On this episode of Cool Coffee w/ Kansas Principals, Dr. Britton Hart, Assistant Executive Director of Leadership with KASB, shares his journey through education, highlighting the importance of servant leadership, humility, and teamwork. He discusses the challenges and responsibilities of being an administrator, the significance of building relationships, and offers valuable advice for aspiring leaders in education. The conversation also touches on the end-of-year reflections and the collaborative efforts needed to support students and staff in the educational landscape.

A Principal Chat with 2016 Kansas Principal of the Year and current KASB leadership

Dr. Britton Hart

Assistant Executive Director of Leadership with KASB

Contact Dr. Hart (email)

X: @DrBrittonHart

Chapters (timestamps do not account for Cool Coffee intro)

00:00 Introduction to Leadership in Education
02:06 Britton Hart's Journey in Education
08:31 The Role of a Servant Leader
14:07 The Importance of Humility in Leadership
17:19 Advice for Aspiring Administrators
19:35 End of Year Reflections in Education
22:21 The Value of Teamwork and Collaboration

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FULL TRANSCRIPT (generated by AI--timestamps don't account for CC intro)

Rick Sola (00:01.612)
All right, hello and welcome to Cool Coffee with Kansas Principles. I'm here with Dr. Britton Hart, Assistant Executive Director of Leadership for KASB, but also the 2016 Kansas Principle of the Year. Did I get the year right? All right.

Britton Hart (00:15.798)
You did, you did. That just means I'm getting old.

Rick Sola (00:19.106)
Kansas principal of year by at the time the Kansas Association of Secondary School Principals, Britton, welcome.

Britton Hart (00:27.97)
Yeah, welcome to, yeah, thanks for having me. I did this years and years ago when Trevor Kurtzen was doing it. And so I enjoy talking about principles with principles and in that service role still.

Rick Sola (00:41.27)
Yeah, I've had Trevor on here and he and I actually spoke before this even got started because I knew he had done this and, know, okay, Trevor, tell me, tell me your thoughts and secrets and all this thing. So, but yeah, it's been a lot of fun. And really the timing of this is I think apropos with USA Kansas coming up and a lot of our state educational leaders will be under one roof at the conference. And so really excited to

to go there here just a week away and really just continue to build upon those connections that I really think all of these organizations are really positive about. And it's really a major perk of the KPA, USA Kansas and KASB. do you see that? My power just went out. We're live. I'm still recording, but power just went out and it just came back on.

Britton Hart (01:29.954)
you just left.

Rick Sola (01:38.452)
well, we're back. We're back. But it's not really a live show, but it's a one-take show. So you just kind of get what you get here. But yeah, a little bit of context on that. We just had a torrential downpour at dismissal, which is now about an hour ago. But I just got in and soaked. And I appreciate Britton for being patient, because it was something else. Britton, as we.

Britton Hart (01:45.166)
Yeah, no worries.

Rick Sola (02:06.452)
As we get started here, your road in education goes all the way back to the classroom and up to and through the principal chair to where you're at now. But we'd love to hear about your road to your current position.

Britton Hart (02:19.874)
Yeah, I'd give a shout out prayers to Grinnell and those folks there and superintendent, teachers and staff. I know they're, they're finishing up their year, but had a, had a tornado and obviously similar to hopefully you guys won't have any tornadic weather, but maybe just rain. Ironically enough, I started my teaching career in Olathe. I was teacher and coach at Olathe North, really enjoyed my time there and still have many ties and Mr. Herman and I are still.

been friends ever since and just a great district and a great school. Started teaching in 2000, I guess, so this is my 25th year in education and technology education teacher, track coach, had a couple of sponsorships, but really loved the kids there and loved the love students to be honest. That's why I got into the field and still love students. And that three daughters has come up through.

our system. My last one is still in school. It's going to be a middle schooler next year. so a little bit, a little bit bittersweet, but also a little nerve wracking to be a middle school parent. But that's been good. I transitioned from teaching at Alisa to a building level assistant principal, athletic director. I always thought I wanted to be an athletic director. And it's one of those jobs is you

you want to do it and you're excited to do it. And then when you actually get into it and you understand what the role is, there's a whole bunch of responsibilities. And really to be fair, that's where our parents and our students live and thrive and breathe there. Sometimes too much. Maybe, maybe need a little clearer focus on academics sometimes, but a lot of things move in parts and enjoyed that at Prairie View, which is just south of Lewisburg there. Left there after two years and went back, went to Emporia.

