In this engaging conversation, Cool Coffee host, Rick Sola, interviews Nicholas Owen, the principal of Southeast of Saline High School, discussing various aspects of education, including the unique culture of his school, the importance of intentional professional development, and the strategies for fostering a safe environment for both students and staff to learn and grow. Nick shares insights from his journey in education, emphasizing the significance of mentoring, soft skills development, and the balance between work and family life. The discussion highlights the need for schools to adapt to the diverse post-secondary options available for students today.

Connect with Mr. Owen: [email protected]

X: @Owenn22

Cool Coffee w/ Mr. Don Epps (referenced in this show)

Chapters (timestamp does not account for intro)

00:00 Introduction to Southeast Saline High School
02:39 Nick Owen's Journey in Education
05:38 Intentionality in Professional Development
08:23 Creating a Safe to Fail Culture
11:02 Soft Skills Development and Mentoring
16:58 Post-Secondary Options for Students
22:33 Balancing Work and Family Life
28:15 The Importance of Relationships in Education

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT BELOW

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FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT (AI generated)

Rick Sola (00:01.602)
Hello, cool coffee listeners. I hope this podcast finds you well and moving along just swimmingly as the 25-26 school year is now firmly underway. I'm excited to be joined here today by Mr. Nicholas Owen, principal of Saline High School, USD 306, KPA Region 5 in Gypsum, Kansas. Welcome, Nicholas.

Nick (00:24.515)
Wow, I appreciate it. Man, you taught me some things about that. I didn't even know the different histories and everything else, though. Appreciate the knowledge.

Rick Sola (00:28.332)
Hahaha

So I didn't adjust my intro too much, but we were just talking about Saline High School. And I was asking about the vernacular of, I know you're really close to Salina, is it Southeast of Saline? I've seen that. Let's start with that. Can you just kind of explain how you would introduce yourself and kind of the vernacular of your high school that you're at?

Nick (00:54.265)
Sure, mean generally I introduce myself as you know I'm southeast of Saline. I'm right outside of Salina because nobody knows where southeast Saline is. We're basically located in a field right off of K4 Highway. We are one of those schools that the bonus is if you follow all that funding talk we get funded for everyone because nobody's close to us so we bust them all. So we live, we're basically housed in the field. We have cows on one side of us.

So we do have some space and it's nice in that way. Like we're one of the few schools that have an actual cross-country course on our campus because you have the space, you have the room to be able to do stuff like that. So technically the closest town to us is Gypsum. It's a pretty small town and that's just kind of up the road about three miles or so. We serve Gypsum, we serve Assyria, which is another town just kind of down the road. We're kind of located between them. Assyria is probably about seven, eight miles away.

We also have some other tiny towns of like Kip and then just we have, we have like anything. have a lot of school students that come out of district from Salina who don't want to go into the largest schools. But yeah, it's funny because people are not used to Kansas will always say Selena and we're like, no, no, it's Salina. And then they'll be like, so it's Southeast of like I said, it's so saline and Salina. It's doesn't make a lot of sense, but you know,

Rick Sola (02:15.266)
haha

Yeah.

Nick (02:19.789)
I guess you can always tell who the people who are not from the area are.

Rick Sola (02:23.542)
I was going to say, you know who's local and who's not. So how big is the high school you're at? How many students?

Nick (02:29.711)
Man, just talked about that. Our high school-wise, we have 217. We have 98 in the junior high as well. So, you know, we're usually right around, right around the 6 to 700 range. We are also kind of unique in the fact that we're a K-12 building. So everybody, I mean, that's the, that's to me, that's the joy. I know not everybody might enjoy that, but I have a young one too, so.

It's pretty awesome that we're able to go to school every day and I'm able to see her and do certain things that I don't think other people in other schools maybe aren't able to do. I don't have to miss her parties because they're in the same building. I can walk down and peek in on her classroom and things like that. So we are a K-12 building too.

Rick Sola (03:14.26)
Very good. So you're sitting there as principal here at the high school. Talk about your road to that chair, what you did prior and what led you to where you're at today.

