 So my name is Patrick Richardson and I am an investigative reporter for Kansas-Sentlaw. We do media and government accountability. And education reporting is a big part of what I do. And you know, through several conversations with Dr. Pitch, I came to the conclusion and the numbers back it up that, well, Buncie is different. This district is different. When other districts in the state are trending downward in test scores, you guys are trending up. And we have a lot of conversation about accountability and different satinies. And so, you know, you really realize that there was something going on here that we wanted to know more about. And Dr. Pitch was kind of saying, hey, why don't you just come on up and see? So I called my boss and he said, yeah, let's do that. Let's go find out. So that's what I'm here for today. You know, I just want to have a kind of free, willing conversation. I'll ask a couple of questions, but I just really want to hear why this community, why this district is different and why things are going so well when so many districts are short of all sizes. So that's what I'm here for. Okay. So I guess we should probably start with the introductions. Mr. Prager, would you like to begin? Yeah. I'm Brendan Prager. I'm a high school staff member. I'm Grant Perry and I'm a high school student. I'm Kendra Croner and I'm also a high school student. I'm Elisa Hall and I'm a high school physics and chemistry teacher. Rob Hoskins. I'm the Wilbunsie County Sheriff. I'm Jordan Ben and I'm a high school student at Wilbunsie. And you're also? I'm also the school counselor for Wilbunsie. Karen Wright. I am a parent and a business owner. Steve Oliver, high school junior high school. Susan Grompas. I'm a first grade teacher. Justin Frank. I'm here representing Board of Education. Robert Potter. I'm a high school student. Tayden Johnson. I'm an elementary student. Jennifer Mopower. I'm a third grade teacher at Maple Hill Elementary. Okay. So, let me just start off. What's different here compared to other districts? I mean, what really is making the difference? Do you guys think? I think it's a family culture, honestly. I'm a third grade teacher. I can tell you a good number of kids in every grade level across the district. I've either taught them. I've watched them play sports. So, I'm committed to them from the time they're in my room. And then beyond that, once they go to college, once they enter their life, I think I don't teach my class. I teach for all of the classes. So, what's creating that family culture within the district itself? Well, we have so few students. At the high school, we have about 100 to 35. When I was in the Shawnee Mission District, I could have up to 35 kids in just two of my periods. So, because everyone knows everyone else, and because we can give them all the special attention, lots of one-on-one, lots of interaction on these small class sizes, this is my fifth district, and I've never been in one like this, and I think it's all due to the numbers. I mean, I'm not discounting the family. Obviously, that's part of the three-legged stool, but the numbers, the sizes allow us to interact with kids every day, very up-close and personal. And when you have a larger school, you just don't get that opportunity as a teacher. What are the things that we discuss? I was going to say, I also think it's kind of a mindset with all of this too, because I've taught in a big district, and I did go to soccer games and things like that in the big district as well. And here, it's like Jennifer said, we are supporting them through 4-H and ball and things outside of school, but it is that family sense, and it's kind of just a mindset of our staff, of our administration, of our students, of our parents, just our whole community that we do all kind of take, it takes a village kind of thought, and we work together on all of that, and we have great support systems. If the school needs something, the parents are wonderful about supporting that, or it's just kind of a mindset all the way around. It's not just within the school, it's just within the community as well. I think to piggyback off of that, I think that there's a focus to develop the whole child. So it's not just a focus on academics, but there's a focus on character, and there's a focus on work ethic, and just that there's encouragement across the board, no matter who they're interacting with, who they're interacting with, or what setting that they might be in, that they're encouraged to really think bigger picture, not just the here and now. So from a community standpoint, I mean, we've got some community members here, what do you see on that score? I mean, what difference do you see between this district and maybe another one that you grew up in? Well, I grew up in this district. You too. That's one thing is, you know, our community service from our business owners, from our parents, our patrons across the district, our community service approaches, second to none, we have a huge 4-H following, we have a huge FCCLA following. I mean, there are so much extracurricular activities that our community gets involved in. They stand deeply behind our school district as well. I think that's important. But as a business owner, I am intrigued with USD329 because we are creating a well-rounded student as somebody that's not just good at math, not just good at science, they can show up on time, they understand responsibility, they understand goals, they understand work ethic. And that is more important than test scores, which is what made you look at our district, right? But by developing the entire student, I mean, if they're responsible, they hold themselves responsible for their grades. If they set goals, they set their grades as their goals. I mean, I have first and second grade students of my own that come home with a goal book. They sit down and they put a goal out. I mean, I'm sorry, but I didn't do that in the first grade. Some things, it's hard for me to do it today, right? But we developed that. I mean, part of what we do, our leader in me program has been, I mean, kind of all the way around to when we started to see these increases in test scores, we put the accountability on the kids instead of the accountability on the teachers to make it all work that kids have to buy into it. And I think, for the most part, they've bought into our whole round project of making a leader. And I have to say, I keep saying that there's that word again, accountability. In Dr. Pitchman's conversations