435 Podcast: Southern Utah
Explore the heartbeat of Southern Utah with the 435 Podcast, your go-to source for all things local in Washington County. Stay ahead of the curve with our in-depth coverage, expert analysis, and captivating interviews. Whether you're a resident or visitor, our podcast is your key to unlocking the latest happenings and trends in St. George and the surrounding areas. Tune in now to stay informed and connected with our thriving community!
435 Podcast: Southern Utah
Educational Excellence Through Charter School Dynamics
What if the key to transforming education lies in the innovative approaches of charter schools? Our special guest, Dr. Justin Blasko, principal of Vista School in Southern Utah, takes us on a journey through his 29 years in education, spanning Northern Utah, Alaska, and Washington. From his early influences shaped by an athletic background to hands-on classroom experiences, Dr. Blasko reveals the pivotal moments and mentors that guided his path toward elementary education. Together, we navigate the complexities of school choice and the unique challenge of fostering community within Vista's diverse student body.
Dr. Blasko unpacks the operational world of charter schools, highlighting their efficiency, agility, and the crucial role of innovation in enhancing student outcomes. He explains how Vista School, supported by organizations like the Utah Association of Public Charter Schools and the Utah State Charter Association, embodies the flexible and dynamic spirit of charter education. We explore the strategic aspects of budgeting, staff management, and the empowerment of educators through professional development, all while maintaining a focus on student success and community engagement.
Finally, we delve into Vista School's forward-thinking initiatives, such as the K-9 math program and the integration of AI in the curriculum. Dr. Blasko underscores the importance of aligning educational standards with real-world demands, preparing students for a future economy. We celebrate the collective passion of Vista's educators and the heartwarming moments that define the school's vibrant community, exemplified by the beloved "Orange Chicken Day." Join us for a deep dive into the impactful world of charter education and the inspirational leadership driving it.
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[00:00:00] Intro.
[00:12:09] Charter School Model and Efficiency.
[00:25:25] Educational Leadership and Curriculum Development.
[00:31:03] Education.
[00:37:20]Focus on Student-Centered Education.
[00:48:59] Choosing a School.
[00:58:30] Lunchtime Excitement.
When my son started getting old enough to where you know school choice right, it's like okay, well, what? What are our options for education?
Speaker 2:First, you have to identify. What are your values Like, really, you know, is it academics? Cause there's, there's schools out there that that's what they're about, right? I mean George Washington. Right, that's their charter. But again, what experience do you want your child to have, right, do you want your child to have a neighborhood school experience? I think that's a challenge that's really manifested to me. I was the principal of three schools prior to Vista and we had we had community right, like, like that's one of the challenges of Vista is that we're drawing from all over Washington County and outside. I mean, we've got some kids coming down from Cedar, you know. So how do you create community right, like, like? How do you create these opportunities for um, for parents to feel like they belong to Vista as well, right?
Speaker 1:Hey everybody, thanks for tuning in to another episode of the 435 Podcast. I have another great episode for you. Today. We have Dr Justin Blasco with Vista School right here in Southern Utah. It's a charter school unlike most that you've ever heard of. You're going to enjoy this episode to get an inside look at what charter schools are like in Utah, but specifically one that's been 16 years running and, in my opinion, absolutely crushing it. We hope you enjoy this episode, guys.
Speaker 1:And also here's another quick reminder about the Housing Action Coalition event happening at Black Desert on October 30th from 830. They're going to be providing breakfast from 830 to one o'clock. You're going to want to do be there if you're interested in know what's happening with housing and the affordability issues that are happening in Southern Utah. The annual forum is this October at black desert resort, so you're going to want to check out the new convention center. And we got panels. I'm going to be hosting a panel with mayors and developers. It's going to be a good one. So if you're interested, make sure you check out the reservation link. If it's not in the description below, it's coming soon and we'll see you out there. Guys, enjoy this episode. I'm really interested in just your backstory, like where, where you've been. I know you were at a school in Washington Monroe, washington before, and I'm just curious about like the journey to get to Ivins, utah and Vista.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so well. First off, I've been an educator for 29 years. So Weber State, my family's Northern Utah family so mom and dad are Bonneville High School grads way back in the day. So I spent a little bit of time in Utah, layton. I was in Davis School District for a little bit and then when I was in third grade we moved back to Alaska. So there's kind of back and forth. But I was raised in Anchorage, alaska, graduated from service high school and then ended up at Weber state, okay, so played football there and found education. So kind of thought I was going to be computer science, took a C plus class and was like I can't do this the rest of my life.
Speaker 1:So it's interesting to me that athletes tend to be the best teachers and like education. Like that seems to be a great shift for athletes going to teaching and I think there's obviously something there, but that's really. That's fascinating.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that that sent me on the journey. So that was elementary education, you know which, which is kind of interesting. Most of my friends, to your point, most of the guys that I know from from you know playing football with them ended up high school, right, high school football coaches, kind of that kind of deal. Yeah, you know, one of my buddies up in Northern Utah has won the state championship bear river coach, you know so. But, um, I really the the great thing about that program at Weber is they. They got us into classrooms quickly, right, they wanted us to really make an informed decision and I really found myself leaning towards that elementary side of things and so I graduated elementary ed degree Um, my wife's from Washington, so that's how I ended up in Washington.
Speaker 2:Okay, elementary ed degree Uh, my wife's from Washington, so that's how I ended up in Washington. Um, she was actually uh down here with me uh, my last couple of years at Weber and and taught in the Ogden school district. Uh, she'd already finished her degree, so that that was really cool to have, uh, at that time, my girlfriend have uh a classroom right that I could, that I could learn things and and plug right into her classroom and see that they see those things in action. Uh have direct action or access to uh, to to an educator Right and talk to her about those things and kind of, you know you're, you're getting the theory at school and then you're getting this, this practical discussion about what, what the realities are.
Speaker 1:So I tell them, you get to see the interaction with the kids too. Like I, you know, I volunteered, uh, several different times over the last year. So, um, just for some people don't know, I have a third grader and first grader at Vista. Yeah, and so I've done. You know, I I think I did tutoring for kindergarten and second grade so far. I didn't do first grade. Maybe I got it back. No, yeah, yeah, kindergarten and first grade so far, and so like seeing the kids and like seeing the different personalities and all that, and then watching what it actually takes to be a kindergarten teacher is crazy, incredible people. It's incredible. It's incredible. So I can see how there's a big jump between, like there's theory, but practice is something totally different.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's great to be able to, to, to be able to apply those, whatever that is you're studying, you know, to be able to have someone, a mentor, and be able to plug in with a mentor and actually see it. So, um, we ended up in Washington. We were both educators for a while. Um started our family and then um, at that point uh, kind of kind of took off down the path of education leadership. I had a great mentor Brad Stoltz was my principal at the time pulled me aside and talked to me about you know, what are you thinking about, your future, what are you thinking about that? And kind of talked me into getting educational leadership master's degree and ended up being a principal pretty quick. So I taught for five years and then jumped into the principal.