Nick (03:24.601)
You bet. So I spent 15 years. Well, once I got into education, I kind of went a different route for a little while. But once I got into education, I spent 15 years in the classroom as like a teacher, coach. was head soccer coach and I was head speech forensics coach at Salina Central High School, a 5A school. And the story basically goes, I was getting my, they had a leadership program, so was getting my master's degree. And the only reason I was getting that was

My wife convinced me to do it so we could move up on the salary scale. And I was like, all right, fine. but like anything, I learned a little bit about, you know, communication and differences between, know, at least my, my relationship between me and my wife and the way we communicate. And one day she came home and said, Hey, I can't work in this district forever. And I stupidly, as a dumb man, could that as, I better look for other jobs. So I opened it up and applied for another job and, actually got an interview right away. And you know,

Once I went through that interview process and everything, she looked at me, she goes, you know, I was meeting like some day, not like now. And I'm like, well, here we go. Um, so I, uh, I applied and got a job at Solomon, which is about 13 miles from Salina, um, headed to the East along I 70. Um, so closer towards you. Um, I went there for six years as their, uh, 712 principal. And then that evolved into principal and athletic director. Uh,

And so I did that for six years and then this opportunity came up and we thought it was a good move for me and my family. And so I've really been in this area of Salina my entire career. So I'm on year three at Southeast Saline. So, you know, we're in year 24 of education and I really haven't left, you know, a 15 mile radius. So that's kind of been my little journey of education.

Rick Sola (05:13.814)
No, that's great. I always find interesting. Everybody's wrote it. And sometimes we're not on the admin track or even even think about it at the start of our careers. And then here we are. And so no, thank you for sharing that. Yeah. So we're yeah, we record. is August 26 recording. So we have started the school year. We're underway. But I know that the start of the year brings a lot of intentionality. And I know

Nick (05:22.669)
Right. Yo.

Rick Sola (05:41.461)
you had some intentionality at the start of your year and I learned because we have a mutual connection with that intentionality with Mr. Don Epps who came out to your school. And I think he was with you a day or two before he came out where I'm at. But I wanted to hear about your kind of the start of the year, but the intentionality behind that, everything that even includes Mr. Epps joining you.

Nick (06:08.931)
You bet. You bet. So obviously that's kind of been a focus in the last few years of what we wanted as far as really listening to our teachers in regards to their PD. We did a lot of kind of some of the teachers get to choose their own, which is one of the things I think is a little unique. always basically one day of the summer they dedicate to a day of their own PD. So we come back a day later.

than with some of the other area schools because they're doing a day of PD on their own because the reality that we knew was they're learning and doing stuff in the summer anyway, whether that's books they're reading, whether that's, you know, other plans that they're doing, listening and talking to other people. So we're like, let's just grant them a day of PD for that. And then we've really been, I guess you would say intentional in the fact of like getting the information from our, from our PDC and just having them kind of take the lead on it.

I think before it was very admin driven, like this is what the PD is going to be. And we wanted that to be really teacher driven. So we really focused a little bit more about, you know, making sure we're getting surveys, making sure our, our PDC leaders are the ones that are driving this, not coming from admin. And the thing that we heard over and over again was we really would like to have a motivational speaker. We really like to have a motivational speaker. And you know how that is. It's like, that's a great thought, but we're not a big district. We're not going to bring in a $10, $20,000 public, you know,

motivational speaker. And then, you know, when you're financially looking at it from an admin perspective, you're like, I don't know, can we really justify this for an hour or whatever the case may be like? Yeah, it's going to get everyone excited. But is it really, you know, going to last throughout? Like, so we started really having those discussions and it's been in the back burner. Last year, we brought in a friend of mine who's a local administrator to kind of give that kind of feel. And that was positive. But I was at I don't even remember.

I think I was doing the bold leadership. That's what it was. I was doing the bold leadership and we were actually at Pleasanton. And one thing, least or another, you know, we're out to dinner and I'm talking with Don and he talks about wanting to do this, you know, thing. And I said, if you ever do it, I said, put Southeast Salina on first. We're going to do it. goes, all right, brother, you know, I'm going to be there. And you know how, you know, Don is. And so.

Rick Sola (08:22.935)
Yeah.

