July 21, 2025

Episode 37: The Street Cred Principal: Josh Tovar’s No-Excuses Approach to School Leadership!

Episode 37: The Street Cred Principal: Josh Tovar’s No-Excuses Approach to School Leadership!

Send us a text What does it take to transform a struggling school? Josh Tovar knows firsthand. Born in Juarez, Mexico, and growing up with learning disabilities and family challenges, Josh's journey from troubled teen to transformational principal offers powerful lessons for any educational leader. Josh's personal story gives him authentic "street cred" with students facing similar struggles today. "I was a drunk in high school. I had no pathway," he shares candidly. This background allows h...

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Send us a text

What does it take to transform a struggling school? Josh Tovar knows firsthand. Born in Juarez, Mexico, and growing up with learning disabilities and family challenges, Josh's journey from troubled teen to transformational principal offers powerful lessons for any educational leader.

Josh's personal story gives him authentic "street cred" with students facing similar struggles today. "I was a drunk in high school. I had no pathway," he shares candidly. This background allows him to connect with students in a way many educators cannot. After joining the Marines for structure and direction, Josh found his calling in education, though not by conventional means.

His leadership philosophy centers on a powerful principle: "connections before content." Josh explains that effective school leadership requires building genuine relationships while maintaining high expectations and consistent systems. Drawing from his military background, he implements clear structures that create safety and predictability, allowing learning to flourish.

The results speak for themselves. Josh transformed a 6A high school with persistent discipline problems and low achievement from a D-minus to a B-minus rating with distinctions in just three years. At his current school, Memorial Pathway Academy, he serves immigrant students and those at risk of dropping out – creating an environment with minimal discipline issues and high student engagement.

Perhaps most refreshing is Josh's honesty about the challenges of educational leadership. He discusses the political realities of being "blackballed" in a district, the mentors who championed his success despite obstacles, and the difficult balance between professional dedication and family responsibilities.

Whether you're a new administrator or a veteran principal, Josh's insights on creating systems, building relationships, and maintaining high expectations offer a blueprint for transformational leadership. Connect with him through the PGP Podcast or social media to continue learning from his journey.


PGP Podcast Link:

Memorial Pathway Academy Garland, TX Link: 

Email Principal Josh Tovar: ftovar@garlandisd.net

Follow Principal Josh Tovar on X: @MPA_GOJAGUARS

Follow Principal Josh Tovar on LinkedIn: 

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01:57 - Meet Josh Tovar: Educational Leader

04:29 - From Troubled Youth to Marine Corps

12:20 - Finding Purpose in Teaching History

18:50 - Connections Before Content Teaching Philosophy

33:31 - Path to Principalship and Mentors

40:53 - Turning Around a Struggling High School

49:27 - Finding Work-Life Balance in Leadership

57:34 - Creating Systems That Build Culture

01:09:42 - The PGP Podcast and Free PD

01:14:56 - Closing Thoughts and Leadership Advice

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I am very excited for today's guest, Josh Tovar.

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He is a passionate educational leader, proud US Marine veteran and an advocate for student-centered leadership.

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Born in Juarez, mexico, and raised in El Paso, texas, josh brings over three decades of experience across 13 educational institutions, from elementary schools to the university level institutions.

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From elementary schools to the university level.

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He is currently serving as the principal at Memorial Pathway Academy in Garland ISD in North Dallas, Texas.

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He is known for his unwavering belief in the power of relationships and his guided mantra connections before content, a dynamic presence on social media and the host of the PGP podcast.

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Josh champions professional growth and reminds us that podcasts are free PD.

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No excuses.

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Now let's get to some free PD with Josh Tovar.

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All right, welcome back to another episode of the Leadership Podcast.

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I am excited and I am thrilled to bring Josh Tovar in on the show.

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So, josh, welcome.

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Thank you very much.

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My brother Appreciate you reaching out and connecting.

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You know what we're going to do this in a couple of weeks, so check his show out and then check out the PGP podcast.

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Hey, I'm a proud principal of Memorial Pathway Academy in Garland, ISD, Garland, usa, ready to rock and roll with this young man whose journey I just started.

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I think I'm on episode five of yours, no 10 of yours, and you know what I'm learning a lot Tom Osborne.

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Tom Osborne was also one of the guys that I'll appreciate, and that's the whole point about listening to podcasts.

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It's free, pd, but most importantly, it reminds us as leaders that we take knowledge from different people, different parts of the country, and ultimately make it a better version of ourselves so that our kids could prosper.

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So thank you for having me here on your show.

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You bet Josh, wow, that's probably the best introduction of somebody coming in on the show.

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So I appreciate the shout outs and the listening and the engagement with the episodes, but you don't just listen to my podcast.

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Listen to other podcasts and we'll get into that later on in the show.

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But, josh, I'm going to go ahead and start you off with the same question.

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I start everybody off on this show what inspired you to become an educator?

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My pathway was not, as we hear on, the traditional way of being a little kid wanting to teach.

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That was not at all.

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I was a very dysfunctional youth.

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I was not very scholarly, I was a big-time loser.

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I was a drunk in high school.

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I had no pathway.

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I was a child of divorce.

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I was part of the statistics of a low-income, minority male.

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Child of divorce was not supposed to make it, let alone an immigrant.

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I am Virginia and Jesus' American dream, and so we came from another country and immigrated to the United States.

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But in the end you go through the trials and tribulations of life and you know this.

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In Nebraska, in Utah, in Miami, it doesn't matter where.

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Kids go through the same obstacles alcoholism, self-medication, divorce and it's what we do at the schoolhouse to ensure that we provide the proper opportunities.

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But I didn't have it.

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I'm back from the Mesozoic era period in the 1980s, and they didn't have SEL, they didn't have computers.

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We didn't have none of that nonsense.

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It was suck it up, buttercup, generation X, all in the house here and ultimately it was one of those things that I really had no way Now.

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Prior to this, my brother had left the house Again, child of divorce, had no other way, got in conflict with my dad and he took off to the Marines.

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And so, very long story short, a lot of dynamics that happen obviously in families.

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We know that you go through that.

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In your chair, being the principal and as the assistant principals, you hear all of these stories of kids.

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And my brother took off and saw the world, but he was not very successful up to this day.

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I just couldn't speak facts to where he doesn't have a long standing career.

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And now he's getting close to the 60 mark.

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And my mom knew that I was a loser, knew all the issues that I had, and so I decided, I took it upon myself to not go down the pathway of cocaine, heavier drugs.

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I was drinking maybe like four days a week.

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I live on the border town of El Paso and Juarez and all you needed was five to ten dollars to go get drink and drown.

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So you would drink like nine o'clock in the morning, ten o'clock, whatever it took you to get over there, you will get drunk and then you come back right before the bell rang and you will go home and it's one of those things.

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I'm not proud of it, but you know what?

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Those were the facts of life.

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And if you think that those kids that don't go to your high school in Nebraska or don't go to your high school in Utah, you think they're going home just to watch Maury Povich, they're not.

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They're self-medicating, they're doing a lot of those things like I did.

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It's life.

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And so my mom she left us.

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My mom and the divorce said I don't want custody of my kids.

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So you know, there's a lot of trauma there, you know, when you find out these things down the road.

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And so I needed to go, and they didn't care back then about CCMR, they didn't care about total number of credits, they didn't care about none of this stuff.

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So they I graduated the bottom of my class barely with 0.5 credits over bottom two-thirds, and I needed to, you know, sharpen my future, and the only way was to the marines.

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You know that the marine corps has a proud tradition of success and I needed a quick kick in the ass.

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And so so, since I was 17, my mom said I'm not.

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There's a whole purpose behind the story, besides connecting with your, besides connecting with you, with your kids.

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It's the same story in 2025 as it was in 1988.

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And my mom says I'm not going to sign your, your, your paperwork unless you decide to go to school.

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And so the Marine recruiter you know recruiters, they just win their quota.

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And so he says, okay, you're still a quota, go to the reserve.

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And so that's where my mom agreed to, and I agreed to, go to the University of Texas at El Paso and go to boot camp, go to Fort Sill, oklahoma, to field artillery school.

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And from that point on I didn't know what I wanted.

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Obviously, success breeds success, but I never had that.

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I was a loser in high school Academically.

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I still have learning disabilities.

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So, hey, senior teacher or freshman teacher in high school, I have three master's certifications and I still have problems reading.

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And I still have problems reading that silence for you to ponder what I just said.

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He'll tell you that we have principal meetings and they give us articles to read in jigsaw and then we're supposed to read those articles, right, like for five minutes.

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I'm always the last one.

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I still have a learning disability.

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You know it's hard for me to read, I still get distracted.

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And so if you expect your kid to be successful, you're talking to somebody that I feel is a successful principal and I still have reading problems.

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So don't say that the kid should already know it by now because they're a freshman or they're a senior.

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No, a learning problem is a learning problem, whether it be self-imposed or you were just born with it, just like my glasses.

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I was born with that disability, whatever, and I'm just using that term as something that's not equal, all right, not as a crutch.

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And I didn't know what I wanted to do.

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And so my mom, what she would do was when we lived in Juarez, my mom received a scholarship from Lydia Patterson.

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That's why I'm a Methodist, because Lydia Patterson Institute gave her a Methodist organization, gave her a scholarship to go to UTEP.

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There's a lot of connections there, obviously and what she would do is that she would take us to the public library.

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What she did?

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She would go to jail nowadays, all right.

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She would leave us hours in the El Paso Public Library while she went to school, which was like around 25 minutes walking distance, and we would stay there hours upon hours.

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And what I always gravitated to were biographies by Ronald Sim.

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I still remember it.

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I loved Conquistador biographies and I would read them and I would read them and I would love them.

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I would sit there.

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I knew I was in compliance because I didn't want my mom to hit me with her chancla, and so I would stay quiet.

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They would give me certificates with little 515, little, and it was a great experience.

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And so she goes.

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You like history, become a great experience, and so she goes.

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You like history, Become a history teacher.

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So that was, I think, a seven-minute journey on how I became an educator.

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I did not want to be an educator, I disliked history.

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I used to say this as a middle school kid.

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Why do I need to know history?

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They're already dead.

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Go figure, I have a master's in history and the whole thing is I was never taught appropriately.

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What do I mean by that?

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I was never taught.

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I was always taught by that coach.

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It's still happening.

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Look at me, it's still happening.

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That coach just goes by his football plays and not by engaging the kids with ability to make history alive.

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And if you do it in such a passionate way, people will love history.

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And so you know, along the way, I found that passion, I found that beauty of what history was, because then you start seeing it in today's TV, literally today's television.

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You start seeing the cycle of humanity and I was able to make a connection with the content to my kids.