Speaker 2:So you know, educational leadership for me started in 2000. So I've been, you know, like I said. So you know, educational leadership for me started in 2000. So I've been, you know, like I said, this is my 29th year Did the principal thing for 10 years and then ended up in the central office that was in Monroe. So HR, human resources executive director of human resources for six, and then a few years as assistant sup and then superintendent, and then COVID, and then COVID, and then COVID Holy cow, those two decades, yeah, those two decades.
Speaker 1:A lot happened, yeah.
Speaker 2:Became a actually was was selected as superintendent right before COVID. So so in February I was uh, I was selected by the school board to be the next superintendent, so that would have been in July and then COVID happened.
Speaker 1:So how many? So the the role of superintendent? Um, I don't know the role of superintendent, I don't know.
Speaker 2:There's so much I don't know.
Speaker 1:It's multiple schools, it's a whole school district. It's a district yeah.
Speaker 2:So we had about 6,000 kids at that time. They're a little less now after COVID. So we had five elementaries, two middles and a high school. So it's good, good, good size district.
Speaker 1:Not massive, but a good size size district. Um, not massive, but yeah, good size.
Speaker 2:Yeah, great staff. And then, um, you know, it was very purple community. I would say so. So there were people that wanted to come back to school.
Speaker 1:There were people that that were scared, you know, fearful, so you. So if we go, if we're sliding into political purple, is that the analogy is like a liberal and conservative value sets? Is that what you're saying?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you know it's a originally it was a logging farming community that was growing right. So so the urban spread of Seattle just continues, and so, you know they just they just broke through 2 million people in Seattle and, and so that that spread continues, and so we were starting to get more people move out to the move out to the more, um, what used to be rural, right, but now more suburban, right, it's kind of kind of the shift. And, um, definitely had a school board that wanted kids in school. So I got caught in the middle of that and and uh, that's how you know you said how'd you end up in Vista? Well, part of it was that experience. Part of it was, uh, you know something that I'd worked at for a long time? Um, you know something that I'd worked at for a long time, um, you know, from 2010,.
Speaker 2:I was in Monroe at 2010 and executive director, assistant superintendent, and then superintendent, and then, and then COVID, and then get caught up in that political maelstrom and and, um, I learned a lot of things about life, learned a lot of things about myself. Um, you know, it's definitely one of those chapters in my life where you look back and you're like you know, would I like to rewrite that. You know, I think probably a year and a half ago my answer would have been a strong yes. Now that I've been at Vesta for a year, you know I'm really starting to listen to those people that talk to me. And you know you get a lot of platitudes in those situations in your life, like you the when the wheels come off the bus and you're kind of picking things up. But a lot of people said you know, at some point you're going to look back and you're going to be thankful for this. That was really hard to hear in that moment, but there have been distinct.
Speaker 1:So these are people that care about you like giving you feedback and saying like hey, man, this, I know this is painful at the moment, but you're going to look back and just give me some good lessons.
Speaker 2:Yeah and uh, I can honestly say that there's no way I'd be at Vista if that event wouldn't have happened, right Like if things would have gone well. You know, maybe we would have rode that out as long as we could have. Uh, average superintendent lasts about three years in the United States of America, so uh, you know it's a tough it's a tough gig. Yeah, it's a tough gig. Um and and full kudos to those people that are, that are really working and I think it's uh, it's, there's some jobs.
Speaker 1:We want people to quit and they won't like. How do we? How do? We make that the scenario for a Congress person or something like that.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean when?
Speaker 1:you're like, yeah, you can only do it for three years.
Speaker 2:Then you gotta get out and, and you know, the thing we know's there's just oodles and oodles of research demonstrating when, when, when the leadership is stable, good things happen. For kids, right, teachers thrive. We have systems in place. Systems usually take three to five years If you're a change management person, right, and you think about the theories behind that, and so it's really important to have stable leadership and I think that's that's a challenge right now for public education.
Speaker 2:You know we have we have boards that are, you know, looking at things in in a manner that I think are different than than they ever have, and they're just making quick decisions. And I'm not saying that has to do with my situation, I'm saying that globally, that's a tough job. I really, I really take my hat off to those people that step forward and, uh, you know, I think that I think, um, I think there's only about 13,000 districts in the United States. So if you think about that, it's a really tight group of people that are really working hard and, uh, been fortunate to work with a lot of really great people, really smart educators. That that I mean.
Speaker 2:Truly, their hearts are aligned to kids, right, and that's what I think for any educator, you have to have a heart for kids. You've, you've been in school, you've been a tutor, right yeah, you just gave props to kindergarten teachers. I will give full props to all teachers you know to get up day in and day out and bring the energy and bring the enthusiasm, bring the love that you have to have for kids. And bring the energy and bring the enthusiasm, bring the love that you have to have for kids. It's, it's, it's just something that I think we need to celebrate more as a society. We need to really uh hold up a lot of respect to the teachers that, uh, that we have, and and and what they're doing for our kids.
Speaker 1:So I I want to. I want to dig into the backstory a little bit, but without as a as the director, maybe describe your position as the director of Vista, because one of the thoughts I get this all the time is how is Vista different than others? But I was going to talk about the systems in general, but let's just dig into charter schools and Vista as a model, school model and how is that different than if the kids were going to Crim, you know, crimson elementary or something like that? Yeah, this is great.
Speaker 2:And so and I and I I'm not going to pretend like an act I'm an expert man I learned something every day. Every day I'm learning more about this. I was on the phone this week with a, with a person from the, from the state, and, and you know, she was explaining to me ins and outs of things that were very different than my experience in Washington state compared to Utah, and I just thanked her profusely, spent an hour with me, and that's what I found too. So charter schools is about the end of the nineties when the legislators here in Utah decided that you know, we need to look at this charter movement, and Utah wasn't the first. So they were able to learn from other states and they tried to take the best components of those and I think, if I'm remembering correctly, it started out with about nine schools, right, nine charter schools, and that was kind of that first wave, like let's do this.
Speaker 2:And so charter schools in Utah are public schools, publicly funded. They get a little slice of like. For example, here in Washington County, we get a little slice of the levy that Washington County District has. We get, we get a portion of that small portion of that. Again, we get WPU weighted pupil unit. So for every kid we get the designated amount that the legislators have allocated for students in the state of Utah, and the difference between a charter school and another school in town is that we are our own LEA. There's another acronym.
Speaker 2:And and you know if you've been around education at all. We love acronyms.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's a couple. There's a couple episodes. I've ranted about acronyms. I hate them so much. I hate them so much.