over the last month, I think, we both kind of had an epiphany that accountability, that's what it's about. I mean, yes, the schools need to be accountable to the parents, and the teachers need to be accountable to the parents, but at the same time, the kids need to be accountable to the school and to the parents and to themselves. But the parents need to be accountable to the school as well. So how, and that accountability, I don't hear many places. And I find it interesting that I've heard that same word from four or five people already in this discussion. So how is it that this community has managed to foster that culture of accountability? I know one way of the elementary that we have is that we hold things like family night. And so although it starts with an academic piece, there's also another piece that a student comes with their parents back in the evening, and we have an activity that they do. Sometimes it's a fun relay type things, but other times it's we're working on math problems or on a literacy thing or something like that. So the community is always involved in the school, not only through PTOs and things like that, but with their child's academic learning as well. So I think one thing that Justin said about extracurriculars, I think our career technical education is so strong and has such a high percentage of the high school. And I went to a small school as well, pretty similar to this district. And we have a lot more opportunities here, activities to participate in than I had in high school. And I think it's, I mean, a lot of ways it's comparable to a larger district. And with our screen printing class and our ad class, FCCLA, we have a huge increase. And that's just more ways to keep kids from falling through the cracks because so many kids are participating. They have extra teachers who are watching over them, extra things they're involved in. I think that helps keep them accountable. And extra teachers, Chair Ramon. Extra teachers, Chair Ramon. I think it's the amazingness of some of those teachers that are keeping them involved in it. Like the teachers are spawning that interest in those kids so they're doing all those extracurriculars and being very, very, very successful a lot of the time. So they need applauded in my opinion. Yeah, and not just sports. I think a lot of people when they hear extracurriculars and think of sports, and those are hugely important for so many kids, but things like FCCLA and scholars, Boland Hag and all the other things they do. You were about to say something? Disagree. So, I keep coming back to the accountability because it's something that you just don't see, I think, especially larger districts. And it's not something that seems to be really important, I think, to some larger districts. I don't call it any districts by name or anything like that because we're here to talk about the positives. So, from some community members, what do you see as how you're being held to account and how that accountability is created for your kids' success, for the school's success? What is the district doing to help get the community behind them as well? I mean, I can't speak on behalf of everybody else, but I was warm and red here and I have just an interest in all of the kids. I want them all successful. I don't care who it is, what they're doing. If I can support them in any way, shape, or form, I will. I've always preached to my own children whenever there's issues or whatever, look at yourself first, focus on you. What can you do? Something happen at school? Well, what did you do? How did you react? How did you help a positive negative? And that's just what I have preached to my own children. And I have numerous, but I have a lot of, I call them my extra kids because I have a flood of children in my house at any given day time. So, for me, I have been blessed as a community member and I'm going to give back in any way that I can, whether it's my time, my money, ideas, panels, whatever it is. I think as a district too, though, we try really hard to showcase the awesomeness of our communities. We try to involve different businesses. We encourage them to come to our buildings and talk about what they do and how they do it. And then when we have things going on in our buildings, we try to reach out to those businesses and say, hey, these are things that are happening. Is there anything you can add to or any way you can help us or support us? So I think putting all of those things in place helps to keep accountable both the school and the community and the businesses. I think maybe a word you're looking for is relationships. We have strong relationships with the businesses. You know, the manner, all of the pieces of the community from the senior citizens to, you know, our actual businesses and families. So we have a relationship established. I think I can see that as a, because I did not grow up here. I came from Northern Kansas and I think what I've seen is that the kids want to come back and live in this community. And so there's kind of this reciprocal relationship where, you know, the kids really love and value the experience that they have growing up and then want to come back and invest in the community kind of like the adults that they saw when they were growing up. At least that's the impression that I get. I'm also from elsewhere and I think that I've often been put in a situation by parents and community members that they're blaming the teachers for lack of student success. And of course, teachers are often blaming the family. Well, this kid comes from a bad family or they don't have parents' support or they don't have an environment they can study and our education is not important to this family, so we blame them. And here, those two things are the one and the same. And therefore there's not the finger pointing. There's not, well, you didn't support this person and you didn't support this kid or their enemies. Here, the community members and parents and teachers, they're all unified and it's all the same people. There's no finger pointing. Why do you think that is? I just think it's because it's so small and everyone is related and everyone has known everyone forever and everyone is supportive of everyone else and I don't think you can replicate that on a large scale. Well, the reason I asked that is because I live in a small community, 4,000 people about and I've been in this business 30 years of being in a school with districts large and small and I've seen large districts that you