CC#35: Mr. Chris Legleiter - Aubry Bend Middle School

In this episode of Cool Coffee with Kansas principals, Rick Sola interviews Chris Legleiter, principal of Aubrey Bend Middle School in Blue Valley, USD 229. They discuss the challenges faced in education, the importance of conflict resolution, and the need for collaboration among staff, students, and parents. Chris shares his journey in education, emphasizing the significance of creating a positive school culture and engaging students in their learning. The conversation highlights the role of student ambassadors and the impact of recognizing and celebrating student achievements. Chris expresses his belief in the potential of students and the importance of making a difference in their lives. (full transcript of the show below)

Tim Wakefield quote from the show: "What matters most..."

Connect with Chris:

X: @clegleiter

Email: CLegleiter@bluevalleyk12.org

Chapters (timestamp does not account for show intro)

00:00 Introduction and Background
02:53 Navigating Challenges in Education
06:07 The Journey to Leadership
08:58 Conflict as an Opportunity
11:58 Motivating Staff for the Fourth Quarter
15:08 Enhancing Student Engagement
18:02 Building Stronger Parent Connections
21:02 Creating a Positive School Culture
24:01 The Role of Student Ambassadors
27:03 Reflections on Education and Future Generations
30:02 Closing Thoughts and Encouragement

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Transcript is AI generated

Rick Sola (00:01.119)
Hello and welcome to another edition of Cool Coffee with Kansas principals. I'm here today with Mr. Chris Legleiter of Aubrey Bend Middle School, Blue Valley School District, USD 229. Welcome, Chris.

Chris (00:14.616)
Thank you for having me, Rick. I'm excited to be a part of this wonderful podcast with principals throughout the state of Kansas.

Rick Sola (00:20.999)
Awesome to have you on and really appreciate it. for those who aren't aware, the position that I currently hold at KPA Communications Director is Chris is my predecessor here. When was that exactly, Chris?

Chris (00:39.15)
Goodness, I want to say like 21, 22 maybe. It's been a few years. Time does go fast, but it's been a few years, yes.

Rick Sola (00:48.605)
Yeah, well, I'm excited to have you on and just talk about some things. as we record this, first of all, it's early in the morning. I got my coffee right here. I don't know what your morning choice is.

Chris (01:00.472)
Coffee as well, coffee as well.

Rick Sola (01:02.335)
Yeah, I can't drive past a quick trip hardly without veering off and grabbing something. But actually, I go out of my way to go there. But anyway, you just learned. So it's the Friday before spring break. But you just said for you, this is a professional development day. Kids are already on spring break. It's a Friday. And how did it go? Did you get through the week OK?

Chris (01:26.998)
Yeah, it's been a great week. mean, I was reminded by a colleague that earlier in the week it's a full moon and we know as the weather has warmed up considerably, sometimes, you know, behaviors do have a tendency to increase, but our kids did a great job. Staff did a great job. We finished the third quarter really strong after all those snow days and, you know, kind of interruptions there. We had a great finish to the third quarter.

Rick Sola (01:49.565)
Yeah, this past week has been so beautiful outside. The exact opposite of the entire third quarter for the most part. think we actually, you know, students enjoy the time off, the snow days, but I think they really enjoy the routine too and kind of sinking into a week and getting going.

Chris (02:10.89)
I know, yes, students do, but I know staff, I do as well. I think all of us benefit from a consistent routine and having a snow day, people are able to work around that, but it was the frequency that we had this year that made it even more challenging for schools.

Rick Sola (02:26.089)
So Chris, we're just down the road from each other and we all pretty much have the same snow day impact here, which was several. And I know here in my district, we are adjusting our quarter four schedule a little bit. We're adding five minutes to each of the levels and all of our professional days needed to student contact days, full days. Blue Valley, what kind of efforts did you have to do at all?