In a similar role, much larger district. I grew up around Emporia. I'm an Osage City grad and so I was a little bit closer to home. My mother-in-law and father-in-law were there and obviously still connected with Osage quite a bit. served many roles at Emporia, was assistant principal, athletic director, did career in tech, did SPED, did a lot of different things outside of just athletics.

Britton Hart (04:42.026)
I became the principal in 14 maybe and was in that role for five years and then really wasn't looking to leave. My former boss, Dr. Jordan and Dr. Heim both were at the Kansas Association of School Boards and I can remember we were talking about can you come up and visit about a position and you know naively I kind of said well I'm not even sure what the School Board Association does.

Rick Sola (05:01.538)
you

Britton Hart (05:09.902)
I was really well connected in the principal association, was president elect that year. You know, just was in my mind living a dream, You know, I my own kids in my building and was enjoying seeing them every day and doing really good things from an academic and a culture standpoint and an employee high. And we decided to get our graduation rate up over 90 % at that point.

Rick Sola (05:20.663)
Yeah.

Britton Hart (05:37.838)
Just a lot of great things going on. And as you know, Rick, you hit that range in between that two to four years and some of the fruits of your labor, the change starts to kind of take hold. And so we did a lot of good things that I think really impacted students. And I'd like to think that while those things are still in place, but you started to get that excitement that everybody kind of going down the same path. And so when I talk to...

with Dr. Jordan and Dr. Mechel. Brian was gonna transition into a deputy role and like we'd like for you to work with, we primarily work with superintendents and boards. And so we, the ability to get into a board is through typically through your superintendent. And so like Dr. Yeager, for example, when I work with the Olathe board, typically he's the one that I coordinate with and then your board president, et cetera. And so.

The transition I've kept though between USA Kansas, I sit on the KPA board with Kara still as a liaison. We know most superintendents come through your role and so we think that's really valuable to make that connection. Not necessarily work day to day with principals like USA or KPA does, but have an awareness of who are some of these individuals that are up and comers that are going to be our next future superintendent leaders.

our job is to try to get the best people, kind like yourself, in those roles in front of the school board. School boards don't do that, you know, very often we hope. And so they don't have practice at how to hire superintendents, so we provide that service and think that's a very valuable process and also a really important process, not just for the students, but staff and the community that they may be leading. And so that's kind of a short pedigree of kind of where I started and where I'm currently at.

Rick Sola (07:33.026)
Yeah, I appreciate the breakdown of the KASB and I hate to just say this out loud, but I wasn't entirely sure. Just like you said, when they approached you and kind of not knowing the ins and outs and it's not something I'm super familiar with. And of course we're on the same board with KPA and we've talked and come across each other multiple times, but very fascinating. One thing you mentioned early on is you talked about the

Yeah, you wanted to be an AD and there's some hidden roles and you didn't, you you see some things that go on from outside, like, I want to be an AD. And then you get in there and like, look at all these little things that you also have to do. I wonder how much of administration is that, you know, I kind of wonder about those, those incoming administrators or those who are pursuing degrees through the university. And then when you get into that role, it's, wow, this, this is part of it, you know.

Britton Hart (08:13.506)
Yep.

Britton Hart (08:31.224)
You know, I've seen over my years, that there's individuals that go into administration and they go into it with like a servant mindset. I kind of consider myself a servant leader. That's what we do at KSP. If you call tomorrow and you need help, we're going to try to help you in some way, right? I think a good administrator, whether you're an assistant or even the executive leader like the superintendent,

those people going into it with that mindset. It's kind like if I walked in your building and there was trash laying on the floor, would you pick it up? It's just one of those mindsets where you just do whatever it takes to get the job done, and you do it at a high level, and you model those, what I like to think of as high quality leadership skills, and you model those things, and other people, in most cases, will follow.

