Setting the Texas Standard | Dr. David Vinson

What does it take to lead one of Texas's fastest-growing school districts with excellence, accountability, and heart? In this episode of the Ashley B. Cash Show, Ashley sits down with Dr. David Vinson, Superintendent of Conroe ISD, for a powerful conversation about what it truly means to build a culture of high expectations in education.

Dr. Vinson brings a wealth of experience to the table — from his roots as a gifted and talented teacher to leading Wylie ISD to consistent 'A' ratings and overseeing more than $700 million in bond projects completed on time and on budget. Now at the helm of Conroe ISD, he's championing his Texas Standard initiative, a vision rooted in student opportunity, strong character, and a commitment to excellence that starts at the top.

Whether you're a parent, educator, administrator, or simply someone who believes in the power of great leadership, this episode is packed with insight, inspiration, and a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to move an entire school district forward.

This one is not to be missed. Tune in!

About The Ashley B. Cash Show: The Ashley B. Cash Show features conversations with education leaders, policy experts, parents, teachers and reform advocates who are working to transform K-12 education. Host Ashley B. Cash brings her perspective as both a parent and business owner to explore systemic education issues and practical solutions for creating better outcomes for students, families, and communities.

About Ashley:  As both a mother and business owner, Ashley brings a unique dual perspective to education reform advocacy, driven by her desire for better educational outcomes for future generations and informed by her firsthand experience with the skills gap facing employers today. Her passion for transforming K-12 education stems from witnessing the real-world consequences of educational failures and recognizing the critical need for a system that prepares students for diverse career pathways, not just college. Through this podcast, Ashley champions solutions including aptitude-based education tracks, expanded school choice, practical skills integration, and alternative career pathways that align with students' individual strengths and interests.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello, welcome to the Ashley B Cash Show. I'm Ashley, and today I am so excited to be joined by my guest, Dr. David Vinson. Dr. Vinson is the superintendent of Conroe ISD, where he's building a vision centered on high expectations, student opportunity, and strong character through his Texas Standard Initiative. Before Conroe, he led Wiley ISD for over a decade, earning consistent A ratings, which is really important, and we'll talk about that shortly, and completing more than $700 million in bond projects on time and on budget. He's a proud Texas Tech Red Raider. He started his career as a gifted and talented teacher and has been a respected voice in Texas education ever since, serving in places that some of my viewers are going to recognize in Idaho, Rawls, and Friendship. He has a PhD in curriculum and instruction with a focus on character, another topic we're going to discuss at length. He and his wife, Christy, are the proud parents of two great kids, Cal and Kate. Dr. Vincent, welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_03 1:07

It's great to be here.

SPEAKER_00 1:08

I'm so glad that you're here. And I know that you have a couple other things that we can hopefully get around to talking to. Also, one of my passions, which is workforce development.

SPEAKER_03 1:17

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 1:18

But thank you so much for coming today. I know your schedule is incredibly busy.

SPEAKER_03 1:22

I've got a I've got graduations tonight. So, you know, my uh wife, Christy, has given me the color coordinated tie for the woodlands. And so I'm ready to go give 1,100 kids, you know, graduate uh, you know, diplomas tonight. It's gonna be, this is my sixth one in six days. Yes. And so I've had a lot of graduations.

SPEAKER_00 1:39

In the lead up to this conversation, you and I had talked about these graduations, and I mentioned that my husband is on the board of regents at Texas Tech.

SPEAKER_03 1:46

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 1:47

Has done 11 of the 17 Tex Tech University system graduations. He was estimating the other day that he has sh shook over 17,000 hands in the last like 10 days. So I feel your pain.

SPEAKER_03 2:01

I want to say the best tip you gave me is take my my uh my Texas Tech ring off before I start, you know, shaking hands because it really does, it works. You never think that no great tip.

SPEAKER_00 2:10

No. The very first time my husband did a graduation uh was there in Lubbock, and I think that it was for over 700 kids at a time. And he came home that day after standing on his feet all day. He'd been wearing his cowboy boots and he had on his Texas Tech ring. And at the end of the day, he goes, I didn't know that your hand could get sore from shaking hands, right?

SPEAKER_03 2:28

It does. And the thing is, it's such a wonderful experience. You sometimes forget that that stuff's happening, but it's just what a what a neat opportunity.

SPEAKER_00 2:35

Oh, yeah. He said that is his favorite part about being a regent is that he gets to be there to celebrate with those kids for the culmination of all the time that they've put in.

SPEAKER_03 2:44

Well, you know, I graduated a couple of times from tech, and my wife worked for tech for 33 years, and we hadn't been to a graduation until my son graduated last year. And it's changed quite a bit.

SPEAKER_00 2:55

It has.

SPEAKER_03 2:56

And it's grown and it's it's cool, but celebrating our kids and their accomplishments, it's awesome.

unknown 3:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:01

Well, um, so I mentioned that we were gonna talk a little bit about your time at Texas Tech. And I know that you got your PhD in curriculum and instruction there. And your focus is on character. And I think that building character in our students is one of the most important things that we can do. And that has been one of your focuses here in all the schools you've been in, but in particular, you're working on it here now in the Conroe ISD. How are you like, what made you decide on character as being a primary focus and how are you implementing that?

SPEAKER_03 3:32

Well, I grew up in Delhart, up at the top of the panhandle, and your word was your honor. And I always uh call it riding for the brand because I mean, you know, you're whatever you did, you represented your community. And as an Eagle Scout, as a as a Christian, you know, your word is your honor and all the things that you did. And that was the cre my ethos, you know. My parents lived with incredible values, and I was always taught that. And when I became a teacher, you know, sometimes the you know, kids come with uneven backgrounds. And the one thing about it is the kids who excelled were the ones who were kind and respectful, responsible, um, had values that kind of girdered their their success. And so because that's not even all the time, one of the things that I would I try to do is how do I get kids to turn grades, to turn, turn the work in, make better grades, have better behavior. And uh I thought it started my journey towards teaching uh uh character in my in my classrooms by modeling it, by uh focusing on it. And eventually I got a uh a grant from the Bush White House to study character education and its impact on student behavior. And the thing that I went through the year one of it and the study, I had no results. It was it didn't work. And I went back to all of my people that I was working with and the Gallup organization, and they do this Gallup student poll, and every year they they evaluate it and they see he says, Well, you're just you're not measuring what matters. What matters is hope, well-being, and engagement. So the idea behind it is that you know, kids are gonna have better character when they have skin in the game. Kids are gonna have better character when they have higher senses of well-being and when they're engaged. You know, I played sports in school and I wasn't necessarily the kid that was interested in English, but I was very interested on Friday night. And I had an engagement, and so I was responsible for my grades and things. Kids who don't have that don't show as good a character. And so character is the tool to help them succeed in life and those kind of things, but they need to have a couple of things. They need to have a positive relationship at school, they need to have someone they can count on as an adult that cares about them and uh increases their whole well-being and engagement because there's nothing worse. You've been there, we've all been there when you don't feel like you somebody cares about you, and or that you don't feel like you belong. Absolutely. And the second thing is as it as it relates to that, is they have school has to be an avenue where they that where they can build their success and they can grow who they are and what they're gonna be doing. Workforce, you're talking about that. You know, if a kid knows, you know, I have kids that are in football, but also in welding, and that welding is a team and it's a family. It is, and so when you can engage them in that way, it's just it makes such a big difference. And then the character is the navigation element that says, you know, how to make friends and win win friends and influence people, you know, when you're respectful and responsible, when people can count on you, when you're kind and caring, yeah, when you have those values. I was taught as at church and at home that uh you're gonna succeed. And once I started doing that, um character went up, grades got better, attendance was better. And it's a core element, you know, you f we always forget that. But a kid is not prepared to learn if they don't feel like school value is value valuable to them. And so, you know, when I focused on that, I started measuring what matters. We actually, you know, the the Gallup organization will you you can take a help test and you can determine how much help you're and we actually do that. We log that in, and a kid gets a help score, it goes home with her parents and uh and they get to talk talk to them about it at home. So we give them tools to do that.

