Cool Coffee 12 - Mrs. Melissa Evans - Midtown Alternative HS (Hutchinson)

Cool Coffee w/ Kansas Principals

This episode features Mrs. Melissa Evans from Midtown Alternative High School in Hutchinson, KS. Melissa shares about her unique start at Midtown and how she works intentionally to create a "home" for all students in her building. Focused on engagement, Mrs. Evans provides examples and highlights of how this looks still only a few months into her principalship here at Midtown.

Connect with Mrs. Evans:

• X: @mrsmel_evans
• Connect on Email

Chapters

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

00:00 Introduction to Midtown Alternative High School
02:54 Navigating Change and Emotional Attachments
05:57 Melissa's Journey to Leadership
09:11 Understanding Midtown's Unique Structure
12:11 Rebranding and Enrollment Strategies
15:01 Building a Positive School Culture
17:54 Proactive Approaches to Student Engagement
21:20 Innovative Restroom Management in Schools
23:00 Creating an Engaging School Environment
24:32 Empowering Students Through Clubs and Activities
26:46 Building Community Partnerships for Student Success
28:57 Celebrating Student Achievements and Building Culture
30:59 Planning for the Holiday Season
35:05 Pride in Community and Staff Support

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TRANSCRIPT OF THIS SHOW (Generated by AI)

Rick Sola (00:01.656)
Hello and thank you for listening to another edition of Cool Coffee with Kansas principals. Today I am here with Miss Melissa Evans, principal of Midtown Alternative High School and director of alternative learning placement in the Hutchison School District, USD 308. Welcome Melissa.

Melissa Evans (00:20.558)
Hi Rick, thanks for having me.

Rick Sola (00:22.22)
All right. So we won't share out loud that that was take two of the intro. But yeah. But we did have a conversation before starting because as I was putting this together and preparing for it, I asked you ahead of time, what's the proper way to talk or mention your school's name or the vernacular? Is it midtown or? And so then we had a kind of a good conversation. So would you mind just kind of sharing before we get into even

Melissa Evans (00:26.646)
I wasn't gonna say it.

Rick Sola (00:51.734)
your school in general, just tell us about how you refer to your school out in Hutchison.

Melissa Evans (00:56.782)
Yeah, you know, so we are actually in the process of looking at changing our name of our

doing that because Midtown is in its fifth year of operation so it's fairly new. And the first year how it kind of came to be we realized there was a need for an alternative high school and our district had recently acquired a building that was formerly formerly a restaurant here in town and at that point I believe in the first year they had about 12 kids enrolled and so they were utilizing this restaurant they had partitions it was actually really neat and if you talk to those kids those

kids that came there as freshmen just graduated last year and I had the opportunity to get to know them a little bit the last couple of months of that school year and they're very proud of Midtown and proud of what they really helped build but after the first two years it grew pretty substantially and they needed more space and so then they moved Midtown the school into an elementary building that had closed and it's called Avenue A so then they kind of referred to us as Midtown Avenue A.

but they kept the building midtown also. And so there's a lot of times confusion within our district and definitely with outside of our district about where is midtown? Is that a building? Is that a school? And so we've talked about renaming it. And you know, for me being new to the school, it seems like a no brainer. But I also think when you walk into situations like this, you realize for me, I don't have an emotional attachment to it. But there are several kids here who have attended midtown and take a lot of pride in being midtown kids. And so

recognizing there's almost an emotional attachment to that name. And so how do you facilitate change and help keep those emotional ties to it, but also bring them in on a process that really would be beneficial long-term. So that's where we're at with Midtown. So currently we are Midtown Alternative High School located in Avenue A. I'm mouthful.

Rick Sola (02:54.318)
All right, I love it. Yeah, and you you hit on some things as you move forward with potentially changing and the district I'm in, just recently did a rebrand and we launched in July a new logo and rebrand a new mission. And being a part of that effort, know, a big piece of it is honoring the past and you don't want to, you know, there's so much treasured history and just like you said, students that feel really connected to what you have and so.

Logistically, there may make a lot of sense to make some changes, but how do you do so while being cognizant of how the emotions of the past and honoring that. so thank you for clearing that up because I wasn't entirely sure. you hit on, go ahead.

Melissa Evans (03:34.126)
You know what, right?