Nick (08:26.831)
And I kind of, forgot about it. And then probably about a month or two later, he announced out on the social media that, you know, he was going to do it. I mean, reached out to him again. He's like, you know, I'm going to be there. We're going to be there. So we made sure we worked all the details out. He came out. He got everybody fired up. mean, he don't have to come out and give a speech to get people fired up. can call you on the phone. He can catch you passing by. He's just one of those guys who's infectious. You know, he loves kids. loves public education and, you know, he was a good way for us or, know,

anyone to kind of get started. So he came out here. I also talked to a few of my local schools because he was already coming out here and asked them if you know they wanted him to come over. And so while he was out, he was able to go over to Minneapolis and which is 30 miles down the road and Concordia, which is about 45, 60 miles down the road. So he was able to come out and do some of our local schools. And like I said, he's a champ. He's a pretty awesome guy.

Rick Sola (09:21.346)
Well, he was on the tour for sure because he left here where I'm at and had to drive past Wichita. He even told me, I don't know, I must have blacked out, I don't know how I made it there on time, wherever he was, Clearwater maybe, but he got out there and...

Nick (09:39.258)
Yeah, Clearwater, Riverside, I don't remember which one it was, but it was one of those. I remember him telling me, he's like, you know, only in the way Don was, is he was like, well, there's a local guy, I think he's gonna fly me in his plane. And then he says, well, I don't know, because he just called me and said the plane's broken, but maybe he'll get it fixed in time. I looked at Don, and I was like, if the plane's broken, I don't think I'd take that risk, buddy. Like, I don't know.

Rick Sola (09:59.503)
Yeah, that's I mean, I told him I said that's I'm glad you figure that out before you're in mid air. I mean, that's you know, that's a bad deal. No, first of all, so he I remember he had he had already been with you. And he came out like Rick, you got to have Nick Owens on your Nick Owen on your show and blah, blah, blah. But that was great. And I'm really excited to have you on because at USA, I did a little presentation on

Nick (10:07.756)
Hahaha

Nick (10:20.216)
I'm

Rick Sola (10:28.382)
on podcasting in general, but also talked about cool coffee and had a survey for other administrators to just recommend different people for the show. Your name came up multiple times on that survey. And so I think it's awesome and I appreciate you being on here today. So you mentioned that I really like that kind of dedicated PD day for staff over the summer. And the assumption is, like all of our teachers do, they're

they are doing things throughout the summer. Is there anything that's like, I guess a follow-up to that? Like once you start, like hey, kind of a share out what you did or I hate to use the word accountability, but more of a, like I'd be really interested to know everybody's kind of, you whether you read a book or you found an article or you're doing something to implement into your classroom for the first time this year. What does that look like when they return?

Nick (11:20.335)
Well, it's just like what you said. A lot of them, be honest with you, it might just be a book study that they kind of lead. So we had a group that this year, you know, you know, the popular book now is that anxious generation. They kind of just ran with that and they had like they basically had probably monthly sessions, I'd say three or four sessions throughout the summer where they would read, you know, however many chapters and they get together. And so obviously, when they met back, they discussed that. We have others that

You know, we're small school, what this does is it gives them a little bit of flexibility. So they may not have a lot of time when they report things back. Let's say my band instructor goes and visits some college university and sees how they do their band or talks with another professional. But they'll meet with me. One of the things I started when I got here was we basically go, make teachers create their very similar as they're seeing PDC goals. But I just tell them, whatever their three goals are for the year.

create whatever their three goals and then I want to meet with them and we meet whether they're on evaluation or not. When I first got here, it was like, well, these are the set teachers you're going to have to meet with. I was like, what about all the others? And they're like, well, there's no scheduled time. You have to if you want to. I'm like, well, I need to know what they need from me is more than anything. I need to know what they need from me and then we can hold each other accountable. You know, so I kind of went over, you know, every year I always tell my staff, here are my goals for the year.