don't have that problem and I've seen small districts where you did including the community that I live in. So there has to be some way that that's been fostered and it's got to be more than just size. I think that's a factor. I don't disagree with you. I think the size is absolutely a factor but there's clearly something here that has created an atmosphere where the school is accountable to the parents but the parents are being accountable too and that's huge. I think that it's one of those things that if any one of us had that secret we could make a lot of money. I'm not sure that it's a thing that we're all protecting here that we don't want you to know. It's a part of our lifestyle. You drive in and you get into O'Buncie County and I was born in O'Buncie County so it's hard for me to completely understand but I have enough friends that have moved from other counties into O'Buncie County that say man, you guys are different. I've lived here for 25 years and I'm still considered an outsider and that's not necessarily bad but we have such deep roots in community pride and county pride and talent pride. We're battling some things now with the wrong issue that we're trying to pass that we've got towns that are arguing against each other because they're all so proud of how hard they've worked to build from the ground up. We are the Limestone County and they have pulled Limestone out with their bare hands and built this stuff. It is so important to them to see it successful so the business owners back then got invested knowing if we build a good school district we'll have good kids and they'll come back and help foster our economy. So they started from the ground up and that's different. It's hard to become a regular here it's hard to get to be a part of the insider and that's due to pride because we don't know you yet we don't understand if you have the same level of pride that we have and we're not going to allow you in until we know that you do and so we've held each other to a higher standard of businesses, parents and then that floods into the school as well. You know another thing about our school district is it's self-policing you know I mean talk about the sheriff being here but when we set goals and objectives at the board level I don't like to be a boss top down this is how we're going to do this you like it or don't like it don't care. It's more if I create the violin then they apply the self-accountability that you've been discussing but it is a group discussion it's a group goal it's a group effort and you just get more accomplished that way I mean I've had some of these teachers that said you need to learn to work in a group and that's 25 years ago learn to work together and you'll get more accomplished instead of doing it all on your own and by it being self-policing the kids know I need to hold to this standard I don't know it's just kind of cool though that environment I want to come back and focus on the numbers just a little bit every district along about 2016 had a dip and that was from what we can tell coincides with the State Department of Education de-emphasizing academics and emphasizing social emotional work whether it's correlation is a causation but it sure tracks it what was interesting is that in of course 2020 I mean was 2020 we just got to kind of leave it at that and we don't have to test scores from that either for obvious reasons and they would be an outlier even if we did however well Buncie is trending up and everybody else is still trending down so how has this district and how has the community managed to balance the SEL with maintaining academic I think so I hear a lot of people talk about SEL and it's not like a huge part of our day it's not like we decided we're not going to do reading anymore because we're going to focus on that it's more of a guiding principle of okay so we need to make sure that we are focused on this as well this is incorporated into what we do so I don't feel like I don't feel like I abandoned anything that was important when we added that that that makes sense I mean I have a science supreme there's two people I teach physical science the other teacher teaches the life science we look at the standards we have the standards posted in our room we know that juniors are going to be taking the standardized test I get the freshmen and I try and prepare them the whole entire year for the skills that are listed on those standards for freshmen and regardless of at what level they come to me those are the standards that we are going to try and meet and then they go to the other teacher for biology and she and I are virtually lock step in our teaching methods and our expectations in our grading methods and so those students they there's a seamless flow within the science department for all four years of high school and our test scores have raised we were both hired in 2014 there was a big retirement here in the district and we both started the same year and our scores improved every year and math department is also two people and they are virtually the same and so the whole the whole attitude and expectation of the high school building these children are going to be prepared to do whatever they want to do when they leave our building regardless of whether they are going to rejoin their family and work in a family business if they are going to join the military if they are preparing for tech and trade schools if they are going to university regardless of what their parents have in hopes for them and what they would like to do we are preparing them to do whatever it is they want to do when they leave and that's my responsibility and I have done that and I take it very seriously and I think everybody in our building does and that's just I think that's part of SEL I mean I think those two things go hand in hand we've always here in my opinion for the last nine years been preparing the whole child and you can't do that if you don't pay attention to SEL you have a shellless human if you don't pay attention to those factors do I work them into my chemistry and physics? no do I work them into my interactions with every student? yeah and piggyback on what she is saying we are a data driven district we meet the kids where they are at so although we have a standard to meet we work with them and get them to those standards then by the time they are finishing with our courses we have intervention groups we work from the community we have support in our schools from our administration to take the latest