CC#32: Mr. Don Epps - Pleasanton Schools

Join Mr. Don Epps, proud superintendent of Pleasanton Schools USD 344, as he shares his motivational methods and philosophies used with his staff and students. This conversation provides many thought-provoking soundbites that'll prove useful for any school leader. 

Connect with Don Epps:

• X: @DonEppsEDU
• Founder of #ChasingGreatness Enterprises
  @ChaseGreatEDU

(full transcript and chapters of the episode below)

 

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Chapters (time stamp does not account for 30 second intro)

00:00 Introduction to Don Epps and His Role
03:03 The Importance of Music in School Culture
05:50 Journey to Superintendency: Early Influences and Experiences
11:55 The Middle School Experience: Challenges and Joys
15:03 Chasing Greatness: The Philosophy Behind the Movement
20:23 Pursuing Greatness: The Journey Begins
22:40 Chasing Greatness: A Year of Learning
25:31 The Power of Joyful Leadership
28:54 Creating a Joyful School Environment
30:02 Building Excitement in Education
34:23 Celebrating Community and Leadership
38:32 The Importance of Sharing Stories

Transcript is AI generated. Time stamps do not account for 30 second show intro.

Rick Sola (00:02.155)
Hello and welcome to another edition of Cool Coffee. am here today with the very proud superintendent of Pleasanton Schools, USD 344, home of the Blue Jays, Mr. Don Epps. How are you, Don?

Don Epps (00:18.63)
What's up Rick, thank you for having me on here it's been a it's an honor I've been looking forward to this a long time and so thank you for taking the time to Visit with me. It's been awesome

Rick Sola (00:31.302)
absolutely. No, this is great. It's an honor to have you on here. And I'm really excited to talk to you and get a little bit more in depth with just a lot of the things that I've seen on your very active social media accounts. And we'll get to it. But I'd also add in their inspirational social media accounts. I'm excited for you to be able to share a little bit more about that with the principals here that are listening and for all who decide to tune in.

As we get to that, I'll just start. know, we just finished. We're recording this on February 6th. And so it's a Thursday. And how did you fill your day today?

Don Epps (01:09.754)
Well, number one, I started by greeting my son at the door of our school. He's in fifth grade. He has two favorite teams in the whole wide world in NFL. His two favorite teams.

our offices, the chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles. So he wore an Eagle's Jersey with a cheese cap. I did not expel him. Okay. But we're working through it, but on Sunday night, we're going to be, we're going to be rooting for the, for the chiefs. I, we're going to some issues, but no, the best way I can start my day any day is greeting kids and getting the boom box out in front of the school, playing some good music and

Seeing the parents and the the families who and see the kids off the bus That's out if I can't start my day like that. It's usually not a good day But I don't care how cold or how warm it is or whatever else we we try it sometimes it gets a little windy in my beautiful hair and But uh, but like I said, no that that's it. That's this gets that fuels me from the rest of my day

Rick Sola (02:11.756)
So you greeted with the boombox. You wouldn't happen just to pull out like Celine Dion or Cher or anything.

Don Epps (02:18.283)
Yeah Yeah, I have this inspired. Well, first off I kind of stumbled upon Apple music and I always been a commercial guy on Pandora or YouTube and I would never spill for the but I can accidentally got to three months free trial and My wife Vicky wonderful person. She doesn't know about that yet so I've been going crazy in the last couple months with with Apple downloads and

So I have this inspired greatness playlist and it has all kinds of incredible things on it. So yes, little slain. I've been adding some new music every day and I got a little bit of a YouTube on there. So it's just, if it's fun, we can play it. So.

Rick Sola (03:03.922)
That's perfect. I brought that up because I saw, don't know if it was this week or last week, but you had some Celine Dion and I was impressed. You're out there singing it and then you introduced to students, share and kind of you build it as kind of, this is the Taylor Swift of like yesteryear, if you will. So how did that go? What did they think of it?

Don Epps (03:08.337)
Yeah.

Yeah

Don Epps (03:25.401)
Yes. She I didn't. Okay, I'll start off. I did not show any music videos or share because sometimes they're a little bit racy. But I will say that the kids love it. They love love music at lunch. We play music all the time. You're at you're probably asking yourself like I'm a superintendent now, but I I'm an educator and I love being around kids and teachers.