SPEAKER_00 7:07

That is so cool. I'm gonna I'm gonna have to look that up. The Gallup poll hope score.

SPEAKER_03 7:12

Yeah, and the thing is, is that so I had the Wiley way in Wiley. But the while now in Conroe, I have 73,000 kids and a bunch of communities. And Conroe was so big, I thought, if we're gonna build this character program here, I want to build it not just for Conroe, I want to build it for Texas.

SPEAKER_02 7:27

Love that.

SPEAKER_03 7:28

Yeah, and I want to build character skills and processes and systems that do all those things, but on a broader scale, and then replicate it so that other schools can benefit from it. And so it's our mission, our hope. And uh, you know, we're in Houston, you know, this is we put up in a man of the moon. You know, I mean, we can do this here.

SPEAKER_00 7:46

You can do anything. Or in Texas, we can do anything. Absolutely. We got to come up with a plan and figure out how to make it happen, right?

SPEAKER_03 7:52

Yeah, and the thing is, you know, if kids, kids all want to be loved and cared for, no matter where they're at. No, and uh yes, and you know, that's that's the goal of the hope. And and if you do that, pretty much everything else works out.

SPEAKER_00 8:05

So if you were gonna talk to another teacher or superintendent and give them one piece of advice on how to start, what do you think is the starting point that you've seen work?

SPEAKER_03 8:17

I always say call me, but the second thing is what what the character education research says is that it has to be comprehensive, proactive, and intentional. So just having a poster on the wall is not gonna save anybody. You know, the thing is I would say, you know, don't don't you need help call this number. That's you need to have someone who has a mechanism. So, you know, you need to make sure that you have a plan for it and you have a process. And so you start with the idea that you're going to know what character values that you're going to incorporate. So, you know, I wouldn't fit in everywhere in the world. You know, sometimes every every part of the country might have a different set of what they consider the core ethical values. And so we just concluded a broad search and we asked the community, when you graduate a kid from Marx or our high school, what values would you want them to possess when you give them a diploma? What's most important to you? Yeah. And so in both circumstances, it's pretty much been the same values of these core ethical values that are, you know, that regardless of where you're at or what you're doing, some of those at least come alive, and especially in Texas. And then so our board, the first thing they did is establish the values that we want to promote in our children. And because the school belongs to the community.

SPEAKER_00 9:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 9:20

It's not mine. You know, it's there by us.

SPEAKER_00 9:23

Yeah. Which is so fascinating because, you know, as a business, and most businesses establish a mission statement and a core value statement, right?

SPEAKER_02 9:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:31

And a few years ago, I was at a real estate seminar with a bunch of other real estate investors. And there was a man that came and spoke to us, and he said, Why do we do it for business and we don't do it for our own families? And it was at that point, then I woke up one day and I was like, he's right. And so we went home and we established our family's mission statement, and then we established our core values. And now we have dinner once a week and we sit down and we use the vocabulary from our core values through everything that we do. And it's made a huge difference.

SPEAKER_01 10:00

It does.

SPEAKER_00 10:01

Um, but the same thing, I never thought about applying the same principle to schools.

SPEAKER_01 10:04

Right.

SPEAKER_00 10:05

And so that's that's brilliant and great. And and I'm so glad that you reached out to the community because then you're getting buy-in from them and all for the benefit of the kids.

SPEAKER_03 10:14

Right. And the thing is, is that in that process, the whole community is going to come together because they they really love the values that we're gonna promote.

SPEAKER_00 10:22

Yeah. When they know why it's now shared.

SPEAKER_03 10:25

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 10:25

Right, which makes such a difference.

SPEAKER_03 10:27

You know, and the thing is when you're promoting respect and responsibility, and what I always look at it from this perspective, do it when it's actually valuable for the school year. So respect and responsibility are great character values to introduce the school year. Here's the rules, here's the kind of things, here's the systems we're gonna set up. And respect is is how you should be treated, you know, and then your responsibility is to treat others that way.

SPEAKER_00 10:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:48

And we start out with those rules and guidelines and systems, it makes a difference, right?

SPEAKER_00 10:52

Do you ever refer to it as the golden rule?

SPEAKER_03 10:54

Oh, yeah. The thing is, those those are great, those are great, yeah, universal values. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 10:59

I mean, because I I find it really funny because when I go out in the world and I'm at stores or restaurants and I start talking to a young person, inevitably I bring it back around to the golden rule. I'm like, they're like, you're so nice. And I'm like, well, I try to be what I want to see, right? And I said, You, but you should treat everyone the way you would like to be treated. Like if we all did that, the world would be a better place. Right. Just try to impart that to everyone that you see. But you're doing it in the schools. I love that.

SPEAKER_03 11:28

And the thing is, caring and giving is is next. And so when you think about caring and giving in October, or in November and December, it's the times when care the Thanksgiving, where we're gonna not only talk about caring and giving, but practice it. Yes. And so we had the Christian care center in Wiley, we have the Montgomery County Food Bank here. And so we're gonna intentionally talk about that the guy next to you might be using those resources. And that the and and what we're gonna do is we're gonna make sure that we're aware of that and and because it's noble to be kind and those kind of things. And then the second thing is we're gonna practice giving. And so in Wiley, it turned out to be the Christian care center. We were the number one resource of giving to the uh the the basically the the tool that the food bank that that fed our whole city. And uh, we became the number the one of the number one donors, and the kids get to practice that and they get to go to the food bank and and and and talk about stacking and giving and doing those kind of things, and it makes such an incredible difference. And so with then we had Wiley We Christmas, and um, I had about seven or ten different organizations in Wiley that were doing secret sanitops, you know, providing um those kind of tools. And so let's all come together and the school can sponsor it. And so, you know, we were school district about 20,000, and we uh gave we we we posted these 1,100 kids that needed Christmas, and within one week, every kid had a full Christmas.

SPEAKER_02 12:54

Love that.

SPEAKER_03 12:55

The thing is, we're coming together and we're practicing caring and getting. Yes, and in the seasons that they are we celebrated.

