Banning USD Real Talk Podcast
Welcome to the Banning USD Real Talk Podcast, a space dedicated to amplifying the voices of our vibrant community! This podcast highlights the stories, achievements, and experiences of students, staff, and families across Banning Unified School District. Join us as we dive into meaningful conversations about education, community initiatives, and the topics that matter most to our district. Tune in to celebrate the heart of Banning USD and stay connected with the voices shaping our shared future!
Banning USD Real Talk Podcast
Episode #53: Meet Kirk Skorpanich
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Superintendent Terrence Davis sits down with Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources Kirk Skorpanich to talk about Banning USD’s commitment to continuous improvement, strong leadership, and building a culture focused on students, staff, and community. Kirk also reflects on his first year in Banning and what “We Are Banning” means to him.
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Welcome to the Banning USD Real Talk Podcast, where we share the people, stories, and experiences that make Banning USD who we are. Today, Superintendent Davis and Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources, Kirk Skorpanage, discuss Banning Unified's commitment to continuous improvement and the thinking behind becoming an improvement-oriented district. Let's get into some real talk.
SPEAKER_02We are back. We are back with the Banning Real Talk podcast. We are starting season four, believe it or not. This is the fourth year that we're doing the real uh banning real talk, and I'm so excited to be here. And today we have a special guest. Someone may say, isn't every guest special? Yes, they're all special, but they're all different in terms of what they do. We have students, we have parents, community members, staff members, you name it. And so today we're with none other than Kirk Scorepanic. It's Score S K-O-R, Score, and then Panich, P-A-N-I-C-H. And he is our assistant superintendent of human resources. The crowd goes wild. So, Kirk, thank you for being on the show. Thank you for being with us today. And can you tell the world, because this is not just for banning. This is not just for Riverside County, the pass area. We are listened to around the world. So our listeners out there want to know what's happening and banning and more. So they want to know who you are. So light them up, Kirk. Who are you? Just give the world a little bit who you are, how long you've been in the space and the game and what you do.
SPEAKER_01Well, cool. And I'm I'm stoked about being here. Good. And I'm glad that I'm a special guest. I hope it's special in a good way, though. Great way. In a great way. Looking forward to having some fun. That's right. That's right. So who am I? Well, I'm uh, as you mentioned, I'm the Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources for the uh Banning Unified School District, and I've been here just about one year now. One year already. I know, man.
SPEAKER_02But you've accomplished work for like five years in one year. I I don't know about that. I don't know about that. We do.
SPEAKER_01Yes, I agree.
SPEAKER_02Yep.
SPEAKER_01See. But I've I've I've really enjoyed my time that's here, but you want to know a little bit about me. So I've been an educator for over 30 years now. Okay. And been in public education for quite a bit of time. Uh I served as a as a teacher for a while. Then I went into assistant principal and principal role, and I did uh as a school principal for like 11 years and then and then got into HR because I just I just dig it. I dig people, I dig people in education and stuff. So I've been doing HR work for the last close to 15 years, 11 years, something in in between there. Um and in addition to that, though, on a personal level, there's a few things. I, you know, I've been married to my wife now for gosh, over 35 years. 35 years. Wow. I know it's crazy. It's crazy. And and that's awesome. We're I'm a girl dad. We have two daughters that are in college. One's going to uh Cal Baptist University, Lance Up, and she's a senior there. And the other is a sophomore at Baylor University, Sick and Bears.
SPEAKER_02And where is Baylor?
SPEAKER_01Where is that? It's in Waco, Texas. Waco, Texas. Okay. In Central Texas. So she's pretty far away. Um and then in addition to that, in addition to my family, you know, like in terms of hobbies, I like it's kind of a weird one, but I like sailing. Um, I like golfing. I'm more, I'm really good at losing balls. I think I spend more on balls than I do on green fees. And then uh, and as a family, we like to travel, spending time with family. It's important to me. Okay.
SPEAKER_02All right. So just a couple follow-ups. We we played, uh, I think we played at least one round of golf, maybe more. Uh, but you can get out there and hit the hit the sticks. So you and you said you used to play a long, long time ago. I I've I've played for a while. Yeah. Okay. Okay.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think I used to be a lot better than I am now, though.