Rick Sola (03:30.188)
You

Don Epps (03:48.803)
And so I'm, I'm going to put myself in those situations. And so I serve peaches at lunch and whatever it takes, you know, we have different fruits and vegetables. I serve at lunch and the lunch line. And then once we're done serving, we get out there and we have these huge dance parties. And so I introduced the kids to all kinds of amazing music. And we got, we got every grade level now is getting me a playlist. like the first grade playlist, and then I got a high school playlist, but, but like every grade level has got their own and it gets

Sometimes there's music wars in there because they want to hear. I have little fingerprints all over my shirt sometimes because, and my sports coats, because kids come up with, they got pasta on their finger and like tug at my shirt. Mr. Abs, I want to hear, you know, and the big one is, big one is Cupid's shuffle is still alive. I mean, it doesn't go anywhere. Church clap's a big one now. my gosh, church clap. That's crazy.

Rick Sola (04:45.504)
I was gonna ask if church clap, because that promotes just the most incredible reaction. We'll do music on like a Friday in the lunchroom. And when that song comes on, the shrill that you first hear and then immediately they start getting into the dancing. It's incredible.

Don Epps (04:52.263)
Yeah.

Don Epps (05:02.628)
Rick, could you invite me to your lunch room sometime on a Friday? I would. Okay.

Rick Sola (05:06.722)
You are welcome anytime. Yeah, we'll cue up church clap. And like I said, I didn't even know what it was until I saw this reaction and then I had to learn a little bit more about it.

Don Epps (05:19.533)
We got you got no kids gonna be flexible do that church clap. They they don't mess around

Rick Sola (05:23.198)
Yeah, I'll watch, but I don't have that kind of ability. I love that you mentioned you're a superintendent now, but you're an educator in getting in to the schools. And part of this show with our guest is to share that road to the chair, that road to where you're at right now. And what did that road look like? You are now the superintendent in Pleasanton, but how did you get there?

Don Epps (05:28.038)
No.

Don Epps (05:50.69)
Well, number one, coming out of high school, I had an incredible person in my life named Charlie Beckman, who I named my son after, R. Charlie. And he gave me an opportunity to be a football aide as a senior. had junior high during the school day practice. So one of the senior high school, could like during the seventh period, we had junior high practice. And I did it. And I quickly knew this was my calling. This is what I love. I got so much, I received so much energy from going out there with those kids. And I've just...

I was just an older role model, hopefully for those kids. But after the end of that season, Mr. Beckman pulled me over and says, Donnie, you are a football coach and teacher and you're a coach and teacher. And I believed him. And so from that point forward, I was, I got an education path. My family was, we had a lot of agricultural experience and background, but it was education from that point forward. And, I'm, I just loved it. And so.

From that point, I wanted to put myself around the greatest people possible to learn and grow. think a quality of all great leaders is you have a, you have a quest to learn every day and you, you're humble enough to know that you don't have all the answers and you need to learn. And I I'm that way every, that's why I live in your podcast so much, Rick. It's amazing to hear all the great people around the state of Kansas. And, and so I got, I was able to later on, while I still in college coach at St. Mary's Colgate and Chuck's mess.

And then, then after that, after I got out of college, I continued to coach at Colgan. And then later I moved to Fort Scott to be the defensive coordinator. was 25 years old defensive coordinator at Fort Scott. And within that year, the legendary coach, Bob Campbell went into the business world and then I become the head coach at 26. And all the reason I mentioned that is I thought I had all the answers back then. And, it's awesome, but you don't know it's like, it's this amazing ignorance, I guess.

But growing up in our grain elevator here in Pleasanton, Kansas, where I'm at currently, I've come back home in the last couple of years, my parents modeled how to treat people and this work ethic and how to do the little things right. And people will always remember how you treat them. I just, that's why I took those principles and went through education that way. How I went from a teacher to a administrator, well,

Don Epps (08:15.743)
I believed I got to a point where I believed the culture we had in our classroom and how we treated each other and how we did that on our sports teams that I coach track football and basketball. We could then take that to the building. And that's, I saw that's where I had the, the, the itch, guess. And so I first became an administrator in diamond high school down in South West Missouri, down South Joplin loved it. was amazing experience. and.

I noticed why the diamond of the high school principal, like I said, I noticed sixth grade was a really pivotal year in a kid's life. You know that there's that every kid we hope comes to school as a spark in their eye, like they can do anything in the world. And I noticed that is a lot where a lot of dreams die sometimes right around that fifth to seventh grade range. And so I love diamond, but I wasn't from Missouri, although I grew up on the state line. And when.

