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CC#68: PBIS w/ Dr. Steve Archer of Delaware Ridge Elementary School

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Content provided by KPA: Kansas Principals Association. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by KPA: Kansas Principals Association or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://staging.podcastplayer.com/legal.

In this episode of Cool Coffee with Kansas Principals, Dr. Steve Archer, principal of Delaware Ridge Elementary School, shares his extensive experience in education and his insights on Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS). He discusses the transition from middle school to elementary education, the importance of building relationships with students, and the challenges of implementing PBIS. Dr. Archer emphasizes the need for a supportive school culture and the role of positive reinforcement in shaping student behavior. He also offers advice for educators looking to implement PBIS in their schools and highlights the welcoming community at Delaware Ridge.

Dr. Steve Archer

Delaware Ridge Elementary School

Bonner Springs-Edwardsville USD 204

Connect with Dr. Archer: [email protected]

Chapters (AI generated--times do not account for intro)

00:00 Introduction to PBIS and Dr. Steve Archer
06:30 Transitioning from Middle School to Elementary Education
12:30 Understanding PBIS: History and Implementation
18:28 Challenges and Misconceptions of PBIS
24:41 Building Relationships Through PBIS
30:22 Advice for Implementing PBIS in Schools
34:21 The Community and Culture at Delaware Ridge Elementary

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FULL TRANSCRIPT (AI generated)

Rick Sola (00:01.686)
Hello and welcome to Cool Coffee with Kansas principals. I'm here today with Dr. Steve Archer, principal of Delaware Ridge Elementary School in Bonner Springs, Edwardsville, USD 204. Welcome, Steve.

Steve Archer (00:15.278)
Thank you, Rick. It's great to be here.

Rick Sola (00:17.824)
Yeah, I am excited to have you on here in part because you're going to be presenting at USA Kansas here in just about a month. And you're going to be talking about a topic that I have really found myself enjoying and getting into, and that is PBIS. And we'll get into that in just a bit. But once again, at the end of a long day, I just want to say thank you for coming on. And it's a Tuesday here. It's April 29th.

no shortage of things occurring in our schools and on our calendars. So to add this, I really appreciate it.

Steve Archer (00:55.086)
Well, you know all about that full calendar, so I appreciate your time as well.

Rick Sola (01:01.28)
Yeah, well, it is also a fun time of year and we'll just start off here, first question, probably what everyone wants to know is are the Chiefs going to be moving out to your neck of the woods in Bonner or KCK or?

Steve Archer (01:15.458)
You know what, my primary concern is keeping them in the Kansas City area. And as long as we can do that, I'm gonna be a happy Chiefs fan.

Rick Sola (01:20.724)
Okay.

Rick Sola (01:25.068)
Yeah, it's funny because I was looking up, I wanted to see exactly where Delaware Ridge was. I was like, oh my gosh, you're really close to the speedway. And I know there's been rumblings of the chiefs. at least as of this recording, we don't really have any information. well, Steve, we'll start with where I like to start is just kind of a it's more or less a, I guess, introduction of yourself, but really your road to the chair of to Delaware Ridge Elementary School.

Steve Archer (01:53.55)
Sure. Well, Rick, my road has been a very long one. This is actually my 36th year in education. I started in middle school, and if you told me all those years ago that I'd be an elementary principal, I wouldn't have believed it because I started as a middle school teacher.

did that for seven years, then between a couple of districts was a middle school assistant principal for a while, and then had a great opportunity to become an elementary principal. So I had worked up to that point in the Kansas City, Missouri school district, Raytown school district, and then went to Park Hill for the last 16 years in Missouri, then was able to retire from the Missouri system, but

I love working in school and so I couldn't imagine actually retiring. So I was very, very fortunate to see the opening here in Bonner and when I came here I could just tell it was a very special place and a place that I would want to take my next step. So I was delighted when they called me and offered me the position. So that's how I ended up here at DRE.

Rick Sola (03:05.451)
That's great. I'm sorry, you've been you've been DRE, okay, that'll be helpful for me here, but you've been there how many years? Your first year in Kansas, okay.

Steve Archer (03:13.698)
This is my first year in Kansas, I just retired from Missouri at the end of the last school year and immediately started here.

Rick Sola (03:23.818)
wow, well welcome to the Kansas side of things and you know maybe the Chiefs will after all follow you over to Kansas so how about that?

Steve Archer (03:26.83)
Thank

Steve Archer (03:31.086)
Well, you know, I am a native Kansan. I actually grew up on the Kansas side of things. you know, one thing I've learned over time is we're a really great community regardless of which side of the state line it is. And so I feel very fortunate to have been able to grow up in Kansas City and then have a really great education career here too.

Rick Sola (03:53.452)
Well, it's really interesting being on the Kansas side. hear so often, and I have a lot of, have a really close principal friend who's retiring this year, and you just never know. Often we see the other direction. Our principals here, our educators here, we're going over to Missouri. And so to hear it conversely, that would actually make it kind of an interesting topic for this show. All the same, but no, well, very good. So.

Steve Archer (04:05.346)
Thank you.

Rick Sola (04:19.818)
You know, I'm 21 years into education. I've been in middle school all but one of those years. I had one year where I was teaching freshmen at the high school. We had a transition here where I'm at. What's the biggest adjustment from middle school to elementary that you would say?

Steve Archer (04:38.254)
Well, you know, with middle school there's typically just the three year span. And so you get like those 11, 12, 13 year old kiddos in elementary. And of course my school also has a pre-k classroom now. And so we have everything from four to 11 year olds here. so...

What I love about elementary is we just get to see kids grow up over time and get to see them develop skills and develop their personalities. so that is a really big difference. But I guess a similarity between the two is.

Kids just need adults who care about them, you know? And whether they're little or whether they're middle school, and even though I haven't taught in high school, I know they do too. And so it's just that common thread that goes all the way through. But definitely differences between middle school and elementary would be a lot around supervision, I would say, you know, making sure that...

As I recall in middle school, would have passing periods and kids would come and go as they needed to. And here at the elementary level, it's much more controlled by the teacher and making sure that we keep track of the classes all throughout the building as well.

Rick Sola (06:00.928)
Yeah, well, absolutely. kind of it's really a pretty natural segue. You just mentioned the importance of, you know, kids at all levels. Those relationships are so important. And certainly there's differences in logistics in a day and what that looks like at the three different levels of school. Some may argue that middle school, the three years of middle school feels like five years of growth, but certainly a lot of lot of growth and lot of

Steve Archer (06:25.368)
Thanks

Rick Sola (06:30.988)
But it's a good segue to PBIS and again, really intrigued and why I wanted to have you on. So you're gonna be presenting on this at USA Kansas here in about a month and those who may listen to this podcast are likely to attend. And so what I was really intrigued of, I was reading the description of your presentation is the reference to 15 years in PBIS.

