Cool Coffee w/ Kansas Principals

CC#43: A Principal's Perspective - Dr. Connie Redic - Let Students Lead!

A Principal's Perspective: Let Students Lead!
Dr. Connie Redic
Principal
Curtis Middle School
USD259- Wichita
X: @DrConnieRedic
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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.

CC#42: A Principal's Perspective - Dr. Erin Richerson - 4th Quarter: Teacher support when they need it most!

A Principal's Perspective: 4th Quarter: Teacher support when they need it most!
Dr. Erin Richerson
Assistant Principal
Chisholm Trail Middle School
USD233 - Olathe
X: @ErinRicherson
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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.

CC#41: A Principal's Perspective - Melissa Evans - Quick Morale Boost: Listen, Acknowledge, Extend

A Principal's Perspective: Quick Morale Boost - Recognize, Acknowledge, Extend.
Melissa Evans
Principal
Midtown Alternative High School
USD 308 Hutchinson Public Schools
@mrs_melevans
Featured in CC#28
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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.

CC#40: A Principal's Perspective - Kelly Whittaker - AI

A Principal's Perspective: AI 
Kelly Whittaker 
Principal 
Ottawa High School 
USD 290 
X: @kelwhitt217
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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.

CC#39: A Principal's Perspective - Cody Dunlap - State Assessments - how we are building efficacy

A Principal's Perspective: State Assessments - how we are building efficacy
Cody Dunlap
Principal
Cunningham High School
USD 332
X - @USD332Principal
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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.

CC#38: A Principal's Perspective - LaTonia Kennedy - Leveraging Community Partners

A Principal's Perspective: "Leveraging Community Partners"
LaTonia Kennedy
Principal
Gordon Parks Academy
X for Wichita Public Schools
Facebook: LaTonia Kennedy
Is there a project that you would love to see happen at your school, but funding is an issue? Or, you would love to create reading groups during lunch time, but you don't have volunteers?  It's as easy as leveraging your community partners through connections, celebrations and Solicitation.  Through leveraging community partnerships, we were able to take students to Paris, France without any cost to the students or our district.
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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.

CC#37: A Principal's Perspective - Rick Rivera - Keep Doing What's Best for Kids

A Principal's Perspective: Keep Doing What is Best for Kids
Rick Rivera
Principal 
Augusta High School
Augusta USD402
@mrrickrivera
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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.

CC#36: A Principal's Perspective - Anita Scheve - Maintaining a Work/Life Balance as a Principal (from a mom of 4)

A Principal's Perspective: Maintaining a Work/Life Balance as a Principal (from a mom of 4)
Anita Scheve, Principal 
Woodrow Wilson Elementary
USD 489 Hays
Anita Kimball-Scheve (FB)
Akscheve (IG)
@ascheve (X)
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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.
 

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 Background02:53 Navigating Challenges in Education06:07 The Journey to Leadership08:58 Conflict as an Opportunity11:58 Motivating Staff for the Fourth Quarter15:08 Enhancing Student Engagement18:02 Building Stronger Parent Connections21:02 Creating a Positive School Culture24:01 The Role of Student Ambassadors27:03 Reflections on Education and Future Generations30:02 Closing Thoughts and Encouragement
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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.
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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.
 
 

CC#34: Mrs. Laurel Scott - Haven Grade School

In this episode of Cool Coffee with Kansas Principals, host Rick Sola interviews Laurel Scott, the principal of Haven Grade School. They discuss Laurel's unique journey from growing up in Alaska to becoming a principal in Kansas, the community of Haven, and the challenges of student recognition in schools. Laurel shares her insights on communication with parents, the transition from secondary to elementary education, and offers valuable advice for aspiring principals. In this conversation, Principal Scott discusses the importance of creating a community of fans within the educational environment, emphasizing the need to celebrate and engage students and staff. She shares insights on innovative programs like the bee club and student council at Haven Elementary, highlighting the significance of community involvement and support. The discussion also touches on future aspirations for student engagement and the unique culture at Haven that fosters a sense of belonging and pride.
(full show transcript below)
Connect with Laurel Scott
X: @barefootpond
email: lscott@havenschools.com
Laurel's "Under the Umbrella" article (page 24)
Book: Banana Ball
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Leave show suggestions, guest recommendations, questions HERE!
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Follow us on X: @KSPrincipals; @KPACoolCoffee
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Contact the host: @MrRickSola, rfsola@olatheschools.org, or KPACoolCoffee@gmail.com
The mission of the Kansas Principals Association, an organization committed to educational excellence and the lifelong success of all students, is to develop and support all principals through optimized learning, collaborative leadership, networking, and service.
Read more about the KPA HERE.
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Chapters (time stamps do not account for Cool Coffee intro)
00:00 Introduction to Principal Laurel Scott02:58 Haven, Kansas: A Community Overview05:51 Journey into Education and Administration09:10 Transitioning from Secondary to Elementary Education11:55 The Importance of Communication with Parents14:52 Advice for Aspiring Principals18:07 Challenges of Student Recognition and Celebrating Success21:34 Celebrating Community and Creating Fans24:24 Engaging Students Through Clubs and Activities29:08 Future Aspirations for Student Engagement36:42 Bragging on Haven: A Community of Support
 