Royster middle school position opened up as a principal there in Chinook, great school district, great community. I felt compelled that this is a calling for me to be a middle school principal up until that point. I've never, I've only been a middle school coach at different. This is a few times in my career, just middle school, everything else in high school. And I quickly realized it was in about the first two days of being a middle school principal. This is my maturity level. Okay. I'm like a six, I'm like a middle school kid. And so, and.

Rick Sola (09:38.946)
haha

Don Epps (09:42.177)
What I, what I loved about it is, is that if you are genuine, it will always win. Kids, kids can detect it. Staff can detect, you know that Rick. mean, and so, so after being at Royster for five years and the combination, you know, my dad's health is not great and he's still, he's still going. But I just felt when this position opened up, I never thought I'd leave Royster. I was going to be there for my career and, and we loved it. That was our home.

And, uh, so it was really, really tough to leave, but when the superintendent job opened up in Pleasanton, that's community I grew up in. didn't go to high school here. I went to school in Jayhawk. We had a kind of weird school border, but, uh, which is a five miles away in mountain city. And also in mountain city and the class of 1997, I have a horrible, horrible senior pitcher with me as a mustache. Friends don't let friends grow teenage mustaches. And, remember that Rick? Okay.

I can never go really back there permanently, but I have to live with that. But I just felt that what we did at the building level at Royster, the culture, the feel, the excitement we had, it can be done at a district level. And coming to Pleasanton, it's one, it's more a small school district, but it's a school district where I can see every kid every day. And that's so special to me. And I can see every teacher every day. so these connections, although I don't communicate the same way,

the staff anymore, you know, but some ways I'm kind of like grandpa now. I don't have to be the direct discipline person, but it's kind of fun. But we have one campus and I can see 18 year olds and then five minutes later I can be in the preschool, you know, and it's just awesome.

Rick Sola (11:27.286)
Yeah. That's a funny analogy. You say grandpa say, you know, things you're in the building loving it. Things start happening. You know what? I'm going to, I'm going to go to the other grade level here and good luck with all that. Yeah. That's funny. You mentioned mustache. You know, I mean, I think that's kind of all the rage now. People are the younger generation. I wouldn't say it's my style, but you know, give it a shot.

Don Epps (11:40.127)
I'm out. All right. Call me if you need me.

Don Epps (11:52.988)
Rick Sola (11:55.09)
You mentioned middle school and that's where I'm at. I've spent all but one of my 21 years at the middle school and you always say when we meet with parents and they come in and you're introducing them to the whole middle school, know, I really, always looking for someone who loves middle school because I think it's an age that you've got to love. You've got to embrace and understand the quirks and the kind of the weirdness, but there's so much joy and a lot of fun. Middle school is not for everybody, but

Don Epps (12:13.213)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Rick Sola (12:24.842)
for us, who it's for, man, what a great place to be. I referred to it as, I've heard it called the best kept secret. Cause I think a lot of people try to like almost recoil at the thought of middle school. Man, there's a lot of really good things happening in those middle school, middle levels.

Don Epps (12:26.321)
Yeah.

Don Epps (12:31.737)
Yep.

Don Epps (12:37.597)
Yeah, it's amazing and we're every everybody we're all we all have insecurities, but in that middle school time, that's when you really be exposed and and kids need to have confidence. They need to feel comfortable who they are. And that's that's why that's that's the mission we're on, right? You know, we don't we want kids to feel like they're valued and they're loved and cared for and they go do great things. And that's why we do what we do every day.

Rick Sola (13:02.018)
You touched on earlier, because being a new coach in your mid-20s, and that was me at one point, and it is funny how there's a sense of like, you know everything. You know, I can't, are we doing it this way? Oh my goodness. And that really taps into that whole ignorance is bliss saying, which I don't think I fully understood until I got older. And they're like, oh yeah, you know, there is a bliss to not knowing, but.

Don Epps (13:14.147)
Yeah.

Don Epps (13:19.11)
Yeah.

Don Epps (13:24.388)
Yeah.

Rick Sola (13:28.682)
So you are now the superintendent. I'm sorry, is this your second year or first year as superintendent? Okay. And having now kind of passed through the principal chair, is there anything that you think back on now that you're a superintendent, you think, I wish I had done more of this as a principal.

Don Epps (13:33.007)
Yeah, second year. Yep.

Don Epps (13:47.291)
Yeah. And so I'm going to just give one piece of advice off of this too. What makes you special as a principal or as an educator? Cause there's, there's going to be so many principals going into superintendencies over the next years to come. Don't ever change what makes you special. And that is something I see so much people try to be something different in a different role. What's your core is, is your superpower, your talents, you know, and what, and what, what helps you help people.

