CC#107: Opening a New School w/ Courtney Domoney - Wolf Springs MS, Blue Valley USD 229

Episode Summary

In this conversation, Cool Coffee host, Rick Sola, interviews Courtney Domoney, the principal of the upcoming Wolf Springs Middle School in Blue Valley School District. They discuss the unique challenges and opportunities of opening a new school, including the importance of building a strong team, creating a welcoming culture, and engaging with the community. Courtney shares her journey in education, her vision for the new school, and the significance of the 'runway year' she has to prepare for the opening in August 2026.

Connect with the guest: 

Email: CDomoney@bluevalleyk12.org

Website: https://wsm.bluevalleyk12.org/

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Chapters (timestamps do not account for intro music)

00:00 Introduction to Wolf Springs Middle School
05:43 The Journey to Principalship
11:44 The Runway Year: Preparing for Opening
14:14 Staffing and Building the Team
19:26 Creating a Welcoming Culture
24:59 Anticipating Challenges in a New School
31:01 Holiday Reflections and Community Connections

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Full Transcript (timestamps do not account for intro)

Rick Sola (00:01.762)
Hello and welcome to Cool Coffee. I'm here today with Mrs. Courtney Domoney from Blue Valley School District, USD 229 and the principal of the yet to be Wolf Springs Middle School opening August, 2026. Welcome Courtney.

Courtney Domoney (00:40.44)
Hi, I'm glad to be here. Thanks for having me.

Rick Sola (00:42.806)
Yeah, of course. And I'm excited to have a conversation here in December. We're recording this December 3rd, 2025, and your building will open August of 2026. so and it's interesting as we're talking and I see the board behind you with so many different notes and thoughts and things to remember that we'll get to, I'm sure. But really an exciting time. And so before we get into that, just a reminder to listeners, please

Give the show a follow, give it a like, and help share the stories from our amazing principals here in this great state of Kansas, and help invest in our collective growth in this wonderful principal profession. And Courtney, I'm super excited to talk to you about this. First of all, you're right down the road for me in Blue Valley, but opening up a brand new middle school, what an adventure. What do you, what'd you do today?

Courtney Domoney (01:41.868)
To date, so this year is very different for me and I'm sure we'll talk about that, but I'm actually not in a building, have been a building principal before, but this year I'm at district office and was given this year as kind of a runway year to prepare for the school. And as August got started, I was like, what am I gonna do? But every day has just, know, progress has been made and gotten so much busier. So today I was at a meeting with all district administrators, just kind of a December update.

something that we regularly do. I then actually went out to the school site and gave a tour to a parent who is on my parent advisory committee and wasn't able to join our last parent advisory committee group. Came back, talked with one of our world language directors or coordinators because we have a Chinese immersion program that'll be moving to our new school and we kind of had a pre-discussion about staffing for that program so that we can make sure to be out front of that.

And gosh, just, every day has been so different and it's kind of like ping pong all day long.

Rick Sola (02:48.3)
So, okay, so, simple question, what'd you do today? And now I've got like 50 new questions and we're like knee deep already. And I guess let's start at the basics. What is your mascot going to

Courtney Domoney (02:52.782)
Yeah.

Courtney Domoney (03:04.206)
We are the Coyote. And that, what's think unique about this school opening, there has not been a new middle school in Blue Valley since 2011. And since that time, there have been two elementary schools that have opened. And so for this opening, something that's different than the most recent schools is the mascot, the school colors and the name have already been defined and were.

a year ago, January. So it was really important to the committee of people that were building this school from the ground up that we had an identity from the get-go. And so there was a student group two years ago from two different middle schools, one of which I was principal at at the time, that got to provide input on various facets of the building with the architecture team prior to the breaking of ground. And one of the pieces they actually got to

to give feedback at the end of that process was in mascots. so coyotes are native to Kansas. Wolf Springs Middle School, our school, is near Coffee Creek and the coyote was a mascot that, you know, a coyote had been, you know, again in this area. But also there are no other coyotes, so it's unique to our district and we get to be the first coyotes.

Rick Sola (04:24.182)
Yeah, love and I love that you call it coyote because I've heard people say coyote and I get corrected in my own household. And so is that going to be a thing? You know, really get into the important details of opening a school.

Courtney Domoney (04:29.555)
Yes. Yeah.

Courtney Domoney (04:35.187)
Yeah, the important details first. So actually, I've just decided, because I figured I could, that we're the coyotes, but my assistant principal has already been named and he has coined the term go-yotes. So I feel like that kind of speaks to the coyote pronunciation, but we think the kids will think that's cool and I could see it on a t-shirt.

