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

Mrs. Kelly Whittaker, 7 year principal of Ottawa High School, USD 290, discusses the success they've had with parent-teacher conferences, her time with the KPA, and the upcoming KPA conference where she'll lead a session for new and early year administrators. Conversation leads to the mutual value for new and veteran administrators to share ideas and work together as they navigate the "fire hose" of administration.

Contact Kelly Whittaker: whittakerk@usd290.org

X: @kelwhitt217

Kelly's favorite quote: Optimism doesn't mean that you are blind to the reality of the situation. It means that you remain motivated to seek a solution to whatever problems arise. --The Dalai Lama

Chapters (time stamps do not account for the Cool Coffee intro--full transcript of the show below)

00:00 Innovative Student-Led Conferences
02:52 The Journey to Leadership
05:56 The Value of Networking in Education
09:05 Insights for New Principals
11:50 Optimism in Leadership
14:45 Celebrating Ottawa High School's Achievements

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The mission of the Kansas Principals Association, an organization committed to educational excellence and the lifelong success of all students, is to develop and support all principals through optimized learning, collaborative leadership, networking, and service.

Read more about the KPA HERE.

TRANSCRIPT (AI produced)

Rick Sola (00:01.666)
Hello and welcome to another edition of Cool Coffee with Kansas principals. Today I'm with Miss Kelly Whitaker of Ottawa High School USD home of the cyclones. Hello Kelly.

Kelly Whittaker (00:15.226)
Hello, Rick. Thanks for having me today.

Rick Sola (00:17.494)
Yes, great. Appreciate you jumping on here. And you had told me earlier in the week that this is conference week for you.

Kelly Whittaker (00:25.326)
It was, yep, we had our parent teacher conferences. So we do student led conferences at our high school, ninth through 12th grade. And so students call their families after they've worked for several weeks on those individual plans of studies and they invite them to come meet with their advisory teacher and they go over that information. So.

We had over 85 % attendance this year, which is the best attendance we've ever had. And then the really cool thing was my teachers were turning in their attendance sheets saying, hey, I've got a meeting scheduled with this parent next week before school and this parent after school. And a lot of them were very motivated to get 100 % of their students to join us, which is just really encouraging. And it shows the value of that work.

Rick Sola (01:08.494)
So that's awesome. And that wasn't really even the topic I was, we were going to spend some time on today, but we are also just finishing conference week. It's a Friday, it's October 18th. And this is a day off here where I'm at. We had just finished a week long conference week and it's fairly similar through the grade levels and it's by appointment. And then we have some common time on a Wednesday evening where it's open arena style. But I love that IPS approach and you said you had 85 % attendance.

Kelly Whittaker (01:38.822)
Yep, we've hovered around 75 to 82 % the last four years and this year we really got over the bar which was exciting.

Rick Sola (01:47.822)
So when did this begin?

Kelly Whittaker (01:49.638)
We started when we were a school redesign school. So we would have started this. This is my seventh year at Ottawa High School. So we would have started six years ago. This is our sixth year doing it. And we've done different iterations and variations, but we kind of like the process that we have in place right now. We've done a lot of reflecting on it, gotten a lot of student and parent input.

And the most important thing is my teachers are pretty bought into our advisory process. We have pretty high expectations around that, but without them being bought into it, we wouldn't be able to, I think, have the success we do with our kiddos.

Rick Sola (02:23.692)
Yeah, no, I really like that. I'm really intrigued. That might have to be another topic for a show sometime because we do the conferences here and, going back, I'm in my, I don't know, 14th, 15th year in administration. And at the very beginning, I definitely remember, you know, as, you know, learning management systems were kind of, were kind of pre in existence or not quite fully there. It was a little bit more of what, you know, kind of the

for kids coming in or parents, is it going to be a surprise night or what are we going to expect? But now there's really no mystery. I've said that for a long time. There's not much mystery for a parent who wants to know how their child is doing. They can find it almost in real time. And so I love that new approach with more of a presentation at conferences or a demonstration or a product being displayed.

Kelly Whittaker (03:20.12)
Absolutely, no, we have found a lot of success in it and so we just, don't know, we're not, I'm not all about reinventing the wheel. And so now that we've kind of gotten a groove and we stole a lot of what we do from different schools and we've kind of made it our own and then reflect on it every year to make sure that it gets better. And then more importantly, keeping up with whatever the individual plans of study, guidances from the state. We try to make sure we're adding those new components each year.

