Episode 218: What’s in Your Can? Leadership Lessons from Alaska with Sherilynn Boehlert (NASSP MS POY Finalist)

Darrin Peppard (00:00.462)

All right, everybody, welcome back into the Leaning Into Leadership podcast. This is episode 218. And I'm going to begin with a question today. What do a pocket knife, a fire starter, and a one pound coffee can have to do with school leadership? Well, on today's episode, we head to Ketchikan, Alaska, where Sherry Bullard, principal of Shone Bar Middle School and a finalist for the NASSP's National Middle School Principal of the Year,

shares how her school's decades-old student survival trip inspired a powerful leadership metaphor. What's in your can? From building a legacy of trust and shared leadership to hiring for culture and embracing community, Sherry unpacks the essential tools she believes every leader needs not just to survive, but to thrive. This is a conversation about courage, continuity, and crafting school culture that endures.

I absolutely love this conversation. Can't wait to share it with you. So let's get right to it with Sherry Bowler.

Darrin Peppard (00:00)

All right, everybody. Welcome back into the Leaning Into Leadership podcast. Today we continue our very special series interviewing the National Finalists for NASSP's Principle of the Year program. And we are welcome to, or we are joined today. I'm going to say that again. And we are joined today by Sherry Bullert, who is the

principal of Shone Barr Middle School in Ketchikan, Alaska. Now, let me tell you this about Sherry. Not only is she the principal of Shone Barr Middle School, but previously she was the school's assistant principal and she's been an elementary school principal. Under her leadership, Point Higgins Elementary School was named a National Blue Ribbon School. Additionally, she was selected for the Arizona State University West's Leadership for Educational Entrepreneurs program.

These accomplishments highlight her commitment to educational excellence and leadership. She has long focused on student-centered decision-making, inclusive leadership, and data-driven practices, which all foster collaborative environments in her work. Sherry, thank you so much for joining me here on the Leading Into Leadership podcast.

Sheri Boehlert (01:17)

Awesome, thank you Darren. ⁓ sounds great when you roll it all out there like that. It's not often that we have our list of accomplishments played out. Thank you. Thanks for having me.

Darrin Peppard (01:23)

Yeah?

Yeah, well, if

you think about it, mean, you don't go into the work for the recognition. You don't go into it thinking about the accomplishments that you have reached. But sometimes it is kind of nice, and maybe we need somebody else to read our accomplishments list to us, but it is kind of nice sometimes to reflect. And we'll probably talk about this when we get into the meat of the episode, but.

certainly having to go through the process and every state does it a little bit different as far as how you apply for the state principle of the year and that type of thing. But certainly it's a great reflective process for you to have to think about, yeah, that's right. I did lead that or we did accomplish that as a team or whatever the case may be. So Sherry, let's do this first before we get lost in the weeds, two quick things. Number one, congratulations again.

on being the Alaska Middle School Principal of the Year. It's an awesome honor and then just add to it. Here comes NASSP knocking on the door. I understand Ron Nozowee did a wonderful job of tricking all six of you, middle school and high school finalists, into getting on a Zoom for something you thought was totally different, which classic Ron Nozowee. I love it. It's fantastic. But congratulations on that. And let's maybe have you share.

Sheri Boehlert (02:37)

No.

Darrin Peppard (02:52)

a little bit of your background, a little bit of maybe your leadership journey with our listeners and our viewers so that they're kind of framed for today's conversation.

Sheri Boehlert (03:03)

Great. Great. I think really. ⁓

Really probably the minute my feet hit the floor when I was born and grew up, I was being primed for being in education and being, little did I know at that time, a principal. I grew up in an education family. My dad is principal. My brother was a teacher. My sister is a teacher. My other brother is a teacher. My mom worked at the school. So we really were surrounded by education my entire life. And it's kind of funny.

because

when I was in college I was like, I'm not going to be a teacher. Everybody in my family is a teacher. Like, I'm not going to do that. So I kind of explored some other avenues and then I was kind of like, well, like.

Darrin Peppard (03:43)

Yeah.

