Cool Coffee 11 - Mr. Eric Sacco - Clifton-Clyde Pre-K-8

Cool Coffee w/ Kansas Principals

Listen in on with NAESP rep and KPA board member, Mr. Eric Sacco of Clifton-Clyde Pre-K-8 principal. Eric discusses his "why not?" philosophy of sharing out all the good via social media. Principal banter ensues as discussion of basketball jamborees, holiday season, and the sprint to the break are discussed.

Connect with Mr. Sacco:

• X: @SaccoEric
• Connect on Email
• Eric's article, titled "Why Join?", on page 22-23 of the 12/3/2024 publication of Under the Umbrella

Chapters

(time stamps do not account for the Cool Coffee intro--full transcript of the show below)

00:00 Introduction to Eric Sacco and His Journey 09:24 The Importance of Social Media in Schools 17:27 Creating a Positive School Culture 22:30 Holiday Traditions and Movie Favorites

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

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TRANSCRIPT OF THIS SHOW (Generated by AI)

Rick Sola (00:01.879)
All right, thank you for joining in on another Cool Coffee with Kansas principals. This episode features Mr. Eric Sacco, Pre-K through 8 principal from Clifton Clyde School District, USD 224. He is a KPA board member, NAESP rep for the state of Kansas, and also featured on this podcast on the Cool Coffee Principal Perspective Number 6, Keeping Your Mind and Body Right, which was a great episode. You can check that out.

and as of December 3rd, which is actually recording today, newly published in the Under the Umbrella magazine sharing the why to joining the KPA. Welcome, Eric.

Eric Sacco (00:35.691)
Thank you.

Eric Sacco (00:41.152)
Hey, thanks very much Rick. Glad to be here.

Rick Sola (00:44.004)
Appreciate you being here. Before we get started, I want to invite listeners to the show notes. You can check out and find a Google form there where you can leave some feedback about the show, suggest a guest and or topic, or even suggest yourself with a topic to discuss. In addition, I will include a link to what I just mentioned, the under the umbrella where you can read more about Eric's why of joining the KPA as well as articles and features from building the state level leaders from across the state. So

You can check that out in the show notes. Before we kind of get started, I'm going to kind of point out and just kind of a, I think I'll just say thank you as a good example. And you probably don't know where I'm going with this, but yesterday we were actually going to record and you reached out and said, my gosh, I just got my son's basketball schedule. I've got to go to this, you know, the game or was it Jamboree or what was it?

Eric Sacco (01:35.522)
It was their jamboree last night, yeah.

Rick Sola (01:37.695)
Okay. So we rescheduled, which is no problem at all, but I appreciate that. And I think it's, it kind of just touched on, I think it's relevant to all of us, principals. We have busy jobs, there's a lot going on, there's a lot of opportunities, but there's also, you know, our home life, our more important and our family. And, you know, that balance is so critical. And so it was just kind of a,

another good example, though kind of just an aside from getting this scheduled and I just wanted to bring that up because that is something I think that we all work through and deal with and there's times where work and conflicts do come up and we make those sacrifices but we also are very fortunate to have a lot of flexibility in what we do oftentimes and we can be a part of that. So anyway, that was kind of an aside but I thought that was really cool and I'm also

the basketball dad high school with my oldest son being on the team out here. And so we had our jamboree last night and we have late night tonight. So all sorts of good things going on. And it is so, you know, we're a couple days after the Thanksgiving break. Just, you know, your two days in and we got now the sprint to the even bigger break. first two days going okay for Eric.

Eric Sacco (02:49.076)
Exciting time of the year, that's for sure.

Eric Sacco (03:03.49)
Yeah, they are going real well. Like you said, yeah, we're three weeks out from Christmas break, so kind of a tight squeeze here to kind of get some last second things in. But yeah, the first two days have gone great.

Rick Sola (03:15.713)
what's on the docket for the next three weeks or less than that now.