Full Show Transcript (AI generated)
Rick Sola (00:00.923)All right, hello, and we are here again with another episode of Cool Coffee with Kansas Principals. We have another featured principal today doing great things in the state of Kansas, Mrs. Laurel Scott, principal of Haven Grade School in Haven, Kansas, USD 312, home of the Wildcats. Welcome.
Laurel Scott (00:20.59)Well, thanks for having me. I'm glad to be here.
Rick Sola (00:22.877)Yeah, it's great having you and home of the Wildcats. I am home with the Wildcats as well here at the school I call home. very cool. Are you a K-State Wildcat by chance?
Laurel Scott (00:34.222)Actually, I'm neither K-State or KU. I am not from Kansas. I was born and raised in Alaska. So actually, if I had to choose a school, you know, that would be my school, would be UAA, Home of the Seawolves. So I actually attended Wichita State. if a Kansas school, I would definitely be a Shocker.
Rick Sola (00:48.89)wow.
Rick Sola (00:54.545)Okay, as a K-Stater, I can handle that. You know, if it's KU, it's like a different ball game, I think. But no, love the Jayhawk people that I work with, but yeah, certainly K-State proud. But grew up in Alaska, that's awesome. Very unique. How are the schools out there? Very similar, very different.
Laurel Scott (01:10.402)Yeah.
Laurel Scott (01:16.518)I grew up in Anchorage, so big city. It's about the size population-wise of Wichita. Obviously geographically it's much more compact, but lots of big schools there. I went to one of the larger schools in Anchorage and my mom was my eighth grade PE teacher. That's a different level of, I always say it's a different level of trauma, but it was a great experience growing up. So yeah, I just, I...
Grew up there and joined the Marine Corps after high school and worked on fixed helicopters while I was in the Marine Corps. And then I came back here. My husband is from Wellington and we attended Wichita State together. He's an engineer by trade and I got into education and the rest as they say is history.
Rick Sola (02:03.763)That's awesome. actually, of course, this is an audio only podcast, but I can see the Marine Corps emblem right behind you there. So that's really cool. Thank you for your service there for the US military. Very awesome. Haven, give us like a 30 second nutshell of Haven, the city. I know you're near Wichita, right? Is that northwest of Wichita?
Laurel Scott (02:25.792)Yeah, yes, so.
Right off K96, I always described if you're going to the state fair, we are the gas stop in between Wichita and the state fair. It's a little town right in between and we serve three different counties. We serve Reno, Sedgwick and Harvey County. We pull as far geographically from South Hutchinson. We go down clear down to Cheney Lake. We go over to Mount Hope, which is closer to Andale and as far west as Partridge. So we have a very, very large
geographic district. It makes it a lot of fun, a lot of different challenges, but it's a great place to be. It's a great place to call home. I've lived here for about 11 years and been the principal here for five.
Rick Sola (03:11.539)That's great. Awesome. So you actually kind of got into it. Actually, I was going to ask you Haven. I've not been to Haven, I don't think. But if I were, what is like the must-eat-at restaurant in Haven?
Laurel Scott (03:24.91)Well, we actually have we have a couple different restaurants we have Daisy Joe's which is like your traditional burger joint It's really really good. I would compare it to like a five guys. The fries are very very similar They're fresh cut daily We also have a little coffee shop that serves like little sandwiches and stuff like that. And then we recently opened a restaurant. It's called curbsides to go. It's open Wednesday Thursdays and Fridays For like lunch and dinner and it's really really good
good, but it's like a takeout type style meal and it's good. So it's lots of fun.
Rick Sola (04:01.331)Is there any one of those or other places where the students gravitate toward where after school that's the place to go?
Laurel Scott (04:07.374)I would probably say Daisy Joe's. mean, this year ice cream shop, so they're open late nights when we have basketball games and football games and do lots of things like that to support the community.
Rick Sola (04:19.933)Great. Actually, you brought up basketball and I actually saw Haven is having a really good year this year, aren't they? On the boys' side.
Laurel Scott (04:26.094)Yeah, our boys are still going strong. Yeah, so they beat Heston the other night. And so I think our next game for a sub state is Wednesday night. Unfortunately, our girls lost. It was a really tough loss and it was a really close game. We just kind of couldn't pull through in the last little bit.
Rick Sola (04:43.463)Well, congratulations. You mentioned Heston. I actually have a nephew that's a senior on that team. And so I know that they're both really good teams. And I was looking at the sub-state brackets and they're in separate sub-states. anyway, good luck to the Haven Wildcats out there. You kind of touched on a little bit of your kind of road in education. What got you into administration? What was that turning point where you went from teacher to
admin.
Laurel Scott (05:13.794)Well, I'm a history, I'm secondary history, so the fact that I'm in a grade school is very, very different. And I would tell you my department members from my previous building, which is 259, it's Wichita High School East, they would always kinda tease me and say that I was probably meant to be an elementary school teacher. I just love office supplies and post-it notes and all the colors and all the things. And they used to give me a hard time. I decided I wanted to get my master's.
in curriculum and instruction just as a way to kind of perfect my craft and improve upon.