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I'm there so they learn.

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I wasn't there for me to teach.

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Let me repeat that again I'm there for them to learn, not for me to teach.

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So it was my job to engage him and make dead dudes look cool, and it's not easy, it's not easy.

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And so I've always had that love for history and I could tell you like right now, my six-year-old he just learned about George III, he just learned about CJ Thomas Jefferson writing that last-minute rough draft on July the 3rd and he had to turn it in for his group work.

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You see, if you connected with them, then they're going to get it and it's showing that passion, that love.

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So that was my pathway into education.

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I didn't want to be an educator.

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I never aspired to it.

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My dad was a businessman so I thought that was going to be my business route.

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But you know what God, life and my pathway took me to this beautiful profession, the profession that creates all the other professions education, you bet.

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Hey, man, that's a lot of just great insight and background about you, josh, and there's some similarities I was kind of as you're telling your story.

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I can relate to a lot of that People.

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I don't really talk about this, but I grew up poor.

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Okay, I grew up on food stamps.

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My mom was the only income.

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My dad I'm sorry but he was a lazy bum.

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I'll put it out there he at least was there, but he was still a ghost father there.

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He at least was there, but he was still a ghost father is what we call him there but not really present.

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Having people in your life to help you get to where you're at.

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I joined the military just so I could go to school.

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That's why I joined the military.

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So we kind of have that connection there having the military.

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I was in the reserves.

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Actually, I have been to El Paso.

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I have been to el paso.

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I've been to the white sand missile range.

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I did a lot of training down there, so I know the area.

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I you know so a lot of those things.

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When you're talking about juarez and el paso, I started remembering, oh, white sand missile range.

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We went there about every year.

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I've been deployed and you know, I was in the iraqi war of freedom, so my military background did help me with my ability and education leadership later, and I became a math teacher.

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I was also a pd teacher.

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You became a history teacher.

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Those subjects are really tough to teach because you, like you said, you have to bring it alive, you have to make it connect with the kids.

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So when you're in the classroom you're teaching the kids history.

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What are some things that you learned as a history teacher that helped develop their leadership skills?

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One thing is and I'm glad that you, and thank you for sharing with me and with the audience about your family, and that's what brings us street cred with kids, because they need to connect that you were a food stamp kid.

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They need to connect that I was a drunk, you know what, but that's not who we are now.

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That's not what, but you know what.

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It's what made us become successful.

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Air quotes what success is?

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Because everyone hey, a plumber.

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Right now, he's successful.

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Let your toilet back up, baby, you're going to pay $100, baby, hey, my lights go on.

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Right now I'm going to call that electrician and he's going to charge me whatever the heck he wants.

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That's success.

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And so for me, those stories and the engagement ties all back to who I was as a student.

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So you see, I was a knucklehead, right, I was self-medicating.

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I didn't care, I did enough just to get the D.

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I did enough just to get the D in high school.

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So I know that thought process, I know about being mediocre and living for the minimum standard, and so what that taught me was coming in as an educator was don't put up with nonsense.

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They need tough love.

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And I just recorded a video because I finally read all the cards.

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I started reading all the cards my kids wrote me for Principal's Day, for May the 1st, and a lot of them are like thank you for being tough.

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Thank you for being tough.

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It doesn't matter when, as long as you're structured and caring.

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Kids say they don't want discipline, but they love discipline, they yearn for it, they want it.

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They dislike wishy-washy roller coaster educators and administrators.

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They want you to be consistent with who you are as an individual, and that gives you street cred.

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And I learned one thing You're not going to mess with me.

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You're going to show up on time.

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You're going to do what you need to do.

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This is what is expected from you and this is what I require.

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And I will keep on giving it to you.

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And keep on giving it to you because there's certain things that I'm not good at.

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I'm not good at mitosis and meiosis.

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I'm not good at A squared plus B squared equals C squared.

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I can't get you through, I suck at that.

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But I need someone that will engage me so that I could find a connection for that.

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So it was my job to make sure that I use my past experiences as a poor student, a poor scholar and make sure that I engage it along the way, always start implementing little things to tell the kid hey man, I don't know if you're going through crap at home, I don't know if you're going through divorce like I did.

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I don't know if you're self-medicating, but you know what?

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It's your birthday, and I started always honoring the kids on their birthday, always, and I can't tell you the countless numbers of times to tell me your pencil and your card was the only thing I received for a birthday Little things like that.

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And then I started putting kids' work on the wall.

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Kids' work this was back in the Paleozoic period, you know.

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You just start putting stuff up there, which is now.

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It's what is expected for quality and connections with kids.

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And so what I learned was making sure that kids felt structure, kids felt appreciated and kids felt heard.

00:16:09.951 --> 00:16:11.636
Now I'm not going to do what you tell me to do.

00:16:11.636 --> 00:16:14.605
I got something to do and I'm still that way right now.

00:16:14.605 --> 00:16:24.794
I'm not going to put up with your nonsense, because you have a destiny, you have a purpose in life and it's my job to pull you, push you, love you along the way on that track, whatever it might be.

00:16:24.794 --> 00:16:30.250
So being consistent, being loving, is what built me up, because I never had that.

00:16:31.312 --> 00:16:32.942
I needed to be the educator.

00:16:32.942 --> 00:16:36.250
I never got Back in my high school.

00:16:36.250 --> 00:16:37.796
There was never you know what.

00:16:37.796 --> 00:16:38.701
You would hear the announcements.

00:16:38.701 --> 00:16:42.851
You know this the student council hey, come to student council today.

00:16:42.851 --> 00:16:43.760
I'm like what the hell is that?

00:16:43.760 --> 00:16:44.581
I got to go get drunk.

00:16:44.581 --> 00:16:45.563
Oh, come.

00:16:45.563 --> 00:16:47.846
Hey, the pep rally for the game.

00:16:47.846 --> 00:16:50.990
Oh, senior sunrise, oh senior sunset.

00:16:50.990 --> 00:16:53.735
Oh, the thespians are performing.

00:16:55.000 --> 00:16:55.520
I didn't know none of that.

00:16:55.520 --> 00:17:05.665
I didn't know the American factory style system Prom homecoming all of the guard, the little things that go around the garden Nothing, I didn't know, none of that.

00:17:05.665 --> 00:17:06.787
I would see it.

00:17:06.787 --> 00:17:09.750
I wouldn't ask questions because I needed to go self-medicate.

00:17:09.750 --> 00:17:15.535
So it's my job to always now say, hey, get involved with this, you might like this.

00:17:15.535 --> 00:17:17.497
I see that you wear this kind of shirt.

00:17:17.497 --> 00:17:20.201
How about you try this?

00:17:20.201 --> 00:17:37.067
Provide them with the opportunities that a high school has, that a middle school has, that a middle school has, that an elementary has, to make them feel part of what the air quotes school pride is, because all of us determine school pride at different levels, whether it be elementary, middle school and high school.

00:17:37.067 --> 00:17:44.570
So that's what it taught me to be engaging, loving and structured and making sure that I push those kids, whether they want to or not, to success.

00:17:46.102 --> 00:17:49.087
Yeah, you say a lot of things in there that are impactful.

00:17:49.087 --> 00:17:56.013
I believe this If kids know that you care, they're going to learn, they're going to do the things you ask.

00:17:56.013 --> 00:18:05.851
Building those relationships when they know you care, because you take the time to get to know them, not just when they're in trouble but when you're just getting to know them on the daily.

00:18:05.851 --> 00:18:09.190
You know when they're in trouble, but when you know you're just getting to know them on the daily, like, hey, how's it going?

00:18:09.190 --> 00:18:23.310
You know, I like the fist bump kids in the hallways and you know, appreciate that they're there and say, hey, we want you to be here, we want you to be welcome to our school, because when I showed up at the current school I'm at, they didn't want to be there, so I had to go.

00:18:23.310 --> 00:18:30.891
Well, how can we help them understand we want them there, we care about them, because once they understand that you care, they're going to do what's needed.

00:18:31.380 --> 00:18:37.192
And another thing that you pointed out kids will rise to the expectations that you set.

00:18:37.192 --> 00:18:40.529
So if you set a low bar, they're going to rise to that.

00:18:40.529 --> 00:18:43.869
If you set a high bar, they're going to rise to that.

00:18:43.869 --> 00:18:54.344
And the proof's in the pudding for me because I've elevated the bars over the last three years at my school and those kids and those staffers went in.

00:18:54.344 --> 00:18:58.902
I'm like, the more we raise this, the more they're going to get to that expectation.

00:18:58.902 --> 00:19:02.709
Because when I got here they're like, oh, we're just glad that they showed up.

00:19:02.709 --> 00:19:04.711
Well, I'm not okay with that.

00:19:04.711 --> 00:19:10.943
I want them to be here, but we need to push them to be the best that they can be.

00:19:10.943 --> 00:19:29.336
And so I feel, like a lot of those things that you just talked about, hopefully a lot of principals are understanding that's a great way to build that culture and build that inclusivity with the kids and build that relationship so they will do the things that you need them to do.

00:19:29.336 --> 00:19:43.478
Because, I'm pretty sure, because you build those relationships and you have that story, they can understand where you're from and, like you said, you built that street cred to where, when the tough things happen, they're going to respect what you tell them.

00:19:43.478 --> 00:19:45.482
Because you built that relationship.

00:19:46.291 --> 00:19:51.911
And I'll tell you just even today there was a kid he's a duffel head love the kid.

00:19:51.911 --> 00:19:52.932
And a coach asked him.

00:19:52.932 --> 00:19:54.413
Even today there was a kid he's a duffelhead Love the kid.

00:19:54.413 --> 00:19:59.820
And a coach asked him hey, do you give Mr Linden a hard time, he's like no, I respect him too much.

00:19:59.820 --> 00:20:18.718
And I was like that was a moment where I was like wow, I mean this kid, you can be a kid, but because I've built up a relationship with them, he respects when I say this is the expectation, he just does it, and so I think that was a lot of good things.

00:20:18.718 --> 00:20:27.204
I think your military background kind of showed through there a little bit, because I have kind of the same philosophies and ideas as a leader.

00:20:27.204 --> 00:20:34.287
So how does the military kind of affect your leadership style or just your leadership in general?

00:20:34.909 --> 00:20:35.470
as a principal.

00:20:36.090 --> 00:21:12.059
I think it's crucial because, if you know, the Marines tear you down to build you back up and that's why it's an elite force across the world and it's about establishing structures and procedures, and you and I know this, and every single last principal across the United States or the world knows this If you don't have systems and procedures in place that are repetitive, then you're going to have chaos and anarchy, and I think that that's one of those crucial things that the Marine Corps did teach me about being consistent with your actions and making sure that you're a person of your word.