Steve Archer (06:59.916)
Yes.

Rick Sola (07:00.894)
And so as a school, we were mentioning before we kind of went live here, but as a school that I'm at, we're in our third year of implementation, that conversation of longevity and keeping it going and, you know, it's constant involvement. Seeing 15 years is really, really intriguing, but I think a good place to start really would be kind of your history with PBIS. I know you're a big fan of it, a proponent of it. And so, you know, just, guess, starting off with

with your history, how did that start with PBIS and what was that hook that kind of led you now 15 years in?

Steve Archer (07:38.808)
You know, at the time I was in Missouri and my school had really good kids and we just expected them to come in and do what we expected them to do. And they did for the most part. Some kiddos struggled a bit with the expectations, but a lot of them just came in and did the right thing.

And when I became aware of PBIS, one of the things that really struck me is we're not recognizing the awesomeness that these kids bring into our building every day. And you know, everybody likes a good out of boy, out of girl every once in a while, even if we're doing the right thing. And so just that acknowledgement and again, going back to the relationship piece, you,

those positives draw staff and students together and build those relationships when

I notice a student being respectful or responsible or safe. That's a really great way for me to let them know you make our school a better place to be. And so that was very appealing to me that we got a chance to thank these students who were doing the right thing and sometimes seemed a bit unseen. It also struck me that as we were doing that, we would be able to catch some of the kiddos who maybe didn't always make the best choices, but if we

caught them at the right moment, we could positively reinforce those things that we were going after so that we would get more of that with in a positive way rather than really focusing on the negatives.

Rick Sola (09:26.666)
So pushback, challenges out of the chute, especially starting up a program. It's one thing to have it and tweak it and adjust it, but starting it up, what were some of those initial challenges maybe amongst staff and whether a community or kids and that sort of thing?

Steve Archer (09:47.086)
Yeah, I think that is a reality. I had parents who said, why are you rewarding kids? They should be doing these things. And that surprised me because it was their children I was rewarding. So that was a little bit of a surprise and that wasn't a big voice, but it was definitely a conversation that we had to have. My take on that is I get positively reinforced a couple of times a month.

in the form of a paycheck that goes into my account. I love what I'm doing. I love doing the right thing. But it's great to get positively reinforced with that paycheck. Our kiddos obviously are not getting monetarily paid, but we all like having those things that we know we've earned.

From a staff standpoint, I think we sometimes have a lot of work to do to reframe some of our thinking around behavior because a lot of us grew up with the good kid, bad kid binary kind of thinking and with PBIS and with several of the models, it's more of looking at teaching that behavior and that it's our responsibility to teach

behavior just like it's our responsibility to teach any of the content that students come in contact with over the course of a day. And so I know for me,

Certainly I've changed my philosophy of behavior over the years. so I think with any of the staff members, we just have to be patient but also persistent in helping shift that narrative to it's our responsibility to teach behavior just like we teach content.

Rick Sola (11:36.16)
Yeah, there's a really good quote and I'm going to totally butcher it so I won't even try to, but the essence is, you know, if someone's misbehaving, we teach this or it, I think you know where I'm going. I am not articulating it well, but the main point is when a student acts out, we, and then fill in the blank with it's a consequence of some sort, which, you know, to that point, I'm curious of your experience with it is, you know, one of the misnomers that

Steve Archer (11:45.73)
Yes. I know exactly. Yes.

Rick Sola (12:05.74)
I remember when we went through the development and we continue as our district works with this, there are consequences still part of PBIS. And I think there's this, maybe if we're not totally informed on PBS, we think, well, it's a token reward system for things that we should be doing anyway and kids can never get in trouble. But that's not accurate.

Steve Archer (12:30.286)
It's really not. I work in a real life elementary school. I dealt with discipline today and there were consequences. However, consequences don't always mean a negative thing. It just simply means the outcome of the behavior.

And so I think that's one thing is to stop just assuming the consequences are negative. But then also, you know, in the vein of conscious discipline, there's a lot of focus on natural consequences and logical consequences. The more we can look at the consequences that we have in place.

and determine are they natural or are they logical and are we keeping them close to the behavior? You know, I think the closer we can get to the behavior and shaping the behavior...

We simply have to decide, are we wanting to our vengeance for a perceived wrong that a child has done, or are we wanting to teach them for the future? Are we wanting a short term, aha, I got them, or are we wanting a long term, I taught that child, and I helped them see a more productive way to do things. And I think the more we can look at the child's future and helping them develop those more

appropriate skills and that sort of thing, the less we worry about getting kids. That having been said, we do still have to have an orderly environment. There's a principle of BIST that says the classroom has to be as good or better when you're here, or you can't be here. And so sometimes I say that to kids, you know, your classroom needs to be as good or better when you're present. Did you make it as good or better? If not, what do we need to do to fix that?

Steve Archer (14:21.364)
And so I do think that idea of there are no consequences with any discipline model can be a real misrepresentation. But at the same time, we need to do our own soul searching as the adults and decide, are we trying to get long term gain that benefits the child or are we just trying to get vengeance for some perceived wrong because they inconvenienced us today.

Rick Sola (14:49.502)
It's a really good, first of all, that's a really good quote. I wrote it down. If you're good or it's a good or better when you're present or, you know, you know, there's certainly a mind shift and, you know, we're a few years in and, and I think we have a lot of things really positive in place and that we're kind of adjusting and evolving and reassessing. But it's interesting too, there's a mind shift for students. And I have had situations where I've had students in my office or I've been out at a

Steve Archer (14:56.13)
video.

Rick Sola (15:18.102)
football game and I've had to address a behavior and I've had the conversation, I've had the necessary consequences if you will, and they've responded the way I would hope and ask and eye contact, nodding, understand. And I'd give them a, we have tokens, I would give them a token and it's like, wait, I'm supposed to be in a fist bump to conclude it. And I said, look, you're not getting a token because you just, you know, did.

Action A over there, that's not what this is about. But when I called you over, you came over. We were able to have a conversation. We talked about our program, our values here in the building, which I'm gonna ask you about if you have one of the acronyms that often go along with PBIS. Because it's really all about, we have expected behaviors. And when a student provides expected behaviors, especially in a situation where they've maybe made a bad choice,

It's a mind shift perhaps, but it's not inappropriate to say, I appreciate that. Because the alternative is they could have run the other direction or they could have cussed me out or they could have done this or that. We were able to have a good conversation, address the situation, and hopefully it doesn't happen again.