Chris (02:53.632)
Yeah, I think as a whole our district had a professional learning day in April that now is a student contact day. So like you mentioned, some of those PD days have been eliminated and we have student contact days. By level then there were some different things. The high schools have had to I think adjust or no longer have some of their late starts for several times to increase minutes. Our elementaries actually have what they call a collaboration day like once every month where it's just staff, no students, which

is wonderful for PLC collaboration, but they've had to, I think just one or two of those, they've had to eliminate one of those PLC collaboration days to make them student days. Our middle schools have fairly amount of good minutes, so we have not had as much impact, but all of us had that April professional learning day now become a student day. And we're hoping no more winter weather. That's the key.

Rick Sola (03:42.387)
Yeah.

Rick Sola (03:46.481)
goodness, I hope not. But I mean, we have had some snows at this time of year. And then, you know, I see things posted about, you know, storm that's rolling in today or tonight and bomb cyclone and all this. It's just click bait, I think. But of course, I'm I'm the one that clicks on it and like, what's a bomb cyclone? We got to check this out. And yeah.

Chris (04:06.946)
Well, if you can find out what that is, let me know. I saw that and did not click on it. I was like, I'm staring away from weather.

Rick Sola (04:13.203)
Yeah, that sounds so ominous. I think it's just basically a storm. I don't know, with some high winds, but yeah, so it goes. Chris, as we get going here, one thing I always like to ask about your road in education, how you got to Aubrey Bend Middle School and everything that led up to it. What is your road to Aubrey Bend?

Chris (04:19.63)
you

Chris (04:38.178)
Yeah, it's been a road that has twists and turns like anyone's career. I was a high school science teacher for 11 years. And I was in three different school districts, wonderful districts, Washburn Rural High School, back to my hometown of St. Mary's for several years. And then I came to Blue Valley and I was actually at one of our high schools as a science teacher for several years. Really enjoyed it. I I love teaching in the classroom and I just felt that pull

where I wanted to make a bigger impact beyond my classroom, which led me to administration. And within Blue Valley, I've had the opportunity to be an assistant principal really in four different buildings, both high school and middle school. And then I became a principal at Leewood Middle School and had a great opportunity there to help really with the staff, make some very positive change, really value that experience with the staff and the parent community and the students.

some amazing things. For me, it's always that drive and pull of how do I continue to get better? What do I need to do to stretch myself, get outside that comfort zone? Aubrey Bend is a much larger student enrollment building than I was at Leewood Middle, and I thought that would provide a different opportunity for me to grow as a leader, and it has. It's been a good challenge. The staff and parents and kids are amazing as well. This is my third year here, so it's been something where we've tried to continue.

what's been working but also add value to things that we feel like we can elevate and make better and the staff have been amazing. Students have been incredible and our parent support is awesome as well. It's been a great three years but every school year every administrator will tell you has new challenges and we always just try to focus on like what can we control, how will we together respond so we keep the focus on what matters most and you know every year there's been different challenges but it's how we work together to navigate

through those to still focus on our students and I'm really supportive of the people we have.

Rick Sola (06:43.263)
Yeah, you mentioned the growth that has occurred through the course of your career. And just like you said, the twists and turns. I think we, bet everybody who listens or everybody who sits in the principal chair can describe the twists and turns. And I kind of think of it as just an opportunity to grow in new ways. know, we get placed. Sometimes we, opportunities present themselves. Other times opportunities are given or.

or we pursue or whatever the case may be, but that opportunity for growth is just all around. then, you just like you said, each year presents its new challenges. I had a principal want to say every year it's either the kid year, the parent year, or the staff year. of, yeah, or a combo of all three. But yeah, certainly no, there's always a challenge and there's always something in.

Chris (07:28.974)
Or a combination of all three.

Rick Sola (07:41.311)
Truly, I think that's part of what makes the job fun. You're constantly having to be on your toes. You're constantly having to think critically. But yeah, can be a grind, but it could be fun too.