research and apply that in our classrooms and use the data and continually assess so that we know exactly where our students are at so we know what interventions that might need to be put in place to help that student succeed and then when the student feels that support then their chemistry or social emotional part is wandering or nobody cares they know that you care because you are helping them succeed and so it is the research and the data and the expectations, the high expectations that bring that all around and the people I am hearing and I like that a lot is that rather than making the SEL statement you are just incorporating it into the academic statement absolutely and making it part of organizing the academics at all and that is huge because that is what happens everywhere and that is just a huge thing and I don't ever think it is the teachers I think that comes from other other areas but it doesn't happen everywhere and I think that is another key thing I would love to hear from the students a little what do you guys obviously most of you probably haven't been to other districts where you grew up this is where you've done this school since kindergarten but what ways are you being held accountable other than just being like okay mom and dad aren't going to like if I get bad grade but because they are not but obviously there is more to it than that there is a self accountability here that I am hearing about that you don't see a lot of places I would say personally at least a lot of what helps me be accountable to get it done is my relationship with my teachers I know that if I have something going on besides just the pressure from getting my schoolwork done I can go talk to them I am not afraid to talk to them or Mr. Frager or any of my other teachers about what I have going on so that they can help me get past that and still be able to accomplish good things after school even if you are not struggling with the academic side and everybody has rough days and if you are having kind of an off day and stuff just isn't going smoothly for you because of the relationships that we build with the teachers over the four years that we are here they know something is wrong they are able to reach out to us and say what is going on, how can I meet your needs what are you struggling with and if they can't meet those needs they find someone who can and that really helps us trust them I know with the academics you can go up to them and say I do not understand what is happening and they can give back the way that they know how to because we all know each other so well being here for so long I mean if that makes sense I don't know if that makes sense because everyone knows everyone and it kind of just all flows together you are not embarrassed to not know what is happening right but just because you don't know what is happening they are not going to judge you like we will take care of so I came here to a once in eighth grade I have been to more schools and I could count on my fingers most of them were really big schools I never felt like I needed to be involved here at once I feel like I wanted like it is safe to be involved the first few years it was kind of rough because everyone knows everyone they grew up together so it was kind of awkward to be like the only one here who was like the outcast but now I have gotten involved it feels like I wanted I can do better I can improve that is awesome for the community members we have talked about the schools accountability I just keep coming back to this culture of accountability all the way across the world why is you know I guess to some teachers why is the culture of accountability so rare outside of some of these smaller districts I am also a parent one of my children comes here I think what she said about numbers is a big part of it I taught at a 6a school before this and I was not a core teacher but I still had classes I had a lot more students to deal with now I have a lot of students who have had multiple times so I do have a relationship with their families I've had multiple siblings it is a little easier to keep track of a smaller number of kids I think it's just the reality in education if you have fewer kids to deal with you can spend more time on each kid and that's always going to get better and you're not teaching just a kid it's my friend from high school's kid it's my neighbor's kid it's and then as a parent my kids have all graduated from Oven City now yes I teach in the district but now I'm watching the kids that I've taught or I'm still watching the kid that lives next door to me or I have friends, kids in high school still so they're not kids at any time there's somebody who I know they belong to well that accountability that person is just as important I'm not going to let my high school friend down when they're kids in my room and they're not going to let me down and let their kid plowder when they're in my room so I'll speak to you as a parent coming from outside that I feel like my son has talked about in terms of school or how he puts into the community so he's not talked about just as Tabor and who he is as an individual in the classroom but more so where he plays into the whole building or how he plays into his classroom and I feel like he was welcomed in he feels like he's welcomed in like a family member as if he's been here all along so I think that's really unique I'd like to bounce back to the data-driven numbers districts seem to not pay a lot of attention to a test course when they come back and it sounds to me like this is a district that's paying very close attention to those numbers and using them as okay I know where this kid is weak what we need to work on I know where our student body is weak and this is what we need to work on how important is it to take I'm not a big all end all whether a district is successful or not but clearly they're a good tool and they're not always used that way how important is it to use that as the tool that was meant to be at the elementary level I know we have our core instruction but then we have intervention groups daily with those students that are needing some additional support and I believe it's the same that the other elementary school as well we will look at those test scores and then like the teacher will say okay so you need help with this problem just during the lesson and we'll just meet up together everybody that's struggling on that she'll just walk with everything everybody that's struggling and then everybody else that's