Steve Archer (16:36.53)
If you do need to address something again, how much more likely are they to partner with you the next time? Or how much more when they're tempted to do something, are they to think, you know what, maybe I don't do that? And so again, you're teaching for the long term rather than trying to catch them doing wrong. And that's really what PBIS is all about.

Rick Sola (16:59.062)
Yeah, and really what you just mentioned there is I think why I like it so much is it encourages and promotes that interaction that can be very positive, even surrounding a hard or challenging situation or a poor choice. And it does, it builds those relationships, which goes back to the very start of this conversation. But it does not ignore or dismiss behavior, if anything.

It's an active program to correct it. So I was going to ask you, I referenced we use tokens here. What is your form of currency at Delaware Ridge?

Steve Archer (17:36.898)
Yeah, we use the PBIS rewards app and so we have no physical tokens. All of ours is electronic. I will say it is a much more efficient system than when.

We started 15 years ago in my previous school and we had slips of paper and there were people who hand counted them to see you know how many have been handed out. I can open that app and very quickly tell you how many have been rewarded this month, how many for each category, each grade level, lots of very specific reports that I can get so that then we can move forward based on the data.

that we have. So it does make it a lot more efficient for us.

Rick Sola (18:28.332)
Do students always know when they receive, I'm going say token, when they receive that recognition or does it just kind of appear in their bank or how do they know?

Steve Archer (18:39.97)
No, they should know because really the token or the item, that is only part of it. I know when I catch a class in the hall, and this happens a lot and I'm very proud of it, but when I catch them in the hall and I stop them, you know, a lot of times I'll say...

I saw you before I heard you because you were so quiet and appropriate in the hallway and to me that says you were being respectful.

you were being responsible for your own behavior and you were helping keep our school safe. So you know what? I'm going to recognize you with not one, not two, but three points because you did all those things. so then they do know and a lot of times there's a place to put a comment. And if I'm recognizing the whole class, I'll enter that comment that says your class did a great job in the hall. And so then they know they're going to get those added. I will also say in the

classroom, one of the things that has been a benefit to teachers is they can recognize students with or without saying anything, but there you can turn the tone on or off with PBIS rewards. And you know I kid and say it's positively Pavlovian because as soon as they hear that tone

You can just see the shift in the body language and in the focus on the work and things like that because they know the teacher is noticing and they're looking for students to be that respectful, responsible, and safe student.

Rick Sola (20:22.848)
Great. So your students, they have a device and the app is loaded on their device as well? Or is it a... Okay.

Steve Archer (20:27.946)
No, the students don't, the teacher does. And so they can just use the app and they'll hear the teacher's phone ding. Or sometimes the teacher will walk through the room and say, Steve, I see you working really hard. I'm going to give you a point for being responsible or that kind of thing.

Rick Sola (20:49.6)
We went round and round. That's why I'm curious because we talked a lot about tokens or electronic, and we ultimately leaned on tokens, and it has some challenges with that. The data collection isn't quite there as far as what you're describing. We landed on tokens for that kind of personal interaction, but it presents some challenges with every year we got to get the tokens back. There's always loss, and we got to repurchase, and there's a cost to the tokens themselves.

Steve Archer (21:07.309)
Yes.

Rick Sola (21:19.692)
You mentioned respect and responsible. What are your letters or posters look like?

Steve Archer (21:25.976)
Yeah, so we had a building pledge before we started PBIS here in this building. This is the first year of our PBIS implementation here at Delaware Ridge. So we simply changed some of the wording. We didn't, you know, throw out the baby with the bath water and it says, I am somebody.

The me I see is the me I will be. I can be respectful, responsible, and safe. I can succeed. So that's the pledge that our students say every morning after they say the Pledge of Allegiance.

Rick Sola (22:00.716)
Very good. And how about tier two? Have you had much work with that as you're building currently implementing tier two using the tier two model?

Steve Archer (22:10.574)
we are, we do have some students who are part of our check-in and check-out. It's, you know, we're working toward developing those tier two and tier three interventions.

This year my main goal has been making sure that we have a solid tier one implementation, we have begun, you know, there are just some students who need that additional support of like a check-in, check-out and things like that. And so we do have that in place as well.

Rick Sola (22:42.956)
We have found a lot of success with moving to tier two. We did a similar approach that first year. It was really all about tier one, trying to reach fidelity. Our kids, they know our values, ROCs is what we call it. then we, by getting into tier two, I feel like that's where, I think that's where a lot of value in PBIS is. That's where, you know, cause not every student is, know, tier one's not gonna just

be there forever. It's there for everyone, but it's not going to always fix a need or provide support. And that tier two has, you mentioned the check-in, check-out. We've had a lot of success stories with that. Most of the time, once the kids are in there and they get out, they don't go back in. Sometimes we have had a student or two that we reintroduced, check-in, check-out, but it's always successful while they're there. We're at the point of

Steve Archer (23:17.422)
That's right.

Rick Sola (23:41.824)
we're kind of broadening even from that part of the PBIS process, but very exciting. And when you have those success stories with students with challenging behavior, it's fulfilling, especially middle school.

Steve Archer (23:56.59)
Absolutely. Yes, I remember those days. But you know, if we can build skills at the elementary that kids can carry with them into middle school, what kind of, I mean, that's a huge gift, not only to them, but to that middle school. To not just...

limp through and send them on, but to really help them develop skills that will help them grow as students and as people so that they can just use those in a variety of aspects of their lives. And again, it goes back to relationship, particularly with a check-in, check-out, or a check-in, connect. It's the relationship that really makes the difference there.

Rick Sola (24:41.558)
So after this episode, and perhaps you'll have several principals in your session at USA Kansas, and someone's really intrigued, and they're like, I really want to take this to my building. What would be a piece of advice you would give to the upstart of the program at a building that hasn't had it before?

Steve Archer (25:03.374)
It's definitely a team sport, if you will. This is not a principal thing. It is a building approach. Also, it is a framework. I came from a building that had implemented PBIS for 15 years. There are things that fit at Delaware Ridge. There are things that do not fit yet at Delaware Ridge. And to come into this building and

and expect all of those things to transfer would have been a mistake. So I definitely think you need to get, I think first of all, would do my research and find out about the premise behind PBIS. This is not a passing fancy. It's been around for a long time and it is an approach that has

the research and the evidence behind it. But then you also have to let your staff in on that.

and make sure that they understand that this isn't going to be the flavor of the year. This is going to be an approach that we take that we're going to build from the ground up in a way that makes sense for our building so that we can develop those positive relationships with kids. And what we're looking to do is teach behavior for every area of our building, classroom, assemblies, restrooms.

lunch, all of those things and really get all of that lined out with staff before the kids ever walk in the door.