SPEAKER_02Well, hey, getting out there is great. And another fun fact about you is that years ago, I think before you got into education, you worked for the city of Banning or or parking racks or something.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I did. I did. That's uh my kind of my connection to banning, and my heart's always been in banning. I love the community. I love this pass area, but I love Banning in particular. So yeah, back when I was shortly after the time I got out of college, I was in recreation and I served a couple years as the director of parks and recreation for the city of Banning. So oversaw the aquatics program, the summer program, uh recreation, youth and adult sports, all kinds of stuff. It was a great opportunity of getting to know the people here in the community and and work like working closely uh with the entire community. And that's where I developed my love for banning.
SPEAKER_02Okay, and we're gonna hit a question later on that's gonna come back up because I want to know a little bit more about that and how it connects with today.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Uh, but moving forward, uh, we're on to a new theme this year. And I wouldn't call it necessarily new, but we're really trying to focus on our impact that we leave. And uh we've been fortunate to have a lot of evidence on what we do. Our district, we have three goals academic achievement, we have community engagement, parent engagement, and we have safety and security. And uh we've made a lot of strides in that. But one of the things overarching we've talked about this year is how can we become an improvement-oriented district? So, with that being said, uh Kirk, when we look at our school district and the work we've been doing, why is becoming an improvement-oriented organization important for our students, our staff, and our and our community?
SPEAKER_01Well, I think it's critically important in that it allows us the opportunity of always getting better. I mean, I know it seems like redundant when we talk about being an improvement-oriented district, but I think successful organizations or successful people are always looking at ways of improving themselves, always looking at ways of getting better, always saying, okay, let's let's plan on what we want to do, let's implement it, let's evaluate whether whether it works or not, and then let's decide what we're gonna do next. And that's, I mean, it's not that hard, but when organization when when individuals do it, individuals become successful. But when organizations do it, they impact the entire communities they serve. And I think that's why it's really important for us because we're so much more than just the students we serve, particularly in banning. I mean, you know, the students we serve represent the people that are in our community. And so as we improve our practices and we improve the services that we provide, I mean, it impacts the lives of everyone that's around us. Their lives.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and what's gonna happen for the future, right?
SPEAKER_01Forever, forever.
SPEAKER_02And with that being said, and I'm only asking this question like this because you now you mentioned that you've been in education for uh 30 plus years. I have not been in education that long, maybe a few years shorter. So you've been in the game for a while. Sure. And with that being said, people who have worked in the field of education for a while understand that there's always change in the system itself, the school systems, meaning uh we receive funding from the state, we receive some local funding, some federal funding, but laws are constantly changing. And from my perspective, it's much more complex now. It's not, nothing is easy. So, with that being said, in these times, how do you focus on that where there seems to be so much turmoil or or different views or or just challenges in the system? How do you stay focused on improvement when that's not everyone's lens or it's not what people think about all the time?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you know, I think that the way you do that is you just keep things simple. I mean, you talked about at the beginning. You talked about the three goals as we have a school district. You focus on those. You just focus on what's simple, and there's always going to be external noise. There's always gonna be external demands, there's always gonna be people that have what their priority is for us, whether that's at the legislative level or it's even at the local level. But as an organization, we just keep it simple. It's about the students and it's about the students that we're serving, making sure that they're meeting the goals that we have for them academically, socially, and then additionally making sure that we're providing a safe environment for them and opportunities to be successful. We keep it really simple. We we have the control of what we're gonna be focusing on, right? And so if we decide we want to pay attention to all the noises out there, then we're gonna get lost in the weeds. But if we keep things simple, we focus on our students, then we we're gonna never go wrong.
SPEAKER_02Okay. It's what we focus on. I learned something a long time ago. It goes like this what you focus on expands. So if you're focusing on negativity, on drama, that's gonna expand. If you're focused on positivity and where you're going, that's going to expand. So it's it's what you put in front of you. That that's really good.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, 100%.
SPEAKER_02The other thing is I know that. So I I think I've known you for at maybe 10 to 15 years or so uh through HR, because I was also an HR professional for a while. Tough, tough, tough job. Um, I used to always say that's I love HR. I don't say that anymore. It because things have changed so much. Uh, a year ago, prior to you coming, I had about a month and a half, two months of of working through things. And I I didn't, boy, tough, tough, tough, tough stuff.
SPEAKER_01You know, I still love HR though, and I always will. And for me, because it's about the people, because the people of our organization is what makes us a great organization. And I always see the role in HR as being kind of the problem solver. Like stuff's always going to happen, and it's the chance to solve problems and make things better and and and support are the amazing staff that we have, particularly in in banning. We just have an incredible group of people.