So that where you can hold me accountable if I'm not doing that and the same thing And I don't feel like it's a gotcha or a catcher and I don't think my staff does either it's just you know being professional and making sure we're all holding each other accountable and you know, so we meet at the beginning and they kind of tell me about what their PD was over the summer how they're going to apply it or you know, sometimes just like anything you try something new and it was a bust and so we know that and and and it's just that

You want to make the staff make sure, I always tell them I want them to feel safe enough to fail. And so same thing we tell our kids and stuff like that, try something new. If it was a bust, it was a bust and we'll move on. But give them that comfort and then that's kind of how we roll with that.

Rick Sola (13:26.36)
I really like that quote, safe enough to fail. I imagine, you know, over the times staff start to kind of feel, they feel that comfort level, but going back to like when you started and establishing a new relationship with the staff, how do you, how are you, I guess, going back to that intentionality, how are you intentional about establishing a safe to fail culture? Like, hey, you know, cause

I always kind of have to remind myself that especially with maybe newer educators or those new to building, some people get a little tense. like, that's the principle. It's like, hey, it's OK to fail. I would encourage that. You hear the saying, you're not failing. You're not learning or something like that. But how do you really kind of emphasize that to staff? Like, hey, it really is OK. We want you to try.

Nick (14:07.471)
Right.

Nick (14:15.459)
Well, probably. just I guess observation because they probably see me failing a lot. No, but I think the biggest thing is, is it's communicating. try and obviously I guess I'm a storyteller in some ways and I always try and tell them, you know, stories of where I've walked into classrooms and it has been a fail. And you know how in some ways this is just an opportunity for us to learn and grow. Being visible, being in their classrooms, that way they, you know, you can see things. And when you see something,

Rick Sola (14:21.155)
haha

Nick (14:44.843)
making sure it's not just you're passing through and I'm feeling that evaluation but like when I see something really cool or something different I'm making sure that I'm writing them a little note. But I'm a big person on like handwritten notes even though I have the worst handwriting ever. I think it matters especially it's real easy nowadays where you know an email can just get passed through and deleted because we get so darn many of them. So I try and get like a little note and it's funny because

When you walk through the classroom sometimes, you know, I got one veteran teacher, this is his 41st year teaching all in the same building. It's amazing. And you want to talk about feeling like, I don't know, like, I don't know. I guess the best way to say is that what you're doing matters is like, I walked in his classroom and one of the notes I gave him was like hung up on his board. Like it truly mattered to him. know I mean? Like something sometimes we think no big deal about like, whatever. I just wanted to make sure he knew that, you know,

Rick Sola (15:21.795)
Yeah.

Nick (15:41.871)
I liked what this was happening and things he was doing and those things matter to them. I mean, there's some, don't get me wrong, just like anyone, just like kids, there's probably something that wadded up and toss it away right away. And that's fine too. It still sent the message. But I think making sure when you see something like that, when you see they're trying something new, whether it's good or it's bad, embracing that. And like I said, sometimes when it does fail, I think the same thing, instead of making sure we focus on and be like, oh, that was bad, be like,

Rick Sola (15:51.246)
Yeah.

Nick (16:08.963)
You can still say that you're like, hey, I can see that didn't work. But hey, I appreciate you trying it. You know, it that's the only way we grow is trying new things. So embracing that concept.

Rick Sola (16:14.562)
Yeah.

Rick Sola (16:18.776)
What a great way to frame maybe a busted lesson or something, you know, as an encouraging way to keep going, keep trying, let me know how I can help. yeah, you kind of capture something that I feel like is just the story of education. The little things that you wrote that note and it's posted there on the wall, you probably totally forgot about the note at some point. You wrote it, but you just don't know the interactions you have with everybody from students to staff to parents.

Nick (16:38.703)
you

Rick Sola (16:46.72)
Every interaction matters and there's a gravity to the interactions we have, even when our head is somewhere else. There's like four fires that are going on that you know you got to get to. But those moments matter. And so I really like that you mentioned that and brought that up. One thing as we were setting this up and talking about, know that a priority for you is with your students soft skill development and

Nick (16:48.366)
Yes.

Rick Sola (17:16.334)
Kind of, I guess making aware of those post-secondary options for kids, because there's a lot of options that are post-secondary. It's not just college or whatever. So I was going have you speak to that a little bit and just what that looks like in your school as far as soft skill development with kids.