Sheri Boehlert (03:49)

I guess I'm going to be a teacher. So it wasn't really like what I originally thought I was going to go into. And ironically, I had kept having all these different goals and plans. And then doors just kind of kept opening. I had gotten my degree, and I wasn't going to start teaching right away. I was going to make some money in Alaska and go travel. And then somebody retired like three days before school, and jobs never come open.

Darrin Peppard (03:51)

Ha

Sheri Boehlert (04:19)

So I took that position and 32 years later I'm with the same district in a different role obviously but have had a tremendous career. ⁓

and long-term continuity in the Ketchikan School District. So that's been really exciting. One of the things that I think has really benefited me as a leader is the fact that I have had lots of different experiences at different levels. So I taught for 12 years. I taught PE. I taught primary school. I taught geography at the seventh grade level. And I taught in public schools. And I taught in charter schools. So you kind of get a really

really nice ⁓ smattering of different experiences and that really helps you kind of understand what the needs are at each of those different levels. when I entered the newest program at Arizona State and had the opportunity to work with charter school leaders from across the country, 25 people in that program, just really the best of the best getting there, getting together. it was an exciting program because it bridged an MBA with educational leaders.

So you had, you saw the business side of schools, which I think oftentimes is overlooked in public education. Like we don't really under, not that we don't understand, but we don't sometimes focus on that as much. So that was a really great experience. ⁓ But it was, that's where I got my ⁓ Ed leadership credential and.

After that, that was when I was able to ⁓ launch into my first principalship. And it was at an elementary school and was able to get years of experience there. So spent 10 years at the elementary level and now 10 years at middle school. So it's spanned a lot of different ⁓ aspects of education, I guess.

Darrin Peppard (06:15)

So I'm curious, ⁓ one of my favorite questions to ask leaders, when you look back, especially because you had essentially the same amount of time as an elementary principal as you have now had as a middle school principal, what might be one or two things that you learned about yourself in that elementary principal role that helped to set you up for success in the middle school role?

Sheri Boehlert (06:43)

bit. Well...

You know, I think the importance of establishing relationships with ⁓ families, with students first and foremost, but then with families. Like when you're in the elementary school, a lot of times ⁓ here in Ketchikan, kids might come to that school in preschool or kindergarten and they will be in the same school their whole elementary experience, right? So you, like the importance of like establishing a positive relationship with families from the onset because you're going

to be with them for a lot of years. So you really want to have a lot of that whole, you want to be invested with them and have that relationship with them.

That is a little bit harder to do at the middle school level and particularly Schoenbarer middle school only has two grades. So we just have seventh and eighth grade. So it's really a blink. ⁓ You really don't have a lot of time to establish relationships. And so it's really kind of almost, you know, mid years into first semester, kind of getting into third quarter, you're kind of getting to know the kids really well. And then, you know, before you know it, you're already transitioning them up to the high school.

of like laying that foundation, having that relationship with families. We're fortunate because almost all the elementary schools feed into our school and so having gone from the elementaries to the middle school, I already know a lot of the families. So I'm getting kids of kids that I had when I was a teacher in elementary school which makes me feel really old. But ⁓ I think the power of the relationship, the power of establishing ⁓

Darrin Peppard (08:11)

Yeah.

Sheri Boehlert (08:25)

establishing the culture of welcoming families in. We do that so well at the elementary schools. I really brought that with me to the middle school. The other piece that elementary teachers are just phenomenal at is meeting students' needs and differentiating. And they differentiate all day long every content area. They just do it naturally, and they have it so built in.

And so that's something we're really trying to pull into the middle school level is like, hey, you guys have these kids and they're at all different levels, like kind of getting away from the traditional like.

middle school, junior high, high school where like, hey, this is where we're at and we're teaching to the like middle and the masses, right? Really kind of spreading that across and going, okay, if we know our kids are at all of these different levels. ⁓

We can no longer count on having specialized support services to pull them out. We've got to meet them where they are. So how do we do that? How do we get away from a set and get?

know, sage on the stage sort of delivery and get into kind of that differentiated approach, meeting kids where they are really and really like leaning in on that relationship piece. So those are probably the two biggest things that we've been really trying to.

Darrin Peppard (09:45)

Yeah.