Rick Sola (26:43.232)
You know, one thing that I was really excited about when I started here, when we started PBIS, we have some neighboring shops and restaurants and things. you know, unfortunately not always were we the best representatives of, you know, after school and hanging out. And we tried to extend, we did extend our program across the street a little bit.

And we had a couple businesses that were willing to give out tokens and hang some posters and just show, of support it. try to, kind of to your point, from the elementary to the middle, I try to advertise this isn't just a Chisholm Trail thing or a school thing. We're talking about respect and ownership and that's a life thing. And so these are skills that you work on now, you hopefully sharpen. And sometimes we see that

two steps back in the process. That's where they're at in their lives, there's a lot of just kind of fulfillment with this program that has really been energizing even now that we're three years in, four years after the build of it.

Steve Archer (28:00.322)
you're seeing good outcomes from that. I love that idea of a business partnership. I've not worked in a school that had a business close enough to do that sort of thing and so I

excited about hearing to hear that because what a great way to expand that out. know we've worked to add some things for our bus riders because it's very hard for a know one driver on a bus of all the students to take care of all their responsibilities to drive kids safely and to focus on that positive reinforcement. But we've come up with

with a little bit of a different approach. It's still in the spirit of PBIS though, and so that's a piece that I'll be sharing at the conference, just to talk about our initial successes with that.

Rick Sola (28:58.486)
Well, and kind of to that point, that's what I really like about the program too, is it's customizable. Like you mentioned, what worked at your previous school either doesn't right now or it's not a good fit for whatever reason. And PBIS is a framework, like you mentioned earlier as well, but you can make it your own to fit your population and your community, is what I love about it. You referenced your presentation and...

teaser what what can people expect if they're going to be sitting in your USA Kansas conference here in a month.

Steve Archer (29:36.558)
I think one of the things that I hope people will take away are several things, definitely it's a framework. And I am not a purist when it comes to behavior models because what they'll probably hear, what I know they'll hear is PBIS.

but they will also hear echoes of conscious discipline and they'll also hear pieces of this that we've brought into our work here at Delaware Ridge. And for me, it's about finding those positives that work within your school, but still being true to the spirit behind PBIS.

I think always keeping that teaching focus and finding out how you do that. And I'll just share how we did it or how we do it here and what we found works here. I mentioned partnering with our bus drivers who, you know, that's a very challenging job sometimes, particularly at the end of the day when the kids are kind of done and they're ready to be home. That can be a big challenge. And then another piece that I'll be sharing is how we

share some positives with parents as well. So we use some different approaches for that too, so that parents see that, you know, we care about your kid. We are glad they're here and we want you to know that they're a positive part of our learning community and that we don't take that for granted.

Rick Sola (31:14.048)
Yeah, it'll be a great session and if anyone's listening to this prior to, definitely stop in. And I knew a little bit about PBIS where I'm at. We had a rollout probably 10 years prior as a district. I would say we've made a lot of adjustments and improvement and we've recast it and it's kind of the full, jumping in with both feet and it's been really, really positive. So looking forward to that. Steve, you're a year one principal in Kansas.

And KPA, it's a KPA podcast. What has KPA meant to you in the seven months, eight months that you've been with us?

Steve Archer (31:53.314)
Well, I will say I've enjoyed the episodes of this particular podcast that I've been able to listen to and learn and just to get excited about some of the work that's happening in Kansas that I didn't know about before, you know, and so I'm really looking forward to going to the conference, going to sessions and continuing to learn because, you know, we work in education. We should continue to learn regardless of how long we've, we've,

been in education so I'm really looking forward to learning at the conference coming up.

Rick Sola (32:25.804)
Have you been to the USA Conference, attended it before?

Steve Archer (32:27.662)
I have not. I've always gone on the Missouri side to our MAESP conference.

Rick Sola (32:33.996)
It's a great conference. I would also put a plug in, there's actually a KPA conference in November. So keep an eye out for that. It's a little smaller than USA Kansas, but it's in the same location, or it's in Wichita, but really, really strong conference and just great opportunities to network and learn from each other. Just fantastic. well, Steve, I'm gonna have us end on, you mentioned Delaware Ridge or DRE.

Bragg on your people here that you've gotten to know over the last several months.

Steve Archer (33:02.476)
Yes.

Steve Archer (33:07.724)
You know, I believe that some, most of the time you can really get the heart of the building by walking into the office. And when I walked into the school, it was very welcoming and I could go into details on that. But the bottom line is there was a tone in the office that welcomed me. And that has proven to be true across our building.

I say of the people who work here, they don't work here because they don't have other choices. They work here because they want to be here and they love our kids and

they love each other. it really is a wonderful learning community. And there are times that I will overhear people just laughing together or problem solving together or that kind of thing. And I just smile to myself and I'm just like, really? This is where I ended up. And so it's a very, very special school and a very special district.

I am surprised I didn't know more about this district before I came here, but I'm very grateful to be at Delaware Ridge now.

Rick Sola (34:21.472)
Great, really nice words and just very neat to be able to come over and like you said, retire from one state on over here to another and to join a community that's so welcoming. And you're right, you can certainly feel a lot when you just walk into an office of a school. what an important message. Awesome for them to hear that. I hope they hear this, to hear you say that. But important for everyone to hear that because the office...

Oftentimes they're the ones that are interacting with the community, not us. Most of our parents are dropping lunches off or making phone calls. So, excellent.

Steve Archer (34:54.286)
absolutely.

Steve Archer (34:59.64)
That's right. Yes, and my front office, they're just some of the best of the best about that. Welcoming our families. Teachers come and they need something. They're more than willing to help with that. Somebody needs to step away from the office. Somebody else comes in and helps. That front office is such a hub of our building.

There are a lot of fun times that we have there, but then we also know how to take care of business. again, DRE is a special place. I feel very fortunate to be here.

Rick Sola (35:32.822)
Great, well, thank you for your time. At the end of a busy day, a long day, and I look forward to, I'll meet you in person, hopefully, out here in Wichita in a few weeks. It's getting that close, so.