my what's my purpose and what is my passion. So I really enjoyed that and I wasn't really sure where I was gonna go with that other than I just knew I wanted to be a better instructional, just better instructionally and better in the classroom. And then, you know, I just was kind of thinking, well, do I wanna be department chair? Do I wanna do administration? And I thought, well, I kind of like that as part of it. And I had some really good principals who were really good role models for me and just kind of guided me.
As one of my students said the other day, said, helps me get out of situations. And you know, and being an administration, we help a lot of kids in a lot of different situations. So just having that leadership in my life and having that guidance. And so I just decided I'm gonna do administration and see where that takes me. And when I was finishing my program, this position opened up and I thought, well, I didn't ever think that I would want to be in my children's.
building because I always said I wanted to give them autonomy but I thought shoot I'm gonna just put in for it and see where it goes and I interviewed right at the very start of COVID.
Laurel Scott (07:05.326)And this is home. I I live right outside of town and I was driving in and my kids were attending here. So my eyes were a little bit open at the students that we serve here in Haven. I would have told you that it's just this pretty little, cutesy little town and we still have some of the same challenges that other schools have, that any school has really.
And, but it just, it just is a great place to be. It's a great place to work. It's a great place to raise your kids and to know like, I'm, you know, I'm supporting my community and I'm helping, you know, my kids' and, you know, helping them out of situations too. So that's kind of how I ended up here. And like I said, I never thought I would be here in Haven, but I've loved every minute of it.
Rick Sola (07:55.187)That's great. You know, it's been brought up multiple times, different principals on this podcast and talk about being the principal at the building with their kids. And I'm one of those. it just makes me think that might be a good episode. Just because I think everything you described are all the things that I remember feeling like, know, kind of should I? this the best thing for them? And so anyway, that's really neat. And I'm a former social studies secondary as well. So, but the idea of being in elementary
Laurel Scott (08:08.865)Yeah.
Rick Sola (08:24.787)I love the elementary. I've got an elementary kid myself and going in there, but you know, that does not seem like, that's an adjustment I would imagine.
Laurel Scott (08:34.402)Yeah, and they asked me, I remember that was a question in my interview actually, how do you think you will transition from the secondary level to the elementary school level? And my answer, and I still hold true to this.
When we think about brain development and the development of the prefrontal cortex, there's not much difference between an eight-year-old and a 16-year-old when we talk about brain development. I mean, obviously, there's a lot of differences and we see them, but so the problems are the same. The things that they face are the same. The academic challenges are the same. They're just in smaller packages.
Rick Sola (09:09.939)That's really great. I like that. Yeah, the elementary still kind of scares me a little bit for where I'm at, but...
Laurel Scott (09:14.594)Well, know, kindergarten scares me a little bit, but I will tell you this. If you want to have compliments, if you are having a down day, go down to kindergarten. They will tell you they love your outfit, they love your earrings. Did you just get a haircut? How beautiful you look. mean, that is like, if you're needing some encouragement, go down to the six year olds. They've got it for you all day long.
Rick Sola (09:39.197)There is such a special energy about elementary schools. Every once in a while, throughout the year, I need to go down to our feeder elementaries. And you're right, kids, they just come right up to you. They have no reservations. They'll just say, you know, whatever. And it's one of the favorite things I do every year is when I go down to work with our fifth graders who are coming up to the middle school. there is a special energy with elementary.
Laurel Scott (09:51.297)Mm-hmm.
Rick Sola (10:05.201)And you mentioned that you started at the start of COVID. So we have that in common, starting in a building at that time. That's a unique challenge in and of itself. I'm interested in, because this is also something that's been recurring. I think it'd be really interesting to really have people share about this. you talked about the good role models and mentors that you've had along the way. Was there anything that any of them shared with you as far as advice in particular that really stuck with you that maybe it
kind of formed your early admin or maybe it's still with you and driving you today.
Laurel Scott (10:38.68)First story always wins, that would be it. If I knew and so there was one of our administrators.
Growing up and I ended up in her office a lot and would tell me she said boy You better go tell your mom because I'm calling her I'm gonna let her know but if you get home and that was kind of what I learned if I can tell my story First at least I've said well, this is what I was thinking when I made a really poor decision So that's something that I've that stuck with me not only as an administrator I mean now as a parent number one, I want my kids to tell me that too I want them to say hey, I made a mistake today And this is what I do about it
Rick Sola (11:15.091)So does that drive your, like, when you work with a student who's made a poor choice that you're going to the first call, you're going to call home before they have a chance to get home? that?