Speaker 2:There's a good shirt anti-acronym association A-A-A.
Speaker 1:A-A-A. You probably need to get that yeah.
Speaker 2:So a local education agency, right, lea, and that's that's. If you look up in the state code, you're going to see that a lot Charter schools are their own LEAs. So we have our own board, we have a five member board. I am the director. So if, if you were comparing and this is an apples to oranges comparison, but if you compared us to a school district, that would be like the superintendent, except it's not at a charter school, right, like, like we, we wear a lot of hats, uh, and it's a really cool job.
Speaker 2:I I've really, um, you know, one of my mentors, uh, in the circumstance we were describing before, really asked me when, when were you the happiest as an educator? And I said, you know, elementary principal I mean, elementary principal is a good gig, it's. It's really neat. You have a group of elementary teachers, you know, you have your staff, everybody's, everybody's charging for for kids and making sure they're learning. And you know, that was my answer. And in this job at Vista I get to do that. There's components of being the director where I'm still a principal, right, like, kind of today's a great example that you know, I have a board meeting tonight, and so you know, today, this morning. Today I was a principal.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you were sending out a drop off.
Speaker 2:I saw you drop off, right, pick up, you know we do all those things. And then tonight I'll meet with my board and we'll talk about, you know, strategic planning. We'll talk about those pieces, we'll talk about what can we do better for kids at Vista. So, do better for kids at Vista, so it's kind of a, it's kind of a synthesis of a lot of jobs that I've done right, which I think. I would guess that that that was probably what attracted the board to my application to Vista. So, again, charter schools, we are our own entities. So most, if not all, charter schools 501 C, three. So so we have our own identity. Or, you know, we do our own business. Uh, vista, we're about a 13 and a half million dollar operation. Uh, we have about 160 ish employees. You know, we've got, uh, over 60 teachers and and everybody else, right, maintenance, we've got bus drivers, we've got food service custodians. Uh, para educators, you know, teaching, it's a mini school district.
Speaker 1:It is. It's a mini school district. The first thing that I that I think of, as you were talking about and I hadn't thought about it in these terms yet I feel like it's a, it's a hyper-efficient school system.
Speaker 2:It is.
Speaker 1:It's hyper-efficient. It's like we're going to, we're going to cut out what don't we need and what is essential. Yeah, and then how do we, how do we do a good job doing that, Right? It's like a. It's almost like a six, six Sigma right, when you just like cut out all the efficient. What's the most efficient way, Right, Is that? Is that fair to say?
Speaker 1:I would say that's probably been the most rewarding part of this is how nimble we can be Right, like, like, if we've got an yeah have to be agile as well, because if they're not providing the, the, the services or the expectations from the parents and the students aren't getting what they need. This is another alternative which I think is a brilliant part of it. Um which I? I don't know how charter schools have grown, but I think historically in california, charter schools weren't necessarily seen as the better schools because, uh, at some capacity, there was something about how the standards for teachers were lower at a charter school or something along those lines. But I don't know if any of that's true, but to me it's a, it's competition to the. You know, uh, one size fits all school system.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, this is definitely not one size fits all.
Speaker 2:No, no, and I, and I think, um, I think that's probably the legislative intent, right, like, how do we create these incubators for innovation? Right, like that's something that is a constant. So I've really benefited. Utah Association of Public Charter Schools great organization. The Utah State Charter Association right Like, the USBE portion that's assigned to charters, both of them very helpful, very um, passionate individuals that want to do good things for kids. Yeah, and, and man, like you know, having that opportunity to have that recharge, like it's it just, yeah, you get up, you put your shoes on and you go after it and it's really exciting, it's, it's really um, I, I am blessed to be a Vista. Vista is a special place.
Speaker 1:So let's, let's dig into that. What's what's different about it? Cause, obviously I know I'm like you know, I I love the model because, uh, I was diagnosed with ADHD when I was a kid and I thought about, you know, what was it that I struggled with in school and I couldn't sit still and I wanted to go on to the next thing, and then, if something got my attention, I was in, I was fully in, but then at a certain point, I needed a reset. I did. I just didn't have the capacity for that, and I think there's a there's growing numbers of kids that are that way. But even as we get into adulthood, that's how the world has almost become ADD. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Right and in kind of a way yeah, and so turn it off both my devices when I come in here.
Speaker 1:Like the anxiety that a lot of people get. I think it's it's not necessarily their fault, but it's like we're we're having to adapt to this world. That's very difficult to adapt to, but the model at Vista seems where you're you're starting kids early on learning how to adapt to. But the model at Vista seems where you're you're starting kids early on learning how to adapt to things that are not as as a cookie cutter, I guess Does that make sense.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that does, and and part of our model. So if we think about our academic side of the house, we we long ago, and this is the 16th year for Vista.
Speaker 1:So it's a it's established.
Speaker 2:It's an established charter school in Utah. Um, you know, just finished, uh, uh, nearly, uh, just over a $16 million innovation with our proscenium theater and our science labs and our tech lab.
Speaker 1:The theater is unbelievable. I love going to shows there. It's so beautiful.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we got, we got to. I just heard today I can't tell you yet, but you'll be one of the first to know we got a good show coming and we had the BYU ambassadors last year. Oh, yeah, yeah. Just people come in and they just realize we got a special thing and kindergartners are performing on that stage. But to your point, to back up and talk about what you're talking about.
Speaker 2:So if you think about our academic model, our kids, as soon as they get into first grade, don't just have one teacher, like they're moving, they're going, they're going to specialists, they're going to there. You know, they have a a English language arts teacher and a math teacher and a science teacher, and so all of that is providing them these different contexts and they're getting to interact with different adults. And where we we have the VISTA way and we're really working on that this year all school behavioral model. So we have the standard, but then each teacher has their own way, their nuance of how they're going to present that in your classroom. And as a child, I think I would have benefited from that. I think I'm probably much the same wired as you are. What's that next thing? Where are we going to next, and I think that does help a lot of our kids. So you know, we have the same challenges as school districts. We're having the same situations from from you know the, the leftover.
Speaker 2:You know our kindergartners this year and first graders, like they're, they're the COVID kids, right, they, they were, they were young and impressionable right when that happened. And so you know there's some, there's some. You know the language we use. Now there's some dysregulation, you know, and we see that I spent a lot of time in kindergarten today, uh, as did a couple of my other assistant principals and um, you know, just really trying to get, get kids to, to have that understanding of of, hey man, we're here to learn. You know that your job right now is to learn. So I think that's one component. And then, and then, as you were talking about, we have a lot of choice and I think that's what blows me away about Vista. Right, like you know you orchestra starts in third grade. You know, if you want, and you know Linda DeLuca, she's been here for a long time you know, master's degree from Juilliard, like your third.