Steve Archer (35:45.004)
It is getting close. Alright, thanks so much, Rick.

Rick Sola (35:47.98)
Alright, thank you Steve.

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In this episode of Cool Coffee with Kansas Principals, Dr. Steve Archer, principal of Delaware Ridge Elementary School, shares his extensive experience in education and his insights on Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS). He discusses the transition from middle school to elementary education, the importance of building relationships with students, and the challenges of implementing PBIS. Dr. Archer emphasizes the need for a supportive school culture and the role of positive reinforcement in shaping student behavior. He also offers advice for educators looking to implement PBIS in their schools and highlights the welcoming community at Delaware Ridge.

Dr. Steve Archer

Delaware Ridge Elementary School

Bonner Springs-Edwardsville USD 204

Connect with Dr. Archer: [email protected]

Chapters (AI generated--times do not account for intro)

00:00 Introduction to PBIS and Dr. Steve Archer
06:30 Transitioning from Middle School to Elementary Education
12:30 Understanding PBIS: History and Implementation
18:28 Challenges and Misconceptions of PBIS
24:41 Building Relationships Through PBIS
30:22 Advice for Implementing PBIS in Schools
34:21 The Community and Culture at Delaware Ridge Elementary

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FULL TRANSCRIPT (AI generated)

Rick Sola (00:01.686)
Hello and welcome to Cool Coffee with Kansas principals. I'm here today with Dr. Steve Archer, principal of Delaware Ridge Elementary School in Bonner Springs, Edwardsville, USD 204. Welcome, Steve.

Steve Archer (00:15.278)
Thank you, Rick. It's great to be here.

Rick Sola (00:17.824)
Yeah, I am excited to have you on here in part because you're going to be presenting at USA Kansas here in just about a month. And you're going to be talking about a topic that I have really found myself enjoying and getting into, and that is PBIS. And we'll get into that in just a bit. But once again, at the end of a long day, I just want to say thank you for coming on. And it's a Tuesday here. It's April 29th.

no shortage of things occurring in our schools and on our calendars. So to add this, I really appreciate it.

Steve Archer (00:55.086)
Well, you know all about that full calendar, so I appreciate your time as well.

Rick Sola (01:01.28)
Yeah, well, it is also a fun time of year and we'll just start off here, first question, probably what everyone wants to know is are the Chiefs going to be moving out to your neck of the woods in Bonner or KCK or?

Steve Archer (01:15.458)
You know what, my primary concern is keeping them in the Kansas City area. And as long as we can do that, I'm gonna be a happy Chiefs fan.

Rick Sola (01:20.724)
Okay.

Rick Sola (01:25.068)
Yeah, it's funny because I was looking up, I wanted to see exactly where Delaware Ridge was. I was like, oh my gosh, you're really close to the speedway. And I know there's been rumblings of the chiefs. at least as of this recording, we don't really have any information. well, Steve, we'll start with where I like to start is just kind of a it's more or less a, I guess, introduction of yourself, but really your road to the chair of to Delaware Ridge Elementary School.

Steve Archer (01:53.55)
Sure. Well, Rick, my road has been a very long one. This is actually my 36th year in education. I started in middle school, and if you told me all those years ago that I'd be an elementary principal, I wouldn't have believed it because I started as a middle school teacher.

did that for seven years, then between a couple of districts was a middle school assistant principal for a while, and then had a great opportunity to become an elementary principal. So I had worked up to that point in the Kansas City, Missouri school district, Raytown school district, and then went to Park Hill for the last 16 years in Missouri, then was able to retire from the Missouri system, but

I love working in school and so I couldn't imagine actually retiring. So I was very, very fortunate to see the opening here in Bonner and when I came here I could just tell it was a very special place and a place that I would want to take my next step. So I was delighted when they called me and offered me the position. So that's how I ended up here at DRE.

Rick Sola (03:05.451)
That's great. I'm sorry, you've been you've been DRE, okay, that'll be helpful for me here, but you've been there how many years? Your first year in Kansas, okay.

Steve Archer (03:13.698)
This is my first year in Kansas, I just retired from Missouri at the end of the last school year and immediately started here.

Rick Sola (03:23.818)
wow, well welcome to the Kansas side of things and you know maybe the Chiefs will after all follow you over to Kansas so how about that?

Steve Archer (03:26.83)
Thank

Steve Archer (03:31.086)
Well, you know, I am a native Kansan. I actually grew up on the Kansas side of things. you know, one thing I've learned over time is we're a really great community regardless of which side of the state line it is. And so I feel very fortunate to have been able to grow up in Kansas City and then have a really great education career here too.

Rick Sola (03:53.452)
Well, it's really interesting being on the Kansas side. hear so often, and I have a lot of, have a really close principal friend who's retiring this year, and you just never know. Often we see the other direction. Our principals here, our educators here, we're going over to Missouri. And so to hear it conversely, that would actually make it kind of an interesting topic for this show. All the same, but no, well, very good. So.

Steve Archer (04:05.346)
Thank you.

Rick Sola (04:19.818)
You know, I'm 21 years into education. I've been in middle school all but one of those years. I had one year where I was teaching freshmen at the high school. We had a transition here where I'm at. What's the biggest adjustment from middle school to elementary that you would say?

Steve Archer (04:38.254)
Well, you know, with middle school there's typically just the three year span. And so you get like those 11, 12, 13 year old kiddos in elementary. And of course my school also has a pre-k classroom now. And so we have everything from four to 11 year olds here. so...

What I love about elementary is we just get to see kids grow up over time and get to see them develop skills and develop their personalities. so that is a really big difference. But I guess a similarity between the two is.

Kids just need adults who care about them, you know? And whether they're little or whether they're middle school, and even though I haven't taught in high school, I know they do too. And so it's just that common thread that goes all the way through. But definitely differences between middle school and elementary would be a lot around supervision, I would say, you know, making sure that...

As I recall in middle school, would have passing periods and kids would come and go as they needed to. And here at the elementary level, it's much more controlled by the teacher and making sure that we keep track of the classes all throughout the building as well.

Rick Sola (06:00.928)
Yeah, well, absolutely. kind of it's really a pretty natural segue. You just mentioned the importance of, you know, kids at all levels. Those relationships are so important. And certainly there's differences in logistics in a day and what that looks like at the three different levels of school. Some may argue that middle school, the three years of middle school feels like five years of growth, but certainly a lot of lot of growth and lot of

Steve Archer (06:25.368)
Thanks

Rick Sola (06:30.988)
But it's a good segue to PBIS and again, really intrigued and why I wanted to have you on. So you're gonna be presenting on this at USA Kansas here in about a month and those who may listen to this podcast are likely to attend. And so what I was really intrigued of, I was reading the description of your presentation is the reference to 15 years in PBIS.