It kind of, when you're talking about that, it really reminds me of my first year in administration. I was in elevate leadership through USA Kansas. and Dr. Hart and Jess Griffin led that. And I remember we were as a building going through redesign at the time, and they talked about that change and something I just never considered until they brought it up. And I think about it a lot. Anytime I'm trying to lead through change and it talked about there are people who a lot of times have to grieve when you do things like that. And so just keeping that in the forefront, but I thought that that was a

really interesting take on change that a lot of times we pass over. Some of us get so excited about the next thing that we forget that there are other people with different emotions attached to it. So absolutely.

Rick Sola (04:17.804)
Yeah, especially when you know if you're in a position of making some of the decisions with it and many people are not in that position so they don't know what's going on and there it builds the anxiety and my gosh what's where's this going to go and so no good luck on that but you had touched on some things with you know being new and you you you took over as principal there last spring break and you mentioned five years in existence this is the fifth year of the school.

Melissa Evans (04:44.808)
Yes, we are currently in year five.

Rick Sola (04:47.158)
lot of growth in the area, a lot of need. I noticed on your website a virtual program is housed there. And it's alternative school. There's a lot of uniqueness. And I thought that would be really interesting just to hear more about. And so I guess before we kind of get into just how the school operates and a little bit about it, I do like to go through the road to the chair of how did you end up where you're at today? What got you here?

Melissa Evans (05:15.758)
Well, Rick, I'm really glad you told me to keep this 30 minutes or under, because that helps me figure out how much detail to go into. No, I was a math teacher at our high school before entering administration.

Rick Sola (05:21.482)
Ha

Rick Sola (05:25.974)
Hi, boy.

Melissa Evans (05:30.614)
My first admin job was assistant principal and athletic director at our seventh grade building. And really wasn't looking for any type of change, really enjoyed what I was doing, was really excited about the changes that we had made. And I really felt like we were starting to see all of our labor in those years that I was there come to fruition. So was really exciting. And then I got a phone call right before we left for spring break asking to go to district office at 3 PM on a Friday, which is.

Absolutely terrifying. I was convinced I was fired and never, it never feels like a good thing. But they just had asked me to come up there, mentioned that Midtown was kind of struggling in terms of direction and they were hoping I could come over and kind of help land the plane and then were hoping I would take over. So after some consideration and talking with family, went ahead and decided to do that. So ironically enough, I had to make that change.

Rick Sola (06:15.502)
you

Melissa Evans (06:27.048)
on April 1st, April Fool's. it started, April Fool's Day started with me standing in front of 300 seventh graders and telling them I wouldn't be coming back to the building. And half of them were crying and half of them were saying, no, it's an April Fool's joke, you guys. It's just a joke. So yeah, told them that on April Fool's Day and then came over and started here. it was honestly, was...

Rick Sola (06:41.838)
wow.

Melissa Evans (06:51.456)
It was hard at first to come in mid-year. I think anyone who kind of is in a leadership role, realize.

change, trying to facilitate change when you only have a couple months left in school, really there's no point. Really I felt like those two months were meant to kind of observe and just really get to know the building so that I knew what we needed to look at and reevaluate over the summer. But that also means you're coming in living in someone else's system. And so that was kind of difficult, but I do feel like it gave me such great insight for us to meet over the summer and really figure out what

we wanted to focus on to get the biggest bang for our buck in terms of change for the start of the school year. So it was hard, it was really hard to not get to see those seventh graders finish out. You're at the middle school level so you know how much growth there is from August to May in seventh graders and so to not see that was really difficult but I'm really glad that we did, that I did come over in April just so that I could kind of get that head start in planning.

Rick Sola (07:54.062)
So be a named principal, it's April 1st, you're walking into a new building, you are the new principal. What was your first order of business? How did you approach it?

Melissa Evans (08:02.478)
you

you know, so that's funny. And we laugh, this student now, we laugh about it.

I walked in, they had a meeting set, and I think it might help to know just size of Midtown. So we are an alternative high school. At that point, I believe rostered, there were 70 students, but what I found out coming April and May, probably about 30 students were attending on a regular basis. So it was just myself and the staff, have a staff, they had a staff of seven teachers at the time. We had some teachers move on to different roles and we didn't fill those.

very excited to fill them for the next year as we scale larger. So sat in there, said, hey guys, I'm really just here to kind of see how you do school. I'm really excited. I'll be here next year also. It was, I guess I should back up. It was really important to me to be able to tell staff, I'm not just here for a couple months. I'm here for the long haul. I'm invested. So I wanted to be able to tell staff that when I came over to say I would be here, I wanted to be able to tell students that, I would be coming back.

The conversation had with them was, I'm really just here to observe, see how you guys do school, I don't plan on making any big changes. And then about an hour later, I had to suspend a student for a vape. So that's never, never a fun way to start out. But that was, I mean.