Nick (17:25.753)
Thanks.

Nick (17:35.503)
Well, I'll tell you there's there's two different things. One, I mean, we'll talk about with some of the soft skill stuff. One of the things that we're really focusing on, we're really implementing out full circle this year is where we're calling it Trojans together. But we have the ability, you know, we're K-12 building, as I told you. So not everybody has what, you know, that ability to do some of the things we're going to do. So we're basically doing a one-to-one mentoring program this year for every single kid in our school. And what I mean by that is

Well, I'm sorry, not kindergarten. They got enough stuff figuring out the routine of kindergarten. But once they get to first grade, first grade basically matched up with a seventh grader and then you kind of continue on until you get to sixth grade and seniors. And they're just matched off kind of a one to one. Obviously, sometimes numbers don't match up and you're two to one or whatever else. But what we want to do is create some sort of another buddy in the school so they got someone to talk to. And then what they do now is once a month, they're going to basically teach a character lesson.

Rick Sola (18:07.448)
Ha

Nick (18:33.871)
over some sort of whatever the character strong word of the month is or whatever else. Say it's respect or whatever the case may be. So our teachers took a day out of PD to not only set up these pairs in these groups but also to create the lessons. And so one day throughout the week the kids kind of learned those from the secondary teachers about here's what you're going to teach them, here's how you're going to go about it, here's the interactions here, it's all scripted kind of form so they feel comfortable.

And then the next week they kind of meet with their little buddy and they do that. So, and it's kind of structural again, the building basically for all intents and purposes, such down for about, you know, 40 minutes once a month, because that's what everybody's doing at the same time. So I think that's really, really important as far as something not everybody can do because, you know, we don't have to get a bus and rent and go out into the elementary school. We're here, they're here already. And I think it's important because sometimes when it comes to some of those soft skills, kids, we get, they,

Rick Sola (19:23.853)
Yeah.

Nick (19:30.029)
I feel like we talk to them too much. We talk at them instead of talk to them. I guess it's the best way to say is we're delivering these lessons that they've heard now for 12 years about what respect is and so on and so forth. And at some point it's time for us to stop talking to them and have them so with what it is. And I think when you give them that leadership opportunity, I'm a firm believer that every kid is going to be a good leader. And I had a lot of teachers that were like, well, what about this kid? know, he really struggles with, you he doesn't respect his teachers. He doesn't respect.

you know, and all these other ones. But it's different when you're putting that leadership role, when you have that thrust upon you that this kid's looking up to you. You know, you are now that person. I mean, we're also lucky. I'm not going to lie. We have great kids. We really do. It makes your job really, really easy when you got good kids. But I also feel like they rise to the challenge. They really do. And they see that, you know, this isn't something for me to mess around with because I got another little kid who's looking up to me.

and they take that responsibility. So that's been a really cool thing we do in regards to some of our soft skills. The other thing since I got here is we've really been a big focus on, when I first came, they were very, very proud of the fact of like the number of college hours that we teach within our building, which is amazing. I mean, for a small, you know, two-way football, three-way, every other sports school, we offer like,

I think it's 68 credit hours taught by our faculty for college credit. I mean, that's pretty impressive for a small school. But the thing about it is we had a lot of kids when you wouldn't have a clear IPS, they were walking out of here with a lot of college hours, but they had no clue what they wanted to do. So we've really tried to focus more about getting them figured out what they exactly want to do, putting more of an emphasis on kids going to, we have a local technical colleagues, you know, obviously with the Senate bill, you can get all that free.

Rick Sola (20:58.926)
Wow.

Nick (21:21.869)
So we send a lot of kids over to the technical school for half a day where they can get, learn their trade. We also, for those kids, because you have some kids that don't even want to do that, they want to go right out in the workforce. We have several local businesses that we set up internships, paid internships through the school day where kids will go out for half a day and work there and they'll come back here their senior year and take half a day of classes. And that's developed into careers for two of our kids last year who in two or three years are going to be making

more than me, but that's okay. I wouldn't want their job, they wouldn't want mine, but it works for them. And that's what we really try to focus on is doing what's right for whatever that kid is and trying to meet them where they're at.