Rick Sola (04:55.586)
Yeah. Go Yotes. That is cool, for me it's coyote. but yeah, that's awesome. It's funny because I did see that. Like, there's some pronunciations there. So what colors did they decide to go with?

Courtney Domoney (05:01.879)
Right, it's...

Courtney Domoney (05:10.047)
So our colors also were designed and unveiled just recently, but there are different shades of blues and teals, not primary colors. They actually kind of remind me of, you're familiar with the Kansas City area, the KC Current colors. There's teal and navy. We have fancy names for them because of the making sure we get the colors correct, but there's no red unlike the KC Current. But the students so far that have had a chance to see them, the colors were selected.

and chosen to be unique, to be exciting to kids. And the staff members we have, they're excited about them as well. But teals, navies, grays. So we're not, it will be a little different. I think that brings up a good like school function thing. A lot of schools have one or two school colors. We have a panel of six. Chartreuse is actually one of them. So kind of that lime green color too.

Rick Sola (06:03.638)
Okay.

Courtney Domoney (06:04.593)
and we're gonna have a great palette from which to choose to really get our brand out there and some spirit wear. The building itself on the interior will eventually have some massive graphics that really have that brand out near forefront on walls and stairwells, things like that.

Rick Sola (06:25.164)
Yeah, you'll have a lot of fun with the spirit wear aspect, a lot of options, I'm sure. So I guess going back even further, and we'll start with your road to the chair and everything that's led you up to where you're at today and you've been principal before, but your road in education, where did it start and we'll get to where it's taken you.

Courtney Domoney (06:29.812)
Yeah. Yeah.

Courtney Domoney (06:37.324)
Yeah.

Courtney Domoney (06:46.751)
Yeah, I went to college in Kansas at KU and actually was a French education major. I wanted to be a French teacher. I had a great French teacher in high school. from the Wichita area and studied abroad in college, got engaged in college in France and

really just saw myself only being a French teacher. was my dream job. My first job ever was in the Blue Valley School District and I've never left. So this is my 21st year in Blue Valley and my 21st year in education. Throughout, once I started teaching, my first job were three years in middle school here in Blue Valley. And I really ultimately wanted to be a high school French teacher and got that opportunity after my first three years of teaching and then...

was at one of the high schools here in our district and I was there for five and a half years.

finishing my master's, you know, early on in my teaching career. The first time I, my first master's degree was in curriculum and instruction and I just kind of did that to move over on the pay scale. know, teachers are used to doing that, but I kept thinking, like, I felt this urge to want to do a little bit more and so I got an ESOL endorsement at one point. Started thinking about considering a gifted education certification as well and it was actually

when I was teaching and had had both of my kids who are in high school now, I had an opportunity to become a department chair. And you know, as fast as my career had moved and you know, growing family leadership in school wasn't something that I had really been part of. I had sponsored clubs and done extracurricular activities as a teacher, but I had an opportunity to...

Courtney Domoney (08:31.283)
interview for a department chair position, world language department chair at the high school I was working at, and got that position and...

It almost like clicked instantly for me. All of a sudden, I realized how much I liked seeing how decisions were made at the building level. I liked hearing, you know, the principal describe various problems that we were going to be solving or goals that we were going to be working towards and seeing how a group of people could provide input and help make those decisions happen. And so pretty shortly after becoming the department chair at the high school I was working at, my principal one day said to me,

and I still remember it, he said, I think you'd be a good administrator if you ever wanted to be. And I literally had never thought about it. However, as a high school and college student, leadership was a really big part of my life growing up. Just as a teacher, I never really thought about more than teaching because that was what I'd wanted to be when I grew up. And I thought, there's no way that I can go get another master's degree. You know, we had two young kids at the time and I thought that's a financial, you know,

burden to take on to think about going back to school. But I mentioned it to my husband and he was incredibly supportive and I only looked at Baker University because that was where a lot of educators and administrators I knew had attended and just, the bell got rolling really quickly. So my path to from starting Baker to finishing Baker was pretty quick and actually in the middle of my sixth year at the high school, my gosh.

ninth year of teaching, there was an opportunity to become an administrative intern in the district and it was in the middle of the school year, which felt really risky. But I went ahead and went for it, took it and left my classroom after winter break to become an intern at a different high school in the district.

Courtney Domoney (10:27.937)
that really, it was really difficult at first because going from your French classroom where you really don't have lot of behaviors, everybody's choosing to be in that elective class, you know, it was such a fun job. Loved my students, had a chance to have them, you know, all four years in high school or for three years in middle school, both of those, you know, time periods to all of a sudden, you know, not really knowing anything about being a principal except I passed the test and I took all

of the classes and having to talk about behavior for the first time, call parents with discipline issues were not things that were part of my teaching life. But I was, you I learned a ton and was actually given the opportunity to be an administrative intern in three different schools, two middle schools and a high school in a year and a half. And then I landed at a middle school in Blue Valley as an assistant.