Eric Sacco (03:19.586)
Yeah, there's a lot. We started off yesterday, we kicked off our fast bridge testing, our mid-year fast bridge. So most grade levels right now are hot and heavy into that. Like you mentioned, basketball. There seems to be games almost every night between middle school games and high school games. And so, you know, traveling to a lot of those. And then just, you know, trying to end the first semester on a good note.

Rick Sola (03:46.593)
Yeah, there's a lot going on and certainly I think every building can point to many events. There's a lot of culminating activities for a semester and in some ways like you mentioned basketball kind of starting off kickoff or tip off I guess better for basketball but a lot going on. know Eric I've I like to ask about the road to the chair and kind of what what has led you to where you're at today but you also have a couple leadership positions outside the building the NAESP and the KPA.

So kind of a brief, you your road to the chair, but also what it means to you to wear the hats that you wear with both of those organizations.

Eric Sacco (04:26.062)
Yeah, well, the road to the chair, guess, you know, I was born in New York.

That's where both my parents grew up. I moved to Texas when I was a little over one. So basically raised in Texas my whole life. Graduated high school there. After high school ended, had the opportunity to play a little college basketball. So that brought me up to Kansas. Went to Bethany College. Met my wife there and she's a Kansas native. And so she kept me around. I taught for 10 years at Halstead. Halstead Middle School taught fourth grade there for 10 years.

buddy of mine who I taught with.

was going in to get his master's in administration and I at the time really didn't have any interest in it but he was starting his master's and so he talked me into joining him. So we took our classes together and once I finished that, started applying around and a job popped up here at Clifton Clyde. It's where my wife is from, she's from the area. She graduated from Lynn High School which is just down the road so it got us up closer to her family which is very important with my family living down in Texas. It was important to us to have

one set of grandparents around within close range so we moved up here and been here ever since. This is year 13 for me here.

Rick Sola (05:42.913)
Yeah, that's awesome. I'm interested in, you said you had no admin interest. What flipped? What switch was turned on to change your gears?

Eric Sacco (05:55.596)
You know, I really don't know what the flip was. Like I said, buddy of mine was getting his masters and he talked me into it. And so I kind of figured, you know, after two years of taking all the courses and getting my masters in admin, I might as well put it to use. And so that's kind of what led me here. And I said, I've enjoyed 13 years so far. I've enjoyed it all. It's been a good switch. I really enjoy the role that I'm in right now.

Rick Sola (06:20.834)
Yeah.

Yeah, I asked that because that's exactly how I felt. I made the decision to go into administration, but I didn't necessarily see myself in it. And then at some point, I found myself really interested and things just take off and go. And I think that's the way it is for a lot of us. You are very active in both the KPA and I've enjoyed my time with the KPA, serving on the board with you on that. But also in AESP, what do those hats look like as it relates to you as a building principal?

even as a leader in a different capacity.

Eric Sacco (06:54.988)
Yeah, I've been...

Been very active in KPA. You know, it used to be KAESP prior to the two joining, but been very active in it most of my admin career. Got started early on, was asked to join the board and just kind of stayed with it. Really enjoy it. More of a networking piece. Being a small town 1A principal, I'm the only principal here in my town, so you don't really get to kick many ideas around with any other

admin in the district. know KPA, NASP, that gives me kind of an outlet to collaborate with other administrators, meet with other administrators, talk to them, steal a bunch of ideas from them. So that's kind of what has kept me in KPA, NASP. It's just that collaboration piece with other administrators. Three years ago was asked to be the NAESP rep for Kansas. So I accepted that role.

That's been another great role. I really enjoyed that. Kind of a liaison between NASP, which is the National Association, and KPA, our state association. So basically they're just kinda kept in the know of what's happening in the world of education nationally and be able to bring that and report it back to our state board, our KPA board.

lot of traveling opportunities that go along with it as well. Every November we have a Zone 8 retreat that I get to go to and I just got back about a month ago from Little Rock, Arkansas was where the retreat was this year. The previous year was in Santa Fe, New Mexico and then year before that got to go to New Orleans. So you know some trips that

Eric Sacco (08:43.892)
I wouldn't necessarily take on my own that I've been able to experience. Also, every March, get to go to the National Advocacy Conference in Washington, D.C. Get to meet with all the state reps there, and we actually get to go up on the hill, the Capitol, and advocate for public education. So that's been an eye-opening experience, a nerve-wracking one when I first started that, but been a couple times now. So it gets a little easier each time to go up there and talk to your senators and representatives.

in July get the chance to also represent Kansas at the national conference. again lots of lots of travel opportunity that I really enjoyed.