Melissa Evans (09:29.324)
That was one of the issues that was pretty prevalent here in the school. And so it was difficult to start out that way, but one of the things, one of the best things to come from that, and it didn't feel like the best thing at the time, but I had one of the students, she's a senior now, she was a junior then, she asked to see me. And I don't know any of these kids, Rick, it's April, but I have never met any of these kids. She walks in and I will never forget her telling me, like, I'm gonna try very hard to be respectful.

Rick Sola (09:53.016)
Sure.

Melissa Evans (09:59.2)
But who do you think you are coming into this building? You don't know any of us and an hour into being here. You're suspending a kid You don't even know her and just going off, you know and and in moments like that That's never that doesn't feel like a positive experience. But what I took from that was here is a passionate student She cares about the people that are in this building She cares about her school and if we can get her to care about doing well here I think she's gonna help me lead the changes that we want to see down the road and she has she is

crushing it this year and she's such a leader. it's hard initially when you have experiences like that, but when you can take that passion and harness it for the good of the kids in the building, it's really an incredible thing to see.

Rick Sola (10:42.764)
Yeah, that's really cool. What did you discover that you had two months and that's, you there's not really a natural break there. I'm not super familiar with the Hutchison calendar, but April 1st is that's in middle of the fourth quarter, right? mean, spring break has occurred or has it not? Or is that?

Melissa Evans (10:59.674)
Yes, so spring break had happened. Hutchinson 308 is really unique in that we do trimesters. don't know. At one point, know Emporia had done trimesters, but they made the switch back. I feel like there's always been talk of us making the switch to semesters. It hasn't happened yet, but it is still in talk. So it'll be interesting to see what comes in the next couple of years. But no, you're right. There was no easy break. was kind of a weird time to come in. Yeah.

Rick Sola (11:06.635)
Okay.

Rick Sola (11:27.542)
Yeah, so you have a couple months and in some ways, like you said, not moving in to make a bunch of changes, but you could kind of sit back, observe and is that what you did? Take a little bit of assessment of the situation.

Melissa Evans (11:38.316)
Yeah,

Yeah, I really wanted to see firsthand what I found even before they had come to me about this job is you would hear things about Midtown. And I loved earlier when we first started talking, you talked about rebranding. You had said your district was working on rebranding and doing those things. And I very much feel like that's what we are doing this year. And so before we could rebrand ourselves, we needed to see what we're working with. And so, yeah, I tried to just get in classrooms as much

much as possible talk to staff, talk to students. I scheduled one-on-ones with each of the staff members, paras included, all of the staff members to really figure out what they enjoyed about the school, what they felt like needed to change, what they felt like the biggest issues were, what they felt like they did well. And hearing from those people, that's how you get the best information and then just seeing it yourselves. I always joke with people I love, I have the flexibility because we're a smaller school.

to be able to go help our lunch staff. It's just one woman, Miss Bev, be able to help Miss Bev serve lunch. And that was my favorite part. Kids were not thrilled with me being here to start. I think I'm very different than the administrator before me. And being able to go into the lunchroom and see them be so kind to Miss Bev. She is the sweet woman that could retire any day she wants to. And she shows up every day and does a wonderful job for us. And these kids that would glare at me, not say anything when I'd say good morning to start, use their manners.

Rick Sola (13:01.39)
you

Melissa Evans (13:11.444)
with Miss Bev, pulled their hoods down because she's established that expectation that when you come in, you're gonna use your manners, your hood's gonna be down, and she's so loving, but she's firm. And I wanted to take what they do in the lunchroom because here they are clearly capable of following those expectations, and they do because they Bev cares about them. So how do we take what's happening at lunchtime and scale it into the school building wide? That was our big focus, but I just loved how kind they were to Miss Bev. So that's what I did. I served lunch and I got in class.

and just really got to see kind of how school functioned.

Rick Sola (13:45.166)
Awesome. So this is maybe kind of backing up in the conversation a little bit, but talk about that, how your school functions and kind of everything that's under the roof at Midtown. I'll call it Midtown. Is that all right? Yeah, talk a little bit about it.

Melissa Evans (13:56.534)
Yeah, yes, that's what we do. That's what we call it.

Yeah, so we last year, they've made some changes to how it's arranged. And I actually love that you mentioned that on the website, it says we house the virtual program because we don't anymore. So that is, that's noted that I need to let someone know that needs changed on our website. Yeah, here in our building, it's kind of unique. We are an old elementary school repurposed. And so we have one hallway as our midtown hallway. And then our building is shaped in an L. And so we actually, the Boys and Girls Club utilizes the other side of the L.