Because I've only been in our district for my whole career, I've actually worked at eight or nine different schools during that time, mostly as my administrative path continued. But I ended up being principal at Oxford Middle School for the last six years until now.

Rick Sola (11:33.196)
Mm-hmm.

Rick Sola (11:39.779)
Wow. You mentioned a principal tapped you on the shoulder and just kind of made a comment. as I think of that, because I'm in year 22, so we're very similar, and Baker, so we have some overlap actually, but I think about that and it's kind of like when you're a teacher and it's oftentimes the things you don't think about that have made an impact on a student. I wonder if that principal was very intentional about that or if it was just a comment that

Courtney Domoney (11:45.079)
Yeah.

Courtney Domoney (11:50.381)
Yeah.

Rick Sola (12:07.928)
was like, hey, I recognize this in you, because I hear so many times where people share a similar story where they were discovered first, they were told first by somebody else, they never considered it, and it kind of sparked something. And it's amazing to think about, yeah, what kind of impact we can have and now be in year 21, 22 in the profession. Yeah, it kind of makes you reflect on like, I wonder if there's been a comment that I've made. Hopefully they've been positive and left a impact.

Courtney Domoney (12:20.703)
Yeah, it was life-changing.

Courtney Domoney (12:29.154)
Yeah.

Courtney Domoney (12:35.595)
And I hope so, right? But yeah, think thinking about it in that regard, know teachers I've worked with that have become administrators or are pursuing that path, but I'm not certain if any of it had anything to do with comments I've made, but I know that it made a difference for me.

Rick Sola (12:50.764)
Yeah. So you are, you're now, I love that you called it the runway year. I don't know. I've never heard it called that. I think it's like a perfect analogy of where you're at right now. and most of us in the principal chair have, have not, and are not going through what you've gone through. So you were named, when were you named the principal of Wolf Springs? Okay.

Courtney Domoney (13:14.965)
last January. So I applied for the position around mid-November of last year was when it opened up. And then

did not interview though until January was posted. This time of year we've got Thanksgiving and winter break and all of those things. So I interviewed actually on a snow day. I asked, can I still come in? Because interviewing is something that you prepare for and I was ready to go. So I interviewed and then was named in January of last year.

Rick Sola (13:46.859)
And so you shared a little bit of where you're at and it's interesting to hear just picking a day randomly today and hearing all that you're doing. like, what was your first order of business? You're named, congratulations, you're the new principal. Here you go. What's your first step at that point?

Courtney Domoney (13:54.306)
Yeah.

Courtney Domoney (14:06.378)
So for, you know, I finished the semester as principal at my former middle school and I realized really quickly because again, not all principals that open up new schools are given this runway year, but our district had learned the last time or two with elementary is that that was incredibly helpful. And I realized right away, thank goodness I had that time because second semester in a middle school or any school level for that matter is crazy. You have enrollment, you have, you know,

you're planning for the upcoming year, you've got hiring, you just have so many end of the year events. so probably the first Wolf Springs thing that I really had an opportunity to be part of was the selection and the identification of the assistant principal for this school. Our district decided to again do something unique with this in identifying an assistant principal for this year who's actually

So our school is being built like many are to alleviate the size of another middle school that's been very large for some time. So in the southern part of our district, that's where the growth has been. And so I was able to be part of the interview process and help select the assistant principal who this year is a second assistant. And in our district, our middle schools only have a head principal and one assistant. And so he's a second assistant at this school, which is large enough to necessitate that extra support. But

He will then come and be my assistant principal. His name is Chris Huggard. He's amazing. Next year at Wolf Springs. And so this year he's working at the school that, you know, the students who will come to us, a lot of the staff who will eventually be Wolf Springs staff will all come over and have that relationship with him. So that was that was the first order of business.

Rick Sola (15:53.081)
Yeah, and that's great for him and you that he's working side by side with many of the students that will be with you next year.

Courtney Domoney (16:00.306)
Exactly.

Rick Sola (16:02.146)
So, you know, aside from you mentioned what today looked like in a very, you know, a very a lot of variety in the day. But what's kind of what's the pressing topic right now? It's December. You're nine months or eight months away from opening. What's kind of got you occupied the most right now?

Courtney Domoney (16:06.74)
Yeah.

Sure.