Chris (07:53.27)
Yeah, and I was telling our staff earlier in the year at a professional learning. was like, you know, every year we will have conflict because when you're dealing with people, students, staff and parents, there's going to be times there's disagreement or conflict. so it's not that conflict is a negative thing. It's how we work through it to help people. And that's something in my own professional journey, like understanding and just as a leader, building leader, administrator, understanding how to work through conflict.

and don't see it as a negative, but as a truly as an opportunity. And it's not always easy, that is for sure, but it's learning how to involve other people so it's a collaborative decision or to really think about how to what's in the best interest of our students, you know, what can we do to work through that conflict. Those are things that I've learned over time. It's gonna happen. Every building is gonna have challenges and conflict every year. It's just a matter of how do we respond to it? How do we focus on what matters most with our building?

And that's been a growth opportunity for me for sure.

Rick Sola (08:58.141)
You mentioned conflict and it does, it happens. I would say, I don't know if traditionally, stereotypically, whatever, we're approaching April, we're spring break, we come back. This is the time of year where some of those things that may have been, whether it's tolerated in a classroom, are now reaching boiling points or the thing that's...

been a bother. You know, things tend to culminate before the end of the year. So we come back and now, you know, some of those professional development days, they do act as a nice little buffer sometimes for a little like to break up a month of April. And now it's a solid, you know, it's a solid run. What kind of messaging? First of all, I love the messaging that you give at the beginning of the year, kind of framing the year as to expect conflict. And that's not necessarily a bad thing, but

Chris (09:27.022)
All right.

Chris (09:35.576)
You do.

Yeah.

Rick Sola (09:51.141)
As we come back, you got a PD day today. What are some important messaging you want to get to your staff for the fourth quarter?

Chris (09:59.084)
Yeah, I think, you know, I think as a building leader, one thing I always strive to do is find ways to continue to motivate our staff. And a lot of times that means like connecting to their hearts, you know, the emotion, their feelings. So whether it's an inspirational story and sometimes it's not always like the building leaders that have to, you know, do that. It's sometimes involving our staff and letting them share something and it or maybe from a student perspective or a parent perspective. So we try to really connect back to our why, you know, the

on our people, our students. I think that's always essential, but I do find when we have professional learning, and today is our what we call district professional learning, so I won't see our staff today to do that. So I'll have to do some things when we come back after spring break, but I think always trying to find a way to connect back to your purpose is important. I always think it's important to keep staff informed about things upcoming, keep them involved in decisions. In other words, I'm someone who really believes in collaborative decision-making.

There's very few decisions that are only the principals. really try to involve our leadership team, our admin team, our teachers, getting their feedback and input because they know best. They're working with directly with the kids more than I am. So I think involving our staff and decisions, but I also think it comes back to in many cases helping our staff and reminding myself we've got to focus on what we can control. Just keep focus on what we can control and we're going to do it together. You know, there's going to be challenges, but we're going to work

through it together. That's how as a school we're going to be successful is by doing things together, not in isolation, but doing things together. Good example, we all have unfilled subs, you know, and those are very common challenges and we can solve that day to day by just understanding how do we do that as a school system. Like together we can fill classes, but we can't have one person being trying to solve it all by themselves. And, you know, there's going to be, like you said, things that come up that I'm not aware of, you're not aware of, but it's brought to our seats and then we have to work through it.

Rick Sola (11:55.231)
You

Chris (11:58.72)
It comes back to really, I think, listening to people, you know, in those moments, you know, really supporting our teachers, but also understanding from the student parent perspective and.

Over time I've really learned that you don't solve problems through email you you need to have face-to-face conversation phone conversation if that's not possible But you really just have to have those conversations and like as we come back from break It's it's gonna help our staff to really have that mindset of not counting down the days we have left in the fourth quarter But making each day count I always use the analogy like you know, this is the last quarter for our eighth graders and we wanted to make it their best So how do we do that? You know, and so those are

some of those things that I try to really help our staff be mindful of. It is a very challenging job being an educator, but once again if we can find ways to find gratitude and joy within the work so we collect back to our purpose, know, helping each other, helping kids, and then making things together, doing things together, I think are some of the things we really try to emphasize, especially in the fourth quarter.

Rick Sola (13:01.535)
I love the collaborative approach and I try to maintain the same thing and there's maybe a sacrifice of efficiency with certain collaborative but I think it does pay off and you do have to have the conversations where people, business and people are fickle and just like you said with the email, it can be simple to send an email but

Chris (13:13.358)
True.