Rick Sola (21:55.768)
Let's go.

Rick Sola (22:06.646)
Yeah, I really, really love that. And I feel like I don't know if the shift or a shift is the right way to say it, but I feel like maybe early in my education career, a lot of focus was on college and if appropriately so. But college is not the only option and it's not for everybody. Just like you said, whether it's a technical school or straight into the workforce, I love putting that in front of students in emphasizing that it's not.

Yeah, there's not just one way forward because really a really not very positive way forward is to get into college and get into a lot of student loan debt. And you end up like, I don't even want to do this. And then you're in you're stuck and then you got, know, and so you're being able to explore these things in high school and get a taste of it and maybe make some decisions one way the other. So so positive. And like you said, a lot of them get into professions that they start.

bank rolling pretty quick and doing really, really well.

Nick (23:08.515)
Well, that's I always tell the kids like I really want and I tell parents this too and they kind of think I'm crazy but it kind of goes back to the same thing I talk about with teachers. I high school it's cheap to fail. It's the best way I say it like take a college class if you don't know if you're what you want to do and then if you fail a college class guess what it costs for us it's $50 a credit hour. Costs $150 to know that college is not for you instead of spending $20,000 for your first year and figuring out it wasn't for you and same way with I tell them internships try an internship if it doesn't work out.

Rick Sola (23:33.228)
Yeah.

Nick (23:38.509)
That's not going on your resume instead of having to put, you know, I worked at this job for two weeks and I hated it. Like, try these things. It's easy. It's cheap to fail in high school as opposed to when we get in the real world where it's a little harder.

Rick Sola (23:51.981)
Yeah, usually it's in a discipline area, but I tell students all the time here at the middle school, you're at a great age to learn some, learn a lesson, you know, and because if you fast forward 10 years and you do the same thing, that could be a whole heap of trouble. It's the same thing with school. Being in high school, it's a great time to learn that, know what, actually being a vet isn't what I want to do because you go to go off to the university and figure that out. You're two years in and thousands of dollars later, you know, so, no, I love that.

Nick (24:00.611)
Yes.

Nick (24:20.291)
You're dead on. Dead on. I love how you talked about the discipline thing because it's so funny because, I mean, as I tell almost every single parent when they are so upset that their kid got in trouble, like, mean, kids are going to make mistakes. If kids didn't make a mistake, me and you wouldn't have jobs because there wouldn't be a need for us. know what mean? So kids are going to make a mistake. It's all about how we want to respond afterwards. That's the lesson is they're going to screw up. I screwed up. I mean, a lot. I still screw up.

Rick Sola (24:46.126)
Well, and that kind of goes back to I love that you said Trojans together that one on one mentoring and you know, and I can imagine, you have you said you had some staff might say, well, what about this student or that you put a student in that position of leadership? Like you said, I think it's amazing what kids can do. And a lot of times I see it. We create leadership groups and you're kind of part of a group. it's it's easy to kind of get lost, even if you're in a leadership group. That one on one.

That puts you you're in the hot seat and what a great it's productive discomfort I'm sure for a lot of the kids you know to be in that leadership role and you're one on one and you've got this younger student who's looking up to you now. I know all those younger kids will always remember who their mentor is. So yeah I just I love that. You mentioned earlier you referenced you have a little one in the building and I wanted to just kind of get to that you know I think.

Nick (25:34.521)
Absolutely.

Rick Sola (25:45.763)
When I talk with people who are interested in being a principal or getting into administration, it often comes up about that work-life balance and either they're starting a family or they have a young family or whatever. Talk about how you balance the role. It's a demanding job, but also that role of being a dad as well.