Laurel Scott (11:25.686)Yeah, well, yeah, it does. And that's the thing I tell our classroom teachers too, like communicate. Like parents want the opportunity to be a parent. I want the opportunity to be a parent. There's nothing more discouraging to me when I call a parent and I say, well, you know, we've had several conversations and they say, this is the first time I'm hearing about this. Why is this the first time? Same thing with parent teacher conferences. know, my mom being my PE teacher, parent teacher conferences are this week. I'm going to go in. there anything?
I need to know before I go meet with your teachers and I would it used to give me the most anxiety I can remember just stressing What did I do that? I forgot to tell my mom like what story are they gonna tell? That I didn't like it wasn't a big deal to me and it's just stuck in that teachers crawl And so that just used to give me so much anxiety So I always try and you know, even when I was in the classroom just telling teachers just telling my students It's okay. Hey, I'm gonna have a conference with you beforehand We're gonna talk about it and I'm gonna share exactly that with your parents. There's no sir. There should be
know surprises. And so again, first story wins and then there shouldn't be any surprises. So our parents should know what's, you know, how they're doing in their kids, how their kids are doing in school and there shouldn't be any surprises. And if we communicate well and do our due diligence in that, then it usually goes pretty well.
Rick Sola (12:48.017)Yeah, there's always a balance I struggle with kind of depending on the situation, maybe a low level thing. think as a parent, I would like to know this. This is important. You you got called to the principals and you're having this conversation. And then there's the other side that sometimes like, well, you know, give them a chance to, you know, kind of work through it and that sort of thing. But there's definitely, definitely a balance there. But I err on that side of caution, too. I would rather call home, have the conversation and.
be able to share how the conversation went here and invite that discussion at home and then hey, call back if you have any questions and that sort of thing.
Laurel Scott (13:22.958)Yeah.
And that's just, and I always say that too. And that's the thing I am, I'm so fortunate to have my kids in my building, but I'm like, hey, my kids aren't perfect either. As a parent, I would want to know. Cause again, I want to have those conversations like serious, like again, like just little things, even as like you have a negative lunch balance and you pack your lunch every day. So what's going on here, bud? You know, why are we, what's happening with our lunch? Well, I forget it on the playground and then I go out and I can't find it or I left it in the car or things like that. So just again, I just always
want the opportunity to parent my kids and even in this building sometimes I don't know stuff and I want to know and I want to be that parent that's involved but if we don't give parents the opportunity and don't invite them to the table.
Rick Sola (14:06.151)Yeah. So there's a principal who or aspiring principal, know, or someone listening to this out of Wichita State or Baker or whatever. What advice would you give them? You talked about some advice that you had gotten. First story wins. What advice would you give someone as they are aspiring to the chair of principal?
Laurel Scott (14:28.896)So they're interviewing or they are thinking maybe they want to be an administrator or?
Rick Sola (14:35.507)Let's go with they are about to assume the role of principal or they're trying to actually interview for a principalship.
Laurel Scott (14:42.83)Okay, okay. I would say seek first to understand is a big one. Listen first.
And that's always something I can, you when you think about things that don't go well, whether, you know, you had a crisis drill, you had a fire drill, something that didn't go well, some professional development, you know, in any situation like that, people will say, hey, I need more communication. I need I need more of that. And and I would say that would be creating those opportunities for that, for that follow up, for the for those critical conversations that you can have. One of the things that I've done recently is I felt
you know, like I always say, hey guys, if you need to talk to me, I will make myself available for you. that's really important to me, but what I find is that I will see people walk past my office and they'll kind of pop in. And if I've got somebody here, they'll just keep walking. So creating opportunities for people to schedule those appointments with me. So I use an app for that.
and so they can just go in and it links their calendar to mine and they I just have a standing 10 minute appointment and I go to them that way no matter what it is I've made time for them in my day and it usually it works out pretty well because they are able to say hey this was a problem for me or this was a frustration
And then they're not waiting for me to either get out of an IEP or, you know, another meeting with where someone did just pop in. It's scheduled and it's intentional. just, you know, see when you think about those first year, your first year principal, or you're getting ready to come into the building and you you're wanting to do this, just create lots of opportunities for staff to come to you, set boundaries with them. But ultimately, just try and be the best listener that you can and just, you know, assume positive intent with people.
Laurel Scott (16:35.376)parents, students, and staff and just be a listener.
Rick Sola (16:41.873)Yeah, you just said assume positive intent. That's a big one. And there's times where I'm sure we're in the role where you're like, my gosh, but almost always people's heart are in the right place. And sometimes things just go one way or the other. And so I really like that. What's the name of the app that you just referenced there?