00:21:12.590 --> 00:21:21.799
And when you're a person of your word and you establish this protocol, it doesn't matter who they understand what the expectation is and then how you're able to make them believe.

00:21:21.799 --> 00:21:23.344
What do I mean by that?

00:21:23.344 --> 00:21:25.637
Believe in the vision that you're bringing to the table.

00:21:25.637 --> 00:21:41.303
And it goes back to again the street cred, because then you know what you need to have street cred, because if you don't have street cred with the adults, they ain't going to be rowing with you forever, and so if you're not rowing together, then there's that chaos that I was talking about earlier.

00:21:44.190 --> 00:21:44.873
Yeah, I really appreciate that.

00:21:44.873 --> 00:21:50.778
I mean, I could just tell your military background does influence, because it does influence me as well.

00:21:50.778 --> 00:21:55.359
I actually got to be non-commissioned officer in my eight years of preserves.

00:21:55.359 --> 00:21:57.151
You know, I don't know what did you?

00:21:57.151 --> 00:21:59.959
What was your MOS Field artillery I?

00:21:59.979 --> 00:22:00.902
was a cannon cocker.

00:22:00.902 --> 00:22:02.332
We were not.

00:22:02.332 --> 00:22:11.700
We didn't face any kind of literally, I was at the end of my contract when the first Persian Gulf started and so we, the only thing that was that we mobilized.

00:22:11.700 --> 00:22:23.615
And you know that in the reserve rank, unless you're really active then the ranks go up, and so pretty much we were doing our monthly drill, our two weeks in the summer.

00:22:23.615 --> 00:22:28.613
But it still kept you fresh with the idea and the mentality of who you are as an individual.

00:22:28.613 --> 00:22:31.820
Because there I was, in the middle of 29 palms grading papers.

00:22:31.820 --> 00:22:33.211
There I was there.

00:22:33.211 --> 00:22:47.154
I don't people don't understand what the hell I just said, but yeah, it was weird, all right to be grading geography papers in the middle of 29 palms yeah, I actually finished my eight years in the reserve before finishing college.

00:22:47.195 --> 00:22:50.852
Because I decided to take the tenure route, because I didn't, I did.

00:22:50.852 --> 00:22:52.959
I was not a non-traditional educator.

00:22:52.959 --> 00:22:55.759
I did not go into education out of the gate.

00:22:55.759 --> 00:22:59.038
It took me a while to figure out what I wanted to do.

00:22:59.038 --> 00:23:07.103
I thought I was going to be a physical therapist at one point, but I love what I do and I'm glad I found what I found as well.

00:23:07.103 --> 00:23:09.675
So let's talk about your teacher.

00:23:09.675 --> 00:23:10.618
You're teaching history.

00:23:10.618 --> 00:23:11.461
You're engaging kids.

00:23:11.461 --> 00:23:12.132
You've got history, fred.

00:23:12.132 --> 00:23:12.713
You got the street cred.

00:23:12.713 --> 00:23:13.718
You've learned some things.

00:23:13.718 --> 00:23:20.553
What was the deciding factor to go from teacher to administrator Can you talk about?

00:23:20.553 --> 00:23:22.740
You know what was the moment?

00:23:22.740 --> 00:23:23.833
What was you know?

00:23:23.833 --> 00:23:25.759
Were you tapped on the shoulder?

00:23:25.759 --> 00:23:28.819
Were you encouraged or you decided this was my next step?

00:23:28.819 --> 00:23:33.241
What was it that said, hey, I want to become an administrator?

00:23:33.872 --> 00:23:34.776
My first principle.

00:23:34.776 --> 00:23:56.678
I was not satisfied with the condition and I don't try to be a prima donna or anything, but I knew that there was such a thing as free agency back in the Paleozoic era, because if you're a strong teacher, other principles, sometimes unethical principals will talk to you and will tell you hey, you want to come to my school.

00:23:56.678 --> 00:23:58.241
You want to because work gets out.

00:23:58.241 --> 00:23:59.873
You know, in districts works get out right.

00:23:59.873 --> 00:24:04.121
And so I decided to leave my first month.

00:24:04.121 --> 00:24:11.557
This is my 13th place in 32 years, 30, 13 organization.

00:24:11.557 --> 00:24:14.722
And so people, people want to say you're unstable?

00:24:14.722 --> 00:24:18.657
Yeah, I am, but you know what Craziness makes us propel sometimes.

00:24:18.657 --> 00:24:23.040
My next principal I was hired but he left.

00:24:23.040 --> 00:24:27.479
You know how that happens in summer he hired me in summer but then he left to another school.

00:24:27.479 --> 00:24:30.613
And the lady that took over, that's my guardian angel.

00:24:30.613 --> 00:24:31.294
I will always speak her name.

00:24:31.294 --> 00:24:32.776
And the lady that took over, that's my guardian angel.

00:24:32.776 --> 00:24:34.278
I will always speak her name.

00:24:34.278 --> 00:24:40.486
There's a handful of ladies that have made me who I am, and she was the very first one Millie Williams.

00:24:40.486 --> 00:24:47.163
Millie Williams, strong woman, strong African-American woman in my second middle school.

00:24:47.163 --> 00:24:55.096
Oh man, you name it that woman, woo, she was snapping left and right, that lady was a drill instructor.

00:24:55.096 --> 00:25:00.036
She had that school in Shveg, she had it out there.

00:25:00.036 --> 00:25:02.637
And then when she saw me, she didn't hire me.

00:25:02.637 --> 00:25:06.115
She didn't hire me, she inherited me.

00:25:06.115 --> 00:25:13.190
I was not her hire and you know that's kind of rough, being new to the school, and the previous dude hired somebody.

00:25:13.190 --> 00:25:15.394
You're like, uh, I don't know, that's my cup of tea.

00:25:15.394 --> 00:25:16.297
You know the game?

00:25:16.297 --> 00:25:19.751
Oh yeah, there's a game out there amongst administrators.

00:25:19.751 --> 00:25:38.257
And then she saw me in action and she was a proud graduate of soros state university and she said in middle school, if you know or you don't know, if you're a coach for one thing, you're a coach for every single last sport.

00:25:38.257 --> 00:25:41.920
If they have marbles, you're the coach for JV marbles.

00:25:41.920 --> 00:25:48.392
If you've got a hot jumpy rope, then you're the varsity jumpy rope, whatever it is.

00:25:48.392 --> 00:25:49.557
In middle school you do it all.

00:25:49.557 --> 00:25:56.472
And she said, coach, I need you to go to school and become an administrator.

00:25:56.472 --> 00:25:58.176
And I'm like, who's this lady?

00:25:58.176 --> 00:26:05.462
I was gonna be one of those guys that just dies being a history teacher because I loved it, right, and I dug some of the coaching stuff.

00:26:05.462 --> 00:26:08.977
But she goes no, you need to get enrolled.

00:26:08.977 --> 00:26:10.179
So you know what?

00:26:10.179 --> 00:26:10.319
What?

00:26:10.319 --> 00:26:10.921
I don't know her.

00:26:10.921 --> 00:26:15.971
She didn't hire me, we're just building a relationship back and forth.

00:26:15.971 --> 00:26:26.605
Then the next semester she goes to Alpine, texas that's where Sol Ross is and she brings me back a catalog and she says I told you you need to go.

00:26:26.605 --> 00:26:30.538
Here's the catalog.

00:26:30.538 --> 00:26:32.566
I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, yes, ma'am, yes, ma'am, yes, ma'am.

00:26:32.566 --> 00:26:38.320
You know, I love her leadership, I love that she called up people, both kids and adults.

00:26:38.320 --> 00:26:45.315
And then the next semester, which was the following year, she goes I ain't playing with you, you need to go to school.

00:26:45.315 --> 00:26:47.057
Well, I went to school.

00:26:48.089 --> 00:26:50.271
She did everything possible to ensure that I went to school.

00:26:50.271 --> 00:26:52.212
She, she did everything possible to ensure that I went to school.

00:26:52.212 --> 00:26:55.434
She changed the master schedule for me twice.

00:26:55.434 --> 00:27:00.538
Let me repeat that again she changed the master schedule for me twice.

00:27:00.538 --> 00:27:10.246
She created a position for me to make sure that I was able to do my internship, my internship hours, and so she created in-school suspension.

00:27:10.246 --> 00:27:16.917
We never had it, we never had it, but she created it for me so that I could be also an you know, the administrative intern.

00:27:16.917 --> 00:27:20.212
Without that woman, I am not sitting here talking to you.

00:27:20.212 --> 00:27:24.903
Without that woman, millie williams, I am not sitting here.

00:27:24.903 --> 00:27:37.000
She kept pushing me, and pushing me and setting me up for success every single last possible way, and obviously you know what that's one of God's angels sending that purpose in my life.

00:27:37.000 --> 00:27:41.521
She did everything, like I stated, to make sure that I became an administrator.

00:27:42.932 --> 00:27:51.211
Wow, that's a powerful story and you know, I'm really appreciative that she did push you and she did get you to where you are at today.

00:27:51.211 --> 00:27:56.983
I think as administrators we do have somebody that helps us see that path.

00:27:56.983 --> 00:28:00.701
Because even for myself, I was perfectly fine.

00:28:00.701 --> 00:28:03.298
I had a football coach and a math teacher.

00:28:03.298 --> 00:28:09.323
I had the dream job because I was half-time PE, half-time math and football coach.

00:28:09.323 --> 00:28:11.036
I was like this is great.

00:28:11.036 --> 00:28:17.394
But it was my wife's grandpa that sat me down, who was a former administrator.

00:28:17.394 --> 00:28:24.333
He's like you could do more, I like whenever you know, I was like I was like yeah, no way.

00:28:24.333 --> 00:28:29.303
But that sat with me and then years later I said you know what?

00:28:29.303 --> 00:28:30.171
I think he's right.

00:28:30.171 --> 00:28:36.473
And then I I went ahead and did that With getting into your principalship.

00:28:36.555 --> 00:28:46.846
Talk about your first principalship you learned and just talk about your principalship journey up to being where you're at today in your current role.

00:28:46.846 --> 00:28:50.019
Just kind of talk about that process and kind of where you got.

00:28:50.019 --> 00:28:52.998
Like you said, you were in your 13th, 15th school.

00:28:52.998 --> 00:28:55.719
So there's a lot there that I don't know.

00:28:55.719 --> 00:28:57.236
Let's explore it a little bit.

00:28:57.236 --> 00:28:59.538
What are some lessons you learned along the way?

00:28:59.538 --> 00:29:03.760
And then you know what you're doing today at your current principal.