SPEAKER_00 13:01

You're showing them how to do it.

SPEAKER_03 13:03

Right.

SPEAKER_00 13:03

You're not just talking about it, you're actually showing them how to do it. You're doing both. You are talking about it, educating, but then you're actually putting it to practice.

SPEAKER_03 13:10

Yeah, the thing is is that it made a difference and your heart is fuller when you're giving anyway. And we talk about it, but I mean, you know, practicing it. We do it at our churches, we do, but hopefully at home, but I don't know necessarily that everybody's getting that even level of kind of training on how to supposed to do it.

SPEAKER_00 13:26

Well, and what I find so much of the time is people think giving should be money, right? That you need to have money to give. And I keep trying to say no, everybody has something they can give, right? Whether it's their time, their talent, their knowledge. And then yes, some people have money, but that's not the only way to do it.

SPEAKER_03 13:44

You know, one of the things that in Hawaii, they call it kuliana, and uh it's their way of saying responsibility, but responsibility in a in a giving way.

SPEAKER_02 13:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:54

Meaning that it's my honor to be able to give to you. So it goes well beyond just the idea of giving something, it's the purpose behind it. And so that's always really unique and fun. And uh it it makes a difference, you know. If you embed your schools with the notion of hopefulness, expectation, and uh the idea that uh that character, that we're all gonna treat people in that in those ways, it makes a big difference, you know. And you know, it tra it transcends to a lot of different things, you know, sports and everything. And it just uh it behavior improves, scores improve, and uh people a lot happier in trust the school district.

SPEAKER_00 14:29

Oh, yes, for sure. Now you mentioned earlier that part uh of the most important part that you do for the kids is making sure they have a positive relationship at school.

SPEAKER_03 14:37

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 14:38

How are you implementing that? Like are you doing special training with teachers? Like what are you doing?

SPEAKER_03 14:43

So there's a couple of things that you do with this. So the first thing is I was wondering how we're myself thought we were gonna do it. So I had an intermediate school who volunteered to try. Okay. And they said, we're gonna say, do you have someone at school that cares about you? And uh that an adult you could go to if you had a problem. And then number two, if not, who would it be? And so great story here. So the first time we did it, we only had about 60% of our kids that felt like they had somebody they could go to. Now now it I think it was 100%, but um, you know, the last time we took the serving. But the one person that they had most connection with was the the janitor that was serving and helping in lunch. And his name was Aaron. And you know, I was really curious about this because I wanted in a first time out. And so Aaron just went up to him and started talking to him. Well, you know, uh, it was Susan Wiley, and Aaron's now one of our the best math teachers at the school.

SPEAKER_02 15:38

Awesome.

SPEAKER_03 15:39

So you hire for attitude and you train for skill because you find people who first care about people. And uh if you can find that out, then you make that connection. And so then we just brought that to all those school districts, the schools that we have. You know, so we we do relationships three different ways. First in this, who's your favorite teacher and why? And we they write around a piece of paper, and then that and we give that in October. And the the cool part is that you know, kindergarten teachers are getting responses from kids in in senior year saying, Y'all, you made a difference in my life. And so that's a that's a really difference maker, right?

SPEAKER_00 16:08

That is, that's huge.

SPEAKER_03 16:10

And then um, you know, uh, and this is something that's sort of advanced, you can't just jump out there and do it. The the final evaluation for relationship um is high school is actually six through through twelve. Every elementary kid thinks their kids, their teacher likes them, even if they don't. You know, some we're challenging the you get it. And so we said, Does my teacher care about me? Yes or no? And then why or why not? And so we actually did a survey and the kids, the teachers got a relationship score at the end of the year.

SPEAKER_00 16:35

I love that.

SPEAKER_03 16:36

Well, so the thing is is there a level of accountability of it too. Because some kids, some teachers look looked at it and said, How can I grow? You know, as far as relationships. And so we did it in those three ways, and it was uh very successful. And you know, the thing is you have to meter it out and do it carefully and slowly. Yes. But but intentionally, and uh it's with people, not to people, right?

SPEAKER_00 16:53

Right. And and when I have done surveys in the past, you always find the outliers, right? People who don't like them for a particular reason. And then, but if you look at the ones in the middle, then you can see the pattern, right? And um, I'm sure that you employ some of that as well when you're looking at these.

SPEAKER_03 17:10

Well the thing is too, is that there's teachers that aren't necessarily that pleasant, but they know that they care about them. So it comes in all shapes and sizes, different personalities.

SPEAKER_00 17:17

Well, and some people, like for me, I need someone that's gonna hold me to a high expectation. Right. That doesn't always feel good in the moment, but when you've had the growth by the end of the year, you have respect for that, right? They do it in a loving, caring way, but hold me to high expectations. And they're challenging me. And yet I turn out better by the end of the year. And I have so much respect and appreciation for that, right?

SPEAKER_03 17:40

Yeah, actually, uh takes a steckwise. You know, uh Joey Maguire was kind enough because I think he's uh a guy that's probably one of the best at relationships in the world. Yes. And so Joey uh sat down with me a couple of years ago, and well, he just taught life lessons that we use as videos about how to because he treats every kid differently, but treats them all the same. Yeah. And it starts with the foundation of love, and then you work through it the rest of the way, and it just it makes a big difference.

SPEAKER_00 18:04

Yeah, for sure. Absolutely. Okay, so um can you give me a couple examples of how you're setting the school up for the avenue of engagement? Like just a few examples of things that you're doing.

SPEAKER_03 18:19

So the thing is is that when you when you think about engagement, you'll actually there's surveys that you can you can you can monitor and measure levels of engagement. Hope and there's a hope score and a happiness score that you can take that are going to be that are anchors to mention those gallop. Yeah, those gallops, but I and then and and uh the the hope scores is there, the the the uh the the engagement score you can actually get from that particular situation. And then when you when you think about that, you know, you look at grades. So Gallup says grades, attendance, and discipline. And so you look at those three measures to see because the engagement is the function of those three things, because you're coming to school, you're engaged. If your grades are okay, you're engaged. And it, you know, and the thing is about attendance. But the thing about this is that you really have to be cognizant, because some kids suffer in silence. And so you have to be very aware of that too, and look for cues and stuff. So to make sure that their social emotional levels are high and that they can do those kind of things. So, you know, when we measure those kind of things and look at those grades, and then you just we have a very specific system to make sure that we're we're um going back and trying to take good care of them in those particular ways.

SPEAKER_00 19:21

So, um, based on several things that you're saying, I'm getting a pretty clear picture that you do a lot of training.

SPEAKER_03 19:27

A lot of it. So, you know, it's really here's the one thing Texas public schools. Half of the teachers come to school either with post-baccalaureate with no classroom management training, or they come not certified. And uh, you know, the same thing, private, public, or anything that, you know, knowing having an explicit system of classroom management training uh is not really a standard that most people have to follow.

SPEAKER_02 19:48

Right.

