Welcome, everybody, to the Principal Matters podcast, where today we have a very, very special guest, the proud principal of East Valley High School in Spokane, Washington, Mr. Ryan Arnold. My name is Scott Friedman. I’m your host for today, associate director with with AWSP. And couldn’t be happier to be spending a little bit of time today with with with Ryan as he talks about his, vision of leadership and the journey that he has been on and, and the work that he’s really done at East Valley High School in a very short period of time. And, Ryan, again, thank you. Thank you for agreeing to hop on today and, and share a little bit about your leadership journey and, and insights into leadership as it represents your work there at East Valley High School. Ryan Arnold Yeah. Thank you for having me, I appreciate it. It’d be fun. Yeah. Scott Friedman You’re you’re welcome. And you might not be saying that as we go through this. So I’d like you to keep that. You know, I’d bring that back. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just keep that feeling alive. Please keep that feeling alive. But, you know, before we jump into the, you know, the golden nuggets of wisdom that you’ll share with us today, and, just describe for us, like, your leadership journey. What what brought you to East Valley High School and and what prepared you to step into your your first high school principalship, which is so cool. So cool. Ryan Arnold Yeah. You know, I. Think leadership for me was something that I never really saw in myself until someone, you know, asked me, hey, have you thought of going into school administration? At the time, I was a, you know, a secondary Ela teacher at Mead High School and was loving that. And, you know, that was during the time of Covid. And at the time, my mentor, Jeff Naslund asked if, you know, I ever thought about getting into administration, and I was honored. I was like, wow, thanks. I appreciate. Appreciate the shout and ended up, you know, going through the process. And now that I’m in this seat, I know what his real job at that point was. He just wanted free labor through an admin intern. Which I appreciate, Jeff. But generally speaking, I learned a lot during my internship and found, you know, if I, if I could create classroom environments that were impacting generations and students, via their learning. How can I make that impact even larger and in a position of a leader, whether it’s a PA principal, you know, principal, assistant, assistant principal, or even principal, your impact has a larger, net that you can cast. And, I really just fell in love with that concept. And that idea, I landed a gig in Lakeside and 90 Mile Falls and learned under Brett Osborn as principal there, and he gave me the autonomy to really do what I needed to do in order to impact some systems and also to impact learning in the classroom. And I just I found that passion of instructional leadership, the passion of human connection, is really kind of the the biggest change in education from what I can understand is a leader when I was in school is just the authoritative figure. Whereas a leader now in education, a modern day leader is a instructional coach. It is a human magnet. So someone that that kids can really confide and connect with. I didn’t have that relationship with my principal, I can tell you that for a fact. As a high school student in Spokane, Washington. No, I knew who Herbert Rochford was. I didn’t have much interaction unless I was in the office for something bad. Right. So it’s it’s changed. The whole scope of of leadership has changed in the last ten ish years, and I’ve I’ve fallen in love with it. And I was at I was at Lakeside for two, two years and, The position at East Valley opened up. And I got to be honest with you, I knew nothing about East Valley. And I just knew that I was being called. I felt, a calling toward the principalship, put my name in the hat. And I’ve been here ever since. It’s been. I’m in year three now, and, you know, it’s been it’s been learning through a fire hose, but it’s been rewarding work and some of the stuff that we’ll probably talk about later on in this podcast is, it’s showing that that the impact that we’re doing as a system, as a team has been huge. And you’re going to hear me talk a lot about team because it’s not about me. This is not about what I’ve done. This is identifying people, their strengths, being able to leverage those strengths so that we as a team can move in the same direction. We cannot be rudderless. And that’s that’s what we’ve found. Here in East Valley is we are all we have, all the right people and the right seats. Now we need to row in the right direction. Scott Friedman Awesome. Thank you. You know, you brought up a couple of names there that that take me back a few years, and. And now you’re making me feel old. Because back in the day, I could have been your assistant principal at Shadow Park High School. Ryan Arnold Oh, that wasn’t good. Scott Friedman Yeah, yeah, they moved me from Shadle to North Central before I even set foot at Shadow Park. And that’s. What year. Was that? Yeah, yeah, early to last 2006, I think. Okay. Yeah, yeah. 2006. So, Yeah. Oh my gosh. Well, as a young student, Ryan Arnold, that I would have had