Nick (26:08.845)
Well, you know, it's just like anything. I learned early on, I guess the best way to say it is, you know, I was a coach, pretty successful coach. And at one point I was getting kind of recruited to another school and I was ready to take that job. I really was. And I remember I had like two or three kids just bawling, crying, like, you can't leave, you can't leave. And so, you know, I always kind of chose, I think I kind of dedicated too much to my students. And I know that sounds crazy to be here because

You give a life to education and people are like, can't give too much, but you can. And I chose to stay. And two years later when that kid graduates, we don't really talk to each other anymore. know what mean? Occasionally you see him, but you think about that like, man, I completely changed my path because these students really, quote unquote, needed me. And at that point I realized I think my focus and my priorities are wrong. And so I really kind of refocused on making sure I was going to be there.

you know, when my family needed me, because they're going to be the ones that are here long after. I finally get done in education and I retire, you know, my family is going to be one that's still around for many more years. So we're lucky we make it an incredible impact every single day. But we also have to remember it is a job. It's a job that makes a huge impact, but it is still a job. So we've got to make sure we make time for the people that are always going to be there for us, because sometimes we can feel used, I think, in this position.

Because so many people are coming at us in different ways and I don't want that to come across negative because I love what I do I really do But I do think it's very important to make sure and I tell my staff too I was like you're only going to be successful as if you're happy if you're miserable and that comes from whether you're you're you're you know for me if my wife is yelling at me because I'm not going to my kids of stuff or whatever else and I'm bringing that with me the next day at a school, know as opposed to if I left 30 minutes later

Rick Sola (28:02.126)
Sure.

Nick (28:04.847)
you know earlier than I wanted to or whatever else and I was able to take my daughter to practice. My family's a lot happier with me and I'm a lot happier coming back the next day. And I tease everybody. I'm like that paperwork that's on my desk, it'll be there tomorrow. So there's no sense I need to check it off.

Rick Sola (28:22.862)
Yeah, now that is for sure. There's always, it'll be waiting for you tomorrow. And what advice would you give that new administrator that maybe you would mentor on anything, I guess, as a prospective administrator?

Nick (28:29.581)
Yes.

Nick (28:40.601)
I guess the best way to say it is find what makes you happy and then embrace those things, I guess is the best way to say it. know, if truly, and what I mean by that is what makes you happy long term? I think I got sucked in really early on as a young teacher and a coach that, you know, my entire life was wrapped up in those students. And all of my relationships was, you know, either the students or the students' parents and things like that. And then you realize like after they move on and they graduate, you're kind of sitting around like,

man, I've not done a good job of like creating relationships with my actual peers. Like I've been so driven to, you know, to coach and to win. And that was everything that it was that I didn't like, you know, I create relationships even with my assistant coaches and things like that. was, that just wasn't, that was not part of those relationships were not part of the plan because as silly as it was, I was so driven by winning that that didn't really necessarily help me win. kind of making, making sure you're

making time for those other relationships because there are going to be days when you're going to need that person. You know, you're going to need that person that's in, you know, my assistant principal. I need, I need that guy regularly. So it's incredibly beneficial to make sure I have that relationship with them. And I mean, what I mean by that is, you know, outside of work hours, we'll make sure we'll go try and grab something to eat or try and go do something because you want to have those relationships that, you know, have those people by your side that even after

he goes to another school or I go to another school, we still have that relationship with someone I can reach out to, I can talk to. So finding those people, building those relationships of those people around you.

Rick Sola (30:18.05)
Yeah, no, I love that very, very real, take there and, just so authentic, you know, I agree. I think I have the best job I in, you know, in the district. love, I love what I do. I being a building principal. It's a grind though, you know, it can be a grind and it's a, it can be a roller coaster of things that, you know, it could be a slow week for whatever reason. All of sudden you have a month's worth of issues that pop up in two days, you know, and that's just.

Nick (30:35.277)
Yes.

Nick (30:46.467)
Yes.

Rick Sola (30:47.158)
kind of the way the way it goes. to take care of your people and to be there for your people really, I really appreciate that that viewpoint and for sharing that out here on this podcast. And before we go here, just two quick hitters there. KPA is a KPA podcast. What is the KPA meant to you over the your time as an administrator?