not struggling and can move on she challenges us with something that she will have to walk with it so it's not the teachers aren't just looking at the numbers you guys are looking at your own numbers wow I've never heard of that I've never heard of that like the younger kids have books and we have apps where we put in our test scores this is where I was in January here's where I want to be in May I remember especially like when I was in junior high from math that's always been the subject that I've struggled with and the teachers will kind of she would have us all fill out a Google spreadsheet like Kendra said like the test score that we scored and where we want to be by the end of this quarter and almost every time you see that increase because you have you want to get better because why would you not want to we want to improve ourselves at the university or trade school or join the family business and who set that end goal did your teacher set that end goal for you or did you say this is where I want to be there's your self accountability and that is why they meet them because it is goals that are driven within their own minds and their own hearts and they're not going to let themselves down and we just support the fact that we're not going to let you down while you're working your career off of you like I don't have to convince the kids that education is important that's instilled in them most of them you have one or two kids who are checked out but the vast majority of kids want to be there, they want to learn they know why it's important background work has been set by the great schools of junior high sorry I didn't mean to but also when you're in junior high and middle school you're introduced to athletics and you have to have a certain ability to be able to compete in these athletics you have to be eligible and that's a really big thing is because you're doing a sport because you love it and maybe because your parents do but you don't want your parents down so you want to be involved in what you're doing so you work hard to meet the standards that are set and then that lifestyle is brought over to the high school and you care even more now about your results because this is what colleges look at and you just keep gradually going because again you want to improve the accountability and one thing that might kind of take you back up of everything they've said in the, for example in the math classroom and the elementary the students are actually given a problem they solve it we put their problems up on the board and they explain their thinking and then other students can ask about well I don't see where you got the nine from or whatever so they're actually discussing the problems and doing really in depth with them instead of the teacher just grading a paper handing it back and you have four wrong they're talking about those problems all the time and so then they have that dialogue and then they stretch themselves I would like to add something to what they're saying it's not just academics because when they're struggling in life when they're struggling and have problems at home or financial difficulties or everything else the same attitude that they have towards solving a math problem they have towards helping their fellow students I have, as I'm sure if I have students come to me and say hey this individual has issues one of the things I'm proud of is they have a yellow ribbon club and it's to watch out for anybody that maybe have mental health issues that maybe struggle with depression so what they take in academics they apply to their life and that is very important and I'm proud of these kids for that fact and then I what I wanted to add to what those who are saying mainly is when there was a student struggling or checking out our teachers don't just give up on us and say well they're done I'm just going to focus on the rest of the class of that student that's important they continue to try and build them and keep them with the class they don't let them give up I want to go back and it's just amazing just hearing things that are just light bulbs going off but one of the things that you were just talking about the math class and I'll give a personal example because I was never taught that one I graduated high school in 1990 I was in fourth grade and never mind but in fourth grade back then we were one of the things how to add large columns of numbers and I like you math has not been one of my better subjects it's why I'm a journalist rather than an engineer but my dad just did and he sat down and he showed me he said okay well here's an easy way to do these large columns of numbers just find a 10 put them off to the side carry what you need to carry instead of trying to add each number by the row and so the next day I go to school I'm off the board I do that and my teacher lost her mind that wasn't the way that you do it that's not how I'm supposed to do it I shouldn't be doing that my dad had to come in and jump up and down on the desk because in his mind he got the right answer how do you care how he got there as long as he got the right answer and I love that I love this and not saying well you did it wrong but how did you get there what was your thinking that is huge I'm doing it too sometimes kids feel like they're wrong and so it makes them feel bad if they think they can't get it but if they solved it another way and they can show that it works to add the 10s on the side or whatever that strategy was then they are able to share their strategy and they get validated that way as well and other students that might make more sense to that struggling student the way she solved it versus the way she solved it or whatever so most days we put up at least four or five different ways to solve one problem and it's just the richest conversation that's just amazing to me because it's not the way it usually happens it just isn't we talked a little bit earlier about your student-led parent-teacher conferences is that pretty common across where did that this is the first time I had ever heard of that and it's just awesome to me I'd like to hear more about it that's kind of where our waves came in and us writing our bowls down is when we would go to them at least from what I remember I would show my parents like here's where my test were then but here's where they are now this is how my teachers help me get better this is how I've put in the work to be better I remember we used to make I haven't made one in a while just because I haven't had the