as an assistant principal, you know, but you but but you said something there, I just I want to capture it. I do want to go back to, like, the first iteration of of time at East Valley High School for you. Because stepping into that role and moving from assistant principal to principal and and share some nuggets there. But you said you mentioned magnet for relationships and and I don’t know, that just struck me. And I’d like you to kind of expand on that a little bit. Like as a leader. And we think about creating a culture in a building and how we maintain perspective around those positive relationships that happen. How do you, how have you gone about being a magnet for relationships? Ryan Arnold Yeah, I would say part of it is, is, for one, not taking the role too seriously. Honestly. Like just at the end of the day, you’re a human being. You’re an adult human being. And when it comes to, students who have experienced high poverty, or students who have experienced trauma, a great trauma informed practice is consistency and reliability. And if you can be a consistent adult and show up every single day, you know, it. It is leaps and bounds of a difference for one kids, one kid, or even multiple kid lives. So when I, when I first got in the principalship, you know, when it comes to developing systems around discipline, that can be a, a unique topic, specifically when it comes to relationships, because no kid likes to be held accountable. Right. So when it comes to building expectations, etc., when you have these conversations, I’ve always been the one to explain the why before laying down whatever the student finds themselves in. So by by treating a student as a human being. Saying, hey, we all make mistakes, this is not the end of the journey, etc. etc., it builds that space and time for that, that accountability piece to be there. But the relationship is not severed. So when you approach it in a way that your relationships first, to then get to redirect the behavior in order for you to have the consistency within your building, you’re not sacrificing that relationship. Part of that is just the approach. I am a firm believer in the approach always dictates the response when it comes to how you approach something. It is no different if you’re in a discipline situation versus a staffing conversation versus, you know, just being visible in the hallways. I’m a firm believer that we, if we show up every single day, are consistent. No kids by name, no kids by event, etc., etc. like you’re going to make that impact because we don’t know what happens when they leave our campus. We can control what happens here. And I’m a firm believer with all all of our staff is that we are human connectors. First, we can be the magnet that draws kids to school. Or we could flip the polarity and we can be the the, the magnet that pushes kids away from school. And I never, I never want to be that. Not as a leader and not as a person. I always want to draw kids to school, not push them away. Scott Friedman Yeah. You know, one thing you said there is approach dictates response and and and it just struck me like as you as you first came to East Valley, you know, I’m just going to use that phrase. The approach dictates response, you know. What approach did you take from like your first few months there? To get the response you were looking for from the adults before the kids even show up? Right? Ryan Arnold Yeah, yeah. And I would say the biggest thing that I felt when I got here was the air was just thick, right? For whatever reason, right or wrong or indifferent. So when I got here, my mission was to greet kids every single day at the front door. And I’d say good morning. And I heard good morning back, probably 0.5% of the time. And I’m like, okay, like talking to myself, but that’s fine. And I just kept sticking to that every morning. Greet them at the door. Good morning. I’d be the first person on announcements. Because I wanted kids to know that I was a presence, a positive presence. Right. We don’t know if they were told good morning when they woke up. You know, I don’t know their journey to get to school, but I know I can guarantee you when they first step into the building, if I am smiling and saying good morning and playing some music, that could be the first positive experience they’ve received that morning. And I, I was just very consistent with that. I also asked teachers to be out and doing the same thing so that we could develop that positivity. Not positive toxicity because that’s two different things, but like just being positive and, and saying, hey, good morning and being a presence in the hallway. I can tell you for the first like month and a half, two months, it did not stick, but something clicked. And I think I think students were finally understanding, like, okay, this is not going away. And then now it’s it’s completely different feel within the building. It is uncommon to not hear a response back or it’s not uncommon for kids to talk to you first, which is such a crazy concept. Like, why aren’t we talking within public education in a building? But for whatever reason, right or wrong or indifferent, that’s where that’s what I came into is just very transactional, service. And I’m all about customer service when