So don't ever change that. so there, I'm sorry, you're gonna.

Rick Sola (14:21.87)
no, no, that goes right into what you said earlier about relating to students and middle school students maybe specifically, but I'd say also just being authentic, being genuine, being who you are, you know.

Don Epps (14:34.424)
Yeah. And absolutely. I going back like trust your gut, know, you're like follow your heart and trust your gut is something I kind of live by. And if I could go back to be a principal, who knows? may, I may go back and be a football coach someday, you know, full time or history. love history teaching, but I would say one thing going back would be never don't beat myself up so much on, on things that

didn't go the way I, I'm part of myself, you know? And we got to for ourselves a little slack. think life's hard enough and we've got enough criticism and enough out there. And I think I should have probably gave myself a little more grace, you know, as a, as a principal. I lived and died by every decision I made a lot. And I still do it now, the superintendent, but it's just, we all need to it because life's so hard. know, Rick, just like, give yourself grace, cut yourself some slack and just, just follow your heart and trust your gut.

Rick Sola (15:34.274)
Yeah, you know, and I kind of wonder too, our professions tend to, the people that gravitate toward these professions probably are naturally more hard on ourselves when we mess up or when we perceive that we've messed up. And so then it just kind of doubles down on you. And I kind of want to get to, it kind of leads me to a follow-up question, but kind of getting to the hashtag that is tied to your name and to your...

Don Epps (15:44.869)
Yeah.

Don Epps (15:59.306)
Yeah.

Rick Sola (16:02.41)
your social media, but that's the hashtag chasing greatness and thinking as principal. But now as superintendent, I have been following you now for a while. think the first time I'm trying to remember if was USA, Kansas in May or if it was KPA conference last November or two Novembers ago. But your session was really well attended and my assistant here was in your session and just had so many great things to say. So I started following and

Don Epps (16:06.048)
No.

Rick Sola (16:32.404)
I just really enjoy your Twitter account and I know, But I guess the origin of Chasing Greatness, when did it start? How did it start? Where'd you come up with it?

Don Epps (16:36.058)
Yeah, we call it Twitter. Don't get the X stuff out here. It's Twitter. It's always gonna be Twitter to me.

Don Epps (16:46.902)
Yeah. So as a high school principal back in diamond, kept, I wanted something like a rallying call, something that could just really, we could use as a verb, you know, and just use as an action. And so I was dreaming this thing up and I, you know, I, one of my friends, Hamish Brewer, he's the skateboard principal. He, we visit and we talk and you know, back in the old days and back on the diamond and he's such a great guy. And.

Rick Sola (17:10.135)
Yeah.

Don Epps (17:17.34)
And so he had this thing I heard in one of his videos, like chasing championships. I'm like, well, I love the word chasing, but I like championships, like a destination. so I like, so then it's like the, kind of hit me, know, chasing greatness means it's a journey. It's never, it's never ending. It's about the process. It's about, it's about we grow from the process. We grow from, from the travels we have and we never get to destination, you know, just that.

And what it really comes back to is it's a relentless pursuit of being our best self, you know, and, it never ends. We're going to have, we're going to trials and errors and we're going to failures and triumphs, but, but it's all about this. Never stop, never stopping, you know, just keep on chasing it. And, uh, and what happened, kind of, so it was kind of the summer I was going to Royster and that thing just took off. just, I didn't even think about it that much, but cause kids use it as part of their language, you know,

And it can be to lift people up or to call people out a little bit. Kids do it for themselves. Like that's not chasing greatness, you know, and, or, Hey, that's chasing greatness. And my point is we, we branded it all over our school and in our community at chenute. And it's really, it's taken off and I don't want it to be mine. I don't, just want people to use it and benefit from it and grow from it, you know, change, adapt it. But I will say that having this, a having a

Haven't I wouldn't call it. It's more than a brand. It's just kind of a mindset just have I think every school kind of needs a mindset like this is how we do business and and a pleasant and it just never stopped and wasn't it took off and And mr. Shields is one of my very best friends. He's the principal at Royster now that poor guy inherited I think chasing greatness is probably on walls or on windows probably 600 1600 places, you know, and so I'm teasing up. Maybe not. I don't know

But it's just, but kids incorporate into what they do. And so I, I just, I, if it helped have a positive impact, that's all I care about. But I just don't want to feel like anybody can use that. mean, it's something for anyone to, to, to relate to or to use in life.