Rick Sola (03:47.064)
So you mentioned seven years at Ottawa High School. What is your road to the chair that you are in right now?

Kelly Whittaker (03:55.332)
My road to this chair. So I was a special education teacher in Indiana for six years.

And then I actually was only taught at the elementary and middle school level. And my first high school experience was I did a lot of coaching, high school basketball and track when I was a teacher. But then I jumped into being an assistant principal at a really large high school in Indiana. And I did that for six years. And then my husband and I relocated to Kansas and I spent two years as an assistant principal at Shawnee Heights High School in Topeka. And then I have now been the principal at Ottawa High School for seven years.

And I really enjoy my job because I live in the community of Ottawa and I know that is not everybody's jam, but I enjoy being three minutes from work and interacting with all of my students and parents at the grocery store and everywhere else that I see them in town. And my son goes to school with, you know, a lot of my students' siblings and I just enjoy that aspect of it.

Rick Sola (04:54.028)
That's interesting. I originally worked about 20 minutes away from my house and then had the opportunity to become principal at the neighborhood school where I currently do have one of my kids here. And it was one of the biggest parts of the decision was, is this going to be a good thing or not? And I tell people all the time, because that's a common question, is there are far more perks and far more advantages and

Kelly Whittaker (05:11.301)
Yeah.

Rick Sola (05:22.638)
Just just being in the community and being a part of it and I'm about a two minute drive from from the building and it's it's awesome so it's cool to hear you say that because I know there are some that's like, you know, I want to be across state line and You know go to my own little area, but that's cool

Kelly Whittaker (05:35.865)
Absolutely.

And I don't want to make it sound like rainbows and butterflies, but I agree with you. There's pros and cons to everything, and there are, in my opinion, just way more pros to just being immersed in the community than if I lived 20, 30, 40 minutes away and I felt disconnected from what was happening outside of the school day.

Rick Sola (05:56.598)
Right. So brought you on here because we are just a few weeks from the KPA conference, the principals conference, which I attended last year, presented at last year, loved it, had a really great time. It is such a valuable conference, I feel like for principal development. You are presenting and so I wanted to give you an opportunity to share a little bit about the conference you're going to be presenting at, but also you've been in the KPA for several years and just

what you have found and gotten out of it over the last however many years it was.

Kelly Whittaker (06:28.549)
Yeah.

Absolutely. know I was saying, I think this is my sixth year as a member of the Kansas Principle Association. And it was, I was about six years ago when I was at a conference and I really didn't know anybody. And I was kind of just freelancing around by myself and a couple of the principals that were on the board of directors, they invited me to dinner, invited me to hang out. And really what

I think got me is it's for me. It's a lot of the networking opportunities. It's just being able to connect with principals from all across Kansas. I think of my relationship with you, Rick, and you're a principal that I would have really have no reason to ever get to know or be able to learn from if I wasn't a part of an organization like KPA and just the idea sharing and the sessions at the Kansas Principals Association. To me, those are some of the most valuable sessions because there are other principals talking to you about

know, just programs and inspirations that are happening in their building and really giving you some food for thought to bring back to your building leadership teams, to bring back to your assistant principals as you guys are just continuing to, you know.

probably work on your path towards whatever your strategic plan looks like. And so that's probably for me, like the biggest. then I think when I really outside of that is that professional development and not when I being a member of Kansas principal association has brought me so many opportunities that I would have never been connected to. I was fortunate enough last year to be a Kelly mentor through case state where I got to mentor a brand new assistant principal that was 40 minutes from Ottawa.

Kelly Whittaker (08:08.552)
and I got to visit his school and he came to my school and we met weekly and it just was, I learned so much from him despite him saying he learned a lot from me being a brand new administrator. It was a really cool opportunity. Kansas Principal Association is even more associated with USA Kansas now and just the professional development opportunities for principals in the state of Kansas, to me it's...

I don't know any other state that offers what we do. I have had luxury of spending some time on some state committees where I can really advocate for our profession and voice, you know, an opinion that might lead to some positive change for teachers and for administrators. And so really all of those opportunities without the Kansas Principles Association, I don't know that I would have been afforded those opportunities. And really for me too, it's just about serving my profession. I'm a big boy.

and giving back to your community, probably why I enjoy living in Ottawa and being the principal at the high school. But I also believe in giving back to our profession and being a member is just to me one of the many ways that you can do that.