Rick Sola (13:30.523)
sometimes you're just passing the time off to the future, you know, because it may not get read the right way or whatever the case may be.

Chris (13:37.868)
Yeah. And it sometimes just an email will make things, you know, at least to five more emails instead of a five minute phone call maybe could have helped resolve that, you know. So yeah, it's sometimes it's about understanding what can be done through email. But typically when there's conflict or, know, just questions, those conversations are needed to happen.

You know, I was going to talk to just mention a little bit about engagement, what we're talking about with engagement this year. Do you want me to share a little bit about that?

Rick Sola (14:07.281)
Absolutely, yeah.

Chris (14:08.342)
So one of the things looking back like from two years ago to last year and this year we decided is the engagement in our building it was was fine. It wasn't bad, but I felt like you know through research and really talking to our leadership team, the more we get our students involved in in classroom learning and and simply that means like how do we help our students become more reflective in their learning and driving their own learning? You know, in other words, being authentic, responsible for their learning.

learning, not trying to focus on the grades. know that's easy for lot of youngsters, but helping kids understand how do you learn? You know, how do you understand to study for that test and how what type of reflection are you doing about your learning so you're prepared for the next test? How to ask questions? You know, how does respond to peer questions? So we're really in in classroom instruction trying to drive engagement through many instructional strategies using a lot of John Hattie's research, visible learning, but it's also going broader. We're trying to involve

of our students a lot of leadership opportunities in our building. Recognizing the great things they do with character in sports and activities, know the musical and the plays, creating videos.

that we send out to our families so they can see the experiences in our day, but also recognizing kids like many schools do. We call it our ABC recipients, you basically the character virtues. We try to highlight them on our social media, on the school and our intercom, but then as an admin, we call their parents every Friday. And that's, takes time because that's six phone calls. We do two students per grade level, but that takes time. But it's so important, I think, to share with parents positive news coming from an administrator.

makes me feel better, I also think once again, you're putting a good connection with parents that maybe down the road there could be an issue that you have to circle back and work through with them. But school is about finding ways to elevate kids and help kids find success. So we found that has been very healthy this year. During our staff PD, we've gone actually and said OK for the next 30 minutes, everybody you're going to find, you know, four students that you have in class. Think about the kids that are consistently doing the expected behaviors and they're just doing because that's what who they

Chris (16:19.952)
are sometimes those are the kids were not recognizing enough because they're so I would say they're just going through their motions, but they're always doing the right things. We need to call them. So, you know, when we do that, you're making 300 calls to parents as a building and that's pretty impactful. So we try to find some ways to elevate students. But this year we've done something to even elevate our parents even more involvement in our school where we've done actually parent walkthroughs in our classrooms. And we've done coffee with principals, some, you know, some

building leaders have those meetings where you bring parents in. We've done that before too. this year we would bring them in and talk about student engagement, but then we'd actually do classroom walkthroughs with our parents. And that has been so positive. Our parents who were able to attend really appreciated just getting into classrooms and seeing teaching and learning what it actually looks like, because it's so different than I think how we went to school, how they went to school. And we involved our fifth grade families, you know, in February when we were doing enrollment, we involved our fifth grade families.

and it provided, I think, some understanding of what that experience in middle school is going to look like. So that was something new going back to engagement that we really tried to highlight was how do we get our students to be more authentically leading? How do we get our parents to have a greater understanding of the work we're doing? And then with our staff, we're really trying to find ways to help them elevate their roles in our building. And simply that a lot of times that means involving them in decisions, recognizing them,

validating their efforts. In like a lot of buildings, we do things like the tireless teacher. know, once a week we highlight a teacher who's going above and beyond and we recognize them in front of kids and put on social media.

But sometimes it's those handwritten notes, you you put in their mailbox or you put it on their desk. mean, so we're trying to find ways as an administrative team to really increase engagement in our building. And that's been very uplifting. It's been it's been more of a work on us as administrators, but I think it's helping us work ahead because now our students have a greater ownership. This is their building. Our staff, I think, has more investment in their work because they recognize their what they're doing matters. And I think our parents have a greater understanding of what

Chris (18:32.344)
school day actually looks like. So it's been positive and I'm hoping that momentum continues in our fourth quarter.