Speaker 1:She's so good. Your third grader, like that's your like the, the strings uh during intermission. Intermission at the Nutcracker last year. I was like this is a whole show in itself there and they're they're just playing, it's just. It was so beautiful. Just out in the hallway I was like this is awesome. This is like a another amazing show in between. You know, in in intermission it was so excellent, yeah, and then the nutcracker, if you want to pull the mic a little bit closer to just to make sure about that.
Speaker 1:No, it sounds. It sounds a little better. But yeah, nutcracker was awesome, but yeah, so, um, Juilliard and the backup. One, one step two. It's kindergarten through ninth grade, kindergarten through ninth, Okay, so so in third grade now, uh, it's almost a track system and I think this is similar to a lot of European schools do this as well where you start to track students out based off strengths, and in third grade is kind of where things start to start tracking in two different directions right.
Speaker 2:They start to have a little more options to be able to experience those things. Um, fourth grade is really like. Fourth grade is kind of like okay, now, now to see where the propensity is Like, what are kids really aligned to right? And so they start to pick those. But you know, I mean we talk about Linda, but I could talk about every track. I could talk about VEX, I could talk about you know technology, I could talk about those pathways. What's VEX? Again, vex is robotics.
Speaker 1:Robotics, robotics program.
Speaker 2:Last year we sent two teams to worlds down in Texas, the first year they ever did VEX. And this is, you know, just beginners luck. Maybe I don't know they took seventh in the world. That's so crazy the team.
Speaker 2:They'd never done VEX before at Vista, yeah, and the team went down to Texas and they didn't know any better. So they play seventh, right? Yeah, I had a kid tell me this week he's like Dr Blasco, we're going to, we're going to, we're doing it, we're doing it, and, and every year the game changes. Right, so it's, it's a engineering design, it's robotics, but what VEX does, and that's that's the, the, the league, international league, they, they design a different challenge every year. So the kids are starting to learn that challenge. Now, um, they're having to take tests on the rules, right? So understand that the rules of the game this year, and that's all happening.
Speaker 2:Um, you know, our kids built sheds last year right, we built the frame up two sheds, and so you know that's a pathway that happens every other year. Um, you think about just the, the performing arts, you think of the visual arts, it's you know, I mean the power box right outside of Vista. You know the wrap around that was all student design. It's just really incredible. And I think you know to your point. It's like how, what would that look like in a district? Like that would probably be multiple schools, right, yeah, not one place. Yeah, like you'd have to decide as a parent my kid's going to go to the tech school?
Speaker 1:yeah, right, and we have that, yeah, we have, like you know, like a tech specific school, right and that, and that's great, yeah, for up in the upper levels of education, it seems like. But in that elementary our brains aren't fully developed, like we could think that this is the right way. But are we actually right or are we off? My son he's in third grade, in first intro to technology, his very first class, they did a word association and it was a this or that, and then they mapped out.
Speaker 1:Every kid mapped out their own brain and he was so excited to bring it home to me. He wrapped it up and put my name on it and he said, dad, I got something for you and I opened it up and I was like this is the best present ever, cause I'm kind of a geek about brain development and I've been talking to him since he can remember about his, his I call it the downstairs brain or his reptile brain and his upstairs brain and he's connecting all these things. He all these things. He doesn't quite understand, but you know emotional reactions. I was like this, this, this isn't exactly what you're feeling. You just don't have the words to describe it Right. So I'm trying to give him some of these like small tools early on but they don't fully get it. But then for him to get the third grade and it's I'm getting choked up about it because he connected all those things and I think it's awesome. I think it's so cool, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:I get choked up. I think about, I just think about these opportunities for kids. I've had to stop a couple of times, you know, talking to the staff, talking to the faculty, and just you know it's like I said, it's, it's, it's kudos to them every day, bringing it, you know, and that's that's what you got to do. So you know, you think about the challenge we have. We have 175 days with your children, right, and everybody else, children that comes through Vista.
Speaker 2:So you know 180 days of school in our system. Five of those, you know, we model Washington County's calendar and five of those are professional development days. We try to maximize everything we can on those days, right, like that was part of my talk last year to our, to our faculty. It was really like like we've chosen to to have these days instead of school days. We've chosen to focus on on ourselves, which I think is appropriate. I think that's something that's missing in in us.
Speaker 2:Education, public education is the opportunities we have to to really professional development, to really be able to get inside of each other's classrooms and do that. And I'm trying to figure out how to work that into Vista, right, how can we take these things that we know? And what's really cool about this conversation we're having you're totally geeking me out here is we can do that at Vista. Yeah, right, like there's no one to stop us, there's not a bureaucratic wall that we're going to bump into, like we just have to pivot. And we got to figure out how to make this work and we got to do that and and and you know we're surrounded I'm surrounded by educators that want to do that and I think that's, you know, that's yeah, you know. You're asking me what the difference with Vista is. I think part of part of the difference with Vista is that I can't think of a person that doesn't want to be there. Yeah, you know.
Speaker 1:I mean it's like I talked to, I see, the teachers all the time I talked to them. They all love it. There too, I mean I have I've heard in any leadership management talking about management and leadership and having to change over. Every time you go into an organization, there's going to be a certain portion of of the employees that are part of the organization that don't like the changes or aren't comfortable with what those changes are, and that's going to happen everywhere. But you know, generally speaking, you can tell that, um, all the teachers just love it there, I appreciate you saying that Cause that was a big.
Speaker 2:You know, I mean we had, we had a big bump last year and and you know, as as we started to settle in, you're right, I mean, you know, I mean every organization goes through that anytime, anytime there's a big leadership change.
Speaker 2:They put up with me, right, like I'm the director now and I was just explaining to some teachers this afternoon. It's like, ah, you know you're bumping into my bias. Yeah, and thankfully I'm 29 years in and I'm able to use that language. You know? Hey, you know, I appreciate you talking to me. I just want to make sure that I'm understanding and so I to be that leader, that that you know we, we can have those collaborative conversations. I mean, ultimately, my responsibility is to make sure things are clicking and that that students are achieving. Yeah and um, you know, that's something that that we're working on.
Speaker 2:We, we've got a new math material. We've got a new math, math adoption. What's I'm psyched about that? It's kindergarten through ninth grade. We don't have transitions, which we've had ever since Vista has been in service. There's been a transition between elementary and middle. Now we have a K-9 program. So students who start at Vista, the material is going to be the same and I think that's going to take away some barriers. For us it's a big lift and I just appreciate my math staff, you know, really rolling up their sleeves. I saw them in the classroom the other day I was walking through. I I don't even know what time it had been out. It was definitely after four o'clock and there were three teachers in a classroom and they were, you know, working on math. You know talking about. Well, this is what fifth grade has and this is what fourth grade you know. So, so don't be too concerned about that, cause that's going to spiral into fifth grade and those are just awesome conversations, right?