Nick (31:10.957)
What's been great, the big resource obviously that I use the KPA is, you know, the USA conference is the one that, you know, I probably get out to most. I don't really necessarily get out to the KPA conference during the school year as much because to be honest with you, especially in a small school, you always just feel so guilty of being away from school, even if it's a day or two. When it's the summer, you're like, yeah, I can get away from the office or whatever else. So USA has definitely been my outlet of that. And that's been huge.

and not only that, just having that resource of, as I talked about, there's a lot of people that are in the trenches every single day that, there's nothing that sometimes can make you feel better than when you hear about somebody else that might've just had a worse day than you even. So you can be there not only for an ear, you know, to be like, man, I'm sorry that happened to you. But then after you hang up that call, you're like, whoo, my day was not as bad as that guy's day or that girl's day or whatever the case may be. So.

Again, building those relationships with your other principals, I think is so, important. Whether it's just a local principal down the road or someone completely across the state. You know, like I talked with Don, mean, Don's on the other side of the state for me, but I'm still trying to give him a call and give him some positive things every once in a while because I know sometimes it's exhausting for a guy like that who we just look at and we expect him to constantly give the positivity to everybody. But, you know, at some point,

He's got to get it back too. you know, seeing that and making sure we're giving positive back to people.

Rick Sola (32:37.154)
Yeah, no, that's great. And since you brought it up, KPA conference is November 5th and 6th, I believe this year. And certainly I'll put a plug in for it. is a great conference. You're right. It can feel kind of guilty at times to get away from the building. That conference in particular, I was at USA as well. Love that. It's a great conference. KPA, a little smaller of a conference, but just pinpointed on

Nick (32:46.478)
Yeah.

Rick Sola (33:04.226)
the principle and I love it. And it's just a great opportunity, like you said, to share. I hate to say misery loves company, but I know what that saying means. know how that, you know, what that means there when you have a rough time. But certainly we're in a position of we need each other because sometimes we need to be the ear and sometimes we need to be able to share. But hey, real quick here before the day gets started, brag on your people out there in Southeast Saline.

Nick (33:34.008)
Well, I tell you what, we just have phenomenal, I mean, we just have phenomenal kids. I mean, we're very, very successful in pretty much everything we do.

I guess is the best way to say. We talked a little bit about, I think we've hung a state championship banner every single year since 2018. So not very many schools can say that they're not only they're just successful, but successful in multitude, cross-country teams, or track teams, or football teams, scholars' bowl team. I mean, it's not just athletics. It's academics. It's really everything. And I think it goes back to, it's not me. I promise you that. We have great kids.

phenomenal staff and we have staff that you know have been here there's little turnover because you know they really like it here like I told you we had we have a teacher right now who is in his 41st year all here we had one that retired last year who very very

upset about retiring, I think he spent 45 years in our district. So and the and year before that we lost someone who he was he was like high thirties in our district and he still comes back and does our plays. But we have phenomenal leaders. We have phenomenal teachers in our district. We have great, great parents and kids. They work hard. They do what's right. and they just want to get better in everything they do. And I think that starts starts at the top from our superintendent and our school board goes down

in our district or building leaderships and then obviously you know the people that really are doing the groundwork and that's the teachers. They're the ones that are putting in the hours and putting in the work. You know I might be you know the face or the focal point that people look at but I'm not the one that's I'm not I'm not pulling the sled I'm just directing and I'm driving it they're the one pulling it.

Rick Sola (35:18.498)
Yeah, well that's awesome and loved hearing about your school and everything that's going on out there. And I gotta say, Don really pumped you up and he's like, yeah, Rick, gotta have them on. And I remember I looked, you talked about his social media presence, which is incredible. But I saw, I think that was the first time I saw like a picture of you was you in a boa with Don. And so.

Nick (35:35.139)
Yes.

Nick (35:39.681)
I'm

Rick Sola (35:42.728)
I saw that and I'm like, I didn't end up having to wear the boa. I somehow avoided it that whole morning, but a lot of my staff did. So it was good times. Well, hey, I know the day is going to be getting started for you soon. So I really appreciate your time and looking forward to running into you, whether it's KPA or USA or somewhere else. But good luck to you on this school year ahead.

Nick (35:47.064)
Wow.

Yes, yes.

Nick (36:07.087)
Hey, I appreciate it. Thank you for all you do of getting positive words out and pumping up educators because we can't have enough of that. So I appreciate what you do, Rick.

Rick Sola (36:15.279)
All right, thank you. Have a good day.

Nick (36:17.156)
Take care.