In this episode of Cool Coffee with Kansas principals, host Rick Sola engages with two accomplished principals, Inga Esping and Heather Calvert, as they share about the session they will lead at the KPA Conference on November 5th and 6th, 2025. They also discuss their educational journeys, the importance of data-driven instruction, and the role of social-emotional learning (SEL) in building a positive school culture. They also highlight the significance of community engagement and collaboration among educators, especially in the context of the upcoming KPA conference.

Register to attend the 2025 KPA Conference!

2025 KPA Conference Presenters: 

Dr. Heather Calvert

• Principal, Grant Elementary School


• KCKPS


• heather.calvert@kckps.org

Inge Esping

• Principal


• McPherson Middle School


• inge.esping@mcpherson.com

Chapters (timestamps do not include intro music)

00:00 Introduction to the Principals

02:22 Career Paths in Education

06:57 Data-Driven Instruction and Collaboration

14:44 Building Belonging and SEL Initiatives

20:39 The Importance of Community in Education

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 (timestamps do not reflect intro music)

Rick Sola (00:01 .719)

Hello and welcome to Cool Coffee with Kansas principals. Today I am joined by two phenomenal principals who will both be presenting at the upcoming KPA conference November 6th, November 5th and 6th, Ms. Inga Esping of McPherson Middle School, USD 418 and Dr. Heather Calvert, principal of Grant Elementary School and USD 500 in the Kansas City, Kansas School District. Welcome Inga and Heather.

Inge Esping (00:27 .67)

Thank you.

Heather Calvert (00:28 .66)

Thank you, good morning.

Rick Sola (00:30 .283)

Good morning. And it is a good morning. It's a bright and early morning and I am in conference week. Inga, you're in conference week and you actually have a day off and it is just after 7 a.m. So thanks for joining us. And Heather, you have a normal school day but conference is next week.

Inge Esping (00:43 .918)

you

Heather Calvert (00:47 .803)

Yes.

Rick Sola (00:49 .213)

It's that time of year and kind of the grind. And before we begin, I do want to call your attention to the notes of this show, which include information on the KPA conference. We'll be discussing that today and also invite you to give this show a like and a follow. Leave a comment on your podcasting platform if you are so inclined or leave us feedback and suggestions at the forum in the show notes. So it is awesome to be joined by two very accomplished principals here today and

Inga, you were recently named the KPA's middle level principal of the year through KPA.

Inge Esping (01:25 .602)

Yes, yeah, just what an exciting honor. I was certainly shocked and it's definitely a testament to the hard work that our staff and students are putting in here at MacPherson Middle School.

Rick Sola (01:37 .845)

That's awesome. Congratulations to you and a plug as well. And I don't know if you knew this, but as of recording, which is October 16th, but your principal's perspective was actually dropped today, this morning. And so, thank you for your contribution on that. and then Heather, you are published. You've had a book out and within the last year, along with, with your husband co-authored, I think with your husband, is that correct?

Inge Esping (01:50 .403)

you.

Heather Calvert (02:04 .702)

Correct, yes.

Rick Sola (02:06 .487)

And Topeka's top 20 under 40 named a few years ago. So awesome things going on and two very accomplished principals excited to hear more from you today. I do want to start and Heather, we'll just kick it over to you to start here, but a quick road in education and you are currently sitting at Grant Elementary in the KCK School District.

your road to get to the chair you're at right now, what did that look like?

Heather Calvert (02:38 .45)

Yeah, it's been a fun, fun road. So I grew up in Topeka, Kansas, started my teaching career in 2007 in the Topeka Public Schools District and just kind of worked my way up through classroom teacher, instructional coach, building intern, assistant principal, and then principal. I've been at Grant now for seven years and we have just, it's just been crazy being over in Kansas City, Kansas public schools. I love this district so much. Our building is, is just

taking off. The staff here are outstanding and we're just making waves every day with our students and our community and so excited.

Rick Sola (03:18 .123)

That's awesome. Was there a moment in your career where you felt like, okay, I'm going administration. Like you were just tugged or did it just kind of happen or how did you get into administration?

Heather Calvert (03:28 .446)

just kind of came naturally. I was blessed with a lot of opportunities that just kind of opened at the right time. When I was a classroom teacher and a couple of my fellow teachers were starting a master's program in curriculum and instruction and they said, come on, let's do it together. And I said, okay, great. You know, what else is going on? So did that and then that opened the door to instructional coaching. As I was finishing that degree, our district started a program partnership with K-State to do a program for educational leadership.

as a cohort embedded in the day and that turned into a doctorate and just that pipeline just pulled me right in and I've loved every minute of it.

Rick Sola (04:08 .087)

Awesome, very cool. Yeah. It's amazing how you start like unraveling things and all the next thing you know, you're, knee deep and you're moving forward and, uh, you know, opportunities start to present themselves and really cool. Awesome. Well, Inga, you are at McPherson middle school, uh, your road to that chair.

Inge Esping (04:27 .532)

Well it's a little bit funny I actually student taught in this building. So there's the the gal that I student taught with just retired two years ago. So that's it's been fun just to come full circle. But I student taught here I was a teacher here at MacPherson Middle School. I went to the Mays district as well. I was a teacher and principal there. I've been the assistant director of special education for MacPherson schools. And during that time I I

it was a little bit of an accident to get into that role. I started hiring and training paraeducators. I was a special educator and became really passionate about how do we make sure our paraeducators have the skills that they need to be successful in supporting our students with special needs. That kind of morphed into assistant director of special education through some changes and expansion. And then I really missed kids. I missed being around kids all day long. So became very motivated to go back and

the building. I became the assistant principal and athletic director here at MMS. I went to Mesa's principal for a short stint and then this building opened up as head principal and I just had to come back. I definitely love this district and love this building in particular.

Rick Sola (05:44 .908)

I love that. Actually, you just prompted an idea for another show, which is principals who were formerly at the head office and decided to come back. They miss the kids too much or, you know, they say we go to the dark side. Is that the darker side? And then like, we got to come back. I don't know. No, that's awesome. And I got to imagine that a special ed director, he said assistant director. What a, what a valuable experience to have.

Inge Esping (06:07 .448)

Mm-hmm.

Rick Sola (06:11 .741)

sitting where you're at now as far as a building principle goes.

Inge Esping (06:16 .418)

Yes, we host all of our cooperative specialized programs for middle level students. And so that experience has been really valuable to have to help coach both our special educators, but then our general ed teachers on how to be best support students with special needs from that general ed lens too.

Rick Sola (06:38 .133)

Yeah. Well, so you're both on here because I was looking at the presenters for the upcoming KPA conference and you were both listed and you're both presenting. And so, you know, this is a conference that as I've gotten to become more familiar with and attend, I've just really enjoyed in part