Rick Sola (09:19.65)
Yeah.

Rick Sola (09:24.043)
Yeah, that could be a whole different topic talking about what it's like up on the Hill, like you said, talking with senators and people in decision-making roles that make big decisions and impactful decisions. And yeah, can certainly see that intimidation factor setting in. that may be another show. But one thing I've noticed, and I follow you on your ex-account, and I see

Eric Sacco (09:48.366)
You

Rick Sola (09:53.909)
a lot of the trips that you've taken as a part of these organizations. But kind of segues into really one of the interests I wanted to talk to you more about was just exactly that, your social media presence with your school. I, even today as I was getting set up here and I saw just about 45 minutes ago from this recording you posted a celebration for a kiddo in your building. You do such a nice job of featuring

the kids in your building and you know I've noticed things where you you're having meals with kids, office positive office referrals, academic accomplishments, and even one right before Thanksgiving. I'd love to hear more about this too. A student that had a handwritten note that she made to every one of her every one of the classmates in the building or but just a lot of really great celebrations and I just wanted to hear more about it and it kind of have you talk

to it because you're very active on the social media with your school.

Eric Sacco (10:58.466)
Sure, yeah, know, when it comes to that, my philosophy is why not?

I mean, we all have great things going on in our building. Why not share it? Why not brag about the kids that you have? Why not brag about the staff that you have, the great things going on in your building? And so, you know, an easy way to do that is to share it on social media, share it with the parents. Do a, we do a, like you said, a positive office referral where any staff member can nominate a student for doing something great around the building. I call them down in my office, share the positive office referral with them.

picture, they get a little prize and then I share that with the parents as well. I'll text them, email them that picture and kind of brag their kid up as well. And like I said, post it on X, on Instagram and just kind of share that out. Like I said, there's a lot of great things going on and you and I know the world of education does not always spun in a positive light. And if we have any chance to redirect that and share the great things going on, then it's always a positive.

Rick Sola (12:00.855)
I love the idea of just telling your story. just like you mentioned, know, sometimes a story can be told from people outside the building and we have an opportunity to show it on the inside. And so for your students, they know, do they realize that they're going to be posted on their social media so their parents to see it? Or is that something they aspire to? Or is it more like, wow, I just got recognized? Or how does that work?

Eric Sacco (12:27.726)
Yeah, know, it's funny because, you know, I have pre-K through eighth grade, so you kind of see that difference between, you know, an elementary student being recognized versus a middle school student being recognized. You know, your younger grade school students, they're pretty excited about it for the most part, being called down to the office, getting their picture taken. And I had a bulletin board up in the hallway that I print those pictures off and we post them out there. So.

Rick Sola (12:34.925)
haha

Eric Sacco (12:52.13)
throughout the year if at any time you get a positive office referral. picture's up there for the entire school year. So kinda you like to share in them as much as possible. It's funny though, know, the older kids, the sixth, seventh, eighth graders, they...

They don't want to enjoy it as much, there are sometimes, you can tell, they really do enjoy it. Especially when I tell them that I'm going to share that with their parents, send them a text and email and share that picture with them and brag them up. Because they're on social media quite a bit. And I would venture to say not everything they're looking at or browsing is always positive as well. So putting that out there and bragging about them and their peers can see it, their friends can see it, their family can see

it and it's just like I said why not do it.

Rick Sola (13:39.127)
Yeah, I love the board the whole year. So where's that board located in your school?

Eric Sacco (13:43.738)
Right out in the hallway. So right outside the, so I actually have two buildings. At the grade school it's kind of right by the library in between the boys and girls restroom. There's a big bulletin board there. And then here at the middle school it's just right outside the office as well.