Rick Sola (19:29.506)
Yeah, that's a pretty timeless hashtag really. It's not very, it's not specific to a name or to a school. can be easily transferable. Interesting that kids are using it. That's great. That shows kind of a mentality that's forming. Was that something that you had to be really intent? You said it just kind of blew up. Was there any intentionality to, they come back once from summer and there's chasing greatness all over?

Don Epps (19:32.145)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Don Epps (19:41.009)
Yeah.

Don Epps (19:53.011)
Yeah, so it it become part of our language first and then I just Yeah, it was very it was intentional in terms of what the meaning and what and the mindset Because life's hard enough. I've I said already like five times man I must be going some tough times right now. I keep saying that but but I will say that but it's so relatable because It's not about being great. It's about the pursuit of excellence. It's about

It's about trying to be your best self. And so yeah, it, it got to the point where even today I have a girl in lunch line. Now she always comes up and taps her fingers. Hashtag kissing great. And I mean, every kid's always talk about it and, and as part of classrooms and I just, I'm very honored, you know, but I just want people to share and grow from it. But every, I may seem kind of goofy at times, but I'm very intentional.

And I thought it could be a rallying cry just to that pursuit of being your best self, you know.

Rick Sola (20:56.515)
Well, you kind of touched on it. I'm thinking of chasing greatness and that doesn't necessarily mean that everything always has to be great to get to greatness. could be, mean, tough times and failure are going to lead to greatness. And so there's a lot of like grit building qualities to that hashtag.

Don Epps (21:03.396)
No!

Don Epps (21:13.008)
Yeah, absolutely. And that is the opposite of being great sometimes like, Hey, it's about pursuing it. It's about trying. It's about tempting. Like don't sit back on the, don't sit on the sidelines, get in the game and try and do something great as a, as a principal. I just wanted our teachers trying like we're, going, we're going to try to create world-class opportunities for kids and these world-class learning environments.

To do that, you can't sit on the sideline. You have to go out and get outside your comfort zone and you gotta try things you haven't tried before. And that's what we want everywhere I've been and that's what I want from our staff for our kids.

Rick Sola (21:52.236)
I like that trying and I think it's an important lesson for kids that failure is part of the process. And just like we were talking about how much we beat ourselves up and we still do and we're adults and we've been through it many times and we should know better half the time. But kids don't necessarily know that, but to be able to see examples from their teachers, the staff, all the way up to their superintendent, it's a good lesson. And a lot of times we're just kind of planting seeds.

Don Epps (22:06.896)
Yeah.

Don Epps (22:13.22)
Mm-hmm.

Rick Sola (22:18.902)
that hopefully kind of takes root eventually, but that's a good example of that. So what does Chasing Greatness, I guess specifically maybe this year or right now, what does that, when you launched your second year in Pleasanton, what did that look like, Chasing Greatness back in August?

Don Epps (22:20.112)
Mm-hmm.

Don Epps (22:40.864)
Yeah. So what's important, it's like, it's not something that's like a lot of times schools have like these yearly mottoes or these yearly themes and stuff. It's not, it's not that it never stops. It's always going to be around. so blank can be chasing greatness, you know, so you can put chase greatness on the front and your backside of anything you're trying to accomplish, you know? And, and so like this year in particular, you know, year two of leadership is tough. I believe I think it's your toughest year because you now you

Now you know what you didn't know. And now, know, and like the learning doing gap is at an all time high. And so the funny thing about is no better, do better. always hear about that. we're out. So right now I'm in this mission trying, Hey, we know better. got to do better. Trying to help our staff. And what I'm trying to, what I'm trying to instill here is it's okay to fail, but we're never giving up. And, if you're failing, you're trying.

And if, and, and so that's what I really want to try to hit it with right now is beyond this, I mean, a couple of words put together with a hashtag. It's I have to model it and I, and I have to be vulnerable. I have to be put myself out there and, and Rick, I'm fully aware I'm, one of one. They're not, and thank God they know what I was like me. Okay. That's a good thing. And my dad is, but that's, know, he, he helped build me and my son's coming to me and I like that's dangerous in its own right. But, but I just don't.

I just want people to feel comfortable being uncomfortable and being willing to try and know they're going to be supportive. And that's what we're trying to do here in year two. Chasing greatness is a process and we're going for it. I will give you one example. If we want to have the greatest learning environment in the world, why can't we do that? But it's not about being the best in the How do you even determine that? But what's that look like? And what are we doing to get there?

And that's what it kind of boils down to. Like if we're going to have the cleanest school, the three things I started here with, like we're going to have, we're going to be best in the world how we treat each other. We're going to be the best in the world, how we take care of our school and we're going to, you know, and things like that. We're going to be the best in the world for the kids we serve. And, and we, then we all can start visualizing what that looks like and we can start aspiring for something. And once we start aspiring, great things start happening.