What I see is a gap though, and my colleagues at USA and I talk about this frequently, that sometimes people go into those roles and they don't have the right mindset. It's not that their mindset's bad, it's just not one that's maybe conducive to thriving in that role. And when they sit in that chair, they get in that seat, kind of my earlier description, I didn't know I had to do all those things. And I didn't sign up for that. And so that can be a little bit problematic. And so same way as I take

those experiences and as we start to help with superintendents get placed or we help train superintendents or grow them, giving them those kind of information, giving them an opportunity to talk about those things ahead of time so that they can make sure that when they do fit into that role, just like your role that you're in, you want it to be a good fit for you and your family and you want it to be a good fit for the school and the staff there as well. And sometimes I see that a little bit as problematic. The younger the administrator

gets, at times you don't have that foundational knowledge going from teacher to principal or principal to soup. And at times that can be devastating not having some of that experience. And so you can overcome it, but also it's helpful to have quality experience in the classroom, quality experience in the principalship before you maybe take that next step to ensure your success.

Rick Sola (10:45.174)
Yeah, I was a seventh or eighth year educator when I made that jump to administration and I've worked with some colleagues and friends that have made that jump 20, 25 years in and they just have, they have that foundation. There's a bigger foundation there. And I recognize that, especially in hindsight, I'm in my 15th year administration now, but in hindsight, you know, some of those things, they come at you fast and furious and oftentimes early on.

It is kind of a first time or a not as common situation that you are dealing with or that you've had to deal with before. This will be a shameless plug here, but you mentioned the modeling of picking up trash in the hall and things like that. That was actually brought up. We had a panel episode with interviewing and we had several principals on there about just the interview process and walking around the building. And that was brought up as far as when you're walking the building and there's a little piece of trash on the floor, if that candidate

picks up that trash. That's definitely in the wind column there for that.

Britton Hart (11:45.794)
Yeah.

Britton Hart (11:49.592)
the year.

You know, I always look for also, you know, as we talk about this, I look for somebody that, you know, gravitates toward kids. And so when you're on an interview, do they naturally talk to students? Do they naturally, you know, kind of gravitate toward staff? Or are they really just kind of really formal? And so it's interesting how leaders, everybody is watching, right? And so how do we carry ourselves through adversity? How do we carry ourselves through times of celebration? But those are things that I think are so

important with the experience that you build over time. But another shameless plug though is high thrive on networking and the people that are connected in the field.

You don't have to be the smartest person in the building. You don't have to be the smartest person in the room. What you need to be, though, is a connector. You need to establish those relationships. I'm going to learn so much more from you, Rick, than you're ever going to learn from me. And with that mindset, I think you grow yourself. We're lifelong learners. It's not really an old cliche. It's the truth. And how do we surround ourselves by people that are better than us?

And I've always been really fortunate to have good teams and be on good teams. But I never felt like I was the best on those teams. I felt like I was way below everybody else. And I learned from those people. And thus, I feel like that's a...

Britton Hart (13:15.586)
gratitude or an opportunity for success there because you try to find the best people that share the same values and you can do anything I think in this business that will impact learning and that's to me the cornerstone of our jobs.

Rick Sola (13:32.118)
Yeah, I think you're tapping into humility a little bit when you talk about just being a connector, but you're not the smartest person in the room. You don't have to be being able to listen. And I think humility is such a piece of leadership and being in a building. And so I love to hear all that. And I kind of think of like the authenticity or being genuine that just resonates across the board, whether it's teachers or students or parents.

It only helps with situations, especially challenging situations.

Britton Hart (14:07.054)
Yeah, mean, I mean, I'm gonna say majority cases, nine and a half out of 10 times when somebody came in, student, staff, parent, board member, superintendent, even that were upset with me or upset at a situation that I was helping deal with, all that, most of the time, they wanna be heard and they want their opinion to be valued. Doesn't mean you agree with them, it just means that, hey, Rick, I heard what you said, I'm sorry you're dealing with that.

versus automatically getting your guns up and trying to protect yourself or the situation. And those are things that, be fair, I think you learn along the way. And that servant mindset and that humility you're describing, I think those things all kind of mesh into the leader and the person you become.

But it takes practice. I'm going to screw up again tomorrow, but hopefully the next day I won't make the same mess up, right? And so that's how we get better, I think, as people. And it's certainly a great lesson for students to learn, because this world is hard. And you're to have a lot of failures. I heard a great thing, and it's a former colleague of mine. Most people go after success, and they think,

happiness is driven by the amount of success you have. And he said, which I thought was really spot on, happiness drives your success. Success doesn't drive your happiness. And so in this big bad world, there's going to be some great things. There are going to be a lot of bad things too. But if you can kind of have a mindset or kind of a mentality of, I'm going to be happy through these situations, good, bad, or indifferent, that will drive your success. And I thought that was really good.