Speaker 1:I mean when you can, when you can start thinking about not one year at a time, and then and then the kids. The assumption is you get the kid in kindergarten, they're going to go, and I know there's a drop off between eighth and ninth grade, which you talked about in one of the one of the director meetings that I sat in. I just wanted to get a feel for what the that director meeting looks like. Uh, which I was. I thought it was awesome that I had the opportunity to go and just listen in Right. Um, sometimes I'm like wanting to ask questions, but I sit there to myself, but um.
Speaker 2:Sign up, ask questions. You know there's a time that you can, I know.
Speaker 1:So the idea, the idea of you know every teacher the kids go through and because the kids are going from teacher to teacher all the time, it's the teachers have a collective responsibility of of each individual kids, right, and this teacher has this student for two years actually, Right? So, like my son's had a couple of teachers for several years, where language arts has changed a couple of times, math, changed a couple but other ones there's continuity in.
Speaker 1:And then each kid, you know this idea of like no kid left behind and all these things. Well, I mean, ultimately, uh, you know, as we grow, whether we make it or not, you still got to go operate out into the world Right. And so, at some capacity, what are we doing? The best job for the kids? And that's why I'm I like the model so much, because there's that collective, you know, growth of the kids through each year, definitely, definitely. Yeah, so that math, I mean, what was the impetus?
Speaker 1:I kind of know a little bit about Common Core and how Bill Gates funded it and this is all. Don't quote me on any of this, but this is just how I remember it in my head, so correct me if I'm wrong. So Bill Gates, you know, doubles down on Common Core, math. This big study goes out and says it's not working, and he goes no, it is working, all your teachers suck at teaching it. And he puts like another $1.6 billion or something into the program and says, no, we're going to do it this way and this is the way it needs to be done. Is that right? Am I hearing that the right way?
Speaker 2:Oh, I, I you know I've I've tried to stay out of that. What I look at is I look at the grade level expectations and I think about that through an educational lens and I think, does that make sense? Should third graders be able to do this Right? And for the most part I'm not. I don't really. You know, the Utah state standards are, you know, very aligned to common core standards, and so what we need to make sure is that students know and are able to do those things by the end of those grade levels, right Cause we know that then that's going to build on the next grade level. So, yeah, I know there's controversy about that, but as an educator, like, what we need to focus on is is what you said Are we preparing students for the? You know, the economy? We don't even know what that's going to look like. I know, like, think about our life.
Speaker 2:I know, Like I'm getting old now, man, Like I look back and I think, holy cow like where are we gone? Yeah.
Speaker 1:Every generation looks back and like this isn't how I went to school.
Speaker 2:Every generation said that Right.
Speaker 1:But that's kind of the that. We got it yeah.
Speaker 2:I think mathematics is going to play a huge part of that. Right, like, like I, I think, if you, if we, if we boiled that down to to like a nugget, what, what is mathematics? Mathematics is problem solving and I think you know, when I look at my life, what's important problem solving, right, like, being able to look at a situation and see, logically, what do I need to do first, what do I need to do next, what do I need to do? Where's that cycle? Where I'm in, you know, cycle of inquiry is my language. Like, are we looking at that in a way of like, what's going well, what do we need?
Speaker 2:You said six Sigma earlier. Right, like, like, what are those processes that we're teaching kids to be able to logically look at those things? And and obviously, there's going to be technology tools to help them do that, right, I mean, we look at AI. Now. We look at how you know and when we're we're grasping that. We're we're trying to get our hands around like, how do we integrate that at Vista? You know, we're we're known as a tech school where we better be talking about these things that are coming and we're we're trying to get smarter about that.
Speaker 2:But I think you know, on a baseline, we want students to to leave, leave, if, if, wherever that is, if that's eighth grade, if that's ninth grade, that they're leaving and they have those skills right, they, wherever they're going to walk into next, whatever that choice is next, they walk in prepared to be able to take that on and continue to thrive. We want them to thrive with us. We want them to thrive as they move on from Vista. So so we really, what was great about the selection of I ready, we, we? I just dropped a name. Sorry about that. I don't know if I should do that on.
Speaker 1:I don't know, I don't know. I think that, yeah, yeah, I, the program is called I ready, right, I'll, I'll, I'll take credit for it.
Speaker 2:Good, um, but, but it was really teacher selected, so that was really a teacher process. We took a couple of weeks. People were trying things out, um, and that was really important to me because that was part of you asked. You know, yeah, I knew there was a bump in the road. What was that about? You know there was. There was some discontent and discord about what we had. You know who chose it. You know there's a lot of questions about that. Obviously, that was before I got there and so, as I'm looking at it, it's like, well, we just need to be, we just need teachers to be calm.
Speaker 2:Here's what we know in education and this is John Hattie. This is Dr Hattie's work and this came out in about 2009 and it's been replicated multiple times, not just by him. I think he's in his third run on this, but here's what we know Collective teacher efficacy 1.4 effect size right. When you have a place where teachers believe in themselves and they believe in their colleagues and our abilities to impact students, great things happen for kids. And bottom line, that's what I'm trying to do at Vista right, like, like, and we've, we've got those people. I mean, I have those teachers, and so how we continue to work together and take these opportunities when we identify these opportunities.
Speaker 2:You know this isn't going as well as we want it to for kids. Okay, what do we need to do to make that go better for kids? You know that's what we're working on, we know that right. I mean, that's been established as collective teacher efficacy. It's it's it's what we need to have to continue to move kids, and so that's what's exciting and I think the the baseline, the foundation of Vista, like, like, we're going to do that, like we're we're, we're, we're pushing that way.
Speaker 1:We're going that way. No, that makes a lot of sense when, before the start of the year. So I worked with my son on math all year Nice, because he was so far behind in math and I was far behind on math when I was in that age range as well, and part of it is the attention thing, but another part of it is I think every kid has a certain level of comprehension and what we kind of noticed is that because there's a lot of help, he quickly learned like if I, if I don't do it, the teacher is going to come over and help me do it, sure, or I'm going to get, I'm going to get some help from, like, somebody else. So I've been. If I'm not paying attention, if we're not in the class.
Speaker 1:My wife volunteered almost every every once a week for sure, in math specifically, so we could watch and just see how things were unfolding. And it's not anything that teacher's doing wrong. It watch and just see how things were unfolding. And it's not anything that teacher's doing wrong, it's just my son's figured out this little loophole in the system where he doesn't actually have to memorize this thing because he's going to get help and the tests that he doesn't feel like the impact of like, if you get a bad grade on this, like this, is going to have consequence or anything like that, and so we're trying to close that loop. So all summer he was like you got to write one to 50. I need you doing math facts all summer long.