Rick Sola (13:56.675)
Yeah. So how long have you been doing this, that in particular, you know, taking pictures and being intentional about posting them and not just posting them, but printing them and putting them out there for everyone to see.

Eric Sacco (14:10.432)
wow, I would say probably five, six, seven years. I've been doing it quite a while. The idea started, I saw it on social media. I used to call it Good News Call of the Day.

is what it was, it's just a hashtag on back then Twitter, good news call of the day, and it's just again a group of principals that were doing that, were making phone calls, sharing on social media, I thought it was pretty neat, so I kind of stole that, and over the past few years it's evolved to a positive office referral. So yeah, so we've been doing it quite a while.

Rick Sola (14:44.675)
It

Yeah, and one of the what led me to that question was just I'm curious of the impact that this alone has had on your building and culture, maybe with your kids, but even with with staff that see that and recognize it. And, you know, I'd venture to guess that some students, maybe they needed that win. Maybe that that was something that it was a celebration that maybe they haven't had in a while, you know, and but they're there on the board. And so is that anything you can

Eric Sacco (15:05.388)
Yeah.

Rick Sola (15:16.431)
speak to as far as what you feel like is an impact on, at this point it's part of your building culture, it's an expectation which is really cool.

Eric Sacco (15:23.502)
Yeah, you know, it's, I always try to tell our staff members, know,

Try not to look at what happened in the past with a student. know, because you have your students that, you know, they do a lot of negative things and they don't get that positive praise all the time. So, you know, don't look at what's going on in the past. If they do something well, celebrate it. You know, there's some students that you know that, you know, it might be one or two things that they do and, know, at that moment when they do something that's positive, something good, capture it. Capture that moment. You know, because that little thing can spark something in a student

and drive them to do more positive things. So yeah, I think.

It has become kind of a culture, know, try to catch those kids doing good things. You know, even your quiet kids that always do what they're expected to do, they're not always recognized either, you know. And so catching those kids who are the quiet ones that always do the right things, catch them in a moment and share that, you know, on them. So yeah, it's, I don't know, I enjoy it. It's probably one of the best parts of my day when I can call a student down for a positive aspect in the office.

Rick Sola (16:32.183)
I think that's what's really cool. That's what I noticed is the pictures that I have seen posted just seem so genuine and so celebratory. It's just it's like you said a good news post of the day. You can see the joy in the kids faces and oftentimes you're making a goofy face or silly face or whatever with them. And it is funny because I did notice I hadn't thought about it but I did notice with the elementary kids that you could tell they have a different kind of feel with it versus some of the older kids. But you know that's

Eric Sacco (17:01.026)
Yeah, and I was asking me, said, you hey, do you want to, do you want to selfie with me or do want a picture on your own? And so, you know, some kids want, want to do that selfie with me. The other, you know, some other kids just want to do that, that picture all by themselves. You know, they're too cool to get a selfie with the principal, but you know, some of the older kids still enjoy that. And you know, I, you know, I want to make the office a place that's not always negative. So, so much of the time.

Rick Sola (17:02.117)
Thanks.

Eric Sacco (17:27.212)
you know the office has a negative connotation with it. You know it's a place where you send students when they're doing something they're not supposed to. But it doesn't always have to be that. You know why not, why can't the office be a place you go to celebrate? know a place where students go when they do something good. And so that's kind of my philosophy around that is you know the office doesn't have to be negative all the time. You know keep it positive as much as you can.

Rick Sola (17:49.749)
Is there an instance that jumps right to the front of your mind like, man, you do celebrations, it's fun all the time, but there's one that really was special or stuck out, is there any that really kind of come to you?

Eric Sacco (18:04.45)
Yeah, you know, as a principal that's had my kids in the building, know, those...

you know when when my child gets nominated for a positive offer, you know always makes you feel good as a parent so you know those those always stand out. My two oldest kids are out of the building now so they're both in high school but I have a younger one my kindergartener that's still here with me so you know he got nominated last year as a preschooler so that one stands out you know your own your own kid you get to celebrate them.