Steve Archer (06:59.916)
Yes.

Rick Sola (07:00.894)
And so as a school, we were mentioning before we kind of went live here, but as a school that I'm at, we're in our third year of implementation, that conversation of longevity and keeping it going and, you know, it's constant involvement. Seeing 15 years is really, really intriguing, but I think a good place to start really would be kind of your history with PBIS. I know you're a big fan of it, a proponent of it. And so, you know, just, guess, starting off with

with your history, how did that start with PBIS and what was that hook that kind of led you now 15 years in?

Steve Archer (07:38.808)
You know, at the time I was in Missouri and my school had really good kids and we just expected them to come in and do what we expected them to do. And they did for the most part. Some kiddos struggled a bit with the expectations, but a lot of them just came in and did the right thing.

And when I became aware of PBIS, one of the things that really struck me is we're not recognizing the awesomeness that these kids bring into our building every day. And you know, everybody likes a good out of boy, out of girl every once in a while, even if we're doing the right thing. And so just that acknowledgement and again, going back to the relationship piece, you,

those positives draw staff and students together and build those relationships when

I notice a student being respectful or responsible or safe. That's a really great way for me to let them know you make our school a better place to be. And so that was very appealing to me that we got a chance to thank these students who were doing the right thing and sometimes seemed a bit unseen. It also struck me that as we were doing that, we would be able to catch some of the kiddos who maybe didn't always make the best choices, but if we

caught them at the right moment, we could positively reinforce those things that we were going after so that we would get more of that with in a positive way rather than really focusing on the negatives.

Rick Sola (09:26.666)
So pushback, challenges out of the chute, especially starting up a program. It's one thing to have it and tweak it and adjust it, but starting it up, what were some of those initial challenges maybe amongst staff and whether a community or kids and that sort of thing?

Steve Archer (09:47.086)
Yeah, I think that is a reality. I had parents who said, why are you rewarding kids? They should be doing these things. And that surprised me because it was their children I was rewarding. So that was a little bit of a surprise and that wasn't a big voice, but it was definitely a conversation that we had to have. My take on that is I get positively reinforced a couple of times a month.

in the form of a paycheck that goes into my account. I love what I'm doing. I love doing the right thing. But it's great to get positively reinforced with that paycheck. Our kiddos obviously are not getting monetarily paid, but we all like having those things that we know we've earned.

From a staff standpoint, I think we sometimes have a lot of work to do to reframe some of our thinking around behavior because a lot of us grew up with the good kid, bad kid binary kind of thinking and with PBIS and with several of the models, it's more of looking at teaching that behavior and that it's our responsibility to teach

behavior just like it's our responsibility to teach any of the content that students come in contact with over the course of a day. And so I know for me,

Certainly I've changed my philosophy of behavior over the years. so I think with any of the staff members, we just have to be patient but also persistent in helping shift that narrative to it's our responsibility to teach behavior just like we teach content.

Rick Sola (11:36.16)
Yeah, there's a really good quote and I'm going to totally butcher it so I won't even try to, but the essence is, you know, if someone's misbehaving, we teach this or it, I think you know where I'm going. I am not articulating it well, but the main point is when a student acts out, we, and then fill in the blank with it's a consequence of some sort, which, you know, to that point, I'm curious of your experience with it is, you know, one of the misnomers that

Steve Archer (11:45.73)
Yes. I know exactly. Yes.

Rick Sola (12:05.74)
I remember when we went through the development and we continue as our district works with this, there are consequences still part of PBIS. And I think there's this, maybe if we're not totally informed on PBS, we think, well, it's a token reward system for things that we should be doing anyway and kids can never get in trouble. But that's not accurate.

Steve Archer (12:30.286)
It's really not. I work in a real life elementary school. I dealt with discipline today and there were consequences. However, consequences don't always mean a negative thing. It just simply means the outcome of the behavior.

And so I think that's one thing is to stop just assuming the consequences are negative. But then also, you know, in the vein of conscious discipline, there's a lot of focus on natural consequences and logical consequences. The more we can look at the consequences that we have in place.

and determine are they natural or are they logical and are we keeping them close to the behavior? You know, I think the closer we can get to the behavior and shaping the behavior...

We simply have to decide, are we wanting to our vengeance for a perceived wrong that a child has done, or are we wanting to teach them for the future? Are we wanting a short term, aha, I got them, or are we wanting a long term, I taught that child, and I helped them see a more productive way to do things. And I think the more we can look at the child's future and helping them develop those more

appropriate skills and that sort of thing, the less we worry about getting kids. That having been said, we do still have to have an orderly environment. There's a principle of BIST that says the classroom has to be as good or better when you're here, or you can't be here. And so sometimes I say that to kids, you know, your classroom needs to be as good or better when you're present. Did you make it as good or better? If not, what do we need to do to fix that?

Steve Archer (14:21.364)
And so I do think that idea of there are no consequences with any discipline model can be a real misrepresentation. But at the same time, we need to do our own soul searching as the adults and decide, are we trying to get long term gain that benefits the child or are we just trying to get vengeance for some perceived wrong because they inconvenienced us today.

Rick Sola (14:49.502)
It's a really good, first of all, that's a really good quote. I wrote it down. If you're good or it's a good or better when you're present or, you know, you know, there's certainly a mind shift and, you know, we're a few years in and, and I think we have a lot of things really positive in place and that we're kind of adjusting and evolving and reassessing. But it's interesting too, there's a mind shift for students. And I have had situations where I've had students in my office or I've been out at a

Steve Archer (14:56.13)
video.

Rick Sola (15:18.102)
football game and I've had to address a behavior and I've had the conversation, I've had the necessary consequences if you will, and they've responded the way I would hope and ask and eye contact, nodding, understand. And I'd give them a, we have tokens, I would give them a token and it's like, wait, I'm supposed to be in a fist bump to conclude it. And I said, look, you're not getting a token because you just, you know, did.

Action A over there, that's not what this is about. But when I called you over, you came over. We were able to have a conversation. We talked about our program, our values here in the building, which I'm gonna ask you about if you have one of the acronyms that often go along with PBIS. Because it's really all about, we have expected behaviors. And when a student provides expected behaviors, especially in a situation where they've maybe made a bad choice,

It's a mind shift perhaps, but it's not inappropriate to say, I appreciate that. Because the alternative is they could have run the other direction or they could have cussed me out or they could have done this or that. We were able to have a good conversation, address the situation, and hopefully it doesn't happen again.