Speaker 1:And so you know, when we looked at the new math program, I just started looking up different math programs. There's tons of different curriculums, there's tons of different tools. It's a big industry. It's a big industry. And so narrowing down one versus the other, my my argument against homeschooling and some of these like really new age types of teaching for kids, against homeschooling and some of these like really new age types of teaching for kids, I'm like I I get the appeal to that, but there's still a group of humans that are way better at this than me and I can't be arrogant enough. Sorry, this thing's going off. I didn't even know it was in silence.
Speaker 2:I hoped it wasn't mine.
Speaker 1:I know it was mine the whole time. Um, there's this. There's a group of humans that are for sure, better at this than I am, and how am I going to be arrogant enough to say I can do a better job teaching my kids and somebody?
Speaker 2:else, who's better at?
Speaker 1:this, and so that's where you know I I just settled on like eh, I'm pretty sure they know this is going to be the best one for them and we just got to lean into it, right, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's and that's where we're at right, like like implementation, dip, all those things, change management, uh, and at the same time we've got we've got people that that's their passion. Their passion is teaching math, and that's what's really cool. Is what we talked about right, like that goes all the way down to first grade. We have first grade math teacher. We have we have a first grade math teacher. That's her gig.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:All the way up to our, our ninth grade, and and so, yeah, and and it's cool to have those people in those places and to be able to to be a part of those conversations and hear them and and um, you know we're pinging back and forth and and solving problems. It's it's it's just the students that are at the center of our work and and I've been in some roles and and been in some places where there's times where you pause and you look around and you educate her and you're like what, what are we? What are we really talking about right now? Like, like we we've gotten really far away from kids and I've yet to have that experience at Vista. Yeah, like every day, every day, we're working for kids and so it's inspiring, I mean it's it's it's motivating, it's inspiring.
Speaker 1:Do you think that has something to do with just the charter model, or do you think that is the alternative? What you said is we're getting off track. Do you think that's part of what? Like the general education system, if you go from the federal level down to the state, then into the individual districts, do you feel like we've just? I find it really weird that politics sneaks in to this category where it doesn't seem like it should be there. But is it because the system's designed that way? Do you think Well?
Speaker 2:and I, and I think it's challenging when, when you think of of these big systems, I mean you think about Washington County, what are the third largest district in the state of Utah, right, like, that's an intense organization, like, like, let's just think about this. How many miles do their buses drive every day? Yeah, it's probably thousands right.
Speaker 2:Like thousands. Um, you know, I I had the good fortune of working with Dr Ken Hoover and and he had spent time in Jeffco system in Colorado, right, Similar similar system to Utah, where the counties are the, are the systems, and, and he was telling me that you know that at one point they calculated how many miles the buses went and it was like to the moon and back. Right, like like million, like just crazy. And so, and that's one component of that system, right, and and making sure kids safely get to and from school hugely important, right, but but is that taking away from the focus of of students and wellbeing and learning and continuing to progress? You know, probably, probably, the bureaucracy silos.
Speaker 2:You know, I think that that's something that you see in a lot of organizations. You know, you have this, this particular department, and they're about this and that's what they're going to do, right, you know, I mean we don't, we don't have to worry about sports, we don't have to worry about athletics, we don't have to worry about those things. You know, that's a whole, nother component of of.
Speaker 1:I know I'm going to go out on a limb and you don't have to agree with me, but I think, I think sports is fundamentally a cancer to the education system. It's. I think at the university level I have at it. But the fact that it impacts high school the way that it does and it it's funnels so many millions of dollars, it's a lot.
Speaker 1:It's it seems like it's so corrupt to me. It just seems like you're you're so far off track of what is the goal. We're not. Sports should not be this thing. It's like, yeah, I don't know, but you know there's the. You could fall off into the conspiracy theory on it, but money money is is so important to those organizations because it's just sports where, if you could just take that piece out, like, how much work can we get done? Like, how much better can we do?
Speaker 2:Friday night lights. Is a, is a is a math competition right, like what you know? How do we get there? Probably not going to get there.
Speaker 1:I watched the olympics. I'm like do we care really about how many gold medals? Is that really something we have to like, really like, hang our hat out just because of the sports. I just don't understand that. But I mean that's an unpopular opinion, absolutely. I guarantee there's people listening like no, sports are important and it saved me, you know I mean football saved me.
Speaker 2:my coach, you know, I mean, there's some choices I was making in high school, true that you know, having those people that cared about me and and we're like, what are you doing right now? Well, nothing. Well, you're going to wrestle, cause you know, he was my offensive line coach, was the head wrestling coach.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of education in those sports right. So I can I can see how there's this. It's just a weird slippery slope that we just like slid off into.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think you know kids need connections with school, right? Is that an adult? Is that an entrusted adult? Is that a program? Is that? Is that sports? Right, like, like, having that connection, you know, for a lot of people brings them back, and so there's value that.
Speaker 2:The point, though, that you and I are talking about is does that take the focus away from what the mission is? Right, like, what's, what's the goal? You know, keep, keep the the, the right thing, the right thing, right, yeah, like, keep the main thing, the main thing, the main thing, the main thing, right, and so, um, I think I think that's a challenge, right, like you know, I mean, we're, and, and I, you know, there's, there's a lot of you can go out there and find this on on the internet like, what, what we used to expect teachers to do and what we expect teachers to do now, right, yeah, and there's tons of those memes out there, yeah, but it's true, and I think I, you know, the larger districts are having to take all that right, they're telling me here's, here's a cool thing, that about Vista, that that was, um, it was a surprise to me, and, and that's that's. There's some, uh, there's some probably there's probably bias in me saying this last year we were 37% free and reduced students at Vista. So, uh, this year I, I'm I'm going to go out on a limb and say I'm pretty confident that we're, we're, at some point in the next couple of years we're going to be over this 40% mark which would will make Vista a title one school. Okay, so, federal government title one is a learning intervention, math, reading, and they, they're, they're cut off, they're, they're, they're. Base of that is 40%, is is a school wide title program and so there's a lot of ways to slice that.
Speaker 2:But what's really awesome about that is is the experience that your children are having at at Vista. Other other families you know with with, uh, you know less socioeconomic means and everything, are choosing to bring their children to Vista. And I believe it's because of those programs that you and I are talking about right, the orchestra program, the, the fine arts program, the, the visual arts, the dance, the, the, the robotics, like, like all of these choices we have. You know, if you're at a school and that's not after offered at that school, well, you got to figure out how to get your kids in that. Right, you're going to go to a ballet company. You're going to go, you know where. You know you're going to pay for a tutor to do the orchestra, whereas at Vista that can happen at school, right and so I'm going to go out on a limb and propose an alternative.