Yeah, no, I think that's awesome. ⁓ I'm curious, I wanna maybe have you build a little bit on this last piece that you talked about. Because certainly, ⁓ especially at high school, but certainly it's true at the middle school level. In many ways as educators, we teach the way we were taught. We tend to follow that same model.

And certainly, through a lot of work, leadership, professional development, can shift some of those models. You had mentioned that in Ketchikan, you'll have a kid who will come in in preschool or whatever and will stay and have the entire elementary experience in one school. So it makes me wonder, about longevity with your staff.

So in your school, do you have staff who've been there for a tremendous amount of time? And if so, how do you make this shift that you're talking about? And obviously the opposite, if you have turned over that staff tremendously, what steps are you taking to shape that the direction you want it to go?

Sheri Boehlert (11:10)

Right, wow, yeah, those are really great questions. We do have a...

Ketchikan is a very ⁓ desirable place to be in Alaska. You know, if you look at the state and some people know where Ketchikan is and some don't. So if you have the, I'm like, I don't know how to do this. The state, we're like down in the southeast part of the state here, right? So we're like the bottom island, first city, about an hour and 40 minutes away from Seattle on a plane. So we're a rural community, but rural by most standards for the down south state.

but not necessarily rural by Alaska, right? So we have, I like to say we're rural with a splash of urban. We have jet service, we have McDonald's, have, you know, today five cruise ships and down at the dock. in statewide, you know, we have... ⁓

established school district. We are not in the true village. So a lot of people want to be in a community our size. It's not, it's 12,000 people. It's got a, what...

For Alaska standards, it's got a moderate climate. So we do have people teach here a long time. mean, we have teachers that are in buildings 15 years, 18 years, 20 years. When I started my first position at Point Higgins, I followed a really senior administrator. the staff there was a very senior staff. And I started in 2005 out there. And there were people who had been who opened the school, which

opened in 1986. there was a first grade teacher taught first grade for 26 years in the same classroom. It was like pulling, we helped her clean her room and it was like walking back in time. You could just take the bulletin board off and then another one was behind there. was like layers of, you know, was like going back in time. So there is a lot of longevity in buildings and I had that in that staff. I had that when I moved in with Shone Barra.

Darrin Peppard (13:16)

wow.

Sheri Boehlert (13:28)

well. It's something that you want to lean in on and all of that institutional history and ⁓

experience is really, really important. It's also, ⁓ it also can be a little bit of a challenge at times if you're trying to move the needle and to move towards new ideas and modern technologies and, know, in today's day and age, like embrace, you know, how do we handle cell phones? How do we handle AI? All of those things. So I think that there's a balance there and you... ⁓

If you are around long enough and if you've been in buildings for 10 years, you're going to have a natural cycle of turnover, right? People move, people have babies, people retire, people resign. And I've had the, that's something that's been really amazing in my two different principalships is like, I've really had the chance to build my team and kind of like I draft my team, you you have that going.

And sometimes it is having conversations with people that are like, hey, this is our vision. This is the vision. This is where we're going. And that's not for everybody. So you're on the train or you're off the train. And if you want to be here, let's move in that direction. And if you'd prefer to be somewhere else, let's talk about how we can help facilitate that. People transfer to different buildings. People move up to the high school. They move to different places. And I'm a big believer in

getting people to be in positions that they want to be in. So if that's at a different school, how can I help you make that happen? If that's, hey, I'm in, I'm in...

I just had a teacher that was actually one of my teachers out at Point Higgins. She was a special ed preschool teacher. Fantastic teacher, amazing. That had kind of run her course, wanted to work with some older students. We had had a couple different positions here that she was interested in that she wasn't the best candidate for, but then we had a math opening and now she's teaching algebra and pre-algebra for us and she is knocking it out of the park. she's, you you hire for fit and culture.

And that's what we're working for. we're building our team. ⁓ We want continuity. We want people to be here. All of these things take time to get through. So that longevity with teachers is, I think, the same thing that's a longevity piece with administrators. So you want somebody there.

that wants to be there, that isn't kind of climbing the admin tower, that is going to see an initiative through from start to finish. that's been exciting to be. It's one of the things that I love most about administration is getting to have your team together, pulling your team together.