SPEAKER_03 19:48

And it's the ball game. It is because if you know uh my classrooms were set up previous to whatever you're gonna do, you know, my my our offices are set up the very same way. So you really have to what one of the things I want to do legislatively and otherwise is uh create a friendly system to that would uh develop their classroom management systems. And the second thing is as it relates to all that, uh reward teachers for for doing it. You know, they had this reading academy uh done in the 90s, and we paid every teacher a couple of thousand dollars to do that.

SPEAKER_02 20:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 20:18

It if you incentivize and you value the teachers for wanting to do it, they're gonna they're gonna have a lot better attitude about making it happen. Yeah. So what my goal would be is to for everybody to have classroom management training. You know, I help with some sports, um, uh character and psychological development stuff. And um, there was a division one football um uh Big 12 team that was having trouble with their kids and organization. And so I took a sixth grade system and uh we sent it to the to the um to the college. And uh because they were trashing the the the uh the um the the the workout room or do and so we actually put up the rules like we have in sixth grade about what you're gonna do in the bathroom and your expectations, and you can't believe how much that improved. But you have to create systems and processes for everything so they know where it was. And like this coach was saying, it's just it's magic, it's great.

SPEAKER_00 21:04

I mean, that's what we do in business, right? You cannot scale a business without having systems, processes, and sometimes automation too. Um, and when you apply that principle to a school district, it works there as well.

SPEAKER_03 21:17

Well, and the thing is this so you think of another example of a division one um football team that came to us and said, you know, NIL, people can leave if they want to. Because you had to stay before and you could just be treated whatever you want to treat. And they have to live with it, right?

SPEAKER_02 21:30

Right.

SPEAKER_03 21:30

So now they can leave. And so we were brought in and uh we taught a special education training of called de-escalation. Okay. And so it's funny because a lot of these division one coaches have never they didn't know. Actually, Joey Maguire's a special education education teacher. And so he knows de escalation. Yeah. And so when you know how to not amp people up and do those kind of things, and it's just hypercritical. But you have to have that as a foundational skill. Yes. And so the thing is too, is that there's a lot of uh things that have happened, you know, in in in And and we're in a very conservative state, and I'm a conservative person. And so I've taken a lot of the things that people have said that you know, when I started first strategic character character ed, it was we're being too this is a mission for the Republican Party or whatever. I was just the one, this is good things. And so now there's a there's some elements of on the other side, like the social emotional learning. So and it can be taken in a lot of different ways, but if you take it from a relational, I call it relationship skills, yeah. Relational development. And it means um you're you know, you know, how you're perceived by other people and how you perceive them.

SPEAKER_02 22:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 22:33

And knowing how that that's a that's a skill. I want it is a skill set. I want you to be able to look someone in the eye. I want your uh, you know, how you're perceived as is is the ball game.

SPEAKER_00 22:41

Yeah, you know, it is and not being aware. First impressions matter.

SPEAKER_03 22:44

So social awareness and self-awareness. If you don't have those two things, no. I mean, we I taught Kate and Cal. You know, you when you're walking out of a of a of a restaurant, you you hold the door open and see if there's anybody behind them. It's a it's a basic skill. We don't think about it.

SPEAKER_00 22:56

No. And here where we live in Texas, it it matters. There we're still a state that puts value on that.

SPEAKER_02 23:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:05

And I I tell my kids all the time, like I'm talking to them at dinner about their manners and how they're eating and that they're sitting up straight and they're not leaning over their food and how they talk to people and how they look people in the eye and shake hands. And I'm like, boys, and my daughter too, but you will be judged on this. And you may not realize that you're being judged on this. And I often tell them that there is a uh culture of success in our society. And it means are you dressing appropriately for the situation? Are you acting appropriately for the situation? Are you talking appropriately for the situation? And are you being a continuous learner? And you will, you will, no matter what you like, good, bad, or indifferent, are going to be judged on that. And you will be elevated or not based on that.

SPEAKER_02 23:51

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 23:52

And that it's really critical. Um, and it doesn't matter that that culture of success, it doesn't matter what you have, it doesn't matter what color you are, it doesn't matter what religion you are, it's how you comport yourself in a given situation. Absolutely. And it does matter, and anyone can do it and anyone can learn it.

SPEAKER_03 24:09

Absolutely. And through the whole process, you know, you benefit from it. And you know, kids are kids. Okay. And so you have to show the social benefit of what they're gonna get out of it. And uh, and it matters. Now, my kids, we put them through manner's camp. I don't know where it's available, they did not like it very much, but uh manage camp was not good. But I mean, they are better people for it, and even though I would love as a dad to say, I told you so, these are adults, but I don't, but uh They'll come back one of these days and tell you thank you.

SPEAKER_00 24:33

It may be a while.

SPEAKER_03 24:34

Maybe this too. But it's a good thing. Christy, my wife, it was her plan.

SPEAKER_00 24:39

Yeah. Well, um, I made my children go to Cotillion, and that was just didn't quite work out the way that I had intended. And um, they're still mad at me about that. So I understand a little bit.

SPEAKER_03 24:48

It's the point, ma'am. I don't know where you stop and start, but we've tried and I've failed a few times. But they're they're better as for us.

SPEAKER_00 24:54

So for sure.

SPEAKER_03 24:55

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 24:56

At the end of my at the end of the day, I can have problems with my kids at home as long as other people come up and say, wow, your kids are really well behaved. Right? That's kind of the goal.

SPEAKER_03 25:06

They can be teached at home, at least here we're not because we're we're just trying.

SPEAKER_00 25:10

So um a lot of the things that you've talked about and that you're doing obviously impact the teacher. And um, I know that there are more teachers leaving the industry than ever before. And a lot of them say it's yes, is the money part of it? Yes. But they say the bigger problem is what they're facing in the classroom. Right. You know, that they're having to do too many different jobs and that it's very hard to maintain the classroom, that children are acting out, there's not enough parent engagement. And that what sometimes when parents do engage, it's not always good engagement, right? They're getting yelled at a lot. Um what are you doing about that? I mean, obviously, I think a lot of what you're doing with the hope, well-being, and engagement is having a positive impact on that. But like, what are you actually seeing?

SPEAKER_03 25:56

So actually, you know, I have been to in Wiley. Uh I was in Wiley for 15 years and I've I've been here seven months. And so I've actually visited I think 365 campuses since I've I've been here. Because it's important to go see what's going on in the classroom.