Speaker 1:Yeah, cost of living in St George's too freaking high, yeah. And families young families with kids can't afford to live here very well, yeah, and so they fall into these categories because we're cutting out, you know, the opportunities for a lot of those families, and it's a growing portion of our community, unfortunately, because of a lot of the you know, economic situations that are going on across the globe. Sure, I think that might have some factor into it. But I think your point too, though, is that you know being of lower socioeconomics, and you put your kid in this school and you're paying attention and you want them to succeed, and you see, maybe it's bullying because they don't have, you know, this backpack or this thing, or they're not part of this family or that family, and they start to feel like they don't fit in. Is there an alternative to where they can fit in? And I think, for for certain, vista is that way.
Speaker 1:You know, everybody wears uniforms. I wore them. I went to a private military school for high school, so at 15, I went to a boarding school, yeah, and so I got a totally different education than 99% of you know America and my wife and I. It's like I just see education totally different than she sees it, because she came up just standard public schools, yeah, and so I'm like, no, there's a lot of value in this uniform thing is everybody's on an equal playing field and it's a meritocracy at its finest when you can cut out some of these cultural things that we insert into schools, and so I can see.
Speaker 1:I can see how a lot of those kids would be choosing Vista. I can see that as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's fantastic, right, I mean if, if, if we're able're able to, you know, I mean we're doing it right now with 37% from last year, but you know, to have that designation, I think that's a point of pride for me. It's like we're, you know, that could be a game changer. And obviously, you know, having done this for a long time, education for a long time, I do believe it's the equalizer, you know.
Speaker 2:I appreciate that word. I really, I really believe that, um, you know, blood, sweat and tears and and and leave it in along on the line every day for kids, that makes a huge difference, right, I mean, we are changing trajectories of of kids lives and and I see teachers do that every day at Vista and it's just, it's, there's not a day at Vista I haven't been inspired, you know, I, I I've said that earlier and I'm going to say it again I'm, I'm blessed to be there, the, the people that that are there are, are there for the right reasons and and, um, you know, with, with those ingredients, we're just going to continue to improve. You know, yeah, I don't, I don't think there's ever a school out there that's like, oh, we did it Right, like you know. I mean, you think of, you think of, uh, uh, you know, college, like we talked about. You know, you think of Harvard and Yale's and all those things. They're still, they're still getting better, right, they're still improving their craft and, um, you know, that's what we're doing.
Speaker 2:I, the charter community. There's just some, some really, really neat people, really really neat educators, that just have this passion. That's just infectious. You know, you get around these people that are leading charters or part of charters and you know, I mean you're right, right, I think there's, I think we're approaching 140, if not 140 charter schools in Utah and if you think about that, that's not a lot right. I mean it's a. It's a really um, uh, finite slice of of what's happening for kids and and there's amazing things happening in these schools. So so we're one of, we're one of you know about I think it's 138 this year, 139. Um, but it's really neat to see people, um, that are able to to, to pursue that, to pursue what those charters are trying to carry out and and that's neat, right, like our charter, we believe that academics is going to improve when students are able to, to exercise their choice and and those choices happen to be technology and arts and, um, it's, it's, it's a, it's a special place for kids and I, I just appreciate leading that.
Speaker 1:So one one of the things, um, I struggled to do was like when my son started getting old enough to where you know school choice, right, it's like, okay, well, what, what are our options for education? What would you suggest? Cause, if you go online and you say you know school test scores, like what's the best school? You know, if you Google best school in St George, utah, this is not going to show up there. No, we're not there yet. We're not there yet. And at the same time I looked at it like okay, so their standardized test scores don't match. I said, but what does that mean? Like I don't know if I'm just using that as my standard that somebody else gave me. What did that say? It didn't tell me about anything about school.
Speaker 1:So I found it really difficult to actually research schools and see. Okay, what are some of the options. What would you suggest? If somebody's coming here, or new, or they have kids coming up, how should they be thinking about picking a school for their kids?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think you, um, you definitely you know, and that's that's a man.
Speaker 1:That's a. It's a tough boy. That's a tough one. We should. I was really hoping you had an easy answer. We should almost do another podcast on that one.
Speaker 2:We'll bring in a couple more people.
Speaker 1:I normally do two hours, so yeah, we're cutting this one tight.
Speaker 2:Um, you know, I think that I think as a family and this sounds like the process that you went through as a family is is, first, you have to identify what are your values Like, really, you know, is it academics? Cause there's, there's schools out there that that's what they're about, right? I mean, uh, george Washington, right, that's their charter. Right, like, like, that's their charter and and, uh, you high expectations. You look at those assessment results and and they're they're achieving at high levels. Um, you know, uh, but you know it is. If that's your choice, then then I think you have to look at that of, of course, that's what the realtors are going to talk about, right, I mean, that's, that's what comes up.
Speaker 2:Um, but again, what experience do you want your child to have? Right, do you want your child to have a neighborhood school experience? I think that's a challenge that's really manifested to me. I was the principal of three schools prior to Vista and we had we had community, right, Like, like. That's one of the challenges of Vista is that we're drawing from all over Washington County and outside. I mean, we've got some kids coming down from Cedar, you know. So, how do you create community, right, like, like, how do you create these opportunities for for parents to feel like they belong to Vista as well, right, like, like. How do you create these opportunities for um, for parents to feel like they belong to Vista as well? Right, and so, and that's easier in a neighborhood school. So if that you know, that's something that that parents or families are going to have to look at and say, okay, so you know the kids from the neighborhood they're going to be at that school, right, and and you know, I'm I'm assuming with with your children's, their experience, like probably not.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's a couple. There's a couple of kids that are, that are nearby in Ivan's, but we all found each other.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like that's one of the things I will.
Speaker 1:I'll give you a lot of credit for is. I hadn't thought about it in those terms. I'm like, oh yeah, I could see why this last year like they did it the park, the one a year before, but last year they did it right at school and I thought it was amazing because you just yeah everybody's just right there. Yeah, definitely felt like a community. I gotta see meet a bunch of parents I hadn't normally been able to meet, and so that I think you're doing a good job. But that's a tough job to do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and our partners, partners, are PTO partners. They're all about that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Right. So they got a great Facebook community like the PTO on Facebook is super active and helpful 25 people at the meeting yesterday.
Speaker 2:So they they put it at the end of the day yesterday and so you know they're, they're, they're pivoting too and they're trying to really kind of respond to this. So but that's another thing I think as a family you got to look at and say, okay, you know transportation holy cow, you know, you, you and I were talking about, uh, carpool, yeah, whoa like, yeah, it's not I had no idea about carpool and and uh it dominated city council meeting in ivans the other day.