Rick Sola (18:38.769)
Yeah, those notes that they're seen when you go into a classroom, you know, they don't get thrown away. They get posted. And it's always it's a reminder when I go into a room and you just happen to see it, not necessarily from me or but all the notes from everybody they've ever gotten. And it's kind of cool. And then I'll see like, that was from two years ago that I wrote that. The same thing, the social media is it's really cool. It's fun to share. People see it. But that handwritten note feels so personal.

Chris (18:44.876)
Yeah, I...

Chris (19:07.31)
So true, Rick, I was in a teacher's classroom just like last week having a conversation and it was one where we just had to have a real honest conversation, how to help a student, you know, see their perspective as a teacher.

And I noticed as they were talking behind them on their bulletin board in their classroom was a note I wrote to them, you know, kind of a private, hey, thank you, showing some gratitude. And it was from my first year here at Aubrey Bend. So the fall of 22. And, and, you know, now it's spring and 25. And I'm thinking, like, to your point, it matters to people that they've pinned it up on their board and it's there years later. So a lot of times that authentic praise is what really helps over time, keeps people invested and involved.

Rick Sola (19:48.221)
Yeah. Parents, when they walk through your room, I'm just curious, you know, they walk in and, you know, once they get over the, look, I know you and, you know, all that stuff, what was their feedback and just thoughts with the whole thing?

Chris (20:02.542)
Yeah, we well we tried to set it up a little bit like we had teachers kind of opt in like we said to our staff because we're working on engagement with our teachers and instruction like I mentioned. So we talked to our teachers about hey, we're going to involve our parents and walkthroughs. Who wants to come? You know who's open having parents come in on this day? You know certain day and hours and we probably had I think 25 or 28 teachers that said I'll do it. They can come on in. You know I'm not giving a test and we're not doing like a closed reading silent reading activity or anything. So the teachers then provide

a descriptor, basically a statement about what the teaching and learning would be that day. Whether they're doing like a station rotation, a lab, a simulation. And before we had our parents actually walk through the classrooms, our administrative team did probably a 10 minute presentation at most, a very short one, but it talked about the strategies we use as teachers to help our kids learn and the importance of learning content through skills, skill development. And so then we gave our parents like two or three things to look for.

A good example is we wanted them to understand how much the kids are working with other students like peer-to-peer and so when they had a small handout the parents so when walked in the rooms, you know, they we said, you know, if the kids are doing small group conversation, you can ask the students like hey talk to me about what you're doing, but if it's more of a teacher facilitation, know, don't disrupt that but it was really I think impactful and after we went into each room and we have three administrators in our building. So like I had a group of maybe ten parents

another administrator had another group of 10, you know, they would come out in the hallway and we would do a debrief for a minute and then we'd go into another classroom. So it helps the parents to recognize like why teachers do what they do and the purpose of those activity for kids. And they ask, the parents ask great questions. I mean it really helped us to understand.

the importance of making sure like our communication on Friday newsletters, it's really clear, not too much education jargon. But it's so important that parents understand why we do the things we do.

Rick Sola (22:03.869)
I was going to ask what kind of, just kind of logistically, to set this up, you put it out there, know, kind of front loading for the community, whatever. What did you have to do beforehand?

Chris (22:15.406)
Yeah, we once again we worked with our teachers about who's open to that day and time. You know, it was about an hour and half block. Give us a brief one statement description of what you're doing and then separately, you know, we reached out to our parents and kind of described this is what we'd like to do is invite you into our classrooms because we recognize

We know our students, but our parents know them the best. But it's that partnership that's going to allow us to really help their child have a great experience. And so we said, you know, here's a Google form, sign up if you're coming in. And once they signed up, then we reached out to them and kind of shared some logistics and then front loaded them on that day with this kind of like instructional strategies to look for and also a handout to help guide their thinking and their questions. Then after we were all done and we were back in our, we met in the library with our parents.