Steve Archer (16:36.53)
If you do need to address something again, how much more likely are they to partner with you the next time? Or how much more when they're tempted to do something, are they to think, you know what, maybe I don't do that? And so again, you're teaching for the long term rather than trying to catch them doing wrong. And that's really what PBIS is all about.

Rick Sola (16:59.062)
Yeah, and really what you just mentioned there is I think why I like it so much is it encourages and promotes that interaction that can be very positive, even surrounding a hard or challenging situation or a poor choice. And it does, it builds those relationships, which goes back to the very start of this conversation. But it does not ignore or dismiss behavior, if anything.

It's an active program to correct it. So I was going to ask you, I referenced we use tokens here. What is your form of currency at Delaware Ridge?

Steve Archer (17:36.898)
Yeah, we use the PBIS rewards app and so we have no physical tokens. All of ours is electronic. I will say it is a much more efficient system than when.

We started 15 years ago in my previous school and we had slips of paper and there were people who hand counted them to see you know how many have been handed out. I can open that app and very quickly tell you how many have been rewarded this month, how many for each category, each grade level, lots of very specific reports that I can get so that then we can move forward based on the data.

that we have. So it does make it a lot more efficient for us.

Rick Sola (18:28.332)
Do students always know when they receive, I'm going say token, when they receive that recognition or does it just kind of appear in their bank or how do they know?

Steve Archer (18:39.97)
No, they should know because really the token or the item, that is only part of it. I know when I catch a class in the hall, and this happens a lot and I'm very proud of it, but when I catch them in the hall and I stop them, you know, a lot of times I'll say...

I saw you before I heard you because you were so quiet and appropriate in the hallway and to me that says you were being respectful.

you were being responsible for your own behavior and you were helping keep our school safe. So you know what? I'm going to recognize you with not one, not two, but three points because you did all those things. so then they do know and a lot of times there's a place to put a comment. And if I'm recognizing the whole class, I'll enter that comment that says your class did a great job in the hall. And so then they know they're going to get those added. I will also say in the

classroom, one of the things that has been a benefit to teachers is they can recognize students with or without saying anything, but there you can turn the tone on or off with PBIS rewards. And you know I kid and say it's positively Pavlovian because as soon as they hear that tone

You can just see the shift in the body language and in the focus on the work and things like that because they know the teacher is noticing and they're looking for students to be that respectful, responsible, and safe student.

Rick Sola (20:22.848)
Great. So your students, they have a device and the app is loaded on their device as well? Or is it a... Okay.

Steve Archer (20:27.946)
No, the students don't, the teacher does. And so they can just use the app and they'll hear the teacher's phone ding. Or sometimes the teacher will walk through the room and say, Steve, I see you working really hard. I'm going to give you a point for being responsible or that kind of thing.

Rick Sola (20:49.6)
We went round and round. That's why I'm curious because we talked a lot about tokens or electronic, and we ultimately leaned on tokens, and it has some challenges with that. The data collection isn't quite there as far as what you're describing. We landed on tokens for that kind of personal interaction, but it presents some challenges with every year we got to get the tokens back. There's always loss, and we got to repurchase, and there's a cost to the tokens themselves.

Steve Archer (21:07.309)
Yes.

Rick Sola (21:19.692)
You mentioned respect and responsible. What are your letters or posters look like?

Steve Archer (21:25.976)
Yeah, so we had a building pledge before we started PBIS here in this building. This is the first year of our PBIS implementation here at Delaware Ridge. So we simply changed some of the wording. We didn't, you know, throw out the baby with the bath water and it says, I am somebody.

The me I see is the me I will be. I can be respectful, responsible, and safe. I can succeed. So that's the pledge that our students say every morning after they say the Pledge of Allegiance.

Rick Sola (22:00.716)
Very good. And how about tier two? Have you had much work with that as you're building currently implementing tier two using the tier two model?

Steve Archer (22:10.574)
we are, we do have some students who are part of our check-in and check-out. It's, you know, we're working toward developing those tier two and tier three interventions.

This year my main goal has been making sure that we have a solid tier one implementation, we have begun, you know, there are just some students who need that additional support of like a check-in, check-out and things like that. And so we do have that in place as well.

Rick Sola (22:42.956)
We have found a lot of success with moving to tier two. We did a similar approach that first year. It was really all about tier one, trying to reach fidelity. Our kids, they know our values, ROCs is what we call it. then we, by getting into tier two, I feel like that's where, I think that's where a lot of value in PBIS is. That's where, you know, cause not every student is, know, tier one's not gonna just

be there forever. It's there for everyone, but it's not going to always fix a need or provide support. And that tier two has, you mentioned the check-in, check-out. We've had a lot of success stories with that. Most of the time, once the kids are in there and they get out, they don't go back in. Sometimes we have had a student or two that we reintroduced, check-in, check-out, but it's always successful while they're there. We're at the point of

Steve Archer (23:17.422)
That's right.

Rick Sola (23:41.824)
we're kind of broadening even from that part of the PBIS process, but very exciting. And when you have those success stories with students with challenging behavior, it's fulfilling, especially middle school.

Steve Archer (23:56.59)
Absolutely. Yes, I remember those days. But you know, if we can build skills at the elementary that kids can carry with them into middle school, what kind of, I mean, that's a huge gift, not only to them, but to that middle school. To not just...

limp through and send them on, but to really help them develop skills that will help them grow as students and as people so that they can just use those in a variety of aspects of their lives. And again, it goes back to relationship, particularly with a check-in, check-out, or a check-in, connect. It's the relationship that really makes the difference there.

Rick Sola (24:41.558)
So after this episode, and perhaps you'll have several principals in your session at USA Kansas, and someone's really intrigued, and they're like, I really want to take this to my building. What would be a piece of advice you would give to the upstart of the program at a building that hasn't had it before?

Steve Archer (25:03.374)
It's definitely a team sport, if you will. This is not a principal thing. It is a building approach. Also, it is a framework. I came from a building that had implemented PBIS for 15 years. There are things that fit at Delaware Ridge. There are things that do not fit yet at Delaware Ridge. And to come into this building and

and expect all of those things to transfer would have been a mistake. So I definitely think you need to get, I think first of all, would do my research and find out about the premise behind PBIS. This is not a passing fancy. It's been around for a long time and it is an approach that has

the research and the evidence behind it. But then you also have to let your staff in on that.

and make sure that they understand that this isn't going to be the flavor of the year. This is going to be an approach that we take that we're going to build from the ground up in a way that makes sense for our building so that we can develop those positive relationships with kids. And what we're looking to do is teach behavior for every area of our building, classroom, assemblies, restrooms.

lunch, all of those things and really get all of that lined out with staff before the kids ever walk in the door.