Rick Sola (15:50.594)
That's great. Sorry, my phone just went off with the severe weather. It's fine. Everything's fine here. No, I love that. And I was writing that down as you were talking. you still there? OK.

Britton Hart (16:02.883)
yeah, I'm still here. I I coughed just a little bit. I didn't want to cough in your ear there.

Rick Sola (16:07.232)
No, no, you're good. There's so much going on right now. I don't know if a listener might think I'm on the top of a ship or something, but there's a lot happening behind me. But that happiness driving success, that's pretty profound, really. especially, one of the things I love to do is work with aspiring administrators and having the conversations that...

kind of talking through a thought process and kind of like to your point, I always say there's a million ways to do lots of things and I'm not saying I've got it 100 % right, but this is the thought process behind that. But I think some of it, you know, are we chasing success or are we chasing happiness and then what drives what? I just, really like that. You know, as you sit now and you're several years out of the building, but as you work with principals and if you were asked,

Britton Hart (17:00.942)
Thanks

Rick Sola (17:01.108)
you know, by an aspiring administrator or maybe even a sitting principal for some advice in something, especially now that you can kind of see it, you know, maybe from a different distance, maybe a little more clarity. What advice would you give to an aspiring administrator or maybe a newer administrator?

Britton Hart (17:19.832)
You know, I like that question. It reminds me of too, as we're talking about interviewing people, is when you ask someone, why do you want to become a principal? Why do want to leave the classroom?

I think that's always very telling to say, well, I want to help more kids or I want to impact more learning versus, hey, I want to have more free time or I want to make more money. And we know those things are not true because as you get into this role, your responsibility goes up, just like your phone's buzzing, you got wet sitting outside waiting for the parents to pick their kids up. And so that responsibility just continues to get bigger. But the thing that I think, the advice that I think is so valuable

is when things are going well, you give credit to your staff and your students. And when things are going poorly, you take ownership and you take responsibilities to make those things better. And those things...

As a young administrator, if you can pick up on those things early on, you're gonna be great in this business. But if it's about you and it's about you trying to find, hey, that was my idea or hey, this is my building, drives me crazy when I hear somebody talking about their building and they say, this is my building. No, it's not my building, it's our building. It's a kid's building. The only reason we're here is because we got students coming through that door. And so how do you set the culture of your building?

Kind of like Todd Dane does. mean, he's a culture dude. But it starts, think, with culture. And it starts with that understanding of we're getting into this to help each individual student. And we're getting into this for the benefit of someone else and not for myself. And I think that's such a, for young administrator, you want to know what you're getting into. And I think that kind of helps kind of guide. Are you doing it for the right reasons? And is it going to be a good fit for you?

Rick Sola (19:17.452)
us back to that servant mindset, which carries through so many phases of a building, all phases, honestly, because really everything could become your job to some degree, everything will come across your desk.

Britton Hart (19:30.039)
Yeah.

Rick Sola (19:35.062)
So it's May and I know what it's like in the building. You know what it's like in the building, but what's May like for where you're at, at KASB?

Britton Hart (19:45.506)
Well, that's an interesting question. So I live with a teacher. My wife is a teacher. And so you can appreciate everybody trying to end up the year and stressful.

I think my role, what I experience on a day-to-day basis is emails and phone calls with similar things just at a different level from board members and superintendents. And they're like, you know, they're stressed too. They need a little bit of a break, just like you need a break. And they need a little bit of downtime to be able to reflect because right now there's just not a lot of downtime. And the pressure that...

I experience as a principal is very similar to what our board members.

feel, what our superintendents feel, it is this constant demand of their time, their opinion, their everything. And anymore, it feels like the polarization of those demands are coming from different angles, just like you're experiencing sitting in your chair. And it just gets old dealing with that and it gets difficult to deal with that. And so I feel like at times, I don't mean counselor like people need counseling, but I feel like

I'm a listener. I'm like, hey, tell me what are next steps that you might try. Tell me some things that you're thinking about, or how did it go when you implemented that, and trying to help coach people through those tough situations, because you can't own that for them. All you can do is equip them with and instill them with some responsibility of power and some leadership that they can do it. And that's, hope, why they call, and I hope they keep calling, because they feel like I value.