it comes to students, families, etc. so you better believe that when you walk into this building, you’re going to have some sort of infectious smile or some sort of infectious interaction with with a staff member, because our kids deserve it. Scott Friedman Yeah, yeah. You know, and and what I, what I hear you kind of talking about is really laying the groundwork in the foundation for a culture of belonging and acceptance, right? Yeah. Like, like like you belong here. And we are going to take care of you. Yep. Ryan Arnold Absolutely. And then, you know, recently, East Valley School District went through, a strategic plan adoption. So we’re we’re part of our strategic plan. And in the vision of the student experience, one of the pillars is belonging. And you know that that idea of belonging, is, you know, I always use the quote from Brené Brown, which is no one belongs here more than you. Just really the understanding of, you know, we want you here, we see you, we value you, and your voice matters. And we just didn’t have. When I first got here, we didn’t have systems of support for kids to really feel that authentically. I think, you know, we we said that, on posters, we said that maybe, through morning announcements, those were words on a wall, but kids did not make meaning to that. They just said it was words on a wall. Right? It was lip service. We are we have developed systems for collecting and generating student voice. We’ve leveraged our, our school leadership with, ASB and student council, and other various, leadership opportunities like FFA and Key Club, etc. we’ve leveraged those clubs and those organizations to provide student voice so that students can start seeing change. That to me is the difference between saying, hey, you belong here versus hey, your opinion matters. And because your opinion matters, you’re now seeing that change in your daily life. Yes, I see you, I value you, you do belong. Rather than just saying the words, it needs to be brought with action. And I think that’s where that was the the tipping point for for where we’re at. Mind you, we have a long way to go. But kids are starting to see that their voice is then being generated, into their daily life. And, the impact that it’s making on climate is huge. You know, when we talk about criterion one, creating a culture, got to start with climate, right? And then from there, I just really work on some, some cultural things as a, as a district and as a building. And we’re moving in the right direction, which is great. But, we have a long way to go still. Scott Friedman Yeah, let’s let’s stick there for a second because you brought up criteria in one of the leadership framework about creating culture, and there’s multiple levels to that. You know, all the way down to sharing and distributing leadership. And you mentioned earlier about teams, you know, and you can’t you can’t roll this boat alone. We can’t we can’t be rudderless. We got to be going in the same direction, you know. So yeah. How how did you how did you expand your, your scope of leadership per se and to and to put people in positions like, okay, I need you to be the cheerleader. I need you to be the I need you to, you know. How did you facilitate all that stuff to put people in the right places in regards to distributing, just distributing that leadership amongst. Ryan Arnold Yeah, I think actually it started, it started within my first year here. I took I took about 100 days to really just sit back and be like, all right, where are we at? Like, let’s get a pulse check. And what are our leaders, our admin team. Like, what are they doing? And mind you, as leaders. Is is is vague enough to be any any adult in the game or any students. Students. But we’ll just we’ll start with the admin team. And looking at. There were not clear defined roles on who was doing what when. So that developed over time. Some silos and those silos were really inefficient for what we could be doing. So I again, Brené Brown clear is kind of, defined what those roles look like to ensure that every assistant principal knew exactly what their role was every single day, so that they could really focus with intentionality on specific things that would impact students. So when I created the team of where we’re at, we then had clear defining roles, and I wanted one assistant principal who I knew, from a prior district I knew would be successful in this role. And I was like, hey, I need you to be in charge of of two main areas, one ninth grade success in connecting with ninth graders, because we know research shows that if they are on track, they’re more likely to graduate four times. Right. And then also, I need you to be a part of, student council and leadership. So having those clear, defined roles was step one. Step two is our we meet weekly as an admin team and I have a running agenda. And on those is activities. And activities is always in connection to student voice and student council, to making sure that we’re constantly having those conversations that nothing gets dropped. And then, you know, we use, the, the planning guide from AWSP as an opportunity for us to look at in that, creating a culture piece. What can we be doing each month? Specifically that assistant principal, what can you be