00:29:04.911 --> 00:29:09.875
Well, that's a lot being being Fred Flintstone here, so we're going to cut out.

00:29:09.875 --> 00:29:14.192
I think that it's crucial that I address that.

00:29:14.192 --> 00:29:15.537
I was an assistant principal for 13 years.

00:29:15.537 --> 00:29:20.570
I was blackballed in my first district, never to become a principal.

00:29:20.570 --> 00:29:24.659
The politics you know this.

00:29:24.659 --> 00:29:26.182
You know there's politics.

00:29:26.182 --> 00:29:28.491
That's the way we got to read Glenn Robbins book.

00:29:28.491 --> 00:29:29.634
Won't Back Down.

00:29:29.634 --> 00:29:32.702
It talks about the dark side of politics and I was part of that.

00:29:32.702 --> 00:29:51.453
I was both on the good side of politics and I've been on the bad side of politics and for 13 years it got to a point to where I was told you're never going to be allowed to interview to become a principal, never Straight out, and I had too much time and that's why I tell people out there.

00:29:51.453 --> 00:29:54.817
Hey, if you're listening to this, you have to leave.

00:29:54.817 --> 00:29:58.880
If you know you're blackballed or you're not given the opportunity, you have to leave.

00:29:58.880 --> 00:30:02.163
Trust me, the grass, you make it green.

00:30:02.163 --> 00:30:06.606
Let me repeat that again you make the grass green on the other side.

00:30:06.606 --> 00:30:09.771
It's not always green on the other side.

00:30:09.771 --> 00:30:12.715
If you think it's going to be ready for you, you have to continue making it green.

00:30:13.517 --> 00:30:18.044
And so one of my colleagues that worked with me in that district.

00:30:18.044 --> 00:30:26.691
She went up the ranks, we were peers and then she moved up and she became an area superintendent in the neighboring district.

00:30:26.691 --> 00:30:32.523
And again, this is my second angel, this is my second angel, carmen Croce.

00:30:32.523 --> 00:30:36.420
Without that woman I would have never been a principal.

00:30:36.420 --> 00:30:41.281
She saw that even though I was blackballed, I never gave up on kids.

00:30:41.281 --> 00:30:45.300
I never stopped busting my ass to make sure the kids were successful.

00:30:45.300 --> 00:30:50.041
She saw the work that I did as an assistant principal and then I was in charge of a medical magnet.

00:30:50.041 --> 00:30:59.059
And when you work with medical magnets, you see I was used to dealing with all the hardheaded kids, all the Joshes right.

00:30:59.059 --> 00:31:00.224
And then all of a sudden my principal says you know what?

00:31:00.224 --> 00:31:01.147
I need you to take over the medical magnet.

00:31:01.147 --> 00:31:03.554
And I'm like I can't deal with that kid.

00:31:03.554 --> 00:31:05.318
Those are the nerds.

00:31:05.318 --> 00:31:07.063
I don't know how to deal with those kids.

00:31:07.063 --> 00:31:08.913
There is a mentality.

00:31:08.913 --> 00:31:11.358
There is a total different mentality.

00:31:11.358 --> 00:31:15.934
No disrespect, I know it's the 21st century, you don't like to be called nerds.

00:31:15.934 --> 00:31:18.175
I apologize, but you know what I'm talking about.

00:31:18.175 --> 00:31:32.196
Yeah, and so the program was only breaking in like 100 kids and for the amount of money, with seven certifications, that was not good.

00:31:32.196 --> 00:31:39.086
You need to bring in more kids to that program because you're dropping tons of Carl Perkins money on there.

00:31:39.086 --> 00:31:45.494
And so he says I need you to go out there and take charge.

00:31:45.515 --> 00:31:52.880
There were some issues going on with paperwork and MOUs and kids maintaining the standard and I went in, had to revamp the whole program.

00:31:52.880 --> 00:31:55.298
But then I started using social media.

00:31:55.298 --> 00:31:59.439
So what you see right now, those were the early stages of Josh on social media.

00:31:59.439 --> 00:32:22.063
So when I took over, with the help of the Bel Air staff and, most importantly, the Bel Air Highlander kids, we started recruiting literally all over the city of El Paso I will go to the border of New Mexico and try to recruit those kids and that enrollment went up from 100 kids to 165.

00:32:22.063 --> 00:32:24.798
I brought in extra 65 kids for two years.

00:32:25.309 --> 00:32:29.092
You know how hard that is, but you know what I did was that I did the brain drain and all the high schools hated that.

00:32:29.092 --> 00:32:47.227
What I did was that I did the brain drain and all the high schools hated that, because all those smart kids that were eighth graders, that were to go up to their feeder pattern, I took them and so that angered them, and so when Ms Cross saw everything that was going on, she would see what I would be putting out on social media.

00:32:47.227 --> 00:32:57.480
She says hey, josh, I want you to come over to my alma mater and you need to interview, but right now there are two principals running it.

00:32:57.480 --> 00:33:01.738
The quietness is for effect.

00:33:01.738 --> 00:33:07.982
Two principals of a 6A high school with 2,550 kids.

00:33:07.982 --> 00:33:09.555
There's constant fights.

00:33:09.555 --> 00:33:13.259
There's a drug house right next to the parking lot.

00:33:13.259 --> 00:33:16.355
It is the lowest graduation rate.

00:33:16.355 --> 00:33:24.736
It is the worst letter grade high school in the district and I think you got what it takes to come and turn it around.

00:33:25.750 --> 00:33:28.073
So I said, why not, let's go?

00:33:28.073 --> 00:33:34.272
So I went from a medical magnet kit with man.

00:33:34.272 --> 00:33:35.557
We just turned that program around.

00:33:35.557 --> 00:33:41.699
Kids were getting certifications from EdTech to Fluid Botany, to LDN.

00:33:41.699 --> 00:33:42.753
I mean it was beautiful.

00:33:42.753 --> 00:33:50.776
Then I go back to what I'm used to, you know, to the Joshes, and she allowed me to get my foot in the door.

00:33:50.776 --> 00:33:53.919
So I'm very appreciative of Millie Williams and Carmen Croce.

00:33:53.919 --> 00:34:07.269
I will always speak their name because through them they gave me the glory to pass on the big vision and at that campus where I became a principal for the first time I think that was 2016.

00:34:08.550 --> 00:34:40.835
And we turned it around thanks to the hard work of our team members, every single less the custodians, the cafeteria workers, security, our team%, lower socioeconomic, all poor, all Hispanic, an area where it's not supposed to be successful.

00:34:40.835 --> 00:34:48.275
In three years, those hardworking teachers raised it from a D minus to a B minus.

00:34:48.275 --> 00:35:04.159
Let me repeat that again 2,550 kids went from a D that was the lowest, full of fights, full of weed, full of low attendance to a B with distinctions.

00:35:04.159 --> 00:35:12.483
It went from an 88% graduation rate when our administration walked in to a 92% when I left, when COVID hit.

00:35:12.483 --> 00:35:45.215
That was done in three years and it could be done as long as you always accentuate the positive, that you care about kids and they know that you're caring about them and, most importantly, that you establish structures and protocols that everyone follows and you hold everyone responsible, starting with me, starting with the main chair, because if the main chair is not role modeling, the expectation, then it will never happen, because people will call you out, people will say that you're a phony baloney and they will not follow your vision.

00:35:45.215 --> 00:35:48.402
And so that's where I became the principal.

00:35:48.402 --> 00:35:51.297
And then you know what I think.

00:35:51.297 --> 00:35:55.496
You understand this, and a lot of the people that hear my next conversation.

00:35:55.496 --> 00:36:02.335
There's something about sitting in the main chair that really creates divorce.

00:36:02.335 --> 00:36:08.385
It creates problems in your house your personal house is a principal.

00:36:08.385 --> 00:36:18.862
It creates friction with your significant other, with your wife, whatever it might be, because you're at your events and not at your family's events.

00:36:20.150 --> 00:36:25.079
I was raising other people's kids and ignoring my kids.

00:36:25.079 --> 00:36:30.313
I would be going to bi-district area regional quarterfinals.

00:36:30.313 --> 00:36:36.358
I would be gone every weekend, because the only way you turn around a school is by always being everywhere.

00:36:36.358 --> 00:36:39.065
My job was seven days a week.

00:36:39.065 --> 00:36:55.137
I will be putting 15, 16 hours per day because you need to be seen visible in the classroom, in the hallway, in the lunchroom, at the softball game, at the orchestra, at the flags, at the underwater basket weaving, whatever it might be, you need to be there.

00:36:55.137 --> 00:36:59.501
And so, again, god send me another angel.

00:36:59.501 --> 00:37:08.253
And they said there's a school here in North Dallas and we think you're going to be the right fit for it.

00:37:08.253 --> 00:37:10.088
It's a school with immigrants.

00:37:10.088 --> 00:37:11.554
Hey, that's me.

00:37:11.554 --> 00:37:21.885
I have to learn English, I'm an immigrant, and it's kids that will drop out, it's kids that would fail in high school.

00:37:21.885 --> 00:37:23.532
Hey, that's me.

00:37:23.532 --> 00:37:34.275
There are no UIL activities, there is no accountability and whenever you're done, you're done.

00:37:34.275 --> 00:37:46.509
So now, overall, I went from being in a school 24-7, coming to North Dallas, to a school where I'm home by 5 o'clock every day raising my kids.

00:37:46.509 --> 00:37:48.791
I've not missed anything.

00:37:48.791 --> 00:37:56.239
More often than not now I'm here with my kids, whatever their celebrations are, whatever it might be, as compared to before they were.

00:37:56.318 --> 00:38:04.496
Third, I am ashamed of saying that it does bother me that my wife had to hold the house down.

00:38:04.496 --> 00:38:04.858
It does bother me.

00:38:04.858 --> 00:38:20.050
You know much respect to her for doing that, for having that ability to maintain the household, because I would have to put both my health, the school and then my family in that order, because if I'm not on tip-top shape then the school is not going to be running.

00:38:20.050 --> 00:38:24.469
And my focus was that, marine Corps, stick to your protocols, stick to what you have to do.

00:38:24.469 --> 00:38:32.851
So I got tired pretty much of not being with mine and I had recently had a brand new baby, and that's when COVID happened.

00:38:32.851 --> 00:38:36.934
And so I know disrespect to anybody out there at all.

00:38:36.934 --> 00:38:38.429
You know much love to you.

00:38:38.429 --> 00:38:40.492
I'm not saying it happened, not happened.

00:38:40.492 --> 00:38:41.985
No one talks about COVID anymore.

00:38:41.985 --> 00:38:44.505
No one talks about whatever happened back then.