Laurel Scott (16:56.142)Mm-hmm.
Laurel Scott (17:01.64)I use Calendly and
I know you can do it through Google calendars, but Calendly is really, really easy for me. There is a free version. I pay for it. It's not that much. it just helps me, especially scheduling your evals. How much time do I spend like, hey, does this time work? Or I have these three times. Sorry, that one's gone now. It's like, just go in. I've blocked out the right amount of time I need for your observation, and I've blocked out the follow-up. You schedule it. You schedule it.
when it works for you. So that's really nice.
Rick Sola (17:37.799)Yeah. So I want to transition actually the as we record this, it's very timely because like earlier today we all got an email from under the umbrella in your article, which I'm looking at right here, but I haven't read it yet. It came out a couple hours ago, but the challenges of student recognition and finding meaningful ways to celebrate success. And so it's very timely. We had some things to talk about. This certainly goes right along with that. And speaking of which, I mean, we
Appreciate your persistence with connecting here our schedules, because we have had some false starts. I think this is originally like a month ago that we were trying to get together and talk. the job, things happen. And then we had like 58 snow days in a row. that, yeah. Yeah. And where I'm at right now, they're talking about a big old storm again coming here in a couple of days. So.
Laurel Scott (18:24.908)In the month of January.
Laurel Scott (18:32.75)Yeah.
Rick Sola (18:34.015)But anyway, I appreciate you weathering through that. Not necessarily pun intended there, but you just had the USA under the USA Kansas under the umbrella article out. let's hear a sneak preview. And then I will put the link to the under the umbrella into our show notes so you can find it. There's a lot of good articles in there from people who have been featured along the way. So what can you tell us about it?
Laurel Scott (18:59.372)Yeah, it's funny, Stacey Green's article is also in there this month and she and I did not talk or visit about that before at all and then we shared our articles and they're actually on kind of some similar stuff and that's just celebrating your people, whether that's stakeholders of any kind, but students and staff, just the people that work in your building, the people that are there and staff recognition is actually something that I've figured out. It's pretty easy to do, create some different avenues.
for staff recognition. But student recognition is something that I continually struggle with in making it meaningful because I can reward kids for, you know.
You know, GPA, you know, I can award those honor roll kids and we do, we send home certificates. But then I struggle with attendance awards because you know, lot of times, know, kids are, they're missing for legitimate reasons. They are legitimately sick. Also, I have kids with braces on, orthodontist appointments are really, really hard to schedule. Certainly during that time that's after school or before school. So whether it's orthodontist, eye appointments, you know, things like that. So I struggle with perfect attendance awards.
as well. And then again, when kids are sick, want them home. you know, they need to be home. They need to rest when they're ill. So just struggling with that. And then, you know, then there's the student of the month challenge and whether, you know, are we recognizing the kids that deserve it or are we recognizing the kids that need it? And then when we recognize everyone, does that dilute the meaning behind it? So just some of the things that I struggle with as an administrator in a building where I really want to champion those kids,
but finding the right way to do it.
Rick Sola (20:42.575)I love all of those topics because there's so much just philosophical angles from it and people can have very valid reasons to come at it from both ways like recognizing those who need it versus those who've earned it or whatever. And maybe that's the social studies background there too because I like I'm hearing that I'm like yeah that'd be an interesting conversation because attendance is really tricky and I found that this year and I know there's a lot of talk about
chronic absenteeism and things, but you hit the nail on the head. People do get sick and sometimes they get sick for an extended amount of times and when it's on top of some ortho appointments or maybe they had something come up that did pull them from the building. The next thing you know, you look at those numbers and it can present a conversation to be had, but it gets tricky to say the least.
Laurel Scott (21:12.45)Mm-hmm.
Laurel Scott (21:34.924)It's challenge. So yeah, that's kind of what it's about. Again, just I try and think about things that I'm going through and things that I'm working through in my mind and in my brain when I'm writing an article. so that's something that I've really been working on this year. And it's not a challenge that we were given by our superintendent. Just how do you celebrate your people? And that was the question. So I read a really good book.
the owner of the Savannah Bananas, the baseball team, the guy that created Banana Ball. And I actually don't have it right now, but so it's called Fans First and it's about creating fans and everything that we do and just creating those fans and not customers because it kind of references like the Blockbuster and how Blockbuster had a lot of customers but they didn't have fans and they didn't adopt what they were doing.
to create fans, but just some of the things like Chick-fil-A, how they are really big on...
when the phones come to night ring.
Rick Sola (22:40.595)You