Rick Sola (25:05.154)
Yeah. You said, think going back a second, if you're failing, you're trying. And is that what you said? If you're failing, you're trying. Yeah. And, know, I just saw it. I wrote that down. I thought that it's just a good way to think of it. And, you know, maybe, you know, I think working with kids in general, you see a lot of failures. I tell students often like this is a, you're not at a bad age to learn from these kinds of mistakes, you know, 10 years from now, it could mean something whole different deal.

Don Epps (25:13.565)
Yeah, it's something like that.

Don Epps (25:31.147)
Mm-hmm.

Rick Sola (25:34.722)
But keep trying, keep at it. Yeah, I want to touch on too. There's another hashtag and I don't know how often or how long you've been using it, but I noticed it going back and I really liked it. It was hashtag joyful leaders. Where did that come from?

Don Epps (25:48.296)
Yep, and so that's Bethany Hill. She is an administrator and actually works for a service center down in central Arkansas, and she's an amazing person. And Bethany Hill has been a beacon of light in education for a long time. And I just kept using it because I love it.

And it's not mine at all. She made it big probably around 2018, 19, but I just kept on trucking with it. I don't know if she even uses it. mean, she still uses it and things, but it's everyone. It's other people that's kind of taken off with it. And so I tried it. If I have enough characters left on the old Twitter, tried to, I tried to add it in there. KS leaders is when I put in first, if I, that's my number one go to the KS leaders. Cause I just, that family of, that family of leaders around the state of Kansas, but, but.

people see the joy and joy is visible and that's what we want.

Rick Sola (26:43.2)
It's a good one. And I saw it most recently attached to the, to your boom box, welcome to students. But yeah, I just thought, you know, just that hashtag, even just in text, it just paints such a, a good picture. I think of what we all want. And as parents, I'm a parent, you're a parent and what you want your kids to come to school and be around joyful people and joyful leaders and joyful leadership will breed joyful outcomes around there. So, and, and, you know, I thought about,

Don Epps (26:48.393)
Yeah.

Rick Sola (27:13.332)
It's kind of a put your money where your mouth is. You're out there. You're singing, you're welcome. And it's like I mentioned earlier at the top of the show is there's a lot of inspiration to it. So I want to compliment you because I do see that. And it is inspiring. It's thought provoking, which is really what I think is the great piece of all of these different ways that we all share as leaders what we're doing in our schools. And it's really cool.

Don Epps (27:30.087)
Yeah.

Absolutely. I want to emphasize one thing. I've never gotten a complaint from a parent because the kid came home too happy. know, there's this joy cycle and happy kids, happy parents, happy teachers, and it can start anywhere. You know, and so I truly, truly believe that if we can get in this joy cycle, your overall attitude and great things happen.

I think it's important that people see me smiling because that's, Hey, down deep. may be having a really rough day, but I'm using those moments for myself as much as I tell people all the time. Greeting kids is more for us selfish. It's more for me than the kids. You know, they're the ones that give me the fuel and seeing the parents and seeing our staff. And one thing I love, and I highly recommend this. I, we, just, I inherited this at Royster.

On the first day of school, we have a red carpet rolled out for the kids. And I've taken it from Royster. I did not start this. Okay. And it was electric. I have this theory I'll about in a second because it's really good stuff. I believe, but I took the, I took this red carpet idea from Royster to the blue blue J nation and our teachers had just loved it. First day of school, red carpets out and the spontaneous joy that it generates. is an incredible way to start the school year.

And we had this one young girl named Bayah and she jumped out of the car the first day of school last year and just spontaneously to cartwheel down the entryway to the school around. And this is like wasn't playing. It is spontaneous. It is amazing. And so it is set the tone. So this is what I'm going to say that I really believe in. You have to win the first 1 % of whatever you do. And when you're starting to school year, the more energy you have into the first 1 %

Rick Sola (29:09.698)
That's awesome.

Don Epps (29:23.333)
That sets the tone. I'm not saying you can't have a great school year with a bad 1 % start. My gosh, it's a lot harder. And it's overlooked. There's everyday moments we overlook or just let pass us by that we have to win. And how we start our day, how we start our class, how we start a school year really sets the tone for excitement, for expectations, for the joy. like I said before, how we do business.

We're in the business of supporting kids and helping kids grow into the greatest version of themselves. And that's what we do. That's what drives every day. so many people can say that.