SPEAKER_02So let me stay right there for a second. So when we talk about improvement-oriented, an improvement-oriented district, in the beginning of the school year at our welcome back, I asked our 600-plus staff, you know, what do you think about that? Is that something you would want to go on a journey on? And it sounded like, I don't know, 80, 90% were like, yes, something we want to do. But what does that actually look like in practice from your perspective? How do we create that culture where people are always looking for ways to grow, adjust, and get better and not blaming other people for what's going on versus here's the issue. How do we improve our systems and our practice around that issue?
SPEAKER_01What does that look like? You know, before I answer that, I want to say something that, you know, we we talked about me me being old. No, well, you said 30 years.
SPEAKER_0230 years in a in a in a in a field is a long time.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, totally. And in that 30 years in the field plus, right? I have never, ever, in my experience, seen the welcome back like we had in Banning this year. Ever. I've never seen anything like that. And I and I gotta tell you, it was so positive. And you said like 80, 90 percent. I mean, I I don't know anyone that wasn't on board with what we're trying to do for the community that's here. We have, and that's why I said a second ago, we have an amazing staff, an amazing, amazing administrators and leadership, amazing teachers, amazing classified employees. We have uh our great labor partners that are all together, and everyone is here for the kids that are here. And I think that the welcome back that we had was exemplified that, exemplified the great work and the great things that are happening within our school district and within the community. And I think that because the way that we get everyone on board with that is some of the things that we've been doing strategically here, and that is getting everyone involved, taking the time to listen to people, taking the time to hear them and hear what they're saying. And because, you know, I might think I know what's happening in the classroom, but I'm not gonna know it as well as the teacher that's in the classroom. Right. I'm not gonna know it as well as the principal at the school site, right? And um, I might think I know what's happening in terms of any one of our departments, but the the individuals and the staff that we have, they're the ones that are gonna know best. And so by taking the time to listen to them, by listening to the community, by listening to uh students, all of those things help us grow as an organization. And and those are the things that we've been doing right, and that's why we're able to shift and pivot and better meet the needs of our students in our community by listening and then acting upon that.
SPEAKER_02I love it. And and I I think, I mean, I'm looking at Edith right now because Edith has been in this role since I've been in the role and been a part of every welcome back. And it's it just gets better every year, but something was different about this year. Right. And it's not just you can experience, you can see it, you can feel it, people still talk about it, but it's what it may how it made people feel about the space and being cared for and that we're listening to their concerns and focusing on that. So I would agree that that's yes.
SPEAKER_01And you know what? And if I could expand upon that, it's not just the welcome back. I mean, so many things that I've seen over the last years, the last year has has identified that. We had the Litapalooza last year, which was a huge event for the community that really helped us all understand that we're one team. It's not just one team within the school district, but one team as a community meeting the needs of our kids. We had what I believe was an amazing employee recognition event last year where we celebrated. We had we we didn't have enough room for the event. And we had just people celebrating the great works that our employees are doing. We had a new teacher orientation this year that was three days where we brought all of our new teachers back, and we took the time to help the onboard them and help them understand what it means to be an employee in the Banning Unified School District. And and then that led right into that just incredible, incredible welcome back we had. So yeah.
SPEAKER_02And and you know, you you mentioned the word involved. And one of the things I I do want to highlight, because I've known you, I know you have been involved in certain uh organizations that support administrators locally and now at the state level, uh, you're on the AXA state board. That was a role that I filled for three years, and you ran for that and were elected to that. And so that knowing other people, you talked about seeing what's happening now, seeing what's happening through the state politically. You mentioned federally, you mentioned statewide. I think it brings uh when someone is involved like that, you bring a different perspective because you see, you hear what other people are doing, and then you bring that back to say, how can we get better at it? And I think you've done that since you've been here. Creating viable and sustainable practices have really improved what we do. And so sometimes when you're in a space and you've only been in that space, you don't have the wealth of how other people do it to refine and get better. Any thoughts about that?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think there's a lot of truth in that. I because you do have the opportunity of uh of picking other people's brains, networking, and figuring out what's working and what's not working. One of the other things that I've I've noticed too is by being involved, it's an opportunity for us to say, this is what we're doing in banning. Oh, yeah. Look at the great things we're doing here. We have our finger on the pulse of individuals throughout the state, and we can tell them the great things that are happening here or the needs that we have as an organization. And people listen.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So it's almost like we now have a voice in the space where probably prior did not have one.