Laurel Scott (22:41.678)They come into my office. but just Chick-fil-A has changed the, you know, it's not no problem. Those are two negatives together, but it's my pleasure. Or, you know, Starbucks, when they have meetings, they leave an empty chair and that chair represents the customer. So just creating fans from our people, from our community, and that we really truly want people to be a fan of our district and a fan of our building. And so what does that take to create people who are fans? Because fans are a boil. Fans are, you know, they're
die-hard, you know, Chiefs fans, their die-hard KU, die-hard K-State, they will do anything. They will, you know, travel miles, stay up super late watching a game, or, you know, study the draft picks. Those are fans. Those are, that's who you want. So how do we take that and adapt it to what we're doing here in education and create those fans? So I think the step for, first step for that is, you know, recognizing and celebrating your people, you know, whether it's your alumni that have come back to work in your district. People have a lot of places that they can work and
and things that they can do. But if they choose to come back and attend the school that they grew up in, that speaks volumes about your fan base. So again, I would highly recommend that book.
Rick Sola (23:55.227)Yeah, I'm gonna I'll find it. I have not heard of it. I'm gonna put it in to our show notes as well. I mean, just by how you've described it, it sounds like a really interesting read and definitely something relevant for all of us here in the school. So, you know, one thing we had talked about here a little while ago now, but is in Haven, you've got some things going on surrounding clubs at the elementary school and
I would love to hear just a little bit of kind of a nutshell of how it works at Haven and then what you see as the values. I know clubs can really be so powerful in schools and for kids and motivators and so forth. And so you talk about bragging on your people, brag on your club program out in Haven.
Laurel Scott (24:43.96)Well, and this is something that we're still working on and we're still developing. It kind of, we knew that...
We wanted to have a student council in our building and we just didn't have one. I don't know if we have had one in the past, but as long as my kiddos have been going to Haven, we have not. And so my oldest is an eighth grader. And again, I have several staff members who went here and didn't have student council then. So just kind of thinking about what we wanted that to look like and just reaching out to other places. But it actually started with some student interest in B's.
Rick Sola (25:18.301)like bumblebees. honeybees, okay.
Laurel Scott (25:19.502)but more particular honey bees.
There's several grants that you can get to get bees and I had reached out to a couple different teachers I'm like, my gosh you guys I want to get bees. How do we do it? And it kind of took a little bit of like trial and error to find the right person to be the bee club sponsor But one of our kindergarten teachers her name is Cory Kroll just said absolutely. This sounds awesome Let's do it. So Every year in the fall, we have a farm day. We actually have a school farm. That's not very far from here
And so we, our FFA and Ag programs bring in all sorts of speakers and just kind of present on what they're doing and community leaders and things like that. Well, one of the presenters was the Prairie Hills Middle School Bee Club. So that is Bueller. So one of our surrounding districts has a bee club. So they came out and presented on that and our kids were so just inspired. They're this is so cool. We could do that. We want to do that. Then at our fall festival, a local
I
They do tree trimming business, also has bees and they kind of had a little bee station and we're selling local honey. And again, our kids are so excited. They just wanted to do it. But we had some steps to jump through first, which was really absolutely like this was the most like the history teacher and we just get super excited because it just taught our kids some civics and how to be civically engaged as a student. So we had to first we needed to present our idea to the middle school science teacher.
Laurel Scott (26:54.476)who lives next door to where we were going to put our bees and she was all about it, super excited. So our little bee club went over and that was their first presentation was to her. And then they went to the school board and got permission from the school board. And then they had to actually go to a city council meeting where they had and they had to figure out how to get added to the agenda and how, you know, to have that idea sponsored. They had their lawyers there and they presented their idea of changing our
Rick Sola (27:19.734)Ugh.
Laurel Scott (27:23.446)our town regulations on owning bees in the city limits because it was not permitted. So they did that and they voted to amend some of those regulations so that we have an educational exemption to allow bees for obviously the educational purpose of it. And so pretty cool there. So we have had our bees for almost a year now and we checked on them not too long ago and they were doing pretty good. it obviously when it gets warm, they come out. And so we have some support.
who have helped us just keep that up, because it's a lot of work. I used to think, not yet, not yet, but we will be. But just learning what our bees need and how much, like how much.
Rick Sola (27:57.329)Are you producing honey? Okay. Okay.
Laurel Scott (28:07.758)how much foliage do you have to have available for bees to even produce honey? Not just talking about making it through the winter, but I thought it was like I just set up the white boxes and you just leave them there. There's so much more to it than that. Bugs, parasites, all the things that we're learning about. So that kind of got our feet wet with student organizations and then moving into our student council. And we started it this year and we had kids apply. They had to get letters of recommendation and letters of reference from people and it couldn't,