In the afternoon, it's K6 boys and girls club. So we're never here at the same time except for those wonky days where elementary is how the day off in high school still in session. yes, we house Midtown here and then we also have our alternative learning placement. So we call it ALP and that's where students at the secondary level who are suspended for drugs or weapons that 45-day placement if they have an IEP they come here for their education. And then we have that same thing we utilize ALP for.

our elementary as well. Our elementary buildings don't have ISS, so a lot of times if a student is struggling to stay regulated in their classroom, they'll come here for a couple days to kind of reset and then they go back to their elementary. So it's very fluid on the outside. Midtown side is our high school, which is I would say the main part of my job. So currently, when we, I guess let me back up just a little bit. At the end of the school year, I met with district office and they said, okay, what are you

seeing what do you need and I would be very remiss if I didn't make it a point to say how grateful I am for the support of district office and their willingness to pretty much green light anything I've asked for. I felt very very supported to make changes even things that I was nervous to ask for they were really great about. So one of the things my

Melissa Evans (15:54.402)
think my biggest takeaway from those months of April and May was that Midtown is absolutely a need in our district. And I think what happened is it just scaled too big before systems were put in place. so after graduation, after the school year ended when I met with district office, I asked if we could go ahead and cap enrollment. I wanted to take every kid that we had here and bring them back next year, bring them back this year, but not take any additional kids. That would have dropped our enrollment.

down from about 70 to about 50. We had about 20 students graduate last year and they were okay with that and that always makes you nervous, right? Because you're constantly, I don't know about you guys, but constantly thinking about budget. How do I justify the amount of employees I have? How do I justify the expenditures? How do I make sure that we're serving enough kids for it to make sense? And they were wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. So we capped enrollment. They allowed us a couple days at the end of last school year to tour other alternative schools. So Complete Mays was wonderful.

who were wonderful hosts. Hayesville was wonderful. I'm currently in the Kelly Mentor program and have Mr. Brian Gee over at Goddard's Alternative High School as a mentor also. So in talking with all of those people and kind of how they run their alternative schools, majority of them have some type of application process that Midtown didn't have. They have agreements that the students and their guardians sign and all of these things in place to really hone it.

on these are kids that want to be here and they just need a different environment. When you talk about that rebranding piece, Midtown had the reputation of being that's where the bad kids go. When kids are kicked out of school, that's where they're sent. And I think you would probably agree Rick, students enter a building with a totally different mindset when it's a decision to be there than when it's considered a punishment. And so we wanted to move away from that. We wanted Midtown to be a place that students chose to come because they could be more successful here.

So we kept our enrollment. We moved to an application and an agreement that parents and or I'm sorry that guardians and students sign. So we went through that process with all of the kids that come here now. So it's a little bit different and it meant we met with all of them prior to school starting. But what was so great about that is we had told them before school ended, it's gonna look a little bit different you guys. It's gonna be a little bit different when you come back. And so it was really nice to start the school year meeting with each of them individually.

Melissa Evans (18:23.762)
meet with their guardians and kind of explain the things that we were changing, what that looks like, and kind of our expectations moving forward.

Rick Sola (18:31.758)
How do you go about, or maybe some things that you've done intentionally to kind of build that climate and culture? You mentioned part of the population are those who are on suspension and so you might have a little bit of kind of come and go and.

What do do to make it feel like home and build that? now that you've capped it, about 50 kids or so, kind of that rebranding, what successes would you say you've seen as you've started this school year and this is the first school year of, full year for you? So what are you feeling really good about right now?

Melissa Evans (19:11.026)
man, I'm feeling really great about a lot of things. You know, I felt like, I felt like really the biggest issue for us.

last year what I saw in those two months where kids weren't following schedules. They weren't where they were supposed to be when they were supposed to be there. They weren't getting their work done. Here at Midtown a lot of our kids, I think it might be helpful I guess to know our clientele who we serve. I would say a lot of our kids are here for credit recovery. We have the flexibility because about 70 % of our classes that we offer are through a platform called a Sellus. And so we have some in person about 30 % of our

classes are live teaching about 70 % is a cellist and so what I found when I was here was

Those kids that were showing up every day, were here. They weren't making great choices when they were here in the restroom specifically. They weren't completing their work. would say last year at the end of the year we had only about 40 % of our kids complete the classes they were enrolled in. And so in talking with staff at the end of the year, what were the big things we really wanted to target? Because if everything's important, nothing's important, right? You really got to focus on those wigs. So specifically they wanted to focus on attendance. They wanted kids to be here. They wanted kids to be completely

Rick Sola (20:20.942)
All right.