Rick Sola (09:19.734)
You mentioned the idea sharing and you know that's what to me this conference is like the value. There's a lot of conferences in education. There's I mean they're all over there all the time. And what I really like about this is it's it is specifically designed for the building principle and it's it's for promoting that that idea sharing that conversation and the common challenges that pop up day to day and.

connecting with people from across the state. That's what I have enjoyed. Like you mentioned, you're right, you and I probably have very little opportunity to have paths cross except for this. And now we have had some conversations, communications of potentially sharing candidates and things like that. And it just builds that network. It's got just such great value.

Kelly Whittaker (10:16.166)
Absolutely, I couldn't agree with you more.

Rick Sola (10:19.054)
So you are presenting, talk about your topic that you're presenting with one of our other members, I believe, Dr. Dane.

Kelly Whittaker (10:28.602)
Yeah, Dr. Dane and I are.

We decided to team up to do a presentation. And he's another person that I've become very close with and I don't know that I would have had the opportunity to do so for any other reason. But Dr. Dane and I are together. We've got over 20 years of high school administrative experience and we by far do not know all the things and we are learning every day. Both of us, think, are lifelong learners. So we wanted to put together a presentation for principals that are in years one to three and really our goal

is to provide some insight and some advice, but more importantly, we've got some scenarios built that we want to give the administrators in the room an opportunity to collaborate with one another and process those scenarios, and then us be able to talk as a whole group. And those scenarios are somewhat aligned to some of the advice or tips and tricks of the trade that we are going to be giving those new principals. And so we really just want to encourage anyone who's in years one through three to come in the room.

We'd love to hear and learn from them. Just give them a little bit of advice and have some time to be able to connect and process with some scenarios that we feel like are pretty common amongst those first three years that you're in administration and you just need help processing and listening to other people's advice on how they might handle things.

Rick Sola (11:50.574)
That's awesome. The first three years, it's funny, you mentioned like learning from them and that, you know, I have the opportunity, most years we have kind of a grow your own administrator program and to be a mentor for a week with one of the candidates and I love it. And I kind of try to put myself back 14 years, 15 years ago when I was in that position. And I was just perceived that the principal or the administrators, I mean, they just do it. They just know it.

you know, boom, boom, boom. And reality, we're picking up the phone and we're calling people. We're calling. If it's not within our district, it's people like you or Dr. Dane, even if it's, you know, if you've got those kinds of connections and it absolutely is an opportunity to learn from us as veteran principals, to learn from the one to three year, because that's a whole different perspective too. And there's a lot of like, huh, I hadn't thought about it that way before. You know, I've thought about this way for, for years and

Kelly Whittaker (12:28.88)
Yeah.

Kelly Whittaker (12:45.784)
certainly.

Rick Sola (12:48.814)
What a great session.

Kelly Whittaker (12:49.062)
then fresh, fresh energy. Don't you think fresh energy too? A lot of new principals have fresh energy and I think sometimes things are working well in our schools and we're kind of in a groove and maybe a rut and we don't wanna be perceived as adding too much to our teachers' plates. And so I really appreciate that fresh energy and fresh perspective that new principals bring to the table. Cause it really challenges you to be reflective of what's happening in your building.

Rick Sola (13:14.518)
Absolutely. And just given the opportunity for some scenarios, know, I go back, I went to Baker for my, my leadership degree and just all the scenarios. And there were some that were fairly wacky and then you kind of get into it it's like, you do see it. You see a lot of the wacky, but I always enjoyed those and that'll be a really great session. You, you mentioned tips and tricks that are going to be shared. Do you have one or two that you could kind of give us a sneak preview of or like some advice?

