, the kids are cheering. I've got an eighth grader here in the building. He got to come down and it's a moment you don't forget. And Dr. Dane actually came over, because think Kara was having, her daughter was having a grandbaby at the time or So Dr. Dane came in and the district team and kind of at the same time, Heath, it's like, okay.

Let's all get back to class. It's uncomfortable. Let's go. And you don't know how to respond to those things. But truly, truly it is an honor. and then you get the email of what you complete after the fact. How did that go for you? Cause I got that email and I was like, my, my gosh. Where do I start?

Heath Henderson (28:23.458)
Yeah.

Kurt Seiler (28:23.55)
Well, Karen gave me a heads up and she's like, hey, you've got to do the application for national principal here. I'm like, okay, you know, I'll get to it. She's like, Kurt, you need to get started on it. You know, she was my high school principal. So her getting onto me because I didn't do my work in time is nothing new. But I opened it up and I'm like, my goodness. And so I took

Heath Henderson (28:30.914)
Yeah.

Rick Sola (28:45.802)
Ha

Kurt Seiler (28:52.846)
good two solid days I mean my door was open and people were coming in but that's what I was working on was just non-stop because of all the things that you have to compile and Somebody said you get you know principal here. What do you get now? I said a lot more work

Heath Henderson (29:10.636)
Well, and luckily mine's not due until May, so. Yeah.

Kurt Seiler (29:15.484)
Have fun with that.

Rick Sola (29:16.874)
Kurt, how much time did you have to complete it? Because we were on a tight turnaround.

Kurt Seiler (29:20.754)
We were on tight turnaround. She sent it to me and I think it was due at the end of the next week. Like it was, and I had to get the student to write. I had to get a parent to write. And I'm like, man, I don't even know how this process. So I got in and luckily I called Kelly Whitaker who did this last year. And she's like, my goodness. She got hers and did hers on the day that her team was competing at state basketball. And so hers was very rushed and she's like, Hey,

Rick Sola (29:27.39)
Yeah.

Rick Sola (29:46.2)
wow.

Kurt Seiler (29:49.796)
you better get started on now this is what you need to do and so I highly suggest Heath that when you get started on it you call last year's winner because they're going to be able to help you out a lot.

Heath Henderson (29:59.468)
Well, it's funny because there was another application process that we were working through that was very similar. So a lot of it's going to help translate, think, and transfer. yeah, no, it's, you know, I'm kind of excited to see those next steps and looking forward to that trip to DC and all that stuff. It's going to be so many opportunities to steal great ideas from other great leaders.

Kurt Seiler (30:27.676)
Rick, did you get feedback from someone else before you did yours?

Rick Sola (30:27.86)
Yeah.

Rick Sola (30:31.648)
I reached out to Dr. Dane. Yeah, just I had eight days, I think is when I got it and it was due the following, you know, it was eight days later. So I was working on it kind of like you did. You're kind of chipping away at it and pulling together what you need. But then getting letters from people that need to write on your behalf and which I just found very awkward. Like, hey, could you could you write a nice letter about me and just turn it over?

Kurt Seiler (30:59.646)
I

Rick Sola (31:01.664)
But no, it's a really neat, it is a neat process and you really, you kind of dig into some things as part of it. So it's really neat. And I guess to close the loop of this, there is for Kurt and I, secondary side of things in April, a trip to DC for the, I can't remember, it's the NELA, National Educator Leadership Awards night, I believe. And then Heath, you said yours is in the fall.

Kurt Seiler (31:26.845)
in it.

Heath Henderson (31:30.198)
Yep, in October. So, ESP, yeah.

Rick Sola (31:31.905)
for the NAESB, yeah. So, and then some things in between, but had opportunities to jump on, NASSP, Principal of the Year, Zooms, know, guess collaboration opportunities with each other. So it's been a really, really cool experience, but super excited to be a part of it and to see the two of you on the other side of things at the elementary and high school level.

It's truly an honor. but anyway, I want to thank you both for being here today. I know Kurt, you're headed to a site council. Heath, you're probably headed to something too and concluding a Monday here, taking some time to share out and just a really awesome, awesome trip. It sounded like you had in Washington. I'm excited for this to get out and hope people will hear your perspective on just how it was you felt when you're meeting with our elected representatives.

Kurt Seiler (32:29.906)
Yeah, and Rick, I just want to say thank you for continuing the communication side of KPA. I mean, you do an amazing job of getting principals stories and word out there, and I can't thank you enough from all of the principals in the KPA. How much we appreciate what you're doing. And as he said, couldn't pick a more deserving person than middle school principal of year. And you know, I'm honored to sit in the presence of both of you. So call you both friends and and it's that's

That's what the KPA organization's about is networking and I wouldn't have met the people that I know now and I just can't say enough how much your guys' friendship means to me.

Heath Henderson (33:08.942)
Well, and I'll echo that same exact thing. And not only that, but like we wouldn't be sitting here if we didn't have opportunities to network with people like you guys. Like I wouldn't be sitting here if I wasn't around you guys. there's little things that I've learned from both of you and as well as some other people in KPA and USA. And it's just, it's an amazing fraternity to be a part of. I, but.

I also want go back to the very first piece of that and just say thank you so much, Rick, for everything you do for our leaders and the communication piece, because these things are things that will live forever and reference points for young leaders and...

new ideas. That whole communication piece and that's where our world is going is actually, they need podcasts, need video, they need audio. It's nice to write articles, all that stuff's great, but putting this platform together and taking that time and doing it in such a professional way has been amazing. Thank you again, Rick.

Rick Sola (34:19.552)
Well, thank you both. And it's an honor to do this and truly to sit with both of you. And you mentioned KPA. I'm not meeting either of you if I'm not a part of the KPA and being a part of all that the KPA has to offer through conference as part of the USA Network in May, KPA conference in November. And those are events that I so look forward to because it's fun to connect with both of you in person and all the others.

And there's just so much value to the network we have. And that's the strength in what it is we do, is tying us all together. And so thanks for being a part of that. And once again, for being a part of this podcast today and sharing out. But I want to wish you all luck in the rest of the semester. And if not sooner, I know I'll see Kurt in April, but we'll all catch up here soon enough, I'm sure.

Heath Henderson (35:14.926)
Thank you very much.

Kurt Seiler (35:15.836)
Yep, thanks Rick.