SPEAKER_01Right, correct.
SPEAKER_02That's good. I like it. I like it. So, along with improvement-oriented districts, something else that we're doing, it's not an initiative, it's not a project. Uh, several of us are being trained on improvement science. And improvement science is basically how do you take anything in improvement through a system? And so, right now we have 14 of our leadership team members, including uh our CSCA and our BTA president, are involved. And we have a cohort getting started. And my goal is to have every single administrator, any teacher leader, CSCA leader who wants to be a part of that, because our goal is to learn language, common language, and see the world through a different lens of how we improve. And I know we just finished uh our first session a couple of weeks ago. We have another one coming up. What do you think about that? Have you, I know you've had some experience with it, but what could you tell anyone about improvement science that is exciting?
SPEAKER_01You know, I I think everything is exciting about it. I I totally do. And what I think is particularly exciting is it gives all of us as leaders a common language in terms of what we're looking at and how we analyze, how we analyze what's happening within our district and then how we um how we approach it. Like how do we go about improving things? Um, you know, and and I think that that's I think it's just completely powerful. I mean, it really is. It's it's interesting to see the conversations and how those are taking place just after one session. Yeah, after one session. How people are saying things differently, how they're approaching issues differently, how you know, I had an example, you know this. I had an example we had something come up recently, and I said, you know what? I got a hold of our labor partners in BTA and said, let's go out to the classroom, let's talk to some people together, let's get some input from that. Because it's about growing and it's about focusing on getting better, it's about listening, and it's and it's how we're doing things. And little changes make a huge difference. We know that. But being intentional about it is also important. Because it's always saying, okay, it's good, let's make it better. It's good, let's make it better. You you would when you had introduced the idea, it was around the Olympics. This was last year. And you had shared a video. Yes. And it was a video of I think it was some like skiers or skaters, and and you saw them falling down, you saw them getting hurt, but then they'd get back up and they'd try differently, and they'd see how it goes, and then they'd fall down again and get up and try differently. And it's constantly, even though we fall down, it doesn't mean it's the end. It's let's just keep growing from that. Let's get better, let's keep getting better. And I think it's applying that same mindset to what we do as an educational organization. Let's keep getting better for our kids.
SPEAKER_02That's good. And what two things, that video, I've watched that video so many times, but yeah, that video and watching it led to something that I found that's going to help us.
SPEAKER_01Sure, absolutely.
SPEAKER_02Uh, and I'm I am so excited about it. And I think, I mean, you uh you're with working with our our labor partners. I think they're excited too.
SPEAKER_01They are, yeah, yeah, they are. And and I and I think I see that everywhere because as you know, we have multiple groups that are doing different projects now as a result of that. And everyone has hit the ground running in all different areas to again meet the needs of our kids.
SPEAKER_02Nice.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Okay. So I'm gonna pivot just a little bit before we get to our close here. Have you listened to the podcast before? I have. You have. Uh let me ask you this question. So you've been here almost a year prior to coming to banning. Had you ever listened to the podcast? I had I had listened to one probably coming here, yeah. All right. That's okay. All right. So, with that being said, I think you probably heard about some of the traditions in our community. There's a lot of people I talked to who talk about a long time ago how it was, you know, banning was up and coming, things were like exciting, and then there have been some lull, lulls. Um, but we've created this theme. We are banning. And you talked about your history in banning too. What does that theme or what does that mean to you personally? We are banning.
SPEAKER_01You know, personally, what it means to me is I am part of this community. I am I am part of it. It's we're more than just the school district. We're more than just the schools. We are the community and we impact that community in what we do every single day. We had a this summer we had um a super cool leadership symposium, whereas a leadership team, we had the opportunity of actually doing a scavenger hunt within the community. And it was so cool to see the impact that we as an organization have in this community. We went to KB Homes that's up here and some of the new developments there. And I had the opportunity of talking to one of the individuals that worked there and just to get a sense of her pride in the the Banning Unified School District and wanting to work with us. And it gave me a chance to talk to her about that and going to the uh stagecoach museum and talking to the people there. And they're like, Yes, we want you here, we want your kids here, we want you to be part of that. And every single place we went, it was your part of our community. We had that same day we went to Big Five over here in Highland Springs, and we were in there, and I was with I was with one of our assistant principals. And while we were in there, a student came in, a parent came in, one of the people that worked there knew who we were. It was this, it was this really interesting interaction where it was more than just me walking into a sporting goods store. It was the school district was in there, and there was a pride in the school district, and the student looked at her assistant principal and was wanting to have a conversation with her, and the assistant principal knew that she had cheerleading practice that night. And it it just could it exemplified just how we are part of the community. So in everything we do and every decision we make, we have the opportunity of of making banning even a better place than it is right now. So that expression to me, we are banning, means that I have a personal stake in making this community the best it could possibly be.