need to but we would use to have to make a slideshow presentation to show our parents at the meeting and your wave stands for wildly important goals we wanted to strive for so we would say this is what I got on my reading test and this is where I need to be this is where I want to be to me why it's wildly important and so then the parents can also see that the teachers are working with us to try to be better and that kind of builds that relationship so the parent-teacher relationship where they both have respect for each other and I think that's another really big thing too with this is that everyone has so much respect for each other the family thing everyone kind of loves everyone it's not like I see somebody walking down the hallway and I'm just like we have respect for each other it's not just those teachers being like well your kid is really bad at math so he needs to work on that so it's like yeah I'm struggling in math but I'm trying my best this is where my goals are and saying that you can improve and I'll just teachers saying that no he's not good at this and the conference usually entails a little bit more than just your goals I mean in my classroom my students share the things that they're really proud of that they've accomplished sometimes it might be a piece of writing that they've done or something a project that an art project or something that they haven't taken home yet or you know and even sometimes it's the things that they're struggling with but it's what they want to share now usually during the student conference I haven't had much to share and may share so you know they must share their goal or something like that but they may share a piece from their writing or you know things like that and it's just that relationship also the parents get much more information by hearing their child say what they're really proud of or what they're working on then then a teacher just say here's your child's score what parent has their kids come home and say I've set this goal for myself that you don't want to help them achieve I mean there are a few out there I'm sure but when my kids come home and say I've set this own goal for myself and I want to achieve it your parents are going to get involved and do whatever they can to help their child achieve it and then there's where your community pride has been you know there's always in the district there's a few families maybe just on that important education just isn't that important is this own goal setting are you seeing that improve the outcomes there as well one thing I liked about student-led conferences at the high school level is a lot of times parent-teacher conferences you want to see the kids the parents of the kids who are struggling the student-led conferences we want to see them all because the kids who are achieving at a high level are just important their goals are just important it's not like she's fine we have to deal with the struggling kids it's focusing on all of them and at the upper level it was a lot of focus on career aspirations not just goals education what do I want to do after this what am I doing now that's going to help me reach that goal well I don't care that much about this class because I want to do this that's fine so how is this class important it allows you to have broader discussions with the parents about what they're doing and I think that's that sounds like a key thing to me I know that my kids you know they're all out of school now but for a while there's a lot of grandkids in school but when we would show up to parent-teacher conferences it was why are you here we don't even see your kids are doing fine and at some level as a parent even though you know your kids are doing fine it almost makes you feel like why why am I not important why are my kids not important just because they're doing well and this is awesome because it's saying to even the parents whose kids are academically you know excelling you are important your input to us is important us being accountable to you is important and that's huge I challenge our students today I mean even seniors are getting ready to graduate you talk like hey I haven't really needed to put together my goal setting for a couple of years or my wildly important goals but life as you get out there gets so busy that you forget to put down your goals and you end up working in the minutiae every day and you forget about your goals it's easy to do it's easy to go ahead and just do the busy work every day and forget to focus on your wildly important goals and there's where you'll find yourself a couple of years down the road you'll be stagnant and you will see the personal growth that you have hoped you would have seen in that two years or three years or five years or six months so I mean it's important hopefully these are things that are instilling in them for their forever future I would like to ask you say you haven't had to write your goals down in a while but I don't think that means that you don't have it have you got it in your head you know what your goals are you just haven't had to put it down on paper and I think that comes from starting in first kindergarten first grade writing down your goals now it's just instinctive and that is just I think it makes rich conversations at home with families too probably talking with her parents about the things that she's accomplishing or the things that she's still working on so it's already started that conversation a long time ago I know my conversation with my parents and my kids' conversation with me was like oh okay so how was school life Matt fine would you learn Matt now it's where are you on your goals and that's we're back to accountability I just think I cannot and everything I'm hearing tells me that same thing that this culture of accountability that has been created here is just it's so different it is so unique and I think it's clearly why this district is doing so much better than the walls around it I can like say that a lot of the reason why the accountability is so important to everybody is because like how Karen said earlier everybody is family everybody is going to treat you like they're own they're going to help you be better no matter who they are or who you are they want you to be accountable and the follow through too I mean if my kids when they would come home and say what did you learn today nothing I said I'll email your teacher and they knew I would so then it was suddenly like oh well today oh so you did learn something today and if