Speaker 1:I was in there. I was like why are we talking about this, the parking and in traffic it for like 20 minutes a day. Seriously, we're really that worried about it, the city. I was like, come on, guys, usually it's not an easy thing to do.
Speaker 2:They know that. You know they got to give us about 10 days like, like and trust us.
Speaker 1:You know, let us shake it out. We gamify that right, you know I mean we're texting back and forth three 18,.
Speaker 2:You know we had a, we had a three 18 this year, this week, and so it's exciting. You know, parents get trained thing, right, if you know choosing to, to choosing a charter. You're responsible for transportation, right, we have two buses, um, you know, but that's with 1100 plus kids. You know that's not a lot of transportation. Um, so that's something else. Uh, and then I just think programs like, like what you know, you can look at a, you can look at a Washington County school, okay, so here's the elementary, here's a neighborhood elementary, here's what the middle level is, here's what the high school is, and and you know, if, if you look at the programs and and most of the websites have like what's happening in the schools, right.
Speaker 2:I mean, that's why we just invested in our website. You know we it's a little clunky right now. We that Um, you know we're trying to highlight those things so that prospective parents can look at those things and and have a better understanding of what that, what those programs look like at Vista. So you know, I think you got to do some research. I think site visits are important, you know, for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's extra work. But at the end of the day, if you just going off of what you see on the internet, it's not always exactly what you think it's going to be like, and I've heard a couple of times where kids started at George Washington and they end up over a Vista, you know, because it's just different, and vice versa.
Speaker 2:Exactly. Yeah, you know, I mean it's like some people, some people try us and they're like, nah, this wasn't, this isn't what we thought it was going to be, it's not the best fit, Right, and I think that's the other thing about what's. What's neat about school choices is you have that you have the ability to do that too as a family, right? If it's not working, there's other choices out there. And, um, we don't want you to be miserable, Like, if you're unhappy, like you know, make a different choice. That that's hard, you know.
Speaker 2:And and obviously, our budget is, uh, as we talked about earlier. I mean it's definitely driven by by, uh, enrollment, Uh, but at the same time, we want kids to thrive and, and if there's discord in the family that kids are going to, you know, I mean you sense that as kid, I sense that, as kid, like, like that's gonna, that's going to come through the child too, you know. And so you know, if the parents aren't happy, like, I think it's, it's gotta be meaningful and you've gotta be there's, there's a level of satisfaction that needs to be achieved for all of that to work out well. And so I think, um, yeah, I think what you said. You, you've got to do some research. You got to do that and I think, I think a site visit is really important, Like, like, how does it feel when you walk in?
Speaker 2:Are you greeted, Do you feel? Do you feel welcomed? You know, you know that that's a challenge now because we've got all this House Bill 84 and all the security and safety and everything's coming from the legislators, and it's important, it's very important, it is, it's hugely important, and it's unfortunate that we have to spend so much time and money on that, but it's necessary. We need to ensure that our kids are safe. Some of that has rubbed people the wrong way because they've been lifelong Vista people and they've had access. And you know, here's Blasco coming in and changing this and it's like, ah, it's not really me, but um, you know, ultimately, at the end of the day, we want to.
Speaker 2:We want to make sure that that the students are safe and and, um, you know, comply with those regulations. Not not, not just comply with the regulations, but but to do that in a meaningful way, that's making sure kids are safe. But you know, how do you feel? You know, did, did you get a good vibe from that? I mean a lot of you know. I mean there's probably, there's probably places that that other people have recommended to you that you've gone and had a, had a meal at, and you're like I'm never going back there again.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you, you know, service was terrible whatever Exactly, I think that's probably not as cut and dry for schools, but but you know we're, we're working hard to make sure that that, that experience, and you know my, you know my staff, my front office staff we talk about that a lot Like like how, how do we interact with people in a respectful way? So you know, one of the changes is we're, we're we're asking parents to show us their IDs as they check their kids out. Nice, right, standard operating procedure. And you know I mean we have relationships with people right, like we recognize each other.
Speaker 2:And at the same time it's like, yeah, but you know, I have to make this a process.
Speaker 1:We have a process to keep kids safe.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And they should rest in that. Know that, like I'm checking yours, because if anybody else comes in and tries to get your kid, I'm going to do the same thing to them. Yep, right, and we'll call you if they're not on the list, exactly Because if somebody walks, in and they're scouting it out and they notice you're not doing that and then all of a sudden they think they can get away with it. It's a challenge. It's um, I I don't blame you for doing that. Ids are a touchy topic. It's people in IDs.
Speaker 2:It's like well, why is it such a bad thing?
Speaker 1:to prove you are who you are.
Speaker 2:I got to understand why it's such a big deal.
Speaker 1:We want your kid to go home with you or whomever you've identified on your list to make sure that they can go home to.
Speaker 1:So that's such a funny topic having it. Um, I think it's important for parents to get involved in their local school and the state board of education, whether it's their district, but even the state board level. And we've done those episodes with, with the interviews for those people running those, uh, running for those seats at the. At the end of the day, if if we let, if we let the powers that be just do it and we're not involved in it, then the system's never going to work out the way that it should. So, people getting involved. But thanks for sitting down with me on this, you betcha. Yeah, I appreciate it. I'm excited to see what the year has.
Speaker 2:We're going to get you at a career. We're going to have you for our career days. So we're going to bring you in as as our podcaster now.
Speaker 1:All I love teaching kids man, I love, I love teaching. It's a great day. It's a great day.
Speaker 2:We had a. We had a lot of people come in, we had ranchers, we had police officers, uh uh, we had illustrators. You know it was really cool and and the kids rotate through. So we're going to get you there, cause.
Speaker 1:I love it. I'm definitely in when my favorite thing and I tell my wife this all the time and I still haven't done it this year yet. But we're only like two weeks in going to lunch with my son. Yeah, I feel like a celebrity because I know so many of the kids.
Speaker 2:So I walk in and I'm like hey, hey, I was like hey, guys, and I like sit down and everybody wants to talk to me.
Speaker 1:I was like it's the funnest, like it's so much fun. Come on orange chicken day.
Speaker 2:Orange chicken day. Yeah, okay, I'm going to call it orange chicken day. That's, that's this. I've, I've been, I've been talking to the kids and that's, that's a popular day that's the popular day, huh Orange chicken, you know, and you got to look at like the the blacktop.
Speaker 1:They were like orange chicken, orange chicken. We got to wait in line. That's all right, it's worth it. That's cool.
Speaker 2:Come on orange chicken day, Get some orange chicken. Yeah, that's, that's another faction of you know, that's another another group of people that love what they do. Right Like that's, that's the cool thing about Vista is it's just there's just these, these collectives of of different people around that schoolhouse that that love what they do every day, bring it every day, and it's a fun place and it's fun, it's fun to be a part. So no-transcript.
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