SPEAKER_02That is awesome. That is awesome. I I tend to go back to not age, but how many years you've been in the not you, but anyone. You could say me. Because I think we have something in common. Um, although I I'm not at the 30-year mark, but it's been a it's been a long time. You and I both have worked in several different school districts in Riverside County. Right. I'm on my fourth district, my last school district in Riverside County, and I don't know, four or five, I don't know. Um, but given that, I think we're in a special place. Spanning is a very special place, but at a special time. Yeah. And it's almost magical. And I'm just grateful for the opportunity to be in that space, but also bring in people like yourself with experience, with care, with knowledge to then improve our spaces. And so I just feel really good about that.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01No, and I and I I feel really good about that too. You know. Um, I just think it's a blessing to be here. I think it's a blessing to be here and and to be within this organization because of the the direction that we're moving and the impact that we're having.
SPEAKER_02And and and I'll just say this now just because this is our first episode of the year, but we just finished a special board meeting with our school uh board of trustees and we're talking about training and there's some other things to come, but uh they see the change too from the beginning and starting and where we are now. And it's just it seems very cohesive. Right now, if you're listening out there and you have some qualms and say that's not nothing is perfect. There are lots of challenges every day, no matter what you do. But we try to take that on and listen, as you talked about earlier, Kirk, and try to resolve things and get better. That is our goal, right? Nothing is ever gonna be perfect given the complexity that we live in. But our goal is to try to get better no matter what it is. Oh, that's exactly right.
SPEAKER_01That's exactly right. And even in human resources, every single day we have an issue that comes up or something happens. And when you deal with people, it's always gonna be like that. That's right. But do you handle it in in the best way you possibly can? Nice. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So before we close, we're gonna go to our guest spotlight here. So there's a couple questions, and people really listen into this. I've found out. So right now, Kirk, what are you watching or listening to? A lot of people want to know what people listen to because I know you have a little bit of a drive. Uh, what's what's going on? What are you feeding yourself intellectually?
SPEAKER_01So I I I have a tendency of of listening to a lot of different stuff. I'll listen to books on tape and stuff like that and watch different things. I like documentaries. I think recently, you know, you know this, that I have an affinity for reggae, right? So that's right. So I just had the I I love uh I love like Ziggy Marley and Steel Pulse. In fact, I just saw Steel Pulse a couple weeks ago out in Orange County, which was a lot of fun and stuff. And but then I balance that out. So it's usually like in my drive-in, I might listen to one genre on my way out and listen to another. So I listened to like, you know, Phil Wickham or or uh Pat Barrett, some different kind of Christian artists and stuff like that. Phil Wickham. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Is that a Christian artist? Okay. I'm never okay.
SPEAKER_01All right. I'm always learning. Sure. Sure. So that's what I'm listening to nowadays mostly.
SPEAKER_02Okay. And and if you saw Kirk, I mean, in a general sense, this is why assumptions and stereotypes are not good. You may look at Kirk and go, you don't listen to Reggae, but the Reggae, but the first time he put it on, I was like, oh, okay, and we had a great story because I love steel pulse. Right. Always have, and you do too. Sure. So that's awesome. Okay. Uh, what is something people would be surprised to learn about you?
SPEAKER_01So I think one of the things people might be surprised to learn about me is that I'm a first generation American. So my mom was uh my mom came here as a young child from Norway, and my dad um came here from Croatia when he was a teenager. And so they met here, and and I was the first one in the family born in the United States.
