CC#105: Navigating School Leadership (part 1) - Principal Panel w/ Simmons, Woolever, Cave, and Rogers

(part 1 of 2) 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.

Connect with the panel... Principal Midge Simmons - Grandview Elementary--El Dorado Schools USD490 Connect with Mrs. Simmons on X

Principal Dr. Jenny Woolever - Washington Elementary - Olathe Schools USD233 Connect with Dr. Woolever on X

Assistant Principal Robert Cave - Piper High School - Piper Schools USD203 Connect with Mr. Cave on X

Principal Travis Rogers - Wichita South High School - Wichita USD259 Connect with Mr. Rogers on X

 

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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Contact the host: X @MrRickSola, [e-mail], or [e-mail]

 

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