they went to Mrs. Hull and had no homework turned in she's going to let me know pay your kids not turn their work in and then there's going to be this conversation so the relationship, the accountability back and forth there is follow through we don't just make a threat I'm going to call your mom if I tell you I'm going to call your mom if you don't hold up your end I'm going to do it some of the teachers did too and it was real bad about putting stuff in and I would call the principal and say how come Mr. So-and-so does not have my kids great and he's got six zeros in here why are they not in the power school so yeah and that's by the end of accountability and you know if it was well no those are actually zeros oh no now you're grounded but you know the best thing is not something that can be implemented in larger districts it is economically feasible it is physically feasible in the district the size of Kansas City for example you can have 15 kids in a classroom which isn't a way to do that but I is there any reason why these wildly important goals this accountability, this self-accountability this goal setting couldn't be implemented in larger districts we don't necessarily have always smaller classes my class sizes range from 18 to 25 until this year this was the first year I had a class that was less than 18 so we do have typical to what your larger city schools would have in most of our elementary classrooms and that raises the question even harder why can't why shouldn't these same levels of accountability be done in a larger school district it's not impossible for districts out there that are large and for whatever reason you get the buy-in you get the buy-in from the community from the students and from the parents and it's just a matter of people believing in that and what makes them do so I can't tell you obviously I can make a lot of money but that's what has to happen it absolutely has to happen three-legged stool have to have the buy-in otherwise I think it's very difficult for students to make it on now how do you want to go? our teachers are amazing like Mr. Prager they're so involved with us everybody wears multiple hats and they get involved with us not just on an academic level but with a personal level back to go to them for anything and ask us for stuff we can go to them and it's just really great to have so awesome teachers I think too we get a lot of academic freedom to tailor things to our kids because my classes change each year depending on which kids I have and what their needs are and I have friends who teach at some districts where it's like here are your lesson plans and here are your tests and that is not effective and I know that's just the situation hiring good teachers giving them freedom you still have accountability but I can teach what I think the students need to teach and I follow the state standards but I have freedom to do it in a way that reaches them and interests them and kind of like back to what you asked bigger schools, bigger districts most definitely can have this environment but the students have to want to grow and the teachers have to want to help them grow and see that here the goals that the teacher our coaches have set for ourselves, well our coaches are our teachers so they help us grow not only in the class they're teaching but in all classes because they want to see us succeed in life and we want to succeed in life and we want to make their lives easier because they do so much for us and every student in here is sometimes a student-athlete and having your teacher be your coach at the same time as they're your teacher it really does help build that relationship so much so let me ask this, you know we talk about the buy-in how important is leadership to getting that buy-in that's huge you mean individual leadership well I mean the administration there's a difference, I used to talk about this to my reporter I was a fairly effective editor and leader I think there's a difference between management and leadership and real leadership requires someone to be to have, number one have a goal whether it's just being the best sonic restaurant in the world it's still an end goal they've got to be excited about it because if they're excited about it if they are passionate about it their subordinates will catch it so how important is it at the district level at the building level to foster that buy-in how important is it to have a leader rather than a manager so we have this thing and we just, like we meet up and we have, it's called leadership council and we meet up and whoever wants to do it can do it, it's not like if you have something that you're not good at you can't do it, but you can just do it and you go up and you say okay I want to do this and then you give a speech in front of the whole school and so then you learn how to do that and then you'll get to go and do school activities and then all the kids are involved in the stuff that normally just the teachers would be involved in but then the students get to go and follow in their teachers footsteps and learn how to do the real world and I think Brendan hit on it with the flexibility within our curriculum because I do have friends who teach in large districts and they're expected to practically be on the same page the same problem at the same time and that's just not catering to the student then you need to meet the student where the student's at not where your script says you should be at now you do still have to meet those standards but you need to meet the student and that's where your data and your research and all that comes really into play and you have to stay on top of those things on top of the latest research on top of your current data so that you can meet those students right where you need to be but having that flexibility from administration or the community or anyone to meet them there is really key back to your question though of maybe administration leadership I don't that has not been a factor for me at this district I don't feel that I've really ever had any administrative leadership here and I'm fine with that because I have my own agenda I guess that's a bad word these days I have my own set of goals if you will and I track myself as well as my students why I'm doing this like that's just that is the game here that I keep my eyes on we have not had leadership in my opinion that has done either professional development that was key to my job performance or my individual roles we have not had either leadership that