Melissa Evans (20:28.224)
completing their classes when they were here and they wanted them to not be vaping in the restrooms when they were here, which all felt like very good goals. And so I don't know about you, Rick, but I definitely did not get into education to spend all day, every day searching backpacks and standing guard in restrooms. And so instead of focusing on a reactive approach, how am going to chase them down? How am I going to catch them? We really wanted to be proactive with how we were addressing it. So some of the things we did, we implemented an E-pass system through Securely.

And what I love, love, love, love about that is you can set capacity in restrooms. And so we're able to make it one at a time. it's glorious. Do you guys use an EPAS system?

Rick Sola (21:05.134)
What does it, I was gonna say, what does that look like or how does that manage itself there? Our high schools, I think all of them do. I think E-Hall Pass is what we've gravitated toward. I can't totally speak to the high schools, but I know they've done it, yeah.

Melissa Evans (21:20.494)
sure.

it is glorious. So we actually were able to pilot it at HMS 7. So I felt very fortunate to be familiar with it prior to coming over here. But it's so nice. So some of the things that I love about I better get paid for what I'm about to share right now because I'll hype it up. But you can set capacity in a restroom so you can make it to where our school is small enough that we have just one at a time. One girl in a restroom at a time, one boy in a restroom at a time. We only utilize one area of restrooms. And so that's something we have done to help negate the hanging out grouping

Rick Sola (21:34.488)
Hahaha

Melissa Evans (21:51.776)
making bad choices in there. You can set it to where if you and I, Rick, if we notice, the staff notices you and I are trying to meet up in a restroom, they can block it to where you and I can't be out on pass at the same time. So if we suspect that we're getting into not great things, they can set it up to where if I'm already on an active pass and you try to ask a teacher to approve a pass without the adults trying to constantly communicate to see who is where all the time, that system automatically blocks it, turns red and says you can't go on pass yet.

which is glorious. The kids furious about it. The staff love it. So that EPAS system has been wonderful.

Rick Sola (22:23.918)
Yeah.

Melissa Evans (22:32.674)
But it's not just a matter of cracking down on them in that way. We also wanted to address how do we make them want to be here? How do we create an environment that kids are excited about being here, that there are things that they want to do, and so they get their work done so they can participate in these things. So we redid our master's schedule. Looking at it, I was green-lighted to be able to give all of my teachers the same planning period. And so they tweaked the schedule quite a bit.

Rick Sola (23:00.066)
Mm.

Melissa Evans (23:02.56)
prior to me getting here and what we did was we went ahead and went back to one of the first things they had started with where all the teachers, our students are actually dismissed at 2 30 here. Teachers are contracted till 3 40 and so we meet every Monday, every Wednesday. If it's a really light agenda, we'll cancel it, but more often than not, what I found is when I cancel staff meetings, we all just end up in the office talking anyways, which is kind of nice. But one of those meetings is for behaviors, one is for academics, and so that has been so helpful just keeping everyone on the same page.

being able to come and sit down and say, hey, I noticed so-and-so was struggling. How was that happening there? I don't think you can ever over-exaggerate how, or over-emphasize how incredible that PLC time is to keep everyone on the same page. So we have those meetings because of our schedule. And then we also do a block schedule on Tuesday, Wednesday. And the reason we do block schedule on Tuesday, Wednesday is so we can build in time for what we call town hall meetings, where students and staff get together short, 30 minutes. We'll do birthday celebrate.

We do shout outs. We talk about things coming up. We've had some students do presentations from what they've done in their classes. So it's really just meant to build that culture and get everyone on the same page. Sometimes we ask for student input on how we're doing things. And then we also in the afternoon have what we call enrichment. So that's when we have speakers come. That's when we will play games and that's when we do clubs. And I would say that clubs has probably been one of the biggest

I don't know that success is the right word. It's what kids are most passionate about or most excited about. So we went ahead and surveyed them at the beginning of the year, asked what clubs they would be interested in doing, and paired up with sponsors. Yeah.

Rick Sola (24:41.763)
What did they say? What were they interested in most for a club? So I'm kind of curious.