Kelly Whittaker (13:41.792)
sneak preview of. we were, so we've been problem solving and all of it is, it's all research based and so we really want to talk about like things that you're tight and loose on. We think it's really important when you are a brand new administrator to figure out what are you going to be tight with, what are you going to be loose on, because as you know, Rick, we can't hold our teachers

extremely accountable on every little thing. We gotta figure out what is that value that you have in the building. So we wanna talk a little bit about that. We also wanna just talk with them about decision making strategies. As you know,

I, there are days that I, sometimes I wish I could keep track of how many decisions we make in a day, because they just are constantly coming at you and we want to just give them some strategies and some tips about kind of quick and efficient ways to make those decisions. and then really talking about leaning on your team. So whether that's your team within your district, whether that's colleagues that you're meeting through organizations like Kansas principals association. but this is my 13th year as a high school administrator and I don't know that

I have a week that goes by that something occurs that I have to stop and think. And it stumped me and it's something new, something I've never had happen before. And I might be calling my superintendent. I might be calling Dr. Dane. I might be calling one of my league colleagues in Spring Hill to say, hey, have you ever had this happen before? And like, how have you handled it? So we really want to just encourage that networking and that collaboration as well throughout kind of our time with these new principals.

Rick Sola (15:16.814)
those early years and especially I kind of, don't know the first very first year principal it's like you're drinking from a fire hose and you're just trying to kind of get your feet under you. When I made the transition to the building them and now had the opportunity to really have some experience to draw on and I just remember of course it was kind of a crazy time it was 2020 but I just remember like every decision is potentially precedent setting.

Kelly Whittaker (15:44.26)
correct.

Rick Sola (15:44.558)
And so you don't want to rush into just every, any decision, I guess, and be very selective. And I even share that out loud. There were times I kind of just want to think about this because there could be some unintended consequences. And I think that's part of our job to be kind of, to kind of evaluate the decision and what that might lead to. So no, that's great. That'll be a really interesting session.

Kelly Whittaker (15:57.211)
Yep.

Kelly Whittaker (16:13.678)
And Rick, I love that you said the title of our session is drinking from the fire hose, insights and strategies for new principles.

Rick Sola (16:20.642)
Perfect. That's... Yeah, no, it's...

Kelly Whittaker (16:21.606)
It is, so I love that you said that. I think that just proves though, because it really is truly, those first few years of being an administrator, you truly are drinking from a fire hose and you are just trying to keep moving and keep going and be methodical in your thought processes and your decision making while continuing to keep up with the pace of everything that's happening around you. So I love that I heard you say that, because that was exactly where our minds were.

Rick Sola (16:45.292)
And that was not planned. I did not like scope it out. like, hey, I'm gonna plant this fire hose line. You know, it's, now I lost my train of thought, because I'm thinking about the no, just that first year, think part of the fire hose is kind of that feeling, like I mentioned, as a teacher envisioning my administrators. They just make the decisions. No, I think part of that fire hose is

Kelly Whittaker (16:50.726)
That's great.

Rick Sola (17:14.561)
kind of feeling like I have to know everything. I have to make a quick decision. I don't know everything. And so then it just compounds on itself. And that's what I love about, well, the session you're talking about, the conference that we're talking about, and the KPA in general is it is about building that network because it's, there's so many things and we don't.

Kelly Whittaker (17:17.158)
coordinates.

Rick Sola (17:37.61)
It may be a first time for us, but it's not the first time in education, but having that network and people to draw on both within your district and without outside of your district, there's just so much value. And at the end of the day, it makes us better leaders, which at the end of the day then helps our building become better and it's better for students.

Kelly Whittaker (17:51.225)
Absolutely.

Kelly Whittaker (17:55.8)
No, absolutely. And I just think too, especially with the Kansas Principal Association Conference in November, it's also just when we really think about our school year.

Our evaluations are winding down for those first round new employees that we have. There's been a lot that's going on and kind of just to take a day and a half for yourself to build and grow your own network, building your own professional development, and also just laughing with other people that can really relate to what you're dealing with or going through. That is huge and I think it's important for our mental health, right? We talk about self care a lot for our teachers and really

going to the KPA conference for me is kind of part of my self care, right? I go and I get to relax and I get to maybe challenge some of my colleagues and maybe do a presentation. I get to go and learn from my colleagues and then we all get to spend some time in the evening together, you know, just kind of laughing together, telling stories and really getting to know each other. And I value that. And I just, I always try to encourage every principal in my league, every principal that I come in contact with that it's not

We're not being cheesy. We're not just trying to increase our membership because we want every principal part of KPA. We really want every principal part of KPA because of what it means and what we know that it could do for them professionally. There is a lot of sincerity behind the work that the board of directors do when we come together to really promote our organization.