Darrin Peppard (16:34)

Yeah,

there's really, man, ⁓ that's one of my favorite pieces too and I'm so glad you brought that up. mean, there's nothing like building your own team and putting the right people in the right seats where you believe they're gonna have the best opportunity to thrive, just like you talked about with the.

Sheri Boehlert (16:47)

Right?

Darrin Peppard (16:57)

The person who's now teaching math in your building that wasn't necessarily a fit for some other positions But now you've got her in the right seat and she's absolutely knocking it out of the park, which which is just absolutely fantastic I want to get to Talking about some of the work in your building and and some of that stuff and I have to go back you said something in passing, but it was man folks who truth bomb

100 % here from Sherry, you said, and I quote, hire for fit and culture. I don't even know if I'm going to give you a question on that. I'm just going to say Sherry, tell me more.

Sheri Boehlert (17:34)

you

⁓ well, you know... It's just...

When you know, know, right? You're talking to people, you're talking to teachers, you're talking to admin assistants, you're talking to custodians. It doesn't matter what the position is. You're talking to people and there's something that you catch when you're talking to them. And it's an energy that they have, it's something that they say, ⁓ it's their ability to ⁓ connect with the vision and the conversation you're having.

⁓ where you're headed. ⁓ You just really, it's really, we can teach people content. We can teach people content. ⁓ It's something that I have tried to do as I have gone into different positions and ⁓ over time I have...

taken opportunities that seemed that people really said like what are you doing? Why would you do this? Like why are you leaving this position to go to that position? Like what are you doing? And it it's something that is inherent where you go like it's just like your gut instinct goes like I want to be involved with that or I want to be involved with that person. That person's going to be a good fit for what we are doing. They get it.

Darrin Peppard (19:00)

Mm-hmm.

Sheri Boehlert (19:07)

They can make a connection, they can make a relationship, they can talk to kids, they can... And so I think over and over, I have found the most success with teachers and there's... I've had... In 20 years, you have a lot of teachers come through your buildings. Those are the people that you can teach them how to do this new skill, but if you can find the right fit, if you can find somebody who can connect with

kids, if you can find somebody that can work well with adults, they can collaborate, they have a sense of humor, they are committed and serious, but also know how to have a good time. ⁓ Those are the types of things that I think just at the end of the day, you want somebody who can can do those things. This is exhausting work. It is there's probably never been a time other than COVID, which we will agree to not talk about. ⁓

Darrin Peppard (20:06)

Yes, 100%.

Sheri Boehlert (20:07)

You know, other than

we're like, yes, during the COVID years we were here, we came through it, we're not going to talk about it. you know, those are the, yeah, you have to have people that are in it for the right reasons and just can make that connection. And they believe in, they believe in continuity, they believe in growth, they believe in being part of something that's bigger than an individual, they believe in leading.

Darrin Peppard (20:11)

Yeah, that's right. Best left in the past.

Sheri Boehlert (20:37)

they want to lead. So all of those things, I I could go on and on, but it's essential in the hiring process. And I think just kind of to capitalize on that.

You know when you have that, when you have people that are then moving on to more leadership positions. So like that has been also a big piece of the work that I've done here and at Point Higgins when you have like people going like, hey.

I'm thinking about doing something. I'm thinking about taking some more classes or getting another degree. I'm thinking about administration. I'm thinking about being an athletic director. I'm thinking about being a reading specialist. I'm thinking about being a tech educator. And then finding that and how you can support them and how you can build that for them because then you're just building capacity within your building. And then sadly, when they leave because they've flying out of

⁓ You know kind of keep that going but yeah fit and culture number one.

Darrin Peppard (21:48)

Yeah,

absolutely. Well, that's, mean, you're singing, you're singing my song 100%. That's why when you said that, I immediately went, you know, and wrote that down because I think that's such an important element. And I think it's something that successful leaders are very intentional about. They don't simply leave culture to, you know, to chance. They really are intentional about culture. And you're right. In so many ways, culture begins with

hiring process and making sure that you've got the right people that are going to be a part of your team. So let's talk about this. I'm curious. mean, definitely I want you to have an opportunity to share the work that is happening there at your school and the work that you are leading there at your school. And I'm going to ask you the question this way. And I haven't yet asked any of the other finalists that this way. So I might be giving you an advantage here, but I understand.