SPEAKER_02 26:09

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 26:10

And so when I was in Wiley a couple of years ago, I just noticed behaviors were getting increasingly worse, and uh and increasingly worse in a significant way. And so I started asking questions and I started doing some data and some research. And so I actually created a called the behavior management coalition for Texas. And uh that became um, you know, basically what I was asking for is there were some laws that were not intended to be laws that were impacting things. And they think they had this uh chapter 37 uh Texas Education Code that was seven pages, it's 160 pages right now because people kept adding on things, and the things that it wasn't beneficial for teachers, it was the protection of students and poor behavior. Yeah. And so I uh got 60 something schools together and uh we went to Austin and and here's the deal it wasn't just about here's griping, it was about proposed solutions. And so we gave, and so now you know, before a kid in kindergarten through second grade couldn't be ever uh how to get out of school suspension. Well, they knew it and behavior was and so we asked the legislature bipartisanly, can we do this? Because I mean, we need that because we're we teach them to read and math basic skills, behavior is essential to that thing. And so we got that that that changed. And so then we we uh we actually strengthened the uh requirements for parents to actually be engaged in that you call it the we called it the teacher's bill of rights. And so we actually got six or seven laws passed that were uh with a significant majority vote to to strengthen the authority of the teacher and provide her more power, and then also require more engagement from the parents. And uh, are we done? No, is it better? It is. And you know, the uh the the things that I that haven't gotten done that uh it worries me. Kids come to school with um hyper-aggressive behaviors that are neurologically focused, that are just you know, they they they can't control it. Right. And we spent I think on last year we had like 12 kids and it was like $1.5 million to put them in day and in residential care because their the least restrictive environment was needed to be therapeutic. Because we're not we're not physicians, right? And if I can catch them early, significantly better.

SPEAKER_02 28:30

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 28:30

Because you know, before the concrete sets, you know this that you were talking just about this with regard to to eye, your you know, you know, vision. If you can get it early, you can make a significant difference. If you can catch it by third grade by kindergarten and start really focusing on it by third grade, it's the world, it's the ballgame. And so that's one of the things that we're that we're gonna focus on in the future because these babies need our help.

SPEAKER_00 28:50

Yes, they absolutely do.

SPEAKER_03 28:51

And I'm I don't like asking for money. I don't, but in that situation, you know, that's where sort of where we're at.

SPEAKER_00 28:57

Yeah. No, and um so in Law Bay, Senator Perry is our our senator, and um he was talking to me all session, last session, and actually before the session about the teacher bill of rights. And there had actually He helped me. Yes, and there had actually been a teacher, I believe in Dalhart, that had um been in a classroom and a child had an outburst and stabbed uh her with a pencil and it went through into her sinus cavity. And the next day the kids was right back in the classroom. And he's like, we can't let things like that happen. That the teacher's scared to to teach, the children are scared, there's distractions, and it's preventing them from teaching the rest of the class, right? And so we've got to to give teachers and administration the ability to have other methods to teach these children and to like take them out of the classroom when necessary.

SPEAKER_03 29:49

Yeah, because I mean at the end of the day, when they behave we were clearing the classrooms, yeah, we needed to clear the student.

SPEAKER_00 29:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 29:55

And simple things that have happened, but you know, and I I told all legislators, I think you had really good intentions. But I mean, it's how it's framed, just like I was talking about with Mary Park, it's how you take any type of development of social and socially and emotionally and and and character driven that you know we need to have a common purpose. And and when Senator Perry was great, I I he was enjoyable to talk to. Uh, he definitely has his own way of getting things done. I mean, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 30:18

He was more talking, less uh listening. He was like, but we he got it done and he pushed it through. And and he had been trying to do this for years. And so then that's when I cut involved and tried to start helping him. And um, you know, I'm probably not the most forceful one, but I'm the one who's like I'm probably the secretary of taking the notes and getting it all organized. But it it was it was the most one of the more fulfilling things. I'm not a I'm not a politician, I'm a servant, and uh, but I wanted I want to be a positive change.

SPEAKER_00 30:42

But the thing is, is that you are on the front lines and you are getting, but you're also getting to see the forest and the trees, which I think makes it so much easier to define policy when you can see not only there's this specific problem, and because what typically happens what I've seen with policy is that there's a problem and somebody has a nature connection to fixing that problem, but they always don't they don't always look at how it affects the whole entire framework, which is why I think you have to see the tree, but then you also have to see the forest. Um, one of the things that I think is impacting our policy right now, number one is that there's so many, so many pieces of legislation that have happened over the years that we keep adding more, but we're not undoing any of the old ones that are not effective or that are actually hurting. Yes. Right. And then we're also not not necessarily always having tea in the policy that we're writing to actually make it have the impact that we want.

SPEAKER_01 31:44

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 31:44

And then the third thing is we're putting it across the whole entire system. And we're irregardless of how many students or how many teachers are being impacted. Sometimes our bills are made for really big school districts like Conroe or Woodlands or, you know, and but they don't work well in small school districts, maybe like Dalhart.

SPEAKER_01 32:05

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 32:06

Or they have too much financial impact on them and make it onerous. Um, and so like what you've you've been in all of these things. Like, I think that we need to base it on per capita, but what do you think about that?

SPEAKER_03 32:19

Growing up in a small town and be teaching being a principal and rolls up mowed my own lawn, you know. And I was I was honorable to do it. I loved it. It was one of the more fun, enjoyable things. But, you know, I always think that way. I was on the uh state UIL advisor board, and uh, I'd always think about how many miles that uh Demmitt and Dalhart and uh you know Lasbody are having to drive to get to the next opponent, right? So I think that same way here. And so when we built the coalition, we actually had people that were from 1A28 to 6A schools to participate to make sure we didn't keep that there. Because one of the main things was so like discipline, they didn't have a DAEP discipline alternative school. And so, you know, it was mentioned that we we can make virtual an option for them. So they're because they're out of school and they're gonna be having to teach virtually. So we got that passed. And so it met the needs of of you know of Delhart and Dumas, or you know, perhaps the thing about it is that they're happy, as well as Lubbock or Friendship or you know, our Cooper. And and it matters, you know, those kind of things about those perspective perspective taking of everything. And you know, you know, trust is earned in drops and lost in buckets. And uh when I when I talked to the legislatures, I mean I had in my hand, Democrat and Republican, I said, you know, if you entrust us with this, we're gonna honor it and do the right thing and try to give you feedback to to grow it. Uh, because you know, uh so this West Texas way of doing the right thing and for the right reasons, and the word is your honor. And uh my mom was this guy since passed away, but she always used the this the the the example uh that uh Wayne Porter, he was a he was a cattle rancher, and uh they all would come together for for Wayne's um bull cell. You you know all this stuff kind of helped me right.

SPEAKER_00 34:01

I'm a rancher too, so it's it's it's ringing a bell.

SPEAKER_03 34:05

So hippo ranch, you'd love to see it. Anyway, black angus. And so everybody came in and and uh the porter porter ladies, he has five girls, and and and edith just Jesus was kind of kind of tough people, they would feed all of the ranchers when they would come in and then they would buy the bull. And my mom was helping out for one time or another. We're all you know, church uh folks in and uh one rancher said to the other, what bull did you buy? And uh they said this, and he goes, Well, how'd you pick it up? And he goes, Wayne, Wayne said it was good. And he goes, Whatever Wayne says, you can trust it.

SPEAKER_02 34:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 34:36

And so those are the kind of values I want to build and grow.

SPEAKER_02 34:39

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 34:39

And I want to to think about that that people can trust me with trying to pass legislation and and right-size it to be to do no harm.

SPEAKER_00 34:46

Yes, absolutely. Yeah. Where it it fixes the problem, but not at the expense of everybody else or other things.

