Episode Details

Host Jethro Jones announces that he is leaving Copperview Elementary in Utah to become the new principal of Kodiak Middle School in Kodiak, Alaska. He explains why a district with public communication struggles excites him, and how he will keep the conversation with the community going.

Jones recorded the episode from a tent in Dawson Creek, British Columbia, 1,800 miles into a 4,500 mile drive from Utah. The outlying Kodiak island schools have 25 to 35 students each, and he will connect those students to middle school classes using iPads on wheels.

What you'll learn

• Research a district before you interview, as Jones did when he found the superintendent's blog post about the gag order policy.
• Look at a district's public response to a problem as a sign of how open its leaders will be with you.
• Connect remote students to classes with video and iPad robots, which Jones says is mostly a scheduling job.
• Send Jones the name of a transformative principal you know, since referred guests let him ask specific questions and go deeper.

Chapters

• 0:00 Accepting the principal job at Kodiak Middle School
• 0:53 Thanking past guests and listeners
• 2:21 What life on Kodiak Island is like
• 3:02 Virtual classes for remote island students
• 4:47 A district working through communication problems
• 7:07 Driving 4,500 miles from Utah to Alaska
• 8:55 What happens to the podcast next
• 9:30 Help find transformative principals to interview

Times are for the episode without ads. Your player may be off by the length of any ads.

Questions this episode answers

How can a small remote school give middle schoolers the same classes as a city school?
Jones says the outlying Kodiak island schools have 25 to 35 students and limited curriculum. Those students join classes at Kodiak Middle School virtually, using iPads on wheels, and he says the equipment is mostly in place, so the work is placing students in the right classes.

Should you take a principal job in a district that has communication problems?
Jones says the problem excited him rather than put him off. He says the superintendent addressed a gag order rumor head on and in public, which Jones believes is the best way to deal with it, and he sees a chance to keep that conversation going.

Working on this at your school? Get a free preview of a 10-week leadership pathway built from episodes like this one at transformativeprincipal.com/start.

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