Melissa Evans (24:47.542)
You know, the hot one right now that everyone really fights over is Cooking Club. They love it. They love it. And it is so neat to see them so excited about it. And I think the best part is it's the boys that want to do it. And so that has been fun. And it's been fun watching them do the dishes afterwards, too. They're not always thrilled about that. But yeah, we have Cooking Club. We have Gaming Club. We have Art Club. We actually have a Cosmetology Club. And one of our paras here had actually gone to

to be a hairdresser so she actually gave some haircuts today in Cosmetology Club. Yeah, was was really kind of cool.

Rick Sola (25:20.998)
wow.

Rick Sola (25:24.3)
Yeah, that's pretty neat. know, clubs, it's something, our schedule isn't kind of middle school wide, but it's not super conducive to just having natural time for clubs during the school day. have some, and there's just so much value to that. You just listed off a bunch of clubs that kids love to do, and you always find those niches within clubs that can be so powerful. It could be a reason that a student wants to be at your school, and you talk about an emphasis being, hey, we want you here.

Well, if I know I get to go cook, and that's something I really like to do, that might be a carrot to get me there. And I can do the other stuff if I get to go do that. So, I love hearing that. Yeah, so you're less than a year into this building as principal. Is there anything that you can identify that you know now that, gosh, I wish I would have known that back on April 1st? Anything at all?

Melissa Evans (26:16.514)
You know?

I I don't know that if there's anything that I wish I could go back and know outside of, I wish we would have found some community partnerships just a little bit sooner. I have been so grateful, we have been so grateful for some partnerships that we have here with the health department, some partnerships we have with a church nearby that has provided,

pumpkin. So when you talk about some other things we've done. Let me let me go back. So I shared that about 40 percent of our students completed classes and got the credits they were enrolled in last spring. This year at the end of our first trimester we had 88 percent of our students pass every single one of the classes they were enrolled in. Our entire passing rate for totality of classes taken was 91 percent. Just incredible. So the couple kids that brought down that 88 percent they'd actually pass four out of six of their

classes as well. And so because they were working hard, you have to reward that, right? You have to keep that motivation going. You have to reward that. And so we were able to reach out to First Presbyterian Church, who provided pumpkins for every single student. So we celebrated on Halloween. We didn't do school on Halloween. We just did fun stuff all day on Halloween. We had students kind of plan what they wanted to do that day. We did pumpkin decorating. We did, I think they did, a movie day or a movie

in one of the classrooms and just played some games, some different things like that for Halloween. We just finished having our big Thanksgiving meal that that church donated, the turkey and the ham, our cooking club cooked all the food, we had staff bring sides, but that really kind of building that family feel, right? I think that's one of the most beautiful things about being in an alternative setting is you're able to do that. And so when I talk to you about those kids, those hard kids, because I would hate, hate, hate if I only shared how much of a struggle it was for them to be excited.

Rick Sola (27:57.592)
Huh.

Melissa Evans (28:16.294)
to have me there and so when you're talking about wins, one of the things we did in town hall was write thank you notes to the church and the pastor for providing that and one of the things our students read, was pulling it up because I would love to share it, she just said, thank you and your church for providing us with pumpkin's food and an amazing honest talk which definitely opened our eyes. I appreciate you for giving our school a chance when in the past people probably wouldn't have. I didn't try the food because I wasn't at school that day but I'm

so grateful that people are seeing our school as a school instead of a place where bad kids go. Yeah. my gosh, Rick.

Rick Sola (28:52.278)
Wow, what a powerful note. That's awesome.

Melissa Evans (28:57.578)
And you know, a lot of times when you ask kids to write thank you notes, you never know if they even are gonna know what to say. Because you know they're grateful, but a lot of times high schoolers aren't great with their words in that way. she really summed that up. That is what the reputation of Midtown was. That's where the bad kids go. And it's not.

Rick Sola (29:15.246)
I mean, what a great note to even share if you are working with a potential community partner and say, look, this is the power that you have on our kids and changing that narrative. That should be in a frame or something. I don't know. That's really great.

Melissa Evans (29:30.822)
It's, I've got several notes that if they're going somewhere else, I take a picture and just keep it because I want to remember that. And that's what we do as educators, right? We have to go back to those notes that just remind you, even on those days when you feel like you're not making a difference, it's working. Things are happening.

Rick Sola (29:46.626)
Yeah, that's really great. you have, you've talked a lot about, I mean, there's so much to celebrate and you kind of beat me to it. You mentioned you got to celebrate. I was going to ask what you do and you just gave a couple of really great examples. What does the next, I guess, couple of weeks now, so we're recording this, it's December 4th. And so this is actually the last cool copy of the calendar year. They'll come out on December 19th is when this will drop in the...

