In this episode of "Cool Coffee," host Rick Sola moderates a panel of four principals from Kansas, discussing their journeys into administration and the challenges they face. The panelists, including principals Midge Simmons, Dr. Jenny Woolever, Robert Cave, and Travis Rogers, share personal stories about their motivations for becoming administrators, the importance of authenticity and trust in leadership, and strategies for managing school culture and crises. They also offer advice to aspiring administrators, emphasizing the value of networking, being authentic, and taking risks. Questions to the panel came from Baker University Fall 2025 cohort of future administrators.

This is part 1 of a 2 part episode. Part 2 will drop on December 4, 2025.

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Principal Midge Simmons - Grandview Elementary--El Dorado Schools USD490

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Principal Dr. Jenny Woolever - Washington Elementary - Olathe Schools USD233

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Assistant Principal Robert Cave - Piper High School - Piper Schools USD203

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Principal Travis Rogers - Wichita South High School - Wichita USD259

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The mission of the Kansas Principals Association, an organization committed to educational excellence and the lifelong success of all students, is to develop and support all principals through optimized learning, collaborative leadership, networking, and service. Read more about the KPA HERE.

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FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT (Generated by AI)

Rick Sola (00:03 .167)

Hello and welcome to Cool Coffee, a principals panel edition. We have four amazing principals here from across this wonderful state of Kansas. I'll have them introduce themselves in a bit, but today's panel will be served up some questions created by the Baker University's Fall 2025 cohort, which are all students working toward their building level licensure program. They are future administrators. Special shout out to Shelby Mouha.

from this cohort who helped facilitate the creation of these questions and with the aim of going beyond the surface level and into the nuts and bolts of administration. We know there are many ways to skin a cat, which is just really one of the most awful sayings. I apologize for putting that in there. So for those listening who are in their chair, compare your response with how our panel responds. There are often many right answers, perhaps even many more wrong answers, but still there are many correct answers. So with that,

Let's meet our panel today and they're gonna share their name, position, school and their number of years in the chair. Let's start with Midge.

Midge Simmons (01:10 .551)

I'm Midge Simmons. I'm an elementary principal at Granville Elementary in El Dorado. I've been in the chair too long. All good though. I do feel like I'll be ending my career here in El Dorado, but we'll see how life takes us. But I've been in education for 29 years and 19 as an elementary principal. This is my third school, third school to be an elementary principal.

Rick Sola (01:39 .433)

Awesome. Welcome, Edge. Jenny.

Midge Simmons (01:41 .003)

Thank you.

Jenny Woolever (01:44 .224)

you

Rick Sola (01:46 .546)

I think you're on mute, Jenny.

Rick Sola (01:52 .811)

There you go. You're all good.

Jenny Woolever (01:53 .342)

Not a good way to start. Okay, I'm Dr. Jenny Willow. I am the principal at Washington Elementary in the Lathus School District. I've served as a principal for 13 years. Four of those have been in middle school and the remainder have been in elementary.

Rick Sola (02:07 .711)

Awesome. Robert.

Robert Cave (02:10 .286)

Hey, I'm Robert Cave. I have been a, an assistant principal at Piper High School in Kansas City, Kansas. I spent 23 years teaching in Olathe schools and was part of the Baker admin cohort in 2018 and finally got a job at Piper High School and this is my fourth year there. So I've been in education about 27 years, only four as an administrator, the rest is a teacher.

Rick Sola (02:39 .977)

Awesome. And Travis.

TR Travis Rogers (02:43 .151)

Hello everybody, I'm Travis Rogers, currently principal at Wichita South High School. This is my 19th year in education, 12th year as an administrator, and I'm just starting my fifth year as principal here at South High School in USD 259.

Robert Cave (02:44 .32)

you

Rick Sola (03:00 .669)

Awesome. Well, once again, I want to welcome all of you. And it was great because we're recording this the week after the KPA conference. And I was able to see many of you there. It was a great conference and it was actually neat. At one point, I think we were all in the same session. But thanks again for coming on to this podcast and being able to share specifically to our Baker friends out there in this cohort, but also to all who are listening. And so we're going to, we're going to kick it off here.

And so these questions again were generated from the Fall 2025 Baker University Future Administrator Program. And so I'm going to start here with a question that kind of applies to all of us. And Midge, we'll start with you, but we'll hear from everybody. going way back, why did you decide to become an administrator? And how has that why changed throughout the year or throughout the years?

Midge Simmons (03:59 .828)

Well, I was ready to answer number one, Rick. You jumped us to number eight. You're good. You're good. You know, I probably will give an answer that not many would say. Honestly, I was bored. I was bored teaching. I think it was at the time I was teaching middle school.

Rick Sola (04:03 .115)

I won't go out of order after this. I just thought that was a good kickoff. Sorry about that. little curve ball.

Midge Simmons (04:23 .603)

and I had maybe one to two preps and I just needed something more and I always had aspirations of trying to make more of a difference than what you can in a classroom and trying to reach out to others with more of a difference and so I know that sounds kind of, I don't know what the word for that is, that most people would give that in an interview type question but it's the truth. I wanted to have a greater capacity of being able to

make a change or trying to make a difference. don't know. I think for me, I've learned that it's not always about the difference in pay in the education world or the administrative world, but it has a lot more to do with the support that you receive.

I've had some varying experiences being an administrator in three different districts at three different levels going from 3A to 2A and now I'm at 4A level. I just think that the support that you get from a superintendent and a board is huge. That to me makes the biggest difference. And I think I've seen that over the years. And I've left districts because I didn't feel.

that support, whether it superintendent or the board. And it's time to move on and try and make a difference somewhere else. so, yeah. You guys have anything?

Rick Sola (05:58 .7)

Great. Yeah. Travis will kick it to you. Why'd you become an administrator?

TR Travis Rogers (06:04 .333)

Yeah, so I had a really good experience. taught PE actually here at South High School and so about year four or five really started to reflect and think about what my next chapter was going to look like. And I was always interested in like the functions of a school and so I had about 150 kids throughout my PE classes. Again, was able to coach some things again had a really good experience, but I wanted to make a greater impact.

And I thought growing personally and professionally was very important. And so what's funny now in my 12th year, you're still coaching.

you still mentor, but now you're on a bigger scale. And so now you're involved, you know, with families, parents, you know, the staff. And so it's kind of like pieces of the puzzle. I say that often. And so you're trying to put all the pieces of the puzzle and depending on your school, depending on your situation, you know, depending on the day, you could have a couple pieces that you got to put together or you could have a lot. And so, it's really been impactful, but really truly serving your why is serving your people.

So it's all about that personal and professional growth and in this role it can happen every hour.

Rick Sola (07:22 .859)

Great Robert.

Robert Cave (07:24 .584)

you know, for me, I was in the