00:38:44.505 --> 00:38:55.728
But for our family, for the Tawars, it was a great time Because when the shutdown happened I was running the school from El Paso in Dallas.

00:38:55.987 --> 00:39:02.769
I was in El Paso but running a school in Dallas from El Paso, and my family and I, we bonded.

00:39:02.769 --> 00:39:04.590
I raised my baby.

00:39:04.590 --> 00:39:12.052
I raised my baby, I saw my baby, I smelled him, he pooped on me, all that stuff that goes with being.

00:39:12.052 --> 00:39:14.853
We would do family walks, we would do all that.

00:39:14.853 --> 00:39:20.554
So COVID pretty much brought us together because we were never really a unit.

00:39:20.554 --> 00:39:28.556
And so now I'm here at Memorial Pathway Academy in Garland, the Garland, usa, and it's a magical place.

00:39:28.596 --> 00:39:34.896
And again, coming here, there were so many things that needed rewiring.

00:39:34.896 --> 00:39:40.858
There were so many changes and expectations because, like I mentioned, they would send kids to Memorial Pathway Academy.

00:39:40.858 --> 00:39:42.219
Just get them out of here, just graduate them.

00:39:42.219 --> 00:39:42.998
The lowest expectation Academy.

00:39:42.998 --> 00:39:46.420
They would just get them out of here, just graduate them.

00:39:46.420 --> 00:39:49.981
The lowest expectation was 22 credits, just get them out.

00:39:49.981 --> 00:39:51.260
You know they never go to school.

00:39:51.260 --> 00:39:54.222
They're here to sell drugs, they're here to ditch whatever.

00:39:54.222 --> 00:39:55.402
Just graduate them.

00:39:55.402 --> 00:40:01.344
And then the newcomers just teach them whatever you know, just you know.

00:40:01.344 --> 00:40:04.686
Try to get some English in there, I go.

00:40:04.686 --> 00:40:05.710
That's not fair, I wouldn't like that.

00:40:05.710 --> 00:40:07.536
That's not what I expect.

00:40:07.536 --> 00:40:16.505
And so up until this last year we've turned, you know, our team members in the classroom, our secretary, our paraprofessionals.

00:40:16.505 --> 00:40:23.978
Obviously, I've gone from a little city that I ran every day, close to 3,000 people, down to 450.

00:40:23.978 --> 00:40:29.286
Not that much, just a little enclave as compared to what that is.

00:40:29.286 --> 00:40:30.831
But it's turned around.

00:40:30.831 --> 00:40:31.894
Kids are graduate.

00:40:31.894 --> 00:40:37.713
There are more kids now graduating on the actual graduation advance plan like everybody else.

00:40:37.713 --> 00:40:40.079
They're all graduating with ccmr.

00:40:40.079 --> 00:40:48.911
Our eb students are leaving our home practicing, practicing speaking English and they're prepared for their comprehensive schools.

00:40:50.146 --> 00:40:55.690
Last year we just did the data and I'll share this because I don't think a lot of people at my school listen, because it's part of my PD.

00:40:55.690 --> 00:41:05.199
All last year I think we maxed out at 472 kids and we have sixth grade to seniors.

00:41:05.199 --> 00:41:19.295
I've got 10-year-olds to 20-year-olds in one building, I've got them separated by three hallways and with all those things we had a total of 60 referrals in the whole year.

00:41:19.295 --> 00:41:22.099
Six zero 60.

00:41:22.099 --> 00:41:27.777
And they were mainly for cell phone and just falling asleep in class.

00:41:28.224 --> 00:41:29.730
Wouldn't you like to have that as an issue?

00:41:29.730 --> 00:41:31.414
Wouldn't you like to have that?

00:41:31.414 --> 00:41:32.710
I had no fights.

00:41:32.710 --> 00:41:34.487
I had some shoving by 6th graders.

00:41:34.487 --> 00:41:35.210
You know how that goes.

00:41:35.210 --> 00:41:36.355
You know how 6th graders are.

00:41:36.355 --> 00:41:39.610
I had no major fights.

00:41:39.610 --> 00:41:40.574
I had no girl fights.

00:41:40.574 --> 00:41:42.090
I had some vapes.

00:41:42.090 --> 00:41:49.074
We averaged out .34 referrals per day 0.34.

00:41:49.074 --> 00:41:50.016
What is that?

00:41:50.016 --> 00:41:50.777
It's a joke.

00:41:50.777 --> 00:41:53.228
There were weeks that kids would.

00:41:53.228 --> 00:41:57.358
We would have weeks that not one hallway would send a referral.

00:41:57.358 --> 00:42:14.291
So it's all based on those procedures and they're all based on love and caring, making sure that the kid feels connected with the educator, making sure that the kid feels connected with the building and making sure that the parents, when they drop off their child, they know that they're being loved.

00:42:16.085 --> 00:42:17.713
I think you've covered a lot of things.

00:42:17.713 --> 00:42:27.353
It's really interesting kind of how you had people in your life that kind of put you in a position to show you know what I can do this, and then you know what I can do this, and then you know what you are doing.

00:42:27.353 --> 00:42:28.034
A really good job.

00:42:28.034 --> 00:42:29.097
Let's try you at this.

00:42:29.097 --> 00:42:30.579
And then you succeeded.

00:42:30.579 --> 00:42:54.909
And I think you bring something up that we all go through as administrators, where there we do put our families, you know, behind our career A lot of the times, especially when you get new to it and you feel like you've got to do everything, but then you get like I'm eight years in as a principal, I'm going into my.

00:42:54.909 --> 00:42:57.114
I'm just finished my seventh year as a principal, going into my 19th year overall.

00:42:57.155 --> 00:43:00.266
In education I've had to learn you know what.

00:43:00.266 --> 00:43:06.818
There's times where, hey, my job comes, that's what I'll do, but then I have to learn to shut that off.

00:43:06.818 --> 00:43:08.751
And when I'm with my family, I'm there.

00:43:08.751 --> 00:43:13.739
I think the best advice I've ever had was be present where your feet are at.

00:43:13.739 --> 00:43:17.856
So if you're at your school doing your job, you're doing it to the best of your ability.

00:43:17.856 --> 00:43:19.070
You're at home with your family.

00:43:19.070 --> 00:43:21.467
You're being with your family to the best of your ability.

00:43:21.927 --> 00:43:40.996
I think we all struggle with that as administrators because even when, when you're like for me and you as a high school principal, you feel like, oh my gosh, you know for me to turn this around or to get where I want it to go, I got to do this, I got to do that, and then you just overdo it and you can't keep up on it.

00:43:40.996 --> 00:43:45.875
So I really appreciate how you share that struggle, because we all we all go through it.

00:43:45.875 --> 00:43:54.268
It all takes us time to figure out how to manage that, so our families don't feel neglected when you're in this role as well.

00:43:54.831 --> 00:44:07.913
And let me just say this and I know you've heard some of my podcasts and I'm very honest and everything If you want to do an effective job, I can tell you there is no such thing as life-work balance.

00:44:07.913 --> 00:44:16.911
If you choose to interview for a school that's a D or an F, you better make sure you talk to your partner first.

00:44:16.911 --> 00:44:22.192
Make sure you tell them hey, I'm going to interview and it's a tough school and I won't be here for a lot of days.

00:44:22.192 --> 00:44:24.273
I'm not going to be here for birthdays.

00:44:24.273 --> 00:44:44.313
You better have that conversation before you go to the interview, because if you don't have that conversation, that's going to create the divorce, because in the end, if you suck as a principal and they're hiring you to go fix a not good school and you're not good, then that means your career just went down the toilet.

00:44:44.313 --> 00:44:47.853
You'll be blackballed and you'll never get another chance as an administrator.

00:44:47.853 --> 00:44:48.755
You know what I'm talking about.

00:44:48.755 --> 00:44:50.391
They'll put you back in the classroom.

00:44:52.527 --> 00:45:01.851
There's a lot of incidents out there that principals become classroom teachers again, and so it's very important that you know what you're getting yourself into.

00:45:01.851 --> 00:45:04.074
I'm sorry, I hear it.

00:45:04.074 --> 00:45:04.956
I don't agree.

00:45:04.956 --> 00:45:07.619
I, josh, josh, everyone is going to agree with it.

00:45:07.619 --> 00:45:09.992
Everyone is going to agree with it.

00:45:09.992 --> 00:45:11.385
But there is no such thing as life to work balance.

00:45:11.385 --> 00:45:19.115
If you want to raise a low performing environment, you have to really put in the time for that to happen.

00:45:19.115 --> 00:45:27.827
And then what sucks about it and I think you know this what sucks about it is that once you make it high, the hard part is keeping it at that level.

00:45:29.148 --> 00:45:33.052
So people would say, oh, I'm walking into a B, I'm walking into an A campus.

00:45:33.052 --> 00:45:36.273
Oh, baby, you better have better walked into a D.

00:45:36.273 --> 00:45:45.240
Because the thing is, if the guy before you left a B and you drop it to a C or you drop it to a D, uh-uh, baby, that's you.

00:45:45.240 --> 00:45:52.536
If you walked into an A and it goes to a B, woo, oh, but I have life work balance.

00:45:52.536 --> 00:45:57.309
Oh, no, I turn off my cell phone on Saturdays.

00:45:57.309 --> 00:45:58.393
Oh, I don't send emails, I don't read emails.

00:45:58.393 --> 00:46:04.086
Fine, but for a reaction there is an equal reaction.

00:46:04.086 --> 00:46:12.050
Yeah, you just understand that if it's a needy school, you're going to need the leader and you always need to role model the expectation.

00:46:12.150 --> 00:46:13.751
No, and I think I agree with that.

00:46:13.751 --> 00:46:29.159
I think you, as a leader, got to role model the expectations you have, because if you don't like you said, they'll call you out and they ain't going to follow, or they're not going to follow, a leader that isn't going to hold themselves to the expectation you're asking them to do.

00:46:29.159 --> 00:46:44.628
And I always tell my staff I'm never going to ask you to do anything that I haven't done or I won't be willing to do myself, and so I will never ask more than I would ever do for myself.

00:46:44.628 --> 00:46:45.750
So I think that's important for leaders to know out.

00:46:45.750 --> 00:46:47.994
There is don't ask more of people that you wouldn't do yourself.

00:46:47.994 --> 00:46:51.226
So if you do that, I think you're in a good place.

00:46:51.266 --> 00:46:53.210
I think we talk about work-life balance.

00:46:53.210 --> 00:47:00.992
The reality is, if you are being the best person who are at the place that you are.

00:47:00.992 --> 00:47:04.065
So if you're being dad, be the best dad you can be at that time.

00:47:04.065 --> 00:47:10.737
If you're being a husband, be the best husband at that time, or wife or, you know, grandparent or whatever.