SPEAKER_03 34:54

Yeah, and the thing is that as as a superintendent, you know, I want the legislator to be proud of us. And you know, it's it's hard because right now it seems like everything's at odds. And you know, we're Texas, we're not excuse makers, right? We're people that do good things. And so I'm trying to I want them to be proud. And so when I always go to a problem, I always bring solutions as far as how we do things and and offer my resources because I don't they don't want to see us in Austin. They're they're busy. So if I can give them some issues and solutions and they see me as a resource, it's a little better.

SPEAKER_00 35:27

And I've seen that happen so many times where people coming, and and it's the typical thing, right? Everybody wants to complain, once say, this is wrong, that's wrong, that's wrong. And I, like you, have found that once I identify the problem, and maybe it's just the way my brain works, I start coming up with solutions. And so I've never wanted to go to someone and say, here's a problem, without also having so solutions. Now, they may not be the perfect one, but at least you're providing some different options.

SPEAKER_03 35:54

Well, you know, and you know, somebody once said that everybody's great at pulling weeds, but we'd have to also plant flowers. And uh the weeds have been pulled. I mean, things have been done. I think that we're there. Now, how do we grow and start planting flowers that are going to be valuable, enjoyable, and helpful to the kids that we're responsible to teach?

unknown 36:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:12

Well, um, I was speaking with um one of your board members on your school board, um, Lindsay Dawson, and she told me that one of the things that you all did when you first came in as the new superintendent was that you all sat down and you redid your uh your your list of priorities.

SPEAKER_01 36:28

Right.

SPEAKER_00 36:29

And that you all, and I told her that this is one of the only school districts that has made the outcomes of the children be a priority. Yes. And I think that is so critically important. Um, you know, you see a lot of school boards who are more focused on what are the finances and like, you know, and and I think for true success, the outcomes of your students have to be a priority.

SPEAKER_03 36:53

Right. The thing is, if you start there, uh the money's gonna come and the things are gonna be there. And I mean, and are we in a bad situation? Yeah, but you know, the thing is we've got to be solutions oriented and we've got to come to that. And the school belongs to the people.

SPEAKER_02 37:06

It does.

SPEAKER_03 37:06

I'm a steward of this school district. You know, we talked about the bond thing. I hate asking for money, but I mean we we were growing leaps and bounds and and wiley, and I try to do it the most financially responsible way. It surely wasn't real sexy, but it we got stuff done about what was good because it values the community, valued that.

SPEAKER_02 37:24

Yes, absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 37:24

And so when we worked through that, you know, we I feel in it wasn't effective, it wasn't. But you have to listen and really listen. You know, my mom would always, when you come home to the day, she really listened to you, you know. And uh I've had so many great friends and you know, mentors and stuff that really listen. And it's if you have that, you know, and because it, you know, these people have been elected to represent their schools and the community. And I want to I want to make sure that we're carried out to what they want.

SPEAKER_00 37:53

Right. And we uh talked a little bit about the student outcomes, and to me, I know you have set a priority as workforce solutions, right? And to me, that is hand in hand with student outcomes because we need to be providing these students with skills that will translate into them being able to have a good job and have a good life for themselves.

SPEAKER_02 38:15

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 38:16

And so how are you addressing? Because I know this is a thing across our state, obviously nationally, we're seeing people say, Oh, we need more tradespeople. Oh, you know, AI is changing everything. The jobs that were there now won't be the jobs of the future. So how are you guys making your work really focusing on workforce solutions?

SPEAKER_03 38:36

So the first thing is again, businesses are paying taxes. And so if they find that schools are a resource to for workforce development, it means a lot more. So I'll take the I'll take the Wiley example. We have not got to do this here because I've been busy doing everything else. But uh I went to the workforce commission and then actually they led me to this um um group of of uh big industries that uh because you know it's Plano and it's you know all those different, you know, Frisco and Wiley and there are a lot of businesses there. Right. And so they um they I said, what do y'all need? And so they started talking about that, and and so they said we need more engineers and we need more um health care. And so, you know, when I first started in Wiley, I had about 41 kids in a in an engineering program. And we I left it, there was uh 1,100. And those are those are feeding TI, Raytheon, those things. And then the thing too is that those that skill development comes in different different ways because TI doesn't need all of them to be engineers, no, but you can go and have an incredible way to do that. Uh and so that we started building that and and growing that because the need was there. When I was in Florida's field in the San Antonio era superintendent for six years, you know, um went to the workforce development. I was actually one of the I was on the board of of uh workforce development for San Antonio, and um one of the things that uh the concern was is that Boeing and Standard Arrow and Lockheed were having trouble because they the military does all of the repairs and all the things over there. And so I got with Raytheon and it got with all those groups, and so we we built a system for power plant and airframe mechanics. And my my kiddos were pretty poor in in Forrestville. And so these kids would start out, and then they would we had they were teach they were learning how to build or rebuild jet engines, and in the summer they would they would they had an internship with them, and the kids that had never had anything were were graduating in high school with a with an associate's degree and uh the ability to build, you know, uh I think it's C4 engines and and uh and and really change their life, change the change the trajectory of their whole family.

SPEAKER_02 40:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 40:48

And uh, but that's because the the Halliburton did the same thing. So we we just met their needs wherever they work.

SPEAKER_00 40:53

Right. And I think that's so important that we engage that every school, not just the school district, but that every school start engaging with their local industry and finding out what they need so that we can be creating classes that meet that so that then the school, because that translates into the students then being able to get a job, right?

SPEAKER_03 41:12

It's it's big. And you know, the thing is sometimes kids just wanted to do it. My daughter, who uh you know, she has a degree uh uh in in business and philosophy, but end up from uh in in in graduated from college, but you know, she played tennis and uh she was a welder. She won state and and welding. So I think it's that she got to do both those things, and she if you ask her to choose, I think she would choose welding over. She's gonna go to law school now, but it's not but I mean she has good, she got mad welding skills.

SPEAKER_00 41:38

Well, you know, she can always do patents, work, work as a patent attorney. She's already she's already fought, she's already fought two. Well, there you go. I mean, that's see, that makes sense because in welding, you have to learn how to put things together, and that's important for patents too, knowing how things are put together. So it makes sense to me. So I love that you're going to the industry and asking them those questions. One of the things that I am working on for this next legislative session is I would like to see schools implement aptitude testing and interest testing for every kid. I think one of the things that has been missing for historically in most schools is that we are asking kids to get an education and take X, Y, and Z classes. And in particular, I may also be pointing out chemistry, biology, physics, algebra, and trigonometry. But then we're not telling them why they're taking it. And at no point in time are we for most kids lining up why they're getting educated with what they can do with it and what careers there are available to them.

SPEAKER_02 42:37

Right.

SPEAKER_00 42:38

And so I'm asking the legislature to contemplate having every child take aptitude testing and interest testing and then lining those up with careers that match their God-given talents and their interests. And for the first time, actually saying, here's all the things that might be of interest to you that they've never even thought of before. And then, you know, having them then pursue things, the education to to match those.