Rick Sola (30:02.498)
That's really good. I'm going to probably steal that when the first 1 % of what you do. That's really good. yeah, because we do naturally think of that first day and kind of the kickoff and the celebration. But you said also the first 1 % of your class every day. what a great positive mindset that just kind of builds on that joyful leader and chasing greatness. And that's fantastic.

Don Epps (30:06.918)
yeah, there you go, Phelan!

Don Epps (30:16.901)
Mm-hmm.

Don Epps (30:21.881)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Rick Sola (30:32.064)
So thinking about right now as superintendent, and I'm sorry, how many principles do you have in pledge?

Don Epps (30:37.891)
Uh, we just have to, we're a small school district, so that's why I'm so involved. I do a lot of, I still do a lot of principal work and a lot of principal work and it's great. I love it. And I, I'm, I want to get our, we have amazing principals. Nathan Meek is our principal at our elementary school pre-K through six. And Sarah Conley is our seven through 12 principal, two amazing leaders in our school district and making a huge difference. But we want them to be a part of the PD process.

And so going to KPA, for example, doing those activities and through all these different USA, Kansas and emerging leaders. And, and so what we, so they've, I'm very, very happy they've been a part of those last two years. So it gives me opportunities to go into the buildings, you know, and support the buildings. And so that's, it's been very exciting as well.

Rick Sola (31:27.532)
So you've got a couple of principles and maybe to your teachers, what's the message you give them right now? It's February, the of the weary months of the winter, can kind of be, know, just unpredictable might be a case if we're looking at snow days, but there's a lot of holidays, a lot of kind of kind of start and stops this time of year, but what's the message that you find is important?

Don Epps (31:49.589)
So what I always believe, I think we need to be building for something great. And I'm not one of those that come out and say, well, welcome to day 400 of January. I'm not one of those types of people, know, because I think that's a negative mindset. So like right now we have we have a really big greenhouse project brewing in our school district that's going to impact K through 12. We want to grant have a greenhouse container.

And then we're going to now we're going to build a greenhouse to go along traditional greenhouse, go along with it. And all the reason I mentioned that is that that just built excitement. So yesterday we went and visited one prototype and we're going to be getting one in late April. So we're building something great, but as a building principle spring was something that everybody looks forward to for a lot of different reasons, but it's really January through that mid March spring break era.

where we built excitement. we did something called Test the Palooza and it was a phenomenon. We turned state testing into an absolute insanity event. I mean, was a mundane into something exciting. State testing brings so much anxiety and stress to everybody and we just flipped it. And that's a whole nother topic Rick. So, hey, if you ever get, a top, we need to spend 30, 40 minutes on my Test the Palooza.

Rick Sola (33:06.4)
Yeah.

Don Epps (33:10.428)
But what the teachers were so active in bank that they would have countdown videos at Royster. And we had all, we had these, it was such a process getting ready for this, that it built excitement. And so I believe that every day we have to have something positive to focus on. And that was kind of test blues with something really amazing. I felt I'm so proud of, I'm just barely mentioned it, but maybe everyone's talking about, you know, test Palooza. I'm always down. I'm always.

Rick Sola (33:39.554)
That is intriguing because when you just hear testapalooza, there is an initial thought of, gosh, the testing. But yeah, palooza, there's a lot of fun that goes with that. So yeah, definitely intriguing. That's definitely another topic to discuss on here at some point. No, I love that. It sounds like so many great things happening out there in Blue Jay Nation, as you call it, out in Pleasanton.

Don Epps (34:08.563)
Yeah.

Rick Sola (34:09.802)
And that's what I do want to give you a chance. You've already shouted out and kind of spoke very highly of your people and your community. But I love to give that opportunity like the stage is yours. Bragging your people, Blue Jay Nation. Let's hear it.

Don Epps (34:23.708)
Well, first of I have an amazing school board that supports me. they get me and they just kind of turned me loose to be who I am. And so I'm so appreciative of that. And like I said, our principals lead incredible schools and our staff. we try, our mission in life is connect great people with great kids, you know, and people make the difference every single day.

So how we greet kids on the school bus or how they get to school or throughout the entire day. So I'm just so honored to be a part of this great, great community. The community that I grew up in, and I think that was a lot of reverence. There are so many wonderful people that I think of that are no longer with us in this community. I want to help continue that legacy. But Mr. Meek and Mrs. Conley.

they're leading great schools and they'd be great guests to have on here too. But I want to emphasize one thing, people make the difference every single time. And we want everyone to feel like they are the single most important person in that moment at that time. Like when a teacher walks in the classroom, they feel that it's a self-efficacy unleashed where there is no one better for that kid right now than them. And then when you think of that as a school, you can do anything.