Rick Sola (18:34.989)
Sure. So you had the one right before Thanksgiving where it was a young girl that wrote a note, I think, to every student in the building. Yeah.

Eric Sacco (18:44.502)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that was awesome. Yeah, her teacher brought me down the positive officer for her own said, yeah, she she had come to school and she had a handwritten note for everybody in her class. And the handwritten note was what she's thankful for for each kid in her classroom. So yeah, that was that was pretty cool.

Rick Sola (18:59.84)
wow. Wow.

Eric Sacco (19:01.484)
Yeah, I had never seen something like that before. But yeah, was brought, know, called her down and shared that with her and asked her about it. And she said, yeah, she just wanted to, she just wanted to tell her what she's thankful for. So that was, that was pretty, that was pretty cool. Yeah.

Rick Sola (19:13.923)
That's incredible. And she's got a whole bunch of stories, I'm sure, about the kids that got that and received that.

Eric Sacco (19:22.114)
Yeah, that's only a second grader that did that. Yeah.

Rick Sola (19:24.865)
Yeah, that's unbelievable. That's really cool. Kids are amazing and it never ceases to amaze me what they're capable of. But a lot of it, I'm sure, the culture you're building and celebrating there, it helps prompt those kinds of things too. But what a great story. Yeah, that's pretty heartwarming. I was going to ask, and you kind of hit on this, but it's not just an X thing. Because one thing I discovered was a lot of our parents,

know that X is like their number one stop or at least the people that the parents that are wanting to to see these things. Facebook would be one. Instagram I know nothing about but we did create a Facebook page this year but so you mentioned Instagram is it X and Instagram or do you have Facebook too or?

Eric Sacco (20:11.234)
I have for our school, the ex account and then, you know, it's basically a personal account, but I do mostly school stuff on there. But then I have an Instagram account for our school as well. We do have a Facebook account. It's more of a district account. And so we use kind of that as more of informational stuff to get out to families. So I try to tend to flood my Instagram and my ex account with all those positive things. And a lot of your parents, I mean, there a lot of them are on Instagram.

Rick Sola (20:40.279)
Yeah, my wife tells me that she told me you need to get on Instagram like. Yeah, yeah. So what the next three weeks I mentioned you spoke about but what's your personal goal over the next three weeks.

Eric Sacco (20:42.274)
Yeah, yeah. I have the school account, that's it. I don't have a personal account there.

Eric Sacco (20:57.026)
You know, I thought about that when I saw that on your sheet. You know, I think for me personally, or sorry, professionally I should say, my professional goal would be not only to survive these last three weeks, I mean it's gonna go quick, but...

professionally just trying to set everybody up for a successful second semester. You know, and that's by finishing out these last three weeks as strong as we can. There's a lot going on, but we gotta just keep in the back of our mind, you hey, we're gonna have a break coming up soon, so let's finish it out strong. Let's go hard till the end.

Rick Sola (21:31.095)
Yeah, it's very much a sprint. I was just talking to staff yesterday. There's a lot of positive, there's a lot of fun events. It can also be a grind, it can be stressful. We don't know what's going on at home. But it is a very exciting time in the schools with all the spirit days and things. But exactly right. Finish strong and let's start the next semester equally as strong.

Eric Sacco (21:58.146)
And we'll be kicking off Thursday. We're gonna kick off our 12 days till Christmas. We always do, we've done for the last handful of years. It's the last 12 days before break. Kind of have a little theme each and every day leading up to break. So we'll send that out on Thursday and start kicking that off. It's different dress up themes, food themes, just kind of something every day to get staff.

a little more motivated when they're here. We invite all the kids to do all of our dress up themes that we do throughout the month as well. So be a lot of a lot of different things going on.

Rick Sola (22:24.236)
Yeah.

Rick Sola (22:30.775)
That's fun. I'll be looking for some pictures on X because I'm not on Instagram. real quick, is that time of year. Do you have a Mount Rushmore of holiday movies?

Eric Sacco (22:37.006)
Absolutely.