doing each month to ensure that you’re continuing to push down, that that criterion one, of making sure that we’re creating a culture And then from there it’s once that was established. Then now we’re looking at how can this expand beyond just the principalship? How can this expand beyond us to principals or principals? And we developed a guiding coalition which is, 18 ish teachers. So 18 teachers with administrators. And we we talk about this stuff regularly. In fact, the last guiding coalition we had, we had a teacher leader presenting, because we’re all about hope in our school. Yeah. One of our, one of our building goals is to have 85% of our student population to experience moderate to high hope in a given school year. So this teacher leader presented on what, what hope activities could look like, especially in springtime. And those those that council of teachers, the is an opportunity for us to continue to drive these conversations that can then expand beyond the offices and expand beyond just the assistant principals and principals, so that this is something that is lived and is practiced by our teachers. And those teachers are their representation is across the entire building. So every department is represented that way. It’s not just pockets of excellence, but it’s an opportunity for us to really expand, systematically, across our disciplines. And then, you know, part of that. So you have step one, which is the clear roles. Step two is developing a guiding coalition where teachers can have these conversations regularly. And then the the largest part, step three is, is how are we tapping into the student voice to make sure that this stuff is working? So the the step three is having intentional conversations with our leadership students to ensure that we’re eliciting that voice. If anything is missing, then we need to tweak our approach. And as long as those three components have been in place, mind you, I’m probably missing a boatload of things, but at least for now, I can tell you that it’s working for building those three easy steps. Is is been something that has kind of really been the, the, the shock for rehabilitating the system. And part of that is felt and seen by how our kids are interacting with each other and by how our kids are interacting with our adults, and most importantly, how our adults are interacting with our adults. So it’s been it’s been, honestly, a pretty short journey. Like, we’ve we’ve made a lot of movement within the time that I’ve been here. And it’s just, again, we have the right people and the right seats, and we just needed the rudder, and the rudder is there, and now we’re moving in the right direction together, which is great. Scott Friedman Well, and what I really appreciate, and you mentioned it a few times and bringing it back to the framework there a little bit is is managing resources. You know, criterion six and resources isn’t just about budget, it’s about human capital. And and do we have the right people in the right place? And and you as the, as the leader are facilitating all of that. And I know many times as leaders, look what we’ve accomplished together. Let’s celebrate together. Da da da da da. But just listening to you, the intentionality of the thought of what you have put into place. And and I don’t want you to shortchange yourself in many ways, Ryan, because it’s not a yes. It is about the we and you understand and recognize how important all that is. But but that that seat that you’re sitting in right now is the eye seat, isn’t it? And yeah. And you know, it’s, you know, when things don’t go well, it’s like, okay, I didn’t do that. Oh for sure. Yeah. You know, but, you have intentionally been this puppeteer master, puppet master, kind of putting people in the right places where they feel success and when they can see success in themselves, it just spreads to others. Right. Ryan Arnold Yeah. No, definitely I would agree. Scott Friedman What has been the biggest notice because I, I, I’ve heard just talk about the connection that kids are now making with adults and, and that they, they see themselves as an East Valley Knight per se, where they didn’t recognize themselves that way. It was just a brick and mortar they went to each day. But now there’s reason behind, and they see hope. You know, you said 85% of the kids, we want them to experience hope at some point during the year. And that’s a goal of yours. So when when I hear that, it’s kind of like, okay, now, now we can move that over to the classroom setting. And and now we can work on closing some gaps. Right. Yeah. And so where have you seen the relational aspects of, of that adult to student piece? Manifests itself a really blossom in a, in a classroom setting because that’s the most difficult place for that to happen. Right. This, this intellectual context, like, how do we get kids to engage intellectually when they don’t trust adults? It’s one thing to walk into a classroom and, okay, I kind of belong in here, but I’ve got to know you really, truly care about me before I’m going to take that risk. So have you. Have you have you seen some of that that has been been evident in classrooms? Ryan Arnold Yeah, I would say so. Anecdotally from the conversations that I’ve had with students. I hear