people in the building as well as outside the building had to write a letter for these kids. And again, just the things that they're doing and they meet.
every other Friday and one of our counselor leads it and they're just involved, just learning how to be involved and we're learning right along with them on how it should work and how it could work and how we could do it better. So it's pretty cool to see our kids step into leadership roles and just become ambassadors for the building.
Rick Sola (29:08.529)Yeah, really, really cool. You talked about the B's and kind of the launching point of other things. Where would you hope to see three years from now Haven Elementary School as it relates to clubs?
Laurel Scott (29:22.008)Well, I'd like us to have more opportunities and just for our fifth and sixth graders to just be engaged and involved in our community and what that looks like for each kid could be different. But engaging our staff members and where they find interests. I actually had a staff member, she's a Horizon Award winner this year. She brought me a book for my sixth grader because they love to read together and my daughter just finished a book and so the teacher comes down and
hey I got this book for your daughter. She's gonna she really enjoyed it and Frank she was telling me about it so now this is another one like that. So just you know and she's talked about having a book club and creating those opportunities so just how can we get kids excited about being at school and give them something other some other drive to look forward to that gets them in the doors and keeps them engaged and whether that's band or or we have an advanced art program or students have some choice in that or a book club.
or being involved in student council or getting to work with the bees. So what is it that brings kids here? Because I know that I love coming to my job, but what is it that keeps me here? And making sure that we're asking our students, what is it that brings you here? What is it that gets you excited about being here at school and how can we make sure that we're providing those opportunities for kids?
Rick Sola (30:44.167)Yeah, you mentioned a lot of different examples of ways kids can be connected to school and not every example is going to resonate with every kid, but hopefully at least one example will resonate with all the kids, you know, and that's, it's really the power of kind of, it's almost outside the box thinking basically. I mean, bring in bees. Not every elementary school has got a beehive producing honey out there, which I find awesome by the way, because I love honey and some authentic honey being made there.
Laurel Scott (30:56.568)Mm-hmm.
Laurel Scott (31:13.708)Yeah.
Rick Sola (31:13.709)is fantastic, but it's such a powerful thing for IC as a school community and so forth. And the fact that they had kind of a real life civics lesson too and the things that they'll remember with that.
Laurel Scott (31:23.81)Yeah.
That I think was the coolest thing and then our local paper wrote an article about the kids and just the work that they were doing. So then the day that we actually got the bees, it was pretty exciting. So it's a lot of fun.
Rick Sola (31:39.347)Great. Well, hey, before we wrap up here, I'm going to give you some quick hitters. then you talk about bragging on your people. I want to give you a chance to really just brag on Haven and kind of leave us with that. But some quick hitters here. Favorite movie.
Laurel Scott (31:43.266)Okay.
Laurel Scott (31:53.61)gosh, sweet home Alabama.
Rick Sola (31:57.715)Okay, I have seen that movie, yes. Okay, very good. No comments on this here, but yeah. Okay, last concert you saw.
Laurel Scott (31:58.25)What?
Laurel Scott (32:06.729)Yeah
Laurel Scott (32:11.918)I went to Morgan Wallen in Kansas City. No, no Benson Boone. Benson Boone was the I went to Benson Boone with my my big girls in Tulsa.
Rick Sola (32:21.925)Okay, yeah, Morgan Wallen, I did not go to that, but that was like huge out here and so many students were going to that.
Laurel Scott (32:28.01)I have not, I've been to more concerts this year too than I've probably been to in five years.
Rick Sola (32:35.503)Yeah, I like to go to concerts. don't go all that often. Ben Folds is, I'm a big Ben Folds fan and he is coming to the KC Symphony, which is a really cool experience and I'm to catch that over spring break. But anyway, a typical lunch, and I'm talking about at school. What does your typical lunch look like?
Laurel Scott (32:40.6)Mm-hmm.
Laurel Scott (32:52.642)Okay, well my assistant principal and I have a list of our top five, okay? We have amazing food here. Our nutrition services, like they do a phenomenal job. Every Friday, by the way, we have biscuits and gravy for staff every Friday morning. So that is like, like if you wanna know, like just.
Rick Sola (33:11.613)That's incredible.
Laurel Scott (33:13.198)Come on, come to Haven. will buy you biscuits and gravy on a Friday morning. One of the things I love about that too is we always have or we try to get the high school athletes to come over. So they'll come over, they have biscuits and gravy too with us and just hang out with the little kids. Again, we're in a community where we're just so close. The high school is just the next block over. They walk over, come have breakfast with our bus kids and we open our doors to kids at 745. The merry-go-round on those days,
Rick Sola (33:29.456)gosh.