we had a debrief. You what are three things you noticed? What's one to two questions that you have? And that was really helpful too, because the parents, this was probably the most reaffirming thing to me as an administrator, is that the parents overwhelmingly said,

how positive the classroom culture felt in the hallways, the classrooms, the kids really feel a sense of connection to our teachers. And when parents say that, it's not their own child they're talking about, they're observing it, you know, that felt really supportive, encouraging for us because obviously it all starts with culture. You've got to have a positive learning culture. And that wasn't one of the focal points that we were focusing on with our parents. It was more the instructional learning. But that was one of the things they noticed is how

Positive just the peer-to-peer interaction teacher to student hallways and that's reaffirming because I know that's what they're sharing with their neighbor down the street That it felt pretty good being in the building, you know It's not the perception of on the movies what they see about schools and so that was a byproduct that I think we didn't anticipate but it was very you know positive and encouraging and Obviously, we know we still need to continue to get better at connecting with kids I mean, it's never 100 % and we're gonna continue to thrive

Rick Sola (24:01.662)
Yeah.

Chris (24:22.64)
strive to get 100 % of our kids connected to an adult. that was really encouraging, I think,

Rick Sola (24:28.711)
Yeah, in many ways it's maybe not surprising. think parents, they drop off their kids here and they want their kids to feel good at school. And so when they walk into your building, it does make sense that the first thing they notice is like, what a relief. It feels so good in here. I love that. And like, okay. What are you learning now? You know, but they got to, just like you said, the culture is the beginning. They're not going to get, if the culture is the exact opposite and you feel it and it's, it's just not good.

they're not going to care at all about what, the first thing they're going like, what in the world is going on in this classroom? they could be teaching about all sorts of amazing things, but you got to get past the feel good or the culture part of it.

Chris (25:09.774)
Correct. so like here's a different example. just want to share with you something we've tried to really embrace is that like any school, we have new students sometimes that start in the middle of the year. So we had a new family coming in yesterday. They're going to start after spring break. And we have, you know, we do school tours once they're, you know, for sure coming to our building and we have our own eighth grade ambassadors. That's what we call them. Students. There's about 65 of them that do different activities within our building. They lead incoming six

grade events, web leaders is what some people call them, you know, that some schools have. But the these eighth grade ambassadors, we use two or three for every family tour. They lead the families in the student on the tour. I don't go with them. I let our ambassadors do it. And these are students that, you know, we give them some talking points, know, areas to go in the building. And, know, if they're an eighth grader taking down the eighth grade pod. But like, I don't know for sure what our kids are telling these families. But I always tell the families, you ask them anything you want. Like, I trust our students to know we're here for this.

them and I trust our kids of our school. Now, som with the amount of homework kids. But I trust our kid of who we are and what we have our students help tell our families and that's been so h because the families are h from kids, you know that t be the same age and that's We do that with our when

don't go on the tour of the building with the teacher we're interviewing, we have those student ambassadors do it. And once again, the applicants are getting a feel for is this where I'd like to be directly from our students. And that's been very positive as well.

Rick Sola (26:54.623)
The tell a story aspect just seems to get more more critical because the story will get told one way or the other and it's more accessible and it can be more widely spread and so it is important for us. There's so many good things going on in our schools and truly that's part of the reason for this podcast is to hear what's going on in the state.

Chris (27:02.51)
That is true.

Chris (27:13.186)
There is.

Rick Sola (27:19.719)
But yeah, we've got to be proactive with that. There's a lot of good things there. We have a web program, but I love the depth of what you use your ambassadors to take parents around and of course students and so forth when they're new. you had mentioned, you referenced, it's not like the movies or whatever. It's funny because I made a note of that. Just kind of an aside and just kind of fun, but favorite movie about schools or in a school?

Chris (27:49.42)
Wow, yeah, that's, there's several. I love Remember the Titans. Now it's more of a sports movie, but it dealt with how school became a focal point of helping a community overcome adversity. So Remember the Titans, but Mr. Holland's Opus is always, that's an older movie probably for some, but I enjoy it because the impact of what a single person can have is significant. So those are probably two that jump out.