that when I have the conversations about, hey, tell me about your classes, how are things going with your teachers, etc., etc.. And, you know, when I first got here, it it wasn’t super positive. You know, when it comes to Doctor Hattie’s work on, you know, teacher and student relationship, we were we were struggling there and then even when it comes to avid, you know, strategies around relational capacity, we had pockets of relational capacity. And that was seen through data through our students that were passing courses versus not. If I were to look at a spreadsheet of students that were struggling in specific content areas, if you looked at the specific individuals or the departments, you could start seeing the connections between relational capacity and outcomes, as on a service level. Right. Yeah. There. There are other challenges with opportunity gaps when it comes to, you know, maybe, maybe some learning gaps on math, etc.. But looking at, you know, just specific content areas, you could start putting the pieces together where you’re like, okay, if relational capacity is a struggle, if tier one instructional strategies is a struggle, how can we, provide PD and opportunity for our staff to start seeing why and how relational capacity can be a driving force in their classrooms, not just for instructional purposes and for student outcome purposes, but also for classroom management and behavioral purposes as well. It was pretty interesting. You know, some of our staff members, it was hard for them to see the forest through the trees. And they were just constantly, you know, Referring referring, referring. Thinking that that system would help support what’s changing in the classroom. And until the shift of our building was that you are your best first response to tier one. You and teacher. Your classroom teacher. Until that conversation was had, until our our teacher started to see that, we we didn’t see any really any shift in instructional outcomes or student outcomes. We as a system developed a instructional playbook, and our instructional playbook is tied with avid strategies. And it’s all about quality tier one instruction with an emphasis on relational capacity. So bringing in that hope, understanding, bringing in the, the relational, capacity understanding, we wanted to ensure that our teachers were not just diving into content at the first get. We want to make sure that teachers are building authentic relationships with our students so that our students can start trusting their teachers. And that was a big shift within our building over the past year and a half. And, you know, I’m proud to say that with with the work that’s been done for professional development when it comes to avid and tier one strategies within our building via the instructional playbook, via avid PD, and with the focus and emphasis on relational capacity and hope, we have seen in mind, you will throw in plates in there too, because our, professional learning teams are getting after it as well. But, from raw student outcome and achievement, aside from just conversations with students, is, our SBA scores in Ela have increased by 16%. And then our SBA scores in math have increased by 9%. So we we’re getting after it, which is absolutely incredible. Our teachers are are absolutely getting you know, they’re they’re working overtime. They’re getting after it. And our students are reaping the benefits and the rewards. It’s it’s it’s incredible the work that they’re doing each and every day in the classrooms. And it starts on Mondays. Right? Mondays. We have 90 minutes of collaboration time. And they they have really leaned into the instructional strategies via the framework, the instructional playbook that we have, and also with our avid site team pushing in to provide professional development for, for teachers has been huge. We no longer do like a I mean, we have them here and there, but we no longer do like a big staff meeting. PD, we do more intentional, small group PD, that is, really focused on a specific avid strategy each month so that we can continue to develop, quality instruction at tier one level so that we are supporting teachers and supporting our students. Scott Friedman Yeah. You got the relational piece cranking and running. Kids feel like they belong in a classroom. So they’re taking risks academically, and they’re engaging intellectually like they they have it before. You have staff that are, working with each other, collaborating with each other to get better. You know, hone their craft. How have you seen that, that that take place? You mentioned something about, students aspiring. And that aspirational piece. And it causes me to go back to think about like, high school. Right. There’s got to be a next. There’s got to be a there’s got to be a pathway forward after high school. Right. I mean, we don’t just go to school to go to school and and hope that we get a job, you know? Right. Yeah. I mean, that’s what I did. I don’t even know if it worked out, but, you know, that’s. Hey. Ryan Arnold Me too. I’m there with. Scott Friedman You. That’s up for debate. That’s up for debate. But, How if how is that like that, that trust that’s elevated manifest itself in the classroom. And so kids are feeling safe, like like safe