Rick Sola (26:43.232)
You know, one thing that I was really excited about when I started here, when we started PBIS, we have some neighboring shops and restaurants and things. you know, unfortunately not always were we the best representatives of, you know, after school and hanging out. And we tried to extend, we did extend our program across the street a little bit.

And we had a couple businesses that were willing to give out tokens and hang some posters and just show, of support it. try to, kind of to your point, from the elementary to the middle, I try to advertise this isn't just a Chisholm Trail thing or a school thing. We're talking about respect and ownership and that's a life thing. And so these are skills that you work on now, you hopefully sharpen. And sometimes we see that

two steps back in the process. That's where they're at in their lives, there's a lot of just kind of fulfillment with this program that has really been energizing even now that we're three years in, four years after the build of it.

Steve Archer (28:00.322)
you're seeing good outcomes from that. I love that idea of a business partnership. I've not worked in a school that had a business close enough to do that sort of thing and so I

excited about hearing to hear that because what a great way to expand that out. know we've worked to add some things for our bus riders because it's very hard for a know one driver on a bus of all the students to take care of all their responsibilities to drive kids safely and to focus on that positive reinforcement. But we've come up with

with a little bit of a different approach. It's still in the spirit of PBIS though, and so that's a piece that I'll be sharing at the conference, just to talk about our initial successes with that.

Rick Sola (28:58.486)
Well, and kind of to that point, that's what I really like about the program too, is it's customizable. Like you mentioned, what worked at your previous school either doesn't right now or it's not a good fit for whatever reason. And PBIS is a framework, like you mentioned earlier as well, but you can make it your own to fit your population and your community, is what I love about it. You referenced your presentation and...

teaser what what can people expect if they're going to be sitting in your USA Kansas conference here in a month.

Steve Archer (29:36.558)
I think one of the things that I hope people will take away are several things, definitely it's a framework. And I am not a purist when it comes to behavior models because what they'll probably hear, what I know they'll hear is PBIS.

but they will also hear echoes of conscious discipline and they'll also hear pieces of this that we've brought into our work here at Delaware Ridge. And for me, it's about finding those positives that work within your school, but still being true to the spirit behind PBIS.

I think always keeping that teaching focus and finding out how you do that. And I'll just share how we did it or how we do it here and what we found works here. I mentioned partnering with our bus drivers who, you know, that's a very challenging job sometimes, particularly at the end of the day when the kids are kind of done and they're ready to be home. That can be a big challenge. And then another piece that I'll be sharing is how we

share some positives with parents as well. So we use some different approaches for that too, so that parents see that, you know, we care about your kid. We are glad they're here and we want you to know that they're a positive part of our learning community and that we don't take that for granted.

Rick Sola (31:14.048)
Yeah, it'll be a great session and if anyone's listening to this prior to, definitely stop in. And I knew a little bit about PBIS where I'm at. We had a rollout probably 10 years prior as a district. I would say we've made a lot of adjustments and improvement and we've recast it and it's kind of the full, jumping in with both feet and it's been really, really positive. So looking forward to that. Steve, you're a year one principal in Kansas.

And KPA, it's a KPA podcast. What has KPA meant to you in the seven months, eight months that you've been with us?

Steve Archer (31:53.314)
Well, I will say I've enjoyed the episodes of this particular podcast that I've been able to listen to and learn and just to get excited about some of the work that's happening in Kansas that I didn't know about before, you know, and so I'm really looking forward to going to the conference, going to sessions and continuing to learn because, you know, we work in education. We should continue to learn regardless of how long we've, we've,

been in education so I'm really looking forward to learning at the conference coming up.

Rick Sola (32:25.804)
Have you been to the USA Conference, attended it before?

Steve Archer (32:27.662)
I have not. I've always gone on the Missouri side to our MAESP conference.

Rick Sola (32:33.996)
It's a great conference. I would also put a plug in, there's actually a KPA conference in November. So keep an eye out for that. It's a little smaller than USA Kansas, but it's in the same location, or it's in Wichita, but really, really strong conference and just great opportunities to network and learn from each other. Just fantastic. well, Steve, I'm gonna have us end on, you mentioned Delaware Ridge or DRE.

Bragg on your people here that you've gotten to know over the last several months.

Steve Archer (33:02.476)
Yes.

Steve Archer (33:07.724)
You know, I believe that some, most of the time you can really get the heart of the building by walking into the office. And when I walked into the school, it was very welcoming and I could go into details on that. But the bottom line is there was a tone in the office that welcomed me. And that has proven to be true across our building.

I say of the people who work here, they don't work here because they don't have other choices. They work here because they want to be here and they love our kids and

they love each other. it really is a wonderful learning community. And there are times that I will overhear people just laughing together or problem solving together or that kind of thing. And I just smile to myself and I'm just like, really? This is where I ended up. And so it's a very, very special school and a very special district.

I am surprised I didn't know more about this district before I came here, but I'm very grateful to be at Delaware Ridge now.

Rick Sola (34:21.472)
Great, really nice words and just very neat to be able to come over and like you said, retire from one state on over here to another and to join a community that's so welcoming. And you're right, you can certainly feel a lot when you just walk into an office of a school. what an important message. Awesome for them to hear that. I hope they hear this, to hear you say that. But important for everyone to hear that because the office...

Oftentimes they're the ones that are interacting with the community, not us. Most of our parents are dropping lunches off or making phone calls. So, excellent.

Steve Archer (34:54.286)
absolutely.

Steve Archer (34:59.64)
That's right. Yes, and my front office, they're just some of the best of the best about that. Welcoming our families. Teachers come and they need something. They're more than willing to help with that. Somebody needs to step away from the office. Somebody else comes in and helps. That front office is such a hub of our building.

There are a lot of fun times that we have there, but then we also know how to take care of business. again, DRE is a special place. I feel very fortunate to be here.

Rick Sola (35:32.822)
Great, well, thank you for your time. At the end of a busy day, a long day, and I look forward to, I'll meet you in person, hopefully, out here in Wichita in a few weeks. It's getting that close, so.

Steve Archer (35:45.004)
It is getting close. Alright, thanks so much, Rick.

Rick Sola (35:47.98)
Alright, thank you Steve.

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