Britton Hart (21:24.972)
their role and it's respected. Each role is important no matter if you're a teacher or a school board member or parent. Those are all important. And so how do we work together to build a coalition that best supports students?

Rick Sola (21:41.9)
Yeah, I love that. You can't just pick up the phone and call everybody about certain things that come across. In fact, it's very limited on who you can really talk to, especially if you're just kind of ground down. this time of year, mean, we see it with staff and teachers and students. And there are tough things that come up that really wear you down. But I love that role of how you articulated it. You're there sometimes just to listen and

Sometimes people just need that because you can't, there's just not everybody to call for certain things. So, no, that's great. Before we go, USA Kansas, we'll see you out there next week.

Britton Hart (22:12.344)
Yeah.

Britton Hart (22:21.464)
you

Britton Hart (22:26.184)
Yeah, yeah, so I saw they're almost at 1000 registrants, which is exciting. And so yeah, I plan on being there. I'm out of town Wednesday, but I'm presenting on Thursday and then then we got meeting with superintendents, I believe on Friday. So yeah, excited to see some former colleagues and some people that that I haven't seen for a while. It's like once a year, get the band back together. And so I was looking forward to going so.

Rick Sola (22:51.542)
Yeah, it's a great timing too. We're all wrapped up or wrapping up for the most part, and it's just nice to connect. I remember talking with you last year at this. It had been a while since I had been, but having gone last year. And I'm also presenting on Thursday. So just looking forward to learning from others and sharing a little bit myself. And it'll be great to connect with you. Hey, real quick before we take off here.

Bragging on your people. We always finish with a big brag on the people you work with and K-A-S-B and brag on your people.

Britton Hart (23:29.998)
We have 11 people that make up our leadership department. We go all the way west to Garden City and Goodland and all the way east to Shawnee Mission and Olathe. so.

We got retired superintendents, we got a couple recovering principals, we got a few people that been in the HR world. We even got a board member that make up our team and then our coordinator. But just got dynamite experience and I value when we get into a space together.

It makes you smile because you're proud to be a part of that group. And like I said earlier, it's about surrounding yourself by people that are better than you. And if you have that ability and that comfort in your own leadership style.

Boy, to me, if you have a dynamic team, you can accomplish anything. And to me, that's a huge role of the role that you and I play, because you want to put the right people on the right seats, just like Jim Collins would say. And so I feel lucky to work alongside them each day. And I hope they would say the same about me if roles were reversed. So yeah, I feel fortunate to be there and certainly feel fortunate to serve school districts in the role I do. I think it's a, I always call it the ripple effect.

Rick Sola (24:39.106)
Yeah.

Britton Hart (24:47.6)
out there but it's an awful big pond and that's something that's motivating to me to get up every day and do a good job for Kansas kids because there's a lot of them that need our help.

Rick Sola (25:01.25)
Well, that's a great analogy. And again, thank you for the time. I know there was a delay on getting this started today and it's busy, but really look forward to connecting with you and so many others at USA Kansas. yeah, we'll see you here very soon.

Britton Hart (25:17.39)
Well, hey, I appreciate the opportunity, Rick, and appreciate your leadership, what you're doing. I will tell you, I have to go back and look. I can remember Gene Haddock and I, we added the communications position on that board when I was.

a new young principal and it was all about just starting a Twitter account. And so you've taken it so much farther than we started for sure. And I think it's important to tell our message and it's certainly important to make it louder than everything else out there. Because what you're doing and what the leaders across Kansas are doing, just like our teachers, is so important. And unfortunately right now we're not getting the support from some of our other colleagues across the state, you know, and we got to stick together during times like this for sure.

Thank

Rick Sola (26:05.184)
Well, I appreciate that. And truly, I mentioned Trevor earlier, you brought him up. He and I talked a lot and he broke the ice on this and really that's what this is all about. It's just celebrating the awesome things that are going on across the whole state. And there are so many and that's part of what next week will be about. I hope to get a list of others so they can share everything that's going on. There's a lot to celebrate and it should be celebrated. but thank you so much.

Britton Hart (26:31.774)
Absolutely.

Rick Sola (26:34.658)
Dr. Hart, have good rest of the week and we'll see you next week.

Britton Hart (26:39.094)
Hey, thank you much. travels. We look forward to seeing you. Yep, take care.