When you are all in Seattle at the United Conference, all six of you have to give a 10 minute presentation about your work, which first and foremost, how in the world are you going to do it in 10 minutes? But, right? I know. Well, so I'm going to take it in the opposite direction. I don't want to stress you out about it. I'm going to let you do a little practice here. So

Sheri Boehlert (23:05)

Listen! Don't stress me out! I'm already stressed out about it!

Darrin Peppard (23:18)

And you don't have to go 10 minutes, but just tell us a little bit about what you're thinking you want to share about your school, about your leadership when you are there. So consider this a practice run on that opportunity.

Sheri Boehlert (23:34)

Well, it's so funny that you bring that up because I have been like twisted in knots about this. like, I've pushed everything across my desk. I'm like, the schedule for kids can wait. Like I'm just like pushing it off. I, ⁓ yeah, so I'm stewing on that. It's actually the slide deck is in the background. I, so here's the thing, like what is awesome. There's so many awesome things about Alaska and Ketchikan.

and Shone Bar and the work that we are doing. But the one thing that if you came to Ketchikan and said, hey, tell me something cool about Shone Bar Middle School. Anybody that has lived in the community, has been to Shone Bar, they're gonna tell you about our survival trip. So this is crazy.

Darrin Peppard (24:28)

Okay.

Sheri Boehlert (24:29)

So it is a trip that puts fear in the heart of administrators and superintendents. Like, what are we doing? So for over 50 years, 50 plus years, teachers and students at Schoenbar have been going on a survival trip. They go on this trip and they pack literally a coffee can, a one pound coffee can. They, the kids...

do a bunch of classes in science. They learn about.

all the things that you need to be successful in a survival situation. Now, in today's society, if you turn on the Discovery Channel, you're going to see 42 shows about Alaska and Alone and Survivor and the Outdoor Boys and all of the things. So our kids for over 50 years have been going on this trip. They pack the survival can in the survival can. They have a pocket knife. They have fire starter. They have a little

bit

of rice, they have a little tiny first aid kit, they've got fishing hooks, like that's it. Like this is what you need. These are the essentials you need, plus your skills that we've taught you that if you get in a situation out there, if your boat breaks down, if you get stranded, if you're staying at a cabin and the weather's terrible and the plane can't come get you, you're going to be okay. You're going to be able to make it. You're not going to be comfortable. Make no mistake.

It's not going to be great and cozy and dry, but you're going to live, right? So, we've been doing this for 50 years. Our kids just went out in May. They...

Darrin Peppard (26:04)

Yeah.

Sheri Boehlert (26:16)

So it was the rainiest day on record since they've been keeping records when they were just out in May. It rained over six inches in one day. These kids are soaking wet. And when I say they go out, they're not like going down the block. We put them on a boat. We take them to another island. We don't even tell the parents where they're going. Like, who does that? Nobody does that. Like, who's signing this permission slip?

Darrin Peppard (26:27)

my. ⁓ my.

Sheri Boehlert (26:46)

So we're going to take them to an undisclosed place. They're going to sleep in a piece of visqueen that they have strung up as a shelter. They're going to eat gumboots and you know, junk off the beach, see cucumbers, beach asparagus. They're going to boil some water. They're going to start a fire and then we're going to bring them back two days later. Crazy. But this can...

Darrin Peppard (27:15)

As a former

superintendent, I have to tell you that I'm like... ahhhh. Yeah.

Sheri Boehlert (27:20)

Our superintendent

is like, why are we still doing that? I said, Michael, here's the deal. It's already hard to be a superintendent. You know your longevity isn't that long. Cancel the trip and see how long you're here.

Darrin Peppard (27:32)

Yeah,

no kidding, right. That would change that very quickly. Yeah. Yeah.