00:47:10.737 --> 00:47:20.715
If, then, when you're in the principal role, you're being the best principal while you're at that job, because you're never going to be able to make it 50 50.

00:47:20.715 --> 00:47:21.597
It's not going to happen.

00:47:21.597 --> 00:47:52.367
There's times of the year where you're just going, going, going and the school leaders that roll, and then there's times like, hey, I was able to take, you know, some time off and I was able to spend it with my family and do those things and you know you have to learn like, okay, this is when I am present in here and so I think, being the best, you can be where your feet are at, I think is the best advice that I could give somebody in this role, because you're never going to be, you know, 50, 50 on anything, ever, probably more like six.

00:47:52.367 --> 00:47:57.217
If you get the 75, 25, you're doing all right, you know.

00:47:57.217 --> 00:48:03.146
But at the same time, you know I really appreciate just your journey and everything that you've done.

00:48:03.849 --> 00:48:14.106
What is the biggest lesson you've learned as an administrator that you could help other administrators thinking about getting into this role?

00:48:14.106 --> 00:48:15.730
What is something that you say?

00:48:15.730 --> 00:48:18.697
I think you've talked about a lot of it, but maybe kind of.

00:48:18.697 --> 00:48:20.748
You know you talk about culture.

00:48:20.748 --> 00:48:22.952
You talk about, you know, discipline.

00:48:22.952 --> 00:48:24.695
You talk about expectations.

00:48:24.695 --> 00:48:28.181
Culture you talk about, you know discipline.

00:48:28.181 --> 00:48:29.625
You talk about expectations, what and systems.

00:48:29.625 --> 00:48:33.927
What is something that you said?

00:48:33.927 --> 00:48:34.128
You know?

00:48:34.128 --> 00:48:40.206
This is probably it's all important, but I think is really important, if you're coming in to be in a principal, that you need to know about being a principal A few things.

00:48:40.266 --> 00:49:00.974
Number one when your team members get dressed in the morning, eat breakfast and they're walking to their car and they have their keys in the ignition, do they say I got to go to work or do they say, all right, I'm going to work?

00:49:00.974 --> 00:49:03.034
Are you setting up a good environment for those people going to work?

00:49:03.034 --> 00:49:11.347
Are you setting up a good environment for those people when your kids, your students, your scholars go to your campus?

00:49:11.347 --> 00:49:12.570
Do they feel safe?

00:49:12.570 --> 00:49:18.391
Would you want your kid, you your DNA?

00:49:18.391 --> 00:49:23.891
Principal, assistant principal, would you want your kid in every teacher's class?

00:49:23.891 --> 00:49:33.958
Let me repeat that again have you created something in your campus that you could put your own DNA in every teacher's class?

00:49:33.958 --> 00:49:40.034
What you do to celebrate kids, would you like it?

00:49:40.034 --> 00:49:50.179
As a dad, as a mom, do you even do anything to celebrate the child and not make it only about the learning?

00:49:50.179 --> 00:49:52.090
What is going out there?

00:49:52.090 --> 00:49:53.329
What is your vision?

00:49:53.329 --> 00:50:06.534
Your vision has to cover your babies, your scholars, their parents, so that they leave you alone, and your team members, so that they leave you alone and your team members.

00:50:06.534 --> 00:50:12.179
If your vision encompasses all of those three parts, then you'll be okay.

00:50:13.239 --> 00:50:16.961
If you're able to go to a conference and not get a phone call, you're doing good.

00:50:16.961 --> 00:50:28.137
If you're able to go to central office to a training and never get a call from security, from an AP, from a teacher, you're doing good.

00:50:28.137 --> 00:50:32.456
If you're worried about something happening at your school, you're not doing good.

00:50:32.456 --> 00:50:37.217
You don't have systems in place that will give you peace of mind.

00:50:37.217 --> 00:50:48.034
Let me tell you, when I go to conferences, like I went to during school time I think I went to North Carolina Middle School Conference, which I suggest everyone go this year I didn't worry about it.

00:50:48.034 --> 00:50:50.210
I didn't worry about it at all.

00:50:50.210 --> 00:50:58.565
When I take off to take my kids now I get to take my kids to doctor's appointments I call in sick and I take my babies.

00:50:58.565 --> 00:51:03.958
No one calls me because there's procedures, systems in place.

00:51:03.958 --> 00:51:08.317
And if someone calls me from the school, it better be Hiroshima.

00:51:08.317 --> 00:51:19.601
And let me tell you, knock on fake wood, I've established enough wherever I'm at, where I don't get calls at all whatsoever.

00:51:20.226 --> 00:51:28.699
So, educator out there that wants to sit in the chair, does your vision cover 360, those three groups?

00:51:28.699 --> 00:51:30.652
Do they want to be at your school?

00:51:30.652 --> 00:51:36.934
Would you have your kids at that school and do you honor and celebrate everybody to where they feel comfortable?

00:51:36.934 --> 00:51:38.097
Now, don't get me wrong.

00:51:38.097 --> 00:51:46.291
You're always going to have hurt people, hurt people, hurt people and it doesn't matter.

00:51:46.291 --> 00:51:48.070
You can never make everyone happy.

00:51:48.070 --> 00:51:49.811
I've learned that in so many schools.

00:51:49.811 --> 00:51:51.590
Do you know who the weebies are?

00:51:53.206 --> 00:51:54.188
Have you heard of the weebies?

00:51:54.188 --> 00:51:54.990
The weebies.

00:51:54.990 --> 00:51:56.014
Explain the weebies.

00:51:56.014 --> 00:51:56.474
The weebies.

00:51:57.485 --> 00:52:07.628
Guys, there's a group and Coach Hurt Coach Hurt, who's part of the Fantastic Four, which is part of our podcast system, he calls them Mr and Mrs Potato Plant.

00:52:07.628 --> 00:52:09.170
I call them the weebies.

00:52:09.170 --> 00:52:16.436
Those are those ankle biters that every school has, and you know what they say we be here before you, we be here after you.

00:52:16.436 --> 00:52:18.599
We ain't going to do what you say.

00:52:18.599 --> 00:52:20.519
So everyone has those weebies.

00:52:20.800 --> 00:52:27.275
Don't worry about the weebies, don't worry about Mr or Mrs Potato Plant.

00:52:27.275 --> 00:52:33.954
Worry about honoring your scholars and making sure that you're that light that they need, that you're that lighthouse that inspires them.

00:52:33.954 --> 00:52:38.914
You're that person, that individual, that vision that makes sure that they'll walk on fire for you.

00:52:38.914 --> 00:52:41.072
And if you do that, then you know what?

00:52:41.072 --> 00:52:54.114
In 15 years, when you're at Subway and you've got shades on and you have no makeup and you stink, one of your scholars is going to go up to you and they're going to say hey, tobar, is that you?

00:52:54.114 --> 00:52:54.554
Tobar?

00:52:54.554 --> 00:52:58.431
You have a cap on, you're not dressed normally.

00:52:58.431 --> 00:53:03.597
And I say, yeah, tobar, because of you, you changed my life.

00:53:03.597 --> 00:53:05.487
That school changed my life.

00:53:05.487 --> 00:53:06.891
That school changed my life.

00:53:06.891 --> 00:53:07.693
Thank you, drop mic.

00:53:07.693 --> 00:53:08.976
You've made a difference.

00:53:10.927 --> 00:53:19.536
And I think those are the moments we live for as educators, right, where you don't get those things in the moment.

00:53:19.536 --> 00:53:22.213
Those things come year down the road.

00:53:22.213 --> 00:53:27.389
I've had students that I've coached or I've taught as well as being a person.

00:53:27.389 --> 00:53:41.530
I've had people write me letters, shoot me a quick DM on Facebook just saying, hey, because of your leadership or what you've done, thank you, this is where I'm at today and because of these things.

00:53:41.530 --> 00:53:44.981
So those are the most rewarding parts about this.

00:53:44.981 --> 00:53:54.547
These are things you don't get in the moment, but they're things that you get 5, 10, 15, 20 in your case, 33 years down the road.

00:53:54.547 --> 00:54:14.817
You're going to get those, those moments where someone's going to tell you hey, I appreciate the things you've done because it helped me get to where I'm at today, and so I think those are very impactful things to understand as well, maybe when you're in the job and you're thinking, oh my gosh, am I making a difference?

00:54:14.817 --> 00:54:31.666
Like you said, if you have systems in place and you have the right people, you put a great teacher in front of those students and you help them be great, and those students and you're impacting students everywhere you go, it's going to matter and you just won't know it until later.

00:54:31.666 --> 00:54:37.306
I think that's a great way to kind of make some great advice for people out there thinking about the chair.

00:54:37.306 --> 00:54:40.190
So we talked about the fantastic floor.

00:54:40.230 --> 00:54:42.213
You talked about the podcasting.

00:54:42.213 --> 00:54:44.976
You are a fellow podcaster as well.

00:54:44.976 --> 00:54:47.981
It's called the PGP Podcast.

00:54:47.981 --> 00:54:52.954
Now, for those that don't know, what does PGP mean?

00:54:53.717 --> 00:54:56.811
PGP Podcast Puras Ganas Podcast.

00:54:56.811 --> 00:54:58.114
Puras Ganas.

00:54:58.114 --> 00:54:58.876
You know what?

00:54:58.876 --> 00:55:04.237
There are not a lot of Hispanic podcasts out there that are education-based.

00:55:04.237 --> 00:55:05.038
You know that.

00:55:05.038 --> 00:55:06.630
Trust me, I look for them.

00:55:06.630 --> 00:55:08.510
I have yet to find one.

00:55:08.945 --> 00:55:14.050
If you're an educator, I don't mean to do tribes at all, I don't.

00:55:14.050 --> 00:55:17.550
I don't mean to separate because I see everything.

00:55:17.550 --> 00:55:20.713
You know that I watch they lead me a podcast.

00:55:20.713 --> 00:55:22.510
But you know what?

00:55:22.510 --> 00:55:27.474
There's a certain niche and certain conversations that you do have with Hispanic kids.

00:55:27.474 --> 00:55:28.387
You know that.

00:55:28.387 --> 00:55:32.277
Oh yeah, you know that you work with those kids in Nebraska.

00:55:32.277 --> 00:55:33.869
You know what I'm talking about.

00:55:34.371 --> 00:55:37.945
There's a certain kind of dialogue, a certain kind of verbal connection.

00:55:37.945 --> 00:55:48.083
We talk about papusas or enchiladas, or the chancla or the fly swatter or whatever it is, or the chancla or the fly swatter or whatever it is.