Rick Sola (28:13.149)
Yeah, very good. I almost went with the Mount Rushmore. Like what would be your Mount Rushmore? like, yeah, you can go. It's so varied. And I'll share one that I have. I mean, this is not nearly as profound of a movie at all. So, you know, don't be disappointed in my answer here. But one that I've really enjoyed, I enjoyed it because a student shared it with me. said, my first year teaching, Mr. So you've got to watch this movie. It's 2004. You've got to watch this movie. I'm like, what is it? Napoleon Dynamite.

Chris (28:39.022)
you

Chris (28:42.808)
Yeah, that's good one too.

Rick Sola (28:43.935)
And she gave me the DVD to go home and watch it and I fell asleep. I thought it was the most, I thought it was stupidest movie. Like what in the world? And for some reason I gave it another chance. Maybe she told me like, you gotta watch it again. And then all of a sudden it was just like click. I love it and now I've got kids that are old enough and we've watched it and they had the same reaction the first time. Like, dad, this is terrible.

Chris (29:09.794)
Yes. Yeah.

Rick Sola (29:11.025)
And then and now we watch it. We've probably seen it three times together and that we just exchange quotes from the movie. You know, but it's not exactly Mr. Holland's opus, but you know, it's a.

Chris (29:17.87)
yeah.

Chris (29:24.43)
But it still is a movie that gives you some good, you know, enjoyment and laughs. So yeah, it has a good purpose. That's a good one.

Rick Sola (29:28.445)
Yeah, yeah. Well, hey, real quick, what's on tap for your PD today?

Chris (29:36.014)
Well, it's a district design. so like all math teachers in Blue Valley will go to a certain location, like a high school. All social studies teacher will go to a different location. So it's really where our district, like coordinating teachers will talk about, it's more content based this morning. So we don't actually have them here in our building, but there are staff, we do, but it's like, you know, teachers from one content throughout the district. So we won't see our staff until after spring break. you know, we told them yesterday, you know, as we saw them,

Rick Sola (29:52.07)
Okay. Okay.

Rick Sola (30:02.887)
Okay.

Chris (30:05.968)
like we've had a great third quarter of you guys. And when we come back, I've told people, think April, I know it's March when we come back, but April soon, I think April has 60 days in it. I really do. Because the month of April for schools, like you mentioned, there's no days off. It feels so long, but.

Rick Sola (30:16.969)
You

Rick Sola (30:22.559)
Yeah.

Chris (30:25.134)
So that's where we're going to have to be creative. You know, know state testing is going on. We're going have to be creative with ways to find enjoyment, you know, kind of do things out off the script to break the mold to make sure our kids still find value in coming each day. So we're brainstorming some ideas.

Rick Sola (30:40.275)
Yeah. You know, one thing that was kind of lost on me, but how early the Royals home opener is, cause we always do a cookout and kind of a fun, it's March 27th. That's, that's the week we come back. And so yeah, it usually is. So I thought of that last night. Like, my gosh, like we usually do some things like we've got to kind of get that train going a little bit because yeah, it's coming real quick. Hey,

Chris (30:50.572)
wow. That is the week we can, I was thinking of April.

Chris (31:02.382)
it's coming, it's coming quick.

Rick Sola (31:08.061)
But before we go here, and you did a lot of this already, a lot of great things going on at Aubrey Bend and in Blue Valley with you, but just a chance to brag on Aubrey Bend and the people you work with and the kids you relate with every day.