to take risks that, you know, criterion to when we talk about safety, school, school safety and social emotional safety as well. But how are students aspiring to post-secondary aspirations? You know. Yeah. How have you seen that elevate as a part of all of this instructional work and the belonging work and feeling good about being here work? Ryan Arnold Yeah, I would say the biggest thing is working again with our people on having the right information. Right. You know, when it comes to the research that the research that comes out of Washington state, things have changed over the last decade. And if we’re using old information to advise our kids about post-secondary options, we’re failing our kids. So part of it is just sitting down with our counselors, our college and career readiness counselor, our advisors for, for different grade levels and just making sure that our teachers and staff have the right information in front of them. So part of our new way to so we inspire them in our building. Right? And then we have them start looking at what what does life outside of East Valley’s campus look like? We really focus on the idea that the diploma is a benchmark. And then from there, you’re going to take the skills that you learned here, and you’re going to do X, Y, or Z, and we’re going to help you find out what those are. Those undefined variables will be defined for you because you’re going to be you’re going to be advised in the direction that it’s aligned with your passions. Going back to our strategic plan as a district, our last pillar is future readiness. So what future readiness means in East Valley is taking a aligned series of courses that provide students the opportunity to get either a credential, whether it is through CTE or through post-secondary efforts, whether it’s a two year, four year degree, they’re going to get a credential that is aligned with a job availability within the Spokane area. So part of what we did is we had to ensure that our students had access to as much rigorous coursework as possible. When I first got here, we had eight college in the high school courses. We now offer 36. It’s an opportunity for our students to from the ninth grade. Right? Our CW system has to be available from ninth to 12th graders starting ninth grade. They have an opportunity to start taking college classes. And once they get in those college classes, it could just take the one class to just access that, hey, you’re a ninth grade student. You just passed a college class. Here’s some credit for free. That could be the the chance for students to to move forward to a different, opportunity even beyond themselves that they thought that was possible. We’ve aligned our college in the high school with Washington 45. So our students that start ninth grade and end 12th grade will have 45 college credits. Those 45 college credits are guaranteed to transfer to any 2 to 4 year. I always, you know, I have a no no kid has received yet because we just rolled it out this year. But I ordered a giant check and that giant check that says Washington 45, $10,000. Because, you know, on average, if students get 45 credits on average is about $10,000 savings. Yeah. Which is huge for our kids. So, we aligned all of that work. And then also, when it comes to advising, we use the Washington, labor market website, that provides and that’s some of the work that that we did in the CEO network, but we used the Washington Labor. Labor management website. And we show kids, hey, what is it that you would like to do post post-high school for a job? And they’re like, well, my school links, right? My school link says I want to do x, y, or Z. So we look at that labor market and we say, hey, you want to be a registered nurse? Good for you. That is the number one job availability in Spokane area with an average of like 500 plus jobs available annually. Like you’re going to probably land something pretty easily. Nice job. Right. So it’s just it’s it’s really just again, back to Brené Brown. Clear is kind when we have course offerings that are aligned with with providing students the rigor that is needed for them to continue on a trajectory. We are not, we’re not just stopping at the at the diploma. The diploma is super valid. And if if that is a journey for a student, that’s great. We do want to provide the information, however, and that’s what I’ve been telling families in the East Valley community is we want you to have all the information possible so that you as a family, can make informed decisions, because we do want all nights post-high school to be successful. So what does that look like in the state of Washington? It looks like you need a credential, right? That that credential will provide that upward mobility and stability so that our students can have, you know, a positive and fruitful career and future outside of high school. So when it comes to where we’ve been, is we’ve really we really changed what our advising model looks like for our kids. We give them the correct information. It started with our adults, so we give them the correct information. And then from there, we have aligned pathways so that our students are are set up for success rather than just a guessing game post-high school. Scott Friedman Yeah. Yeah. What a