Sheri Boehlert (27:34)

Yeah, like, like nobody's canceling the trip. So the the

thread there is this can of essentials, right? So it's like what's in your can? What's in your can? Are your tools that leverage your likelihood of living? So my presentation would be on what's in your can like right as an administrator. It's like this great symbol. It symbolizes this can symbolizes our students. It symbolizes our community. It symbolizes the work we do as administrator. What's in your can? You have to have a survival

can of tools. You know, can only pack so much stuff in there and there's a lot of little things that go around the big things, but you know, what are the big things in the can? Continuity, team building, shared leadership, ⁓ know, continuous school improvement, all of those things, those are the big things, the big things that in my work, when I kind of siphon through all of the stuff and go, what if I had to pick some common threads?

what are the common threads there? What are the things that I have done in different settings, whether it was...

you know, as a teacher, as a elementary principal, as a middle school principal, the common themes in all of that work were those four things that I just brought up. And then with those things, what can you do when you have those four things put together? Like, what does that mean? Like when you have a team that has some continuity, that's been together, it's established, you're headed in the same direction.

You have trust, you have relationships, you're willing to have fierce conversations. And there's some conversations, right? I mean, there's some things when you really start working on continuous, ⁓ meaningful, intentional school improvement.

you have to face the music sometimes and that's ⁓ not just teachers, that's like, we say we're doing some things and that's not reflected in any of the data that we have. We think we're being really whatever, but when we survey the students and the families, it's not translating to them, so we've got to change that. So ⁓ those are the types of things that I think really... ⁓

are things that are in my can, what I would say are in my can, and things that I have worked towards with students and staff and families and the community is ⁓ showcasing those. ⁓

Darrin Peppard (30:04)

Yeah.

Sheri Boehlert (30:17)

I don't know, ⁓ different pillars or tools and then leveraging them with whatever initiatives that we have going on. and then I would talk about, you know, I mean, when we were, when I was out of Point Higgins, you know, you had mentioned earlier in the ⁓ introduction that we were a Blue Ribbon School and that was a tremendous, a tremendous honor to be there ⁓ and to go through that process. And the thing that you don't see when you see that, you you get the

Darrin Peppard (30:26)

Yeah.

Sheri Boehlert (30:47)

Blue Ribbon Award and you get to go and that's really awesome. And we have the banners and I was just out at Point Higgins the other day and I was like, the banner's torn, how come they haven't fixed the banner? So you have those banners, but what you don't see is the three years of work before that where we had significant declining enrollment. We had transitioned from ⁓ just a public school to a public school whose SES now qualified us for Title I. So the work that we were doing to meet

needs of having lost like 40 or 50 or 60 students and having to go from single grade classrooms to multi-age classrooms to have to like writing a title one school improvement plan like how do we do that how do we how do we maintain our culture how do we do that because we were a team and because we had you know continuity and and shared leadership we all together

did that work and were able to achieve that ⁓ high academic achievement and be recognized as a Blue Ribbon in spite of the fact that it was like three of the most challenging years that we'd had. So we were together. And that was just one example of doing really amazing work. the funny thing is if you talk to those teachers, I don't really know that they would articulate that they knew that they were doing the work that they were doing while they were doing it.

at the teachers level, sometimes they're just like, hey, we're just doing what's best for kids. And so that's an example of ⁓ one of the times that we did some really great things. that's kind of the tangent I was heading on or the direction I was heading with my...

Darrin Peppard (32:15)

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, I like it.

I think it's absolutely the right direction to go. I love what's in your can. I really do. I love how you make that connection between what your kids are taking out on this survival trip and what are you doing as a leader in the role that you are in and the you not just meaning Sherry but anyone as a leader. I think that's absolutely stellar.

Like what happens always on this podcast, our time has absolutely flown by in front of our eyes. Yeah, amazing, right? So Sherry, we're at that point where I'm gonna ask you the same question I ask everybody here on the podcast. This is the Leaning Into Leadership podcast. So right now Sherry, what are some things you're doing to lean into leadership?

Sheri Boehlert (33:05)

What?

You know, I think one of the things that is really...

The POI, like my own family calls me the Apoi.

the Alaska POI, A POI, they're like, maybe you're gonna be the N POI. I said, I don't know, like maybe I am, maybe, it's like stiff competition, know, good company to keep. But ⁓ one of the things that it has highlighted, and it's not an area of strength for me, like I typically am like, I'm like behind the scenes, like let's get the work done. I'm the steady one, I'm like.

Darrin Peppard (33:45)

Yeah.