Eric Sacco (22:46.582)
Yeah, so Mount Rushmore, that means you're top four, huh?

Rick Sola (22:50.339)
the four that you're gonna put on a monument.

Eric Sacco (22:53.454)
Okay, so I thought about this a little bit. I'm not a huge movie guy, but you know, I do have kids at that age that enjoy it. I would say number one, because of my kids, they always watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas. So that's one every year that they have to watch. They like the Jim Carrey version. Yeah, yeah, they like the Jim Carrey version of that. So I'd say that for sure. I don't think you can go wrong with Elf. That's a good one.

Rick Sola (23:09.751)
The cartoon or the Jim Carrey version? okay, okay.

Eric Sacco (23:23.598)
Home Alone is a classic and then I would say Christmas Story would be the other one.

Rick Sola (23:30.72)
yeah, that's one of my can't miss every year.

Eric Sacco (23:34.222)
Yeah, but then I got to thinking too, know, looking back at the days where we didn't have streaming services growing up as a kid, you know, I always, when it came to Christmas, you you always waited for NBC or ABC to show Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer or Frosty the Snowman, some of those old classics that were only seen on TV one night a year.

Rick Sola (23:51.341)
Yeah.

Rick Sola (23:54.967)
Yep. Yeah, that's right. Those were yeah, I would I would I still remember turning the dial on my non cable television and tuning into

Eric Sacco (24:00.866)
Yeah. Yeah. And you had to tune in or you missed it.

Rick Sola (24:06.079)
Yeah, no, those are good times. Those are good movies. That's good. There's a strong list there. know, Christmas Vacation is a top one, one of the top ones for me. and I, you know, there's several to choose from, you know, tis the season. So I thought I'd ask and gosh. So this is, I'm going to put Polar Express up there, but the personal reason behind that is that is a tradition in our family. Somehow it developed where the first day of every break, we can't

Eric Sacco (24:13.184)
Yeah, I had that one on the list too, yeah.

Eric Sacco (24:20.886)
What's yours? What's your top four?

Eric Sacco (24:27.021)
Yeah.

Rick Sola (24:36.043)
out in the living room and we turn on Polar Express and have hot chocolate so that there's a lot of good memories of that. Christmas story is in there. I have elf, Christmas vacation, It's a Wonderful Life is a really good one. I enjoy that one. I just saw the best Christmas pageant ever, which is in theaters. The new one and there's something about that that really hit me. You know it's about a group of kids who

Eric Sacco (24:57.186)
The new one? Okay. Yeah, I haven't seen that one yet.

Rick Sola (25:04.567)
who, kind of a, I don't know, challenging group of kids, but it's a very sweet story. And I don't know, don't know if I should mention this one on a podcast, but I'll go ahead. I'm going to mention Bad Santa. And maybe that's embarrassing to mention, I will say for it's not a family-friendly movie. I'll admit that. But.

Eric Sacco (25:17.941)
Hahaha

Rick Sola (25:28.971)
There is something sweet about the main character, Billy Bob Thornton and the kid who gets picked on in school and he kind of rallies around it. But yeah, I'm not going to give that a full endorsement on this podcast. But that is one that at least I haven't seen that in years, but that was one that came to mind. So, Darn, I think I spoke too much on that. I wish you wouldn't have asked me what my top four were. Well, Eric Kay, I really appreciate your time and

Eric Sacco (25:40.544)
Yeah

Eric Sacco (25:50.935)
Hahaha

Rick Sola (25:56.267)
you know, making time for this because there is so much going on and and you know both personally and professionally so being on here.

Nice job on the Under the Umbrella article. A lot of good voices that you use there about, you know, kind of the YKPA. And there's just a lot of good, like I said, voices, some that have been heard here, but are very active. And it's very personal for a lot of people. So I hope you can check that out if you haven't. Other than that, I really appreciate your time and I wish you all the best the next three weeks. And we'll see you out there on X and Instagram.

Eric Sacco (26:30.68)
Yeah, sounds good. Appreciate it. It was fun.