system you’ve created. Right. Because it wasn’t there when you got there, was it? Ryan Arnold No. No, it was not. Which, you know, we had we had some pockets of things like it was it was impacting our students who were coming from high functioning homes. But when we talk about equity, equity work and we talk about, you know, trying to, to be a, a system that is potentially breaking and dismantling generational poverty, we need to have systems that set all families up for success, especially if our families have never been through a post-secondary offering. We need to provide what that experience looks like so that they can understand and navigate it. A lot of our families who have not done that, they don’t know where to even navigate. They have no clue. And it’s not their fault. But we as a system, as a school system, you know, make sure that we have some opportunities to to bring in families so that they understand the full scope of the work and what opportunities are out there for their students, because oftentimes they just don’t know. And it’s again, it’s not their fault. Why would they need to know that we should be providing the systems and opportunities for our kids to have that, regardless of what their parents do or do not do? Scott Friedman Right, right. You know, when you say that to provide the information that I remember when our, our two kids were looking at college and going through that stuff and I’m supposed to know, right? I couldn’t even I couldn’t even navigate that system. I’m supposed to know I’m an educator. I’m supposed to know that. So. So it has changed. And and I heard a principal say once to me, or once in a, in a, in a large group that it’s like that, it’s like the the shift that they’ve recognized. It’s like it’s graduation, you know. The diploma. Yes. Is it’s meaningful and it’s something. But as a principal, I need to set systems up so kids are graduating to something. It’s it’s no longer. We no longer can’t just walk off the stage on the other side and fall into a job that’s going to be a living wage. And and it sounds like you’re you’re sharing data not only with kids, but you’re sharing data with families and different forms throughout your community to get them to understand that, you know? Yeah. Yes, yes, a two year degree is awesome, a trade is awesome and apprenticeship is awesome. Let’s get there. And then, and if I understand you correctly, like the pathway to make that happen is through academic rigor to prepare you for those whatever steps are next. Right? Yep. Ryan Arnold Absolutely. And I think the biggest shift for us too is, is, you know, zooming out from a granular level to zooming out to like a 10,000 foot view. We needed to ensure as a building that we were providing course offerings that were that were providing students the opportunity to get there. Right. And we were just we’re just now under contract with able or Better Lessons is not now at all, but we’re, we’re going to be doing a data review of our master scheduling and our course offerings to ensure that seven through 12 and mind you, we’re a single high school district, right? Yeah. But seven through 12, we are aligned with providing rigorous coursework starting in seventh grade so that we can continue to push kids on a trajectory that will get them to where they want to go. And we have not had that system alignment, from my understanding, I think almost ever in these values, which, right, wrong or indifferent, it’s just where we’re at and that’s okay. But we, we have some work to do even the following school year to ensure that we’re continuing to move kids through and keeping them on the path that they’ve shown that they can do. So a lot of us advising, a lot of it is just making sure that we have the bones and the infrastructure that’s, you know, able to support students. And that’s that’s kind of the next step is just really ensuring that what we’re doing is working and that we, you know, the cycle of inquiry, just making sure that we go back through and things are, you know, are good. And if they’re not, then we’ll make tweaks. And I think, a lot of it is just ensuring that, we have the information accessible as a system so that we can make informed decisions. Scott Friedman Well, can you talk about that? I mean, my mind just goes right, right to the data and something that you shared earlier. So criterion three planning with data. And you were like, we need we need to make sure that we have the correct data so we understand the why behind and what’s happening and going on. And so we can make informed decisions. You know, when you talk about course progressions, it’s like, well, where are students falling off a little bit. Where where are the the access opportunities, access and opportunity barriers showing up for marginalized populations, our black and black and brown students and what’s happening there. And so digging deep into that is a is a critical step. Wow. Ryan, you have shared some golden nuggets today. Some huge. Well, what do you guys call them. It’s the golden nugget. The golden plunger between East Valley West where the. Ryan Arnold Where the golden throne and. Scott Friedman The golden throne. The golden pledge. I knew there was something I have ever read. And we. Ryan Arnold