Sheri Boehlert (34:05)

I'm doing the work like right we're over here. It's not always glamorous. It's not always ⁓ you know when you're in a school or you know you're up at the high school. You're a high school guy. ⁓ State championships get a lot more attention than you know academic or school improvement ⁓ initiatives. So you know kind of trying to really push forward and telling our story more like I really think that that's something that I need to be more intentional about not just

Darrin Peppard (34:25)

Yeah.

Sheri Boehlert (34:35)

not my personal journey, but our school journey and like what that means and what that means for our students, what that means for our kids, what that means for our families in our community. But the other piece of that is that we've had a really tough year this spring. You we have superintendent turnover, we have a lot of turmoil in our community with the school board and

Admin has taken a lot of hits. It's really been a scapegoat this spring for a lot of different reasons. But I really want to help leverage the importance of strong administration, the absolute how essential it is to have continuity and leadership, how important it is to have ⁓

have enough leadership and have enough admin and by highlighting what admin does and doing a better job of like, hey, this is the work we do. ⁓

kind of expanding the importance of it because I think oftentimes we can kind of go like, you know, we don't want a class of 25 kids, right? But if we have all teachers and no admin, like what does that look like? So kind of finding that balance between how and letting them know how admin can support and really drives and makes the connections with ⁓ improvement. think that's kind of where I'm leaning right now, like the importance of that.

Darrin Peppard (36:12)

Yeah, no,

I think that's outstanding. I really do. And I think that's one of the big challenges, but also one of the pieces that when you do lean into it, that can bring a lot of joy to the job, being that one who's out there being the champion of your school, telling the story, sharing with people what really the truth of the role is and what's going on inside of the walls of your school.

Man, this was such an awesome conversation. I'm so grateful that we had the time to sit down and spend a little bit of time together. Sherry, if people want to get in touch with you, if they want to reach out with you, if they want to connect with you on social media, what's the best way for people to connect with you?

Sheri Boehlert (36:55)

⁓ Well, the easiest way to connect with me is to either ⁓ follow follow Show & Bar Middle School on Facebook, know, social media, Show & Bar Middle School. They can check out the school district website. I don't have a large ⁓ social media presence personally that I support, but those are the best ways to connect with us is reach out website. ⁓

Lots of information about the survival trip. Google Shulmbar Survival Trip. There's a couple of great documentaries out there about it. We're in the Atlantic magazine. Yeah, reach out. Would love to share more. Darren, if you have other episodes, have me back. I didn't even get to tell you about the stuff we're doing right now at Shulmbar. So would love to tell you.

Darrin Peppard (37:40)

yeah, absolutely. Yeah, we'll definitely have

to have you back on the show without question and have you talk about some more of those things. Folks, we're gonna put all that stuff down in the show notes so you can go check out Shone Bar. You can go check out ⁓ Sherry and her district there in Ketchikan. ⁓ Man, again, Sherry, congratulations and best of luck ⁓ with not only the presentation but with the outcome there in Seattle in July.

And thank you so much for joining me here on Leading Into Leadership.

Sheri Boehlert (38:11)

Darren, it was a pleasure. Thanks for joining us or thanks for having me, guess. hopefully, are you going to Seattle?

Darrin Peppard (38:19)

Unfortunately, this year I don't get to be there. have actually a gig I have with another district that will keep me from being in Seattle. So eventually I will ⁓ get to meet all of you guys in person at maybe an NASSP event.

Sheri Boehlert (38:36)

Awesome, awesome. Thanks for having me. We'll talk again soon, I hope. Yep, bye bye.

Darrin Peppard (38:39)

Yep. Yeah.

Darrin Peppard (01:09.25)

All right everybody, thank you again so much for joining me here on the show. I really enjoyed my conversation with Sherry Buller, just like I have with each and every one of the individuals who are finalists for both the National Middle School Principal of the Year and the National High School Principal of the Year. I'm really enjoying this mini-series, if you will. We're halfway through it. I hope you are enjoying it. Reach out, let me know, share some comments with me, maybe share some.

some things on social media that you're hearing from these amazing, amazing school leaders. As always, folks, I appreciate you. Thank you so much for joining me here on the Leaning Into Leadership podcast. Get out there, have a road to awesome week.