SPEAKER_03 43:04

It actually matches up perfect with my my the framework that I developed in my PhD. So the first one is that you need to, what is your passion and your interests and your and your actual strengths. And so we every kid in in and uh Conrad next year will take two different uh strengths assessments that's gonna find out what's right about them because that also builds their engagement. And then they also we also do this. Um we're gonna ask parents, do you have a really cool job that we can come video? Yes. Because every Monday, we're gonna every Friday now we're gonna have Future Friday, and then we're gonna develop these videos that are two or three minutes long. It's gonna feature our parents. And uh by the end of the time, if you're go K through six through, you know, you're gonna have 120 different visions of what a career is. Because growing up in West Texas, we didn't have that. And I would very dare say that we don't know those two. So that awareness is another another piece. And so with all that kind of stuff, and every year we have this achievement profile that you you'll log in, what do I want to do when I grow up? And so then then what is it going to take to get there? Yeah. So they build those essential skills to know I have to have this these grades, I have to do these things to get there. So that you're you're not jumping in the deep end because we don't we used to usually start thinking about that when you graduated high school. Oh, you need to start at kindergarten first grade, second grade.

SPEAKER_00 44:18

Yeah, for sure. And I, you know, we've like you been going through graduation the last 10 days and I'm also very involved with Texas Tech. I sit on the board of or have sat on the board of uh Davis College, which is the Agricultural Science and Natural Resources School. And I've been talking with all these seniors in college and I'm like, what are you going to do? And they're like, I don't know. I'm not sure. And I'm like, how have you gotten to paid for a degree and gotten a degree and you don't know like what you want to do? What if your degree has not led you toward what you actually want to do?

SPEAKER_01 44:50

Right.

SPEAKER_00 44:50

And um I was thinking that we should do this testing for high school kids in junior high.

SPEAKER_01 44:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:58

So that we can then say, here's all your options and by the way, what you want to do, you need to make good grades in high school so that you have the potential of getting a scholarship to go to college because it's going to take a college degree or a master's degree to do what you want to do.

SPEAKER_02 45:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 45:12

Right. So that we get them excited because that is back to your engagement. If we can tell them what they can do in their future and they're excited about it because it matches up with something they're interested in, something they're passionate about and something that they're innately good at, then they find value. Yes, they find value. And um so that's something that I have really been passionate about and thinking would help with the engagement. And then when the kids are excited, the parents seem to be more excited.

SPEAKER_03 45:40

Well the thing is no one, no parent ever is mad when they get a note home saying that that somebody did something good. And the thing is is they if you know are we have we're going to we're going to actually stop you know math, science and reading one day, a couple of days during the year and we're going to focus on these things. And one of the things that we're going to is going to be grit in preparation and we're going to talk about futures and we're going to teach them about all what they're going to be doing as far as all these kind of things and then and the the necessity the grit piece is one of it. But uh the idea about being really strategically focused on doing the things that you're asking us to do.

SPEAKER_00 46:12

So it's incorporated into the school day yeah no I love that um I'm so glad that you're doing that I I want to hear all along the way how things are going. I would love to I would love to do that. So earlier we talked a little bit about um the skills that kids need to graduate and to me when people ask me Ashley what do you want to fix about school and I'll say the first two things I want to fix are reading and financial literacy. And we passed HB 27 this last year and I was madly working on that. But reading to me is if you can't read you can't help yourself.

SPEAKER_02 46:50

No.

SPEAKER_00 46:50

If you can be a good reader you can learn anything on on AI, ChatGBT, Claude, Grok, whatever you want to look at, you can learn anything today, right? And um I know that you in your school district have adopted the blue bonnet curriculum and um I was super excited about that. Talk to me a little bit about the difference in other curriculums. I know that there's the the I call it holistic learning but it's whole language whole language learning versus the science of reading and and then what you're seeing come out of blue bonnet now.

SPEAKER_03 47:27

So you know foundationally what she what every every school district needs is what we call a guaranteed and viable curriculum. So within that there's three different elements written which are the text ethics taught which is the actual lesson plans that are associated doing that and then tested which is the assessments to measure growth or standards of where you're at. So the that that tested and taught piece, number one they have to be aligned with what it with the rigor of what we're asking them to do. And the second one they have to be organized and oriented towards uh the things that the the Texas essential laws and skills want us to do. And for years you know we had curriculums that were built everywhere else and those kind of things that and you know Texas that has its own curriculum and all those things and so it didn't match up. And so then you would end up making sure that you did your own thing. So blue bonnet is a HCAN which I mean HQIN, a high quality instructional material. And so it it does meet the measure and the rigor of the assessment. And the thing is that they also have assessment portion that is supposed to be designed and aligned to star and stuff like that. So you're imagining what the rigor of that assessment's going to be. And so the thing is most school districts you know when we started out on a standardized curriculum you know uh academic freedom for a teacher is dead. When you and I grew up yeah you could teach whatever you wanted to teach and most of you it was really dependent on a teacher. Now we have standards.

SPEAKER_02 48:50

Right.

SPEAKER_03 48:51

And so those the assessments and the teaching have to align. And so everywhere I've ever been I've I've inherited a mess and then I've tried to figure out what to do. So you know with Blue Bonnet you have the ability it's going to be an HCAM curriculum it's going to design and develop all these kind of things. And I've actually got a grant from the uh the agency to because it it lacks a leadership piece about how to how to lead through it. And so I'm actually going to develop a what I call a playbook for leaders to to to make it happen. And then right now what I'm doing because here's the if you this is our first year to do it. And so with every implementation right it is just like building a new buying a new house all the things that are wrong. And so I got with the commissioner and I'm actually sending him regular updates about if we want to do this we've got to do this. And so to work through it. You know one of the things too is that there's something called academic pacing which means do I have enough days to get to the end of the year.

SPEAKER_02 49:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 49:47

So we have 170 plus days in the in the instructional year. So that's more than that it is and so then the other thing is is that I also have Christmas parties, Thanksgiving parties, you know, cheer you know pep rallies things in the middle that make classes disappear. And so what we're doing is having to conrowise the the blue bonnet curriculum and uh work through it to make sure that the that we have enough pacing so I can get to the end of the year because I can make sure the assessments are matched up and and and do well. So you know those are the things but I'm a solutions oriented guy. Yes. And people get so mad it's just like you know we were talking about this before people get blow up and get mad about stuff and say what can I do to fix it? Because it meets the measure of what we want. The thing is is in it and it takes kind of those things. We also are working in is uh you know I need to have bilingual support because of the standards we have and then have enrichment activities for extensions. And so we're working through those kind of things but it's it's it's it's success. And you know the thing is is that from first quarter for we we do three assessments beginning of year, middle of year and end of year. So our beginning of year assessments to our middle of year assessments we're we're having significant gains. You know, because and we use a program called MAP which is a really great assessment tool yes and um I mean I've been used it I've used it for 10 years. It's been great.