We do anything outside of a bathroom that’s, like, unbelievable. Scott Friedman Yeah. Ryan Arnold And bathrooms are already a hot topic in schools anyways. Like, why? Why are we doing this? Scott Friedman Yeah. Speaking of it, you probably have to go, go, go monitor a few right now, but, if there’s if there’s one like nugget just leadership. And I know this is kind of not even a fair question, but, like, what is the the the most valuable lesson that you’ve learned about leadership, in your time at East Valley? Ryan Arnold Yeah, that’s a good one. I would say the most valuable lesson that I’ve learned is. Effective systemic change starts with a consistent vision, and that vision needs to be seen and believed by adults that are doing the work in classrooms. And I always, I always think of it as a bell curve. You’re going to have your golden retrievers that are super early adopters, like, yeah, let’s do it. Things are great. And then you have the cave people. They’re like, absolutely not. Never gonna happen. Good luck. And then you have like 33% in the center and then another 33% in the center. And those those are the focus folks, right? Those are the ones that you want to make sure that they’re getting bought into something, right? If you can slowly move those into the golden retriever zone, then you’re you’re doing the right work. And, the most valuable lesson is you can’t do it yourself, right? So if you’re if you’re trying to do it yourself, you’re going to burn out in three years. And that’s the average, ten year for a principal in Washington state, right? We want to make sure that we’re we’re setting up systems for ourselves as leaders to to distribute the leadership across the building so that the effect is more grandiose and not isolated to a specific area of the building. And I think that’s the largest lesson. It’s it’s not a huge like aha. I mean, that that’s something that leaders are doing. And I, I mentioned it earlier in the, in the podcast, but to not take the role seriously. What I really mean by that is I know that I’m not the smartest person in the room, and sometimes the answer is in the room. So let’s not take the role of principals so serious that your ideas, your vision, your thing has to happen. Open it up and listen and use listening as a tool to truly elevate what you’re trying to do in your building. Yeah. Until you do that, I found you’re talking to a wall. And then from there, and when it comes at that relationship piece, you’re going to dismantle the relationships with your staff, which then isn’t to trickle down to your kids. And you have to just really understand that shared distributed leadership is the way to make true systemic change, all the while supporting the continuous improvement. Because we all know in education, sometimes when the training, when the trainer, when someone leaves to a different system, sometimes that that system just diminishes and dissolves and goes away. We have to create sustainable systems, and that is through distributive leadership, so that if someone does leave, it doesn’t halt the system. It continues to move forward. Scott Friedman It continues. Yeah, yeah. Ryan Arnold Rather than, you know, having that one person that knows that one thing, it’s like, no, that’s not sustainable. We have to make sure it’s sustainable. So in a long, long story short, is making sure that you provide the opportunity for shared and distributed leadership so that you are not taking it all on yourself, or assuming that you have to take it on yourself. Scott Friedman Yeah. Wow. I’m going to have to go back and listen to this again, because there are so many little, little pieces that you dropped right in that I think we all identify with. And I think that when we when we sit back and reflect on our leadership and the journey that we’ve all had and, and I really, really appreciate you saying that, that, you know, I’m not the smartest person in the room. And I already know that when I know that when I walk in all the time, too, I’m like, all right, you guys give me the answer, you know? But that that notion of not taking yourself seriously, but taking what we do seriously and having fun with that is something that I’m just taking away from this opportunity to listen to you describe your journey and and the work that you’ve been able to do at East Valley High School in a very short period of time. Thank you. Thank you very much for giving of your time, but more importantly, for sharing. The truth about leadership and for continuing to have a true north for yourself. And I think that really came out today, that is relational. And it starts there, and it happens with kids first. And when kids feel like they are no one seen, understood and belong, we can do amazing things with them, for them and and create a future that they don’t even recognize as possible within themselves. So, I want to come work for you. Because it sounds like it would be awesome. Ryan Arnold We have we have a lot of fun, I can tell you that. Scott Friedman Yeah, I, I enjoy that, I enjoy that. So, but again, thanks a ton, Ryan. I know people that listen to this are going to greatly appreciate the the wisdom that you shared today. Ryan Arnold Well, thanks, Scott. I appreciate the opportunity in the time.