Laurel Scott (33:43.144)gets a little bit crazy because those guys come over there and they really get it going. But that's fun. It's a fun time for us. But for lunch, man, if it's got gravy on it, I'm there. Like if it's chicken nuggets, mashed potatoes, always a good day. Crispy dough is always another really good day. And then we have a phenomenal salad bar for staff. So if I'm not really feeling it, Super Nachos, again, one of my top faves. But we keep, my assistant principal and I
Rick Sola (34:05.703)Wow, okay.
Laurel Scott (34:13.038)he and I keep a rolling list of, this is a favorite.
Rick Sola (34:16.581)Yeah, that's that's really good. Now is it are you eating lunch in your office? Is it quiet? Or like you standing up in a lunch room somewhere and
Laurel Scott (34:23.246)I get up pretty early, but so I'm ready for lunch. I usually like I try and eat early because if I don't sit down and eat early Then it doesn't happen. So usually I'm eating like at 1030, but usually before 11 1030 1045 I'll grab my lunch Sometimes I eat with the kids but that's always you know, you know, it's always you know hit or miss on if you get lunch or not and
depending on if we have lunch duty that day or not. But I always sit down. I try and sit down because I'm just not coordinated enough to stand up and eat.
Rick Sola (34:55.709)Yeah.
Rick Sola (35:00.941)I have been told here that I eat like a toddler because I tend to have a peanut butter sandwich and a cheese stick and I'm like walking and you know, but your lunch and breakfast sounds amazing. And I think it's awesome too. bet your kids just love having the high school kids there. I mean that is really cool.
Laurel Scott (35:12.297)Yeah, we have
Laurel Scott (35:16.622)It's pretty cool. So we did a thing too. So our PTO, we have a pretty awesome PTO. We call it Wake Up with Wildcats. We have it a couple of times a year. We bring in Daylight Donuts. And let me tell you, Daylight Donuts is pretty particular on their donut pickup. I had said, well, we'll just pick them up the day before. They're like, no, no, no, no, You can't do that. And I was like, what do mean I can't pick them up the day before? They're like, you'll have to come that morning. And they were legit serious. They were not letting me pick up those donuts the day before. So luckily I had a couple of staff members who said, we'll grab them in the morning on our way. No big deal.
So we have a Wake Up with Wildcats Day and it's just come in, have a donut, have some coffee with whomever you want to bring. It doesn't really matter, just really it's, you know, just hanging out with the kids.
And on that day we have a large bus population and sometimes that just doesn't work for families. So we bring the high school athletes over and they have donuts. So we have two locations. You can have donuts with your parent or your grandparent, your aunt or uncle, your neighbor, or you can have it with the high schoolers. And at some point I'm sure the other kids are gonna realize they'd rather have it with the high school basketball team because those guys are a lot of fun.
Rick Sola (36:20.529)Yeah, yeah, I bet. Okay, last one. Favorite morning drink.
Laurel Scott (36:25.296)coffee black.
Rick Sola (36:26.993)Okay, we have that in common. That's basically, it's this black coffee. So very good, very good. I do wanna end, and I like to end these podcasts this way, but just brag on your people. Let's hear all about Haven and what you love about it.
Laurel Scott (36:31.244)Mm-hmm.
Laurel Scott (36:42.414)It's just, just, they're just good people. They're good people that believe in what we're doing here. Again, like I said, we have a lot of alumni who choose to come back and work here, whether they're a para, whether they're maintenance teaching. It's pretty cool to see people say, like, I went away to college, I went away for several years, and I came back to this place, and I think there's something special about that. You go to a game on a Friday night or a Thursday night, or actually this
week it's Wednesday night and and and it's filled and and they're not they're not just parents they're not just grandparents it's community members who've been here and they want to see this town succeed and they want to see these kids succeed and it makes it a pretty special place it's a small town so you know if you if you mess up they know about it but they also the cool thing about that is they celebrate you too they're the first ones they're championing kids they're the kids that are the people that are screaming on the sidelines
They're showing up for the spelling bee. We actually have a girl from the grade school going to the state spelling bee this year. we had a girl make it to the next round of the National Civic Spee Competition. just lots of really cool things going on both athletically and academically at Haven. And it makes it a really fun time to be here and a fun time to work for USD 312.
Rick Sola (38:06.707)Yeah, really great words about Haven and between the biscuits and gravy and Daisy Joes and all the things that I need to stop through there. And what's cool really just listening to how you're describing them is it goes back to that book you were just talking about, The Fans First. You're describing what sounds like a lot of fans of Haven and the community or they're fans of everything in USD 312 and.
It's really cool, and I want to wish you all the best in basketball season and unless you take on the Swathers again which would I think be like in the in the final round or championship, but But now very good and Laurel. Thanks again for making this work and for joining here today and Yeah, absolutely and in all the best in the days or weeks leading up to spring break and a good fourth quarter to you
Laurel Scott (38:43.128)Yeah, I think so.
Laurel Scott (38:50.254)Well, thanks for having me.
Laurel Scott (38:59.276)Yeah, you too. Yeah, you guys too. again, thanks for having me. It's been a lot of fun. I really enjoyed it.
Rick Sola (39:04.467)All right, take care.
Rick Sola (39:09.171)All