Melissa Evans (30:09.507)
the pressure!

Rick Sola (30:14.722)
Thousands and thousands of listeners will flock to upload this and listen But what does the next couple weeks look like at Midtown as we head into the holidays and for them I'm sure a nice solid two to three week break

Melissa Evans (30:17.791)
Melissa Evans (30:29.07)
Yeah, know, it's always, holidays are always kind of interesting when you're in education because there are people, students and staff alike who really look forward to it. And I think there are students and staff alike who really dread it. And so we've talked with our kids kind of about what would you like to do before break? Because we do, we try very hard to have kind of those days of celebration and community building as long as they're getting done what they need to get done. And so right now, some of the things we've talked about, is set in stone yet.

but ideas that we have. The kids would really like to do some caroling. We have some neighbors around the school that we're working on building relationships with, so they would like to go caroling. We've talked about doing, well, let me take that back. We have that church that I had mentioned. They're sponsoring some of our students, which is wonderful, but we do want to spend that day right before we go into break really just kind of spending time with each other and celebrating. So we have some students that are brainstorming what they would like to do. They want to pick a Christmas movie.

Rick Sola (31:05.614)
awesome.

Rick Sola (31:28.846)
you

Melissa Evans (31:28.896)
And I feel like a lot of times it centers around food. So I'm sure we'll do a Christmas meal. We had some leftover ham. So we've talked about how we can use that. But really, it's just pushing them. Because this is what we just talked about as a staff. This is the hard part, where everyone's doing really well. How do you keep that going? How do you keep that momentum going? And we're already seeing it a little bit, just in terms of students getting their percentages. So because they're in a cellist classes, we set a weekly percentage they have to be at at the end of the week.

to be on progress to complete their courses by the end of the trimester. And so one of the supports we have for them on Fridays, if they are not at the percentages they need to be to be on track, they stay for what we call academic recovery. And it's been kind of neat because early on we had quite a few kids in academic recovery and what we found was they really just wanted to stay at school. And so we adjusted and said, okay, academic recovery is still gonna be for those kiddos who maybe just need a little bit of extra help, but they're behind still. They have to turn their cell phones in when they go to academic.

recovery but then we have a teacher she's wonderful and she opens her classroom for kids that just want to stay and hang out. So now that the kids can just choose to stay and hang out they're still getting their percentages they just want to be around each other which is really special but so really locking in we want our kids to go into break being in a good spot academically so they're not coming back and having to dig themselves out of a hole so really pushing them and when it comes to those percentages but celebrating as they hit those.

Rick Sola (32:55.598)
Yeah, that's great. You hit on, know, it's a reminder, you know, it's such an exciting time of year, but it can also be, I don't know if you use the word dreaded or not, but it can be dreaded for some, or the idea of being at home for an extended length of time and not being able to come to school, you know, the school provides so many opportunities and so much structure and.

consistency and routine and relationships that may not always be available when school's not in session. And so just keeping that in mind, I love that you ask them, what do you want these next few weeks to look like? And what can we provide? And I'm curious, what Christmas movie did they select?

Melissa Evans (33:31.054)
So what I found is so many of our kids love horror movies. They were pretty disappointed. I was terrified by some of their Halloween movie selections. So I'm trying to inch them towards The Grinch or Elf, and they're still talking about Saw movies. And I'm trying to think of their Terrifier, The Punisher. There's been some scary one coming out. I'm like, no, Mrs. Evans can't handle that. That's going to be one year out. I can't do those. I know. I know.

Rick Sola (33:35.962)
well fantastic.

Rick Sola (33:46.444)
Rick Sola (33:52.782)
I did not expect to go that direction with the Christmas selection, but you know.

Melissa Evans (34:01.006)
But I do believe that Batman Returns is a Christmas movie. Die Hard, not so much. Batman Returns, that's Christmas movie.

Rick Sola (34:07.352)
Batman Returns, is that with the Penguin? The Tim Burton? That's going way back. Okay, I have not seen that. I would not have considered that Christmas, but I have to think back. Now Die Hard, I think there's a really strong argument to be made that it is a Christmas movie, but. Well, this came to an abrupt close and next time on Cool Coffee, no. So, no, that's awesome.

Melissa Evans (34:10.156)
Yes! Uh-huh. It's a good one.

Melissa Evans (34:23.116)
All right, Rick, well, I was enjoying you. I was enjoying this.