SPEAKER_00 51:02

And the first time you see it it's a little confusing. But I think as a parent the nicest thing about it is that once you have that first one, you can see the progression or lack thereof on the next ones. And so it's it's a comparison for as a parent I can compare and I can be like oh they are improving.

SPEAKER_03 51:21

Growth.

SPEAKER_00 51:22

Yes. And so I liked being able to see that you have to have the first one you have to get past the first one to when you get the second one and then you can be like oh wait no now I'm understanding.

SPEAKER_03 51:32

Absolutely and the thing is about I've always said that what you don't want is an autopsy which is the star.

SPEAKER_00 51:38

Right.

SPEAKER_03 51:38

What you want is a checkup to see where you're growing. Yes absolutely and so with all of that you can determine where growth is and where you're at and you're also going to have hiccups along the way. But I will say this even when you take a map test be really careful because sometimes it's been a bad week or it's going to be the thing is that it's and you know even like our our end of year assessments, you know, we sort of took them after the star when people are tired. It's all we're going to try to adapt all that. But in the end, you know kids are going to get the curriculum that they're supposed to be taught. You know teachers have to do so many things and then you have a standardized curriculum that's going to ensure that's there. And the the third thing is that we had a lot of new teachers. Yes inherently and reading is complex and the process of teaching is complex.

SPEAKER_02 52:19

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 52:19

And you know what we're doing is making that that's a significant benefits to benefit to have that. Because every teacher ought to be always got tools to do their job.

SPEAKER_02 52:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 52:29

They need to have they need to have exemplar lessons for what they're supposed to teach and they have the exemplar assessments.

SPEAKER_00 52:33

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 52:34

And uh then we have to have a standard to say that you're actually going to teach it.

SPEAKER_00 52:36

Right. And I think for me the thing that I like most about Blue Bonnet is that it reintroduced some of the things from science reading it reintroduced phonetics and it reintroduced you know specific spelling and specific vocabulary which I think had been missing from so far.

SPEAKER_03 52:52

All the five areas of reading that you're supposed to be done. Yes. So it takes all those kind of things in fundamental ways and takes there. So you have to incorporate those pieces and parts and uh it's it's uh you know phonics and phonemic awareness and then you know the you know all of those different pieces and parts which I'm not going to get too nerdy about this, but uh it it really is it's essential to have it. If you don't have that, you know it's not only the it's not only the the the the essential knowledge and skills but it's also the elements of reading that that have to be introduced to incorporated.

SPEAKER_00 53:18

Yeah. And I think that for most of my viewers especially people my age and older were not really aware that those things had been removed from reading. We just all assumed right that's always bad to do that um that's the way we had been taught to to read with phonics and with spelling and with grammar and with vocabulary and didn't really realize that it had kind of been removed for a period of time. And so I'm really super excited to see the results from all of these schools that are now using it. And I have been hearing from the testing really great things. But I know I know that no system is perfect, especially when it's fresh out of the box. And I'm so glad to see that you are helping to make the changes to make it better so that it will be better for all the kids.

SPEAKER_03 54:03

Well you know I've always been successful in star and making sure kids and and improving and focus on growth. Yeah and uh so at this point in time that's the standard and that's what we're trying to accomplish and is it being the successful I'm really confident you know when we look at our measurements, our cuts and all those different things, things are going very well. I'm always kind of a trepidatious about how things roll because it is a brand new rollout. But uh yeah we've seen some some significant and the thing is teacher efficacy teacher ability to to do it is is improving. So that's an important individual piece because we now walk through schools at the beginning when they were doing this it was there was a lot of trepidation and now it's it's growing into the ability to do what you need to do.

SPEAKER_00 54:39

Well and you know you and I both know that nobody likes change.

SPEAKER_03 54:43

Change is hard for most I like change to make people change I just want to do it myself.

SPEAKER_00 54:47

Exactly right and so I know that there was a lot of trepidation from teachers and a lot of teachers who didn't want to have to learn a whole new curriculum or or have to change their lesson plans and now they're having to go with a very more specific lesson plan, right? But that also allows for us to make sure that all the children are getting the information that they need and on a more equal basis.

SPEAKER_03 55:07

Teachers, you know, they're God love them and they're the the salt of the earth oh I love them. You know but in our hands and feet but you know if you need to change a stapler you better know what's for them because they they don't like change that is true.

SPEAKER_00 55:18

And please don't anybody out there think I love teachers. I think that they are amazing and absolutely critical but um at the end of the day we're trying to fix the system. And I think I think that this is a good start and all there's always room for more improvements. So we're coming to the end of our hour together and I'm so sad because there's so much more I want to hear from you. So I hope you'll come back some other time. I'd love to but would you take a minute and like is there anything specific that you would like to impart to people today that you haven't we haven't talked about today today?

SPEAKER_03 55:49

No the thing is is that you know I think if we can all try to come together and find ways to to build hopefulness to each other and to try to find a way to come together from public education and the like to say you know what are those things and you know again build a better tomorrow together. And uh I've just I'm not a guy that fights I'm a guy that that uh is hopeful and tries to bring people together. Yeah I'll make decisions on the best best what's best for our babies but I think that's the end of I think that I grew up in a hopeful household. And I think I want to build a hopeful community.

SPEAKER_02 56:22

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 56:22

And I want to build it together. And I mean that's why I love coming to love it because it's home and those kind of things. I mean you feel those kind of things and I not that I want that for everybody but you know it's a special place and I think that you know but I think you know home is where Christy is. Yes. And I want for everybody to feel like that when they come home they have a family to come home to and that's where schools should be.

unknown 56:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 56:41

I agree with you so much. And what I keep saying is everybody's asked me why I'm doing this. Why am I in this fight? And I said because this is the society in which we live right and we need to lift everybody up we need to give everybody better skills so that they can have a better future for themselves and their family and that will make all of our communities better.

SPEAKER_03 56:58

It will because I mean school is a reflection of society. It is it's not an improvement or a degradation of it.

SPEAKER_00 57:03

No and I think that education is so important. It is the foundational place that we need to teach kids to be a part of a bigger community and that by by improving it as you are clearly doing that we are making everything better for everybody.

SPEAKER_03 57:20

What a cool job I get to have you do.

SPEAKER_00 57:22

You do. Well would you please tell people if they'd like to find out more especially other superintendents, principals or teachers who'd like to come and work for you how they can get a hold of you.

SPEAKER_03 57:29

Email me at d vincentvias and Victor INSON at connet and I would be happy to because I'm I'm on the look for teachers I I I hired a teacher in Dallas with on the sombrero one time because she sounded she was good and I had interviewed her well as we were walking up. So man if I I love them and uh and I'm looking forward to it.

SPEAKER_00 57:48

So well and I love your thought process on hire for attitude and train for skill. So if you're a teacher out there and you're wanting to go work for somebody really good that's making great advancements, please contact Dr. Vincent. And that is going to be a wrap for today. I thank everyone for joining us today. And if you'd like to know more about how we're planning to improve the K 12 education system please join us next week. In the meantime please check out ashleybcash.com or check us out on social media. Thank you and we'll see you next time.