Chris (31:23.254)
I just feel fortunate. Great school to be a part of. Our staff is truly amazing. What I mean by that is they are they really care about kids, but they do value the collaboration and they want to get better as educators. They do not like the status quo. They want to get better. They're willing to learn. They have a growth mindset, but I just appreciate so much how they always put kids first. And you know, if a kid's going through some challenges outside of school, you know, they're willing to adjust.

for that student, the teaching and learning, the assignments, you know, and they do things to help students navigate through this time of their lives. So I just really appreciate our staff. They're tremendous people. They care about kids. our students are amazing young leaders. I don't have any concerns about our society in 10 to 20 years. The kids that we have in our buildings, and not just Aubrey Bend, but throughout Kansas, the young people I've seen and work with, they're just, they really

have so many valuable skills and they're making mistakes at times but that they're learning how to become a better person, how to work with people, but they're also their skill set is so high, so much higher than I was when I was their age for sure. And then our parents, think our parents are truly, they care so much and they value education.

for us as building leaders, it's always how do you make the student staff and parents, how do you bring them together? You know, how do you find those connections? And we're really, I'm just really proud of what we've done as a building in the last few years to get to where we are now. know, three fourths of the way through the year, basically, this year has had some challenges, but we found ways to continue to be together and to make things happen for our kids and find great success. And it's not one person, it's a team effort. And that's what I appreciate most.

Rick Sola (33:12.615)
You just said you have no concern about the future 10 to 20 years from now with our kids. And what a powerful message because that's pretty much the opposite of what usually gets. I say usually what seems to be blasted. Sometimes the loudest message isn't the majority. You know I'm saying. But to hear that and to come from a building principal, I just love that message because there's so many good things. We just talking about it. So many good things going on in these schools and these kids.

They impress me day in and day out. can't believe the things that they can do, the talents they have, the leadership qualities that I think back when I was in seventh or eighth grade, I'm like, holy cow, these kids are leaps and bounds ahead of where I was.

Chris (33:53.347)
For sure. Yes. I guess I would say, you know, I believe in our kids is what I would say. I believe so much in our students and I believe, like you said, what they're capable of. It amazes me their skill set and their strengths. They're very resilient among young learners for sure.

Rick Sola (34:12.393)
Hey, one thing I'll close out with and I'm not going to read the whole thing, but I'll drop it into the show notes. But I came across this literally this morning and I forwarded it to myself so I wouldn't forget it. So that'd be something good to share with staff. But it goes along really well with what you said. But do you remember Tim Wakefield, baseball pitcher?

Chris (34:29.324)
Yes, yes, yeah.

Rick Sola (34:30.011)
knuckleballer and he passed away a couple of years ago from brain cancer or something but he was an amazing knuckleball pitcher but it's a real long quote I won't read the whole thing but his wife posted recently one of his final kind of messages that he had typed out journal entries or whatever

And he talks about kind of life and you don't get where you are today without the people around you and so forth. But he finishes it with he says, I've also learned that it doesn't matter how much money you've made, how big your house is, or what kind of car you drive. What matters most is did you make a difference in someone else's life? And I forwarded that to myself going into April because sometimes we need that reminder that you are daily having that opportunity to make a difference in someone's life and at the

you know, at the end here, as Mr. Wakefield talks about it, you know, that's really what's important. And that's what's amazing about our profession, our education profession, is that daily opportunity to, and especially in middle school, because it's the quirky fork in the road, maybe, I don't know what, but it's, they're figuring a lot of things out. Or they think they have figured things out, then they realize no way.

Chris (35:35.177)
Chris (35:42.444)
They are.

Rick Sola (35:46.526)
Ha ha ha.

Chris (35:46.95)
It's a hard time for sure in a young person's life. We use the phrase with our staff a lot about we need to make moments matter. And I remind our staff how, you know, that 30 second conversation you have with a young person in the hallway or in your classroom might be something they remember for the rest of their lives. And so never take for granted the impact that you can have just in a 30 second conversation with just being very sincere and specific with feedback or praise. And our educators do this all the time. And that's where some

Sometimes like you said, we forget the impact we're making is significant and we have to find that joy in each day because it's there. We just have to make sure we capitalize upon it.

Rick Sola (36:26.045)
Yeah. Well, Chris, thank you so much for taking this early morning day and sharing a little bit about you and Aubrey Band. It sounds like some really great things. And I just want to wish you all the best in the fourth quarter and a nice, smooth end to the school year.

Chris (36:42.562)
Thank you, Rick. I appreciate being on the podcast and I hope all schools and principals have a tremendous fourth quarter and that we continue to learn together. Thanks so much.