SPEAKER_02Wow. Yeah. Now I was I happen to we happen to be at the same event, and you were the president of our region uh 19 AXA. And I think you were telling a story about that, and I was just kind of blown away. Yeah and you told it so well. That's that's that's awesome. Cool. Um what's one thing you look are looking forward to this year? And that can that could be work personally, it could be anything.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. So I think uh from a work level, you know, I'm I'm just getting close to finishing my first year within the school district. And so, you know, it's that first year where I really got to kind of see how things work and and going to back to that improvement science, one year of observation, and now we can say, okay, now there's things that we need to work on and improve upon this next year, and we start improving on some of those things. So I'm really looking at refining some of the things we do and make them even better. And and and we're really excited about that. And then on a personal note, you know, our family has we've decided this year that we're gonna take a family trip to New York around the holidays, and so I'm looking forward to that. Yeah. Okay. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02I've been only once, okay, but I was blown away.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Because I'm born and raised in San Francisco in a city. And when I went to New York, I was like, this is a lot bigger. It's like huge, huge, huge. So it'll be exciting to see. Yeah. Okay. Now, this is a tough question. Uh, what book, TV, or movie character is most like you and why? If you don't have an answer, it's okay. It's a tough question. Tough question.
SPEAKER_01All right. So this might be kind of a nerdy one. It's okay. All right. I'm gonna go with uh I'm gonna go with Ted Lasso. I've heard the name. I'm I'm having some challenges. Oh, sorry, you need to watch this. Okay, so now we gotta put it on your to-do list, right? So here's here's I think here's the reason why, though. So I I've had, you know, over we talked about I'm old, so I've had over 30 years of experience. I'm not saying that you're older than I am, but I'm not old. So 30 years of experience in public education, and I think during that period of time I've learned the importance of optimism, the importance of patience, and the importance of the ability to smile, even when things are completely going sideways. And so those are the things I appreciate in Ted Lasso's leadership, and and those are the things I hope to emulate in terms of how I do things.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_01Who who was Ted? What is who what who what when and where? All right. Well, so it's it's a show that's on Apple TV. And to give you a real a real quick summary, he was a former uh college football coach that got hired to coach English English football soccer and had absolutely no knowledge of soccer whatsoever. But it comes in and it teaches about relationships and it teaches about leadership and it teaches about optimism and all kinds of great leadership lessons and life lessons are incorporated in that. And so they just started their fourth season, just came out recently. And it's called Ted Lasso.
SPEAKER_02It's called Ted Lasso.
SPEAKER_00It's a great show. You have to watch it.
SPEAKER_02Well, you have to have like Apple something to do it. I don't uh that may be too complicated. Okay. We'll we'll see. Ted Lasso. Okay. Okay. Do you have any shout-outs for anyone out there?
SPEAKER_01I think the shout-out I have is to Team Awesome. That's our HR team. You know, I get to work with amazing people, not only in the district, but particularly in my department. So I've got Gloria and Nancy and Carolina and Betty and Joe and Yadira. And they just uh they're uh they're awesome to work with. That's why they're team awesome. I get to work with the best people in the world.
SPEAKER_02Nice, nice. With and tough work, but with nice people. Great people. Great people. Edith, any comments before we jump out of here?
SPEAKER_00Welcome to Banning, Kirk. It's been really fun getting to know you and working with you and just seeing the great things that you've been doing with that department and with the district. Sure.
SPEAKER_02Awesome. Awesome. Thank you. Well, we want to thank our listeners. Thank you for coming back. Thank you for opening up the season for us. More students, more parents, more community members, more staff this year, just to just to kind of get into who we are, what we're doing to serve our students in our community. But Kirk, before we get out of here, I just want to say a few things. Uh, first of all, you said something early on. Focus on what the simple things are. We know what our goals are.
unknownRight.
SPEAKER_02That doesn't always mean we know exactly what to do and when, but we know what they are. So if we focus on that, we're gonna go that way instead of the drama, instead of the noise. We're not focused on that. We'll listen, right? We'll work through things, but we're gonna focus on our goals. Um, amazing staff. And the thing that I really like about you is that you got involved right away. You came here, I think last year, one of the first football games, you were there. You show up, you're involved. And I used to say, because I worked in HR and I used to love HR, I thought in my head, I was I was pretty decent. Kirk Scorpantis came in here and changed everything. It's like I'm at the bottom of the total pole. And he is like, boom, coming in with processes, procedures. This is how we do it. And I and I am backing up, and I need to. So we want to thank you for being here, your commitment to Banning and what you do.
SPEAKER_01Oh, thank you. It's my honor to be here, and it's my honor to work with you guys and work with this community.
SPEAKER_02All right. That that that's it. We're rolling, we're moving.
SPEAKER_00Thank you for turning in to another episode of the Banning USD Real Talk Podcast. New voices, fresh stories, and real conversations. Make sure to follow, share, and stay connected because at Banning USD, the Real Talk never stops. Don't forget to like and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform.