00:55:48.083 --> 00:56:03.373
There's certain connections that you make as educators that bring that inspiration of being that loving person that is the provider of knowledge for kids, and so it's a term that we always use as Hispanics and that's where we got the name from.

00:56:03.373 --> 00:56:15.773
Puras ganas is a term, phrase used by Hispanics all over the Western Hemisphere, and we're part of a group of four podcasters, so the very first one is Coach Hurt.

00:56:15.773 --> 00:56:19.746
These are all Facebook Live, coach Hurt.

00:56:20.067 --> 00:56:24.858
If you need help with data, that guy, he talks it.

00:56:24.858 --> 00:56:29.326
I understand it, but he talks it like he talks good, you know how.

00:56:29.326 --> 00:56:36.313
There's Texas laws and then there's federal laws and Texas do their own nonsense and those darn red states right.

00:56:36.313 --> 00:56:46.885
And then there's federal guidelines If you need help on how to break down your data and your core tiles and your sim tiles and the oop tiles, whatever it is, core service were man.

00:56:46.885 --> 00:56:56.289
Then after that, at 10 30, you've got chica and tammy, the doctors, and what they do is that they talk about how to turn around a school.

00:56:56.289 --> 00:56:59.538
Those two ladies were about to get fired.

00:56:59.538 --> 00:57:03.269
They were told pick up the school or you're out.

00:57:03.269 --> 00:57:06.536
So they they created a framework, the real framework.

00:57:06.536 --> 00:57:07.726
What is the real framework?

00:57:07.726 --> 00:57:08.869
You got to find out.

00:57:08.869 --> 00:57:15.751
Tune in at 1030 and they will educate you on how to create those steps and those protocols.

00:57:16.331 --> 00:57:19.740
Our third program is El Jefe, principal Baruti.

00:57:19.740 --> 00:57:21.766
Kafele, principal Kafele.

00:57:21.766 --> 00:57:28.976
If I need to say anything about that, then you've been under a rock, but you've got to listen to him at 1055.

00:57:28.976 --> 00:57:31.713
Those are the three programs and we're the anchor.

00:57:31.713 --> 00:57:37.389
We're the anchor on Sundays at 4 pm Central, but once football starts.

00:57:37.389 --> 00:57:41.474
We're going to move it up to 5 pm Because I know football is king across the United States.

00:57:41.474 --> 00:57:46.237
So we're all the same but we're totally different.

00:57:46.237 --> 00:57:54.170
We all love kids, we all inspire adults or look to inspire them, but we all have a different niche.

00:57:54.170 --> 00:57:56.827
We all do Our show.

00:57:56.827 --> 00:57:59.375
Platforms are totally different but the same.

00:57:59.375 --> 00:58:03.193
I don't know if that makes sense, but that's what bonds us together.

00:58:03.193 --> 00:58:08.094
We are a group of educators that provide you with Free PD.

00:58:08.856 --> 00:58:09.418
Free PD.

00:58:09.418 --> 00:58:26.280
And let's talk about that Free PD because, josh, you listen to multiple podcasts and I know, as a podcaster, when you have people out there promoting your podcast, it means a lot and I appreciate the listening and doing that.

00:58:26.280 --> 00:58:27.786
But you listen to multiple.

00:58:27.786 --> 00:58:44.309
I mean, if it's an education, you're listening to it, you're doing reviews, you're sharing it out and, to be honest, I have actually followed you on Facebook and LinkedIn and so I see your post and I go, hey, that sounds like an interesting podcast.

00:58:44.309 --> 00:58:46.193
I'm going to go check that out for myself.

00:58:46.612 --> 00:58:50.619
And you always talk about, you know, free PD, no excuses.

00:58:50.619 --> 00:58:52.987
What inspired you to do that?

00:58:52.987 --> 00:58:54.731
What is the reasoning behind?

00:58:54.731 --> 00:59:12.297
You know, in my, in my, my sense, you're lifting up other educators and helping you know with their networking abilities, because, I will tell you, people are downloading my show even more since you've done that and I see the effects of it just in my downloads.

00:59:12.297 --> 00:59:14.007
But what has caused you?

00:59:14.007 --> 00:59:16.313
What inspires you to do that?

00:59:16.313 --> 00:59:21.974
Because I know it's appreciated, I love them and I love the reviews that you put out for people's episodes.

00:59:21.974 --> 00:59:22.965
Well, thank you.

00:59:23.005 --> 00:59:23.567
That's very kind.

00:59:23.567 --> 00:59:24.088
You know what.

00:59:24.088 --> 00:59:38.117
I truly believe that iron sharpens iron, and there's a certain thing that happens to educators, to administrators after 30 years, a lot of them think that they know it all or they're already tapped out.

00:59:38.117 --> 00:59:39.927
And I cannot do that.

00:59:39.927 --> 00:59:42.592
I can't become stagnant water.

00:59:42.592 --> 00:59:47.380
That would be such a failure or lack of respect for the people that believed in me.

00:59:47.380 --> 00:59:53.916
I could never become that individual that says I'm at the end, I don't care, I can't.

00:59:53.916 --> 00:59:58.969
I could, I've established a good pattern, I've established success.

00:59:58.969 --> 01:00:00.394
But you know what?

01:00:00.394 --> 01:00:11.034
That's cheating my current kid, and I refuse to do that Because a lot of people cheated me when I was going up, and so I like listening to educators.

01:00:11.034 --> 01:00:12.791
I need to learn what's going on.

01:00:13.204 --> 01:00:18.818
The person that started all this and he'll be on the show is Fonz, my EdTech Life.

01:00:18.818 --> 01:00:21.112
So it all started with Corona.

01:00:21.112 --> 01:00:23.184
We all started podcasting.

01:00:23.184 --> 01:00:33.875
Everyone started podcasting, and you had nothing to do but was to walk, do take-in, deliver at your house and listen to shows, watch TV.

01:00:33.875 --> 01:00:41.177
And I listened to Fonz and I'm like, oh, this is pretty cool, this is pretty cool, all right, all right.

01:00:41.177 --> 01:00:46.715
And so then just started listening, but I wouldn't repost or anything like that.

01:00:46.715 --> 01:00:54.099
So much, much respect, much love to Fonz, who was the first person to get me hooked into this.

01:00:54.224 --> 01:01:01.034
Obviously, there's a lot of national podcasters out there that connect with you, but in regards to the field of education, he was the one.

01:01:01.034 --> 01:01:06.755
Then one day there was Chris Sarcheski and Dean Packard.

01:01:06.755 --> 01:01:10.251
They started a podcast for educators.

01:01:10.251 --> 01:01:17.329
It was called Unlock the Middle and they would call me every once in a while to be part of their panel to talk.

01:01:17.329 --> 01:01:20.237
One day he just said hey, you're a turnaround principal.

01:01:20.237 --> 01:01:21.268
You want to be on the show.

01:01:21.268 --> 01:01:25.327
I'm like you know, you get this when you call people for the first time.

01:01:25.327 --> 01:01:25.889
They're like me.

01:01:25.889 --> 01:01:26.893
Why would you want to meet?

01:01:26.893 --> 01:01:29.994
And I thought nothing of it.

01:01:29.994 --> 01:01:39.936
And from that moment on, for like around, I think, two years, I was an unlock the middle with him and your question to me was well, why do you share it and review it?

01:01:39.936 --> 01:01:45.068
Because I thought we did tons of great shows with them, but I wouldn't get any.

01:01:45.068 --> 01:01:45.588
We wouldn't get.

01:01:45.588 --> 01:01:48.371
You know, we don't get feedback sometimes and we want to know.

01:01:48.371 --> 01:01:50.833
I didn't hear you on your show say hey, you like this?

01:01:50.833 --> 01:01:51.434
Let me know.

01:01:51.434 --> 01:02:00.822
Hey, guys, when we ask you as podcasters, it's not about ego or vanity, we just know that Coach Hurd says are we talking good?

01:02:00.822 --> 01:02:03.447
Are you getting anything out of this?

01:02:03.447 --> 01:02:07.496
Are you becoming a better version of yourself with listening to these words?

01:02:07.496 --> 01:02:09.088
And so I said you know what?

01:02:09.088 --> 01:02:14.278
Obviously, as I said earlier, I need to role model the expectations, right?

01:02:14.278 --> 01:02:16.990
So again, I got to practice what I preach.

01:02:17.351 --> 01:02:27.952
So at that moment I started hearing podcasts, I started doing, you know, just a little picture of what I was seeing, and just heard the show, listen to it, but that's so on a scale of one to five.

01:02:27.952 --> 01:02:29.335
That's so nonsense, right.

01:02:29.335 --> 01:02:31.778
So then how can I engage people?

01:02:31.778 --> 01:02:34.150
That's what we tell our kids to do when they write prompts, right.

01:02:34.150 --> 01:02:37.389
What can we tell to engage the reader?

01:02:37.389 --> 01:02:43.407
And so then I started doing that, doing a summary of what I heard and just posting it out there.

01:02:43.407 --> 01:02:49.791
And then, when you hear that, then you start seeing other podcasters appear on your feed, right.

01:02:49.791 --> 01:02:57.512
And if you see the same guest and you follow them somewhere else, oh, I like what they said, let me hear them again with this other person.

01:02:57.512 --> 01:02:58.969
Are they faking the funk?

01:02:58.969 --> 01:03:01.213
Are they putting on the show or is it really them?

01:03:01.213 --> 01:03:02.831
And then you review it.

01:03:02.831 --> 01:03:11.012
And so then I just got into that, but then that also became a great pattern for me, again, part of my life, and I'm sure that you know this.

01:03:11.445 --> 01:03:14.695
I wake up early in the morning, at 3.30 every morning, to go to the gym.

01:03:14.695 --> 01:03:17.432
So I'm at the gym by 4.15.

01:03:17.432 --> 01:03:27.565
And along the way, while I'm drinking my supplements, while I'm driving to the gym, while I'm out there, it allows me to focus on what my vision is and being prepared for the first when I go to school.

01:03:27.565 --> 01:03:29.452
So I put those reviews out there.

01:03:29.452 --> 01:03:30.789
Number one for the hard work.

01:03:30.789 --> 01:03:35.014
Hey, everybody out there, everybody that does a podcast.

01:03:35.014 --> 01:03:36.978
It is very time consuming.

01:03:36.978 --> 01:03:39.492
We're not getting any financial.

01:03:39.492 --> 01:03:40.791
We're not getting Joe Rogan money.

01:03:40.791 --> 01:03:43.753
We're not getting Bill Maher money.

01:03:43.753 --> 01:03:45.572
None of us are getting any money.

01:03:45.572 --> 01:03:46.336
We're not getting Bill Maher money.