You

Rick Sola (34:36.171)
You know, I want to appreciate all it's been really interesting to hear about this and what you're doing. And I mean, you've talked a lot about a lot of really positive things. And it's as if I feel like I'm talking to someone who's been in a position for several years and you're only several months into it. So it sounds like you're doing really, really great things there and just a lot of really bright future. I would love to finish this with just giving you an opportunity to brag.

on your people and you've done a lot, is great, but just brag on your people out in Hutchison and at Midtown and the district and so forth. What do you love about where you're at?

Melissa Evans (35:16.622)
I love it.

everything about this place and this community. I grew up in Hutchinson and so coming back to a community it just it's really important to me. I'm very proud of a district that values alternative education and green lights pretty much everything we want to do here as long as it's what's best for kids. I am so proud of the staff we have here at Midtown. They're constantly I mean when we talk about these things that we're doing here it's staff when we talk about the clubs it's because staff is willing to sponsor these clubs.

when we talk about these Thanksgiving meals, it's because staff is willing to go home and cook and bring their food or cook here with kids. I'm so grateful for our high school administrators. A lot of times I think there's this notion that all Ed and traditional Ed, but heads and you do, you feel protective of your people, but I'm very grateful for great relationships with those principals so we can communicate and make sure the kids that are coming to Midtown are the kids that should be here and that the kids that we're sending to the high school are kids that will

do well there also. I'm very, very grateful for those things and for a community that is willing to help and pitch in. feel like anytime there's something we want to do, if we don't have it in our budget, there are so many people willing to help and support. I'm just honestly Rick, I'm really proud of our kids. And I know that sounds cliche and I'll try not to cry because you can't do that on a podcast, but you, I mean, you can create an environment that makes it easy to make the right choice, but they still have to make the choice.

Rick Sola (36:39.383)
You

Melissa Evans (36:46.768)
still have to do the work. They still have to show up every day and they are doing that. They're doing that and they're representing themselves well and I'm just I'm really really proud of that.

Rick Sola (36:58.21)
That's great. you mentioned it's a cliche, cliches are cliches because there's some accuracy to them, you know, and that's what it is all about. And so that's what you recognize there is awesome and perfect. you know, there's no shame in cliches when it comes down to celebrating kids and just a lot of things to celebrate.

Melissa Evans (37:05.17)
I did.

Rick Sola (37:22.318)
I'll give a quick shout. I appreciate the fact we have a mutual colleague that kind of connected this had a suggestion like hey you need to get Melissa on the show she's got a great perspective and talk about the building and You know, so I appreciate Justin he's an HR so I don't want to talk anymore about about him. Yeah, he's a we know we love our colleagues, but but I appreciate the connection and You know in I guess in closing a shameless plug

regarding the show is, know, in our show notes, one, there'll be information about Melissa in there, contact information, connection on social media, but there is a form in there that can be filled out and feedback or suggestions or recommendations. So if you're listening, please feel free to click into the show notes, click on that link and provide some feedback. So that's exactly how this occurred. And so I'm glad he did. I've really enjoyed talking with you and getting to know a little bit more about Midtown and

I want to wish you a good, here a couple weeks, Merry Christmas and a good start to 2025.

Melissa Evans (38:28.558)
appreciate that Rick and I am, this isn't a plug, but I just want to say thank you for starting this up. My first year in administration was like drinking from a fire hose. And I felt like the biggest saving grace was really getting involved in KPA, following the podcast they had at that time, attending the KPA conference, being involved in USA Kansas, their elevate leadership, currently going through Kelly mentorship and just really building those connections. you don't realize how lonely the job can be until you're in it. especially now I was fortunate to be an assistant principal, but now I'm the only administrator in the building. so having connections like these and finding what

ways to, when you don't have the experience, learn from others' experience is always one of the best things you can do. So I am very grateful for you, Rick, for starting this back up because this is one of my favorite ways to hear about other administrators and what they're doing around our state.

Rick Sola (39:19.202)
Well, thank you. Thanks for listening. And, know, it's exactly that. It's all about connections. And before we started, we were talking about you had mentioned some people that you know, and these are all connections I've made through KPA as well, whether it's Kelly Whitaker in Ottawa or Stacey Green, or both have been on this show and they're on the board and we're on opposite ends of the state basically, and having this conversation and able to share ideas. And so that's kind of the purpose of this podcast.

the KPA in general is all about that network and we're all in it together. And so I love that you brought that up and I appreciate the words. I think, you know, with that, we'll sign it off and keep listening. I appreciate it. but have a nice break and thanks again for being on the show.

Melissa Evans (40:07.352)
appreciate it Rick thanks you too