Rick Sola (19:27.086)
Yeah, like you said, it's a professional refresh or restart or it's energizing. You go to those and then ultimately we are better for it. So I'm gonna shift gears just a little bit here to a quote that you had shared was your favorite quote. I'm pulling this from last year, but I thought it was interesting as I looked at it again. Optimism doesn't mean that you are blind to the reality of the situation.

Kelly Whittaker (19:31.376)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Rick Sola (19:54.496)
It means that you remain motivated to seek a solution to whatever problems arise. Do you remember putting that down?

Kelly Whittaker (20:01.574)
I do remember putting that out, I do. I do, that's one of my favorite quotes, because I think a lot of time as educators, it's easy for us to focus on the negative. And sometimes as a leader, when you choose to be...

optimistic. think sometimes your fellow colleagues in your building, they assume that you're ignoring all of the maybe issues or the struggles that are happening, whether that's within your own building, within your district, maybe within education in general. And I just, I truly believe in looking and thinking at the best of every situation. Even when students come to my office for really egregious behaviors, I

Our goal with my assistant principals and I, goal is we're going to address the behavior. We're going to give consequences if we need to, but more importantly, we need to figure out how to learn from this situation and maybe build a little relationship with the family in the meantime. So that way we can wrap around this student to move forward. And that doesn't mean that we're happy with whatever consequence or whatever behavior or action that they maybe did to another student in our building, but we're looking for the best in every situation. And I truly believe in that. Just really believe in

and optimistic. I think if we are pessimists in education and focus on all the things that are driving us crazy, you're not going to find yourself to be able to have a very longevity of career within education because there's a lot of negative feedback we get. There's a lot of negativity out there about being an educator and being an administrator. So I really believe in focusing in all the good that we do for students and for our communities.

Rick Sola (21:37.454)
Yeah, it's a great quote and you hitting on a lot of things, you know, I always find it's a balance between just what you said and just what the quote says of, you know, being positive, but also kind of acknowledging the things that aren't positive and not with blinders on or being perceived as head in the sand about really important issues, but kind of being able to finesse what's really going on, but staying positive because it's so important and critical for.

Kelly Whittaker (21:49.51)
Hmm.

Rick Sola (22:04.05)
what it is we do and who it is we're working with, which is our students. So I want to give you a chance, to brag on Ottawa High School, USD 290, home of the cyclones. Brag about your people.

Kelly Whittaker (22:17.914)
Yes, let me brag about my people. So Ottawa High School is a really special place. I've been there for seven years. Like I said, I live in the community. We get, we are fortunate enough to offer over 20 college and career pathways, CTE pathways to our students. And I always like to brag on that because the only reason that happens is because I have amazing CTE educators as well as amazing math, science, social studies, English teachers that are willing to teach some of those introductory

level or technical level courses so we can offer more opportunities to our students during the day. Over the last six years, we have done a lot of work with our individual plans of study. We've implemented a really robust advisory program. We have a student success team, is basically it's our sit process and at a high school, that's a really difficult sometimes to get a good process in place, but we believe in what we do. And because of all of those things that everything

that the teachers at Ottawa High School do. We have been fortunate. We've had over a 90 % graduation rate for the last four years. And I'm really proud about that because that echoes the hard work of not just my teachers, but my students. And we are bringing over 90 % of our students every year entering the community of Ottawa with that next step, right? They've got opportunities because they have graduated from high school. So it's not about them just earning that piece of paper, but helping them really.

analyze and think about what are my next steps, what could I, can I believe in myself, and what could I do with this. So that's what I'm probably the most proud about and I just have some phenomenal educators like we all do at Ottawa High School.

Rick Sola (24:03.596)
Great. Well, you're just up the road here and it sounds like some really great things happening in Ottawa, Ottawa High School. And I really appreciate your time on, it's always a busy week, but conference week tends to be, you know, kind of different types of hours and potentially long. And I know you work this in. So I really appreciate your time and all the best here in a few weeks at the KPA conference and it'll be a great time.

Kelly Whittaker (24:21.615)
Yeah.

Kelly Whittaker (24:32.738)
Absolutely, I look forward to seeing you then. I think we've got a Zoom KPA meeting before that as well. So I appreciate you, doing this. And I just appreciate all of the hard work that all the educators across Kansas do, because our kids really do need us.

Rick Sola (24:45.486)
Well hey, have a great day and a great weekend and we'll see you soon. Alright, see you, Kelly. Bye.

Kelly Whittaker (24:50.886)
All right, perfect, you too.