It's over. mean, you can do anything you want. And we want everybody to feel that way and to feel that kind of control. Effective leaders, great leaders know how to release control. It's not about empowering, it's about releasing control to let great people do great work. so that's, and I can't fail to mention my wife, Vicki, who is a saint, who there is someday, far, far from now, going to be a place in heaven for her to be married to me. And so,

Rick Sola (36:18.164)
That's awesome.

Don Epps (36:18.34)
I'm way beyond my great looks, you know, you know, lot more. I'm an onion, you know, lot of layers. so literally, but, and, so I just, my wife and kids that's been so patient with me and so loving and supportive. And so, so, cause they, they, lot of times take, they, they take the burden of this. You know, I come home with some of the struggles and I'm always doing schools related things and they join me. They come along with me and they, we make it a family event.

Rick Sola (36:48.13)
Well, you know, I mentioned earlier the inspiration I see from a lot of your posts and some of that truly does come from, because your family is part of several, a lot of your posts, you know, and family's a big part of all of our lives. I've got, you know, three kids, myself, a wife, and you just hit on it. Our job can be in some way, there can be kind of some burden when you go home, it's sitting on you. And oftentimes that can

Don Epps (37:14.234)
Mm-hmm.

Rick Sola (37:17.74)
can translate. the support, you talk about an episode topic for the show, support at home, from home, from spouses, from kids, and the understanding of, someone once said to me, we don't have an occupation, we have a lifestyle, that we're all in, and it's such a privilege, I wouldn't want to do anything else, but you're right, there's kind of,

Don Epps (37:25.562)
Yeah.

Don Epps (37:34.314)
Exactly!

Rick Sola (37:47.09)
We talk about that balance at home, and I don't know if it's truly a 50-50 type balance, but there's certainly a, I don't know what the word would be, a touch to it. And that understanding of a spouse or a family, I think it's critical in our role.

Don Epps (37:56.474)
Mm-hmm.

Don Epps (38:04.313)
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, no, Rick, you said it. And what you're doing with this podcast is so critically important to education. We're together in this and we all, and I, it's like therapy to listen, you know, and, and, and the excitement, listen to Melissa Evans talk, you know, she's awesome. You know, there's so many great leaders around the sunflower state. I'm, so humbled, but everybody, we need those stories out there.

We got to hear and be inspired by them and grow from them. And so you're doing amazing work, Rick. We appreciate you so much.

Rick Sola (38:38.23)
Well, thanks for listening and that's exactly kind of what this is for. There's so many great leaders and I've mentioned to it many times on just the connections being made on this show, but it's really just sharing the stories. We all can empathize to some degree, relate to some degree and truly make connections with people that we may not otherwise be able to connect with. And so, yeah, thank you for that. Thanks for listening. But it's really all about the stories and the people that are out there.

providing their own flavor of leadership across this state. And I think you mentioned it earlier that we all have something to offer that's unique to us. And the tap into that is an important piece. Well, Don, know it's busy. It's after a long day. the invite to come to our lunchroom any day stands. So you come up to Chisholm Trail. We'll get you down there. We'll queue up Church Clap. And we'll let it go.

Don Epps (39:15.842)
Mm-hmm.

Don Epps (39:30.538)
Yes.

All right.

All right, I'm gonna go buy get Dr. Yeager. We're gonna combine my school tours and we're gonna rock and roll. So.

Rick Sola (39:40.48)
Hey, perfect. Yeah, bring them along. That'll be great. So.

Don Epps (39:44.747)
So, but no, you just keep doing great work, Rick. I'm proud of you and I appreciate you so much.

Rick Sola (39:50.208)
Well, I appreciate it. And it sounds like great things in Pleasanton. And we'll keep on following on the social media. And I'll put some things in the show notes there. And just also, you reference the great leaders in this state. If anybody's listening has any thought, there is a form that can be filled out. Feel free to submit that. Recommend someone that we could bring on the show. Share their story and their impact that's happening all over their district.

Don Epps (40:11.744)
Mm-hmm.

Rick Sola (40:18.806)
But Don, hey, thanks a lot. I'll let you go. And let's go Chiefs this weekend. All right.

Don Epps (40:21.462)
No chiefs, we got this baby. I got the three Pete.

Rick Sola (40:27.154)
All right, hey, take care. Thank you.

Don Epps (40:29.184)
Thank you.