involved themselves in our day to day operations at all and maybe interfere I feel like we have just been a ship sailing on course and there's not been a leader we as a staff are unified in our goals to make kids succeed and then we do that on our own and I want to speak for you a couple of principles one of our principles said if you have good teachers and you give them freedom it's going to go well if you have bad teachers and you give them freedom it's going to go the other way it's my job to make sure I put together a good staff and then empower them to do their thing and that's leadership that's the difference between leadership and action it's worked well and there are times when you have to go through administrators that are more effective and less effective in different ways in a variety of ways I do think all of our administrators are very involved and they care a lot and they meet with students I send my newspaper students to talk to the superintendent all the time it's always accessible and that has not been my experience in other districts and I think that's hugely important when you're passionate about a topic they try to find a way to let you go do that or to implement that so we've had some after school clubs that we've put in place because of that passion or gone to a professional development because of that passion and right now Dr. Kitch is currently trying to find some programs that we've been saying we miss these we want them please see if we can find a way financially to make that work and he's working really hard to make that happen so we have had that like he said teachers who want to seek that too and so it comes from that as well it sounds to me like good leadership at the top is what's happening because they're not good leader isn't micromanagement they're not running I always tell my reporters if I have to sell you stories every day then I've got the wrong reporters you've got your beads go find me some stories that's not my job and so you know what I'm hearing is there is some good leadership because they're staying out of your way and letting you do your job clearing off the things that interfere with that for money interference and at the same time there's a vision at the top that is also coming up from the bottom and meeting together and that to me that's huge I think to get the buy in at schools where this isn't the norm you're going to have to have some real strong leadership that has that vision is excited about it but other people will catch it's not easy to change the culture but that's what it requires the culture that's good that perpetuates success as a manager if I hire the right people I don't work a day in my life and so if your leadership is hiring the right people they don't need to get into your science class they don't need to get into your math class the teachers are getting it done so it's good that they don't feel that pressure from leadership because they're obviously doing their job to a certain extent if they don't I promise you my people do know if they're not doing their job because if I have to do it it's not going to end well and we have some great people who will put in so much energy to everything they do I have to do a couple of shout-outs Jennifer here on the end is being nice and quiet but she will jump in and pitch in and help Karen is helping not only from the business aspect she helps us with sports that's just what it is people will jump in and help at all kinds of crazy times and I know the kids have too I've seen these guys like Gar the Pool and other things and they're just really professional and all they do so I think that energy level that people are willing to commit is really important this is the clubs that you're involved in five different things and that's called leadership opportunities I don't know if one of you wants to be like that I was going to say you've got to you've got to like say what it is like student council student council yellow ribbon and FCA, fellowship of Christian athletes FCCLA Scholarship cross-century basketball baseball track baseball case choir, band FBLA I'm also class president yeah like you guys aren't very involved but you're not really outliers a lot of students are really involved in lots of different things and it's great that you have kids who are involved in one thing but I think it's I mean it's also great when you can be involved in lots of things there are challenges with that she was gone last week so she had to plan ahead and get her assignments and you know those are good lessons for the future in the collaboration across the board I work at the elementary school but I'm working at the junior high I'm creating a career day for our students I've been working with I've been creating a student newspaper at the elementary level they're helping out tipping in all across the board no matter what grade level you teach if you have something you want to try to do or encourage or create somebody in our district is going to help you with it however they can if it is acceptable also even though like what Kendra was gone at an FFA convention for four days and even though that seems inconvenient at the time and it's like oh man I got a plan four days ahead figure out what I need to get that's what's building the leadership skills and the student body and that's crucial I think being involved is one of the most important things a community needs especially at the school I will just write up on it I didn't want to take up more than you already did all this time although I think we could probably go for hours I'm hearing all kinds of really interesting things and this is really great but just if anybody has some final thoughts we're about out of time Dr. Pitch do you have any final thoughts I would love to hear of it just want to cry all the way around community cry school cry academic cry alright well I really appreciate everybody's time I'm going to be writing up a story on this I'll be here all the weekend the first part of next week to put it on the web and just talk about the things that you've heard here and I'm just I'm so impressed so impressed with the things that I've heard I've been, as I said, in and out of a lot of school districts in 30 years and I'm very very few that I've heard of some of the things that I've never heard some of the things that I've heard here today and I want to thank you all I've been appreciate your time this has been just an awesome experience thank you very much good guys back to work something is not right