01:03:46.336 --> 01:03:47.061
None of us are getting any money.

01:03:47.061 --> 01:03:54.869
All I'm letting you know is that we do it because we want our beautiful profession to become the best version of itself, especially with the exodus that's going on.

01:03:54.869 --> 01:04:08.498
We have so many administrators coming up that shouldn't be administrators, but because so many are leaving, we have so many outstarts out there that we don't have the money either to send people to training or the time.

01:04:08.498 --> 01:04:11.936
So these are the great things that we need to use.

01:04:12.344 --> 01:04:21.092
So if you listen to a podcast, just like it and share it Like this one, it's not out of vanity and it's not about being jealous of somebody else.

01:04:21.092 --> 01:04:22.507
It's nothing it's about.

01:04:22.507 --> 01:04:23.811
Did we learn from each other?

01:04:23.811 --> 01:04:27.706
Did we do a good job that can help another person?

01:04:27.706 --> 01:04:35.711
So I think that the best thing that I could do to help your podcast, to help fons, is barbara bray, I mean, you know, the lini goes on.

01:04:35.751 --> 01:04:38.998
Tony katani, I listen, I listen.

01:04:38.998 --> 01:04:42.992
I think I think I'm at 18 right now that I alternate there and pepper.

01:04:42.992 --> 01:04:46.146
I mean I listen to that and then what am I in the mood for?

01:04:46.146 --> 01:04:48.494
And then I just review it.

01:04:48.494 --> 01:04:49.476
So I listen to it.

01:04:49.476 --> 01:04:53.568
I try to listen to three every day, unless they're one hour, like dave bridges.

01:04:53.568 --> 01:04:54.791
Podcasts are an hour.

01:04:54.791 --> 01:04:56.496
That takes up most of my workout time.

01:04:56.496 --> 01:04:58.527
But I learned a lot from dave bridges.

01:04:58.527 --> 01:05:09.231
So you put those things out there and if I got something out of it and I'm an old fart oil, I'm a dinosaur Then maybe you, of course, your principal.

01:05:09.231 --> 01:05:12.476
I can guarantee you you could get something out of that.

01:05:12.476 --> 01:05:13.478
That's right.

01:05:14.626 --> 01:05:15.711
But I appreciate it.

01:05:15.711 --> 01:05:17.932
You said a lot of really great things there.

01:05:17.932 --> 01:05:25.034
I think the free PD is like if you even listen to my intro I talk about this is professional development.

01:05:25.034 --> 01:05:31.282
My goal for the podcast is to give something to other administrators to help them.

01:05:31.282 --> 01:05:33.465
That's the heart, that's the mission.

01:05:33.465 --> 01:05:35.451
I bring on guests to go.

01:05:35.490 --> 01:05:37.215
Hey, what can we learn from this guest?

01:05:37.215 --> 01:05:39.472
How can we connect ourselves?

01:05:39.472 --> 01:05:42.775
Because, as principals, this could be a lonely job.

01:05:42.775 --> 01:05:44.130
You could be isolated.

01:05:44.130 --> 01:05:51.858
Yeah, you may have assistant principals, but when you're at the top, you're the building principal and you are in charge of that building.

01:05:51.858 --> 01:05:56.295
It's not the assistant principal that's going to get in trouble, it's you.

01:05:56.295 --> 01:05:59.291
You got to be the one that has to.

01:05:59.291 --> 01:06:05.050
You know your foot is going to be held to the fire, so you have to make sure that you're doing the best you can.

01:06:05.050 --> 01:06:07.512
Going to be held to the fire, so you have to make sure that you're doing the best you can do.

01:06:07.512 --> 01:06:18.447
It Do right by your assistant principals, everybody that you are working with and collaborating with, and so that's why I do it.

01:06:18.447 --> 01:06:21.557
It took me a while to really be consistent with it, and that's something that I've gotten way better at.

01:06:21.577 --> 01:06:25.369
But you know what I wouldn't be here talking to Josh Tabar without this podcast.

01:06:25.369 --> 01:06:33.697
I wouldn't be learning from him today and his journey in education, and I wouldn't learn from Darren Pepper and I wouldn't learn from Tony Catani.

01:06:33.697 --> 01:06:41.978
These are people that I have listened to as well, as you know putting out a content for other people.

01:06:41.978 --> 01:06:43.431
It's not about me.

01:06:43.431 --> 01:06:45.541
I really care less about myself.

01:06:45.541 --> 01:06:53.407
I care about helping others that are in this seat because there's I think we're getting more of it and it's really great to see.

01:06:53.407 --> 01:07:04.050
But when I started podcasting there wasn't a lot out there, and so I think it's grown over the last three, four years and I think it's great, and it's great way to stay connected.

01:07:04.391 --> 01:07:13.896
When you are in the seat at your school and you could be that small rural school like I was there's not a lot of networking you can do out in a foreign field of a school.

01:07:13.896 --> 01:07:22.594
You know you've got to have some way to get connected and network with other educators and you have to be able to do it on a daily.

01:07:22.594 --> 01:07:25.715
That's where podcasts, I think, are a really great tool to do that.

01:07:25.715 --> 01:07:28.114
So thank you, josh, for that.

01:07:28.114 --> 01:07:32.896
And so, man, this has been a great conversation.

01:07:32.896 --> 01:07:34.291
Time has flown by.

01:07:34.291 --> 01:07:39.056
I've learned so much from you, and just your path, your journey, where you're at.

01:07:39.056 --> 01:07:43.255
So you know, Josh, what are you up to today?

01:07:43.255 --> 01:07:45.931
People want to reach out and get connected with you.

01:07:45.931 --> 01:07:46.894
How can they reach out?

01:07:46.894 --> 01:07:50.235
I'll put your information in the show notes for that.

01:07:50.235 --> 01:07:56.896
And what is the best advice you could give educational leaders before we end the show today?

01:07:57.498 --> 01:08:00.931
Reach out, steal everything that I put out on social media.

01:08:00.931 --> 01:08:02.034
Take it, make it yours.

01:08:02.034 --> 01:08:06.728
If you need me to help you with some logos or some stuff, I'll show you what apps I use.

01:08:06.728 --> 01:08:09.269
I've been doing culture stuff already all summer.

01:08:09.269 --> 01:08:29.755
I've been sending out stuff to kids, to teachers.

01:08:29.755 --> 01:08:34.994
I've been doing all that out there Because I rather spend time front load Love.

01:08:34.994 --> 01:08:39.932
So when you come in, you already know that the Linus Blanket is waiting for you.

01:08:39.932 --> 01:08:42.533
So reach out to me Whatever you need.

01:08:42.645 --> 01:08:45.594
You want to be a guest on the PGP podcast?

01:08:45.594 --> 01:08:46.315
Come on over.

01:08:46.315 --> 01:08:48.711
I'm already booking for September.

01:08:48.711 --> 01:08:51.670
Come on over, tell me what you do.

01:08:51.670 --> 01:08:54.630
We'll find a niche, we'll put you in there.

01:08:54.630 --> 01:08:59.856
But, most importantly, if you want to visit our home, come on over.

01:08:59.856 --> 01:09:02.552
If you're in Texas, hey, you want to come over from Nebraska?

01:09:02.552 --> 01:09:03.234
Come on over.

01:09:03.234 --> 01:09:05.529
You know what we have.

01:09:06.791 --> 01:09:09.978
10 districts visit us last year, 10.

01:09:09.978 --> 01:09:31.552
They left awestruck on the pedagogy that's implemented at Memorial Pathway Academy for kids from Pakistan, from Africa, from Vietnam, from all Central South America, to those kids that are teen parents, those kids that are 19 with three credits.

01:09:31.552 --> 01:09:33.680
That's who is MPA.

01:09:33.680 --> 01:09:35.404
And I know you, you educator.

01:09:35.404 --> 01:09:39.381
I know you have that and you know what this is where magic is made.

01:09:39.381 --> 01:09:44.073
The true Disneyland is no longer in Florida and California, it is at MPA.

01:09:44.073 --> 01:09:48.208
So come on over, copy the stuff that we have and visit us.

01:09:48.671 --> 01:09:49.613
You open door.

01:09:49.613 --> 01:09:52.092
I don't put a dog and pony show on.

01:09:52.092 --> 01:09:55.631
You know, you've been to those schools where you visit that same classroom.

01:09:55.631 --> 01:09:57.837
Uh-huh, come on, I don't.

01:09:57.837 --> 01:10:00.153
I just set up a structure and say what do you want to see?

01:10:00.153 --> 01:10:01.646
And we're just going to walk in.

01:10:01.646 --> 01:10:06.658
I never tell anybody other than the clerks we might have guests tomorrow.

01:10:06.658 --> 01:10:09.412
That way some strangers come in.

01:10:09.412 --> 01:10:14.131
You know we got to do the background check and the whole ID stuff, but other than that I don't tell anybody.

01:10:14.131 --> 01:10:16.271
I say, hey, they might be on conference.

01:10:16.271 --> 01:10:22.228
We're just going to walk into the classroom and I want you to see this and see this and make sure you check for their exit tickets.

01:10:22.228 --> 01:10:30.399
Everyone, wherever you walk in, they see that the kids are engaged, they see that there's no cell phones out, they see that there's bell-to-bell instruction.

01:10:30.399 --> 01:10:42.298
So if you want to see that you have an open invitation to come to Memorial Pathway Academy and if you want to know a little bit of our story, I wrote about it in Barbara Bray's book Grow your why?

01:10:43.064 --> 01:10:43.868
Chapter 23,.

01:10:43.868 --> 01:10:45.734
I am the last chapter.

01:10:45.734 --> 01:10:48.310
They save the best for last baby.

01:10:48.310 --> 01:10:49.996
That's MPA.

01:10:49.996 --> 01:10:58.953
If you want to find out how you turn a school from a D to a B if you want to turn around a school like MPA, this is where you find out about it.

01:10:58.953 --> 01:11:00.015
I wrote about it.

01:11:00.015 --> 01:11:01.757
Reach out, I'm here for you.

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Iron sharpens iron.

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Hey, I appreciate you being on the show today, josh.

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I appreciate all the insights you have and the work you're doing and how you're impacting education in a positive light.

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Thank you for being on the show today, gracias.

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What a great episode with Josh Tovar.

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Josh shared his powerful journey with personal insights on how he got into education, his time in the US Marine Corps to leading schools with heart, purpose and relentless focus on relationships.

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His message is a reminder that leadership is about connection, being authentic and service to others.

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If you're not already following Josh, be sure to check out the PGP podcast and follow his work on social media.

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His energy is contagious and his insights are invaluable.

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If this episode resonated with you, please share it with others who need to hear it.

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Until next time, be 1% better.