Courtney Domoney (16:22.892)
I would say right now staffing is the biggest piece that I'm focused on and our district is as well. Just in November, we finalized our vision team is what we're calling it, but really a small group, a small leadership team of staff who are what are considered now early hires for Wolf Springs for next year. All of them happen to be educators in our district currently, but at other schools. And so we went through

interview process, interviewed many candidates, amazing people that you know were interested in coming, leading, and helping to open a new school. And so we have now had an opportunity to meet twice. You know we're trying to find days where they we could potentially get some coverage as well as some after-school time to really start you know getting to know each other.

One thing that I'll, this doesn't necessarily answer the whole staffing piece, but an interesting thing, again, with this building project is the architecture firm has a strand that is called the Bold Team Bridging Organization Learning and Design. And they have a team that includes a former school superintendent. And the hope is, you know, with new schools,

There are spaces that will look different, feel different, and they are providing professional learning to our team and eventually at some point the whole staff so that we understand and can think about how can we really use this new space to enhance student learning and not just always assume to do the things we've always done instructionally. You know, if we have small breakout rooms, if our furniture may be different or arranged in different places, that that's really done in partnership and intentionally by

the bold team and the architecture firm that designed the building. And so that's really using this new, this vision team, this leadership team to help then eventually welcome the whole new staff in and have people that have had a chance to really take part in those workshops and those conversations.

Courtney Domoney (18:31.028)
That's something that we've just been recently engaged in. As it will be January here in just a few weeks, we will start the staffing process for the school. so.

because again, Wolf Springs is opening because another middle school has been so large for so long. There's a process by which staff will have a chance to select or be identified to go to the new school. And we're getting ready to start that, looking at projections of enrollment, which is earlier. I'm thinking in your district as well, it's probably, you're not quite ready to think about enrollment, but.

We've got a lot of details to consider to make sure we're bringing over people that we know what jobs that they'll be fulfilling, looking at certification and all kinds of things like that.

Rick Sola (19:19.33)
Yeah, there is a lot there and we hear oftentimes in any kind of either business or school establishment the analogy of family and I've always liked that because you can't pick your family, you work together through thick and thin, all those things. But in this case, you are picking your family a little bit, you get a hire. so talk a little bit about what does that, I guess, balance look like? mean, what's really great is you've got a

Courtney Domoney (19:38.997)
Great.

Rick Sola (19:48.671)
a vision for a brand new school with new features and you can speak to that and really be thinking about that as you're selecting people, but there's still kind of the balance of, you know, just the way personalities mesh together and that sort of thing. And have you thought much about that or is that are you at that point yet?

Courtney Domoney (20:06.582)
Yeah.

Definitely, you know, when I think about the opportunity to open a new building is a once in a career opportunity, but I know that it will only be, the school will only be as good as the people and the culture that we create. And so obviously our students are not yet in the building, the staff isn't either, but.

the our assistant principal, we were really intentional about selecting the people that we selected and also thinking about just the breakdown of your certified staff. And I wanted to make sure that I have somebody from each grade level that we have sixth, seventh and eighth grade. We chose an elective teacher because that's a big part of the middle school life and a big chunk of your staff, honestly, a librarian, because, you know, hopefully that's that's a program in a place that connects all of all

of the experiences that your kids have in various classes, a special education teacher just to help make sure that we're thinking about student and staff needs, all the aspects that go into making sure that our students receive the services that they provide.

There are six of us, so I'm like, who's the sixth? Okay, sixth, seventh, eighth, library, special education, elective, that's it. And so, like you said, building that family, that's something I'm super passionate about is making sure that we are prepared and that we create a vision together to then take care of and welcome our staff once that identification process begins. You know, there's...

Courtney Domoney (21:41.226)
Change can be hard. It is really exciting. And I think there's going to be lots of people that just can't wait to come. But there are some people that will be educators for us that were pretty comfortable where they were. And just by the nature of making sure that we have enough staff members to fill our building. And I want to make sure that we can take care of and really welcome and support all of our staff as they come over. So it's definitely a balance of, you know,

like you just said, the understanding of and the vision for the building design and what it can do for student learning, but then also making sure that we've created a culture where people are supported, inspired, and we spend more time at work typically than we do at our own homes at times. And so that's something that we're already thinking of.

Rick Sola (22:33.196)
Yeah, no, that's like you said, it's a once in a career opportunity and just really, really pretty special, you know, that.

That building will be there a long, long time and you get to be the first principal of that building. And that's really cool. You mentioned enrollment in spring. And like you said, it does kind of creep up because I always want to get like our numbers as soon as we can possibly get our numbers. But it can only happen on a certain timeline. thinking about enrollment, you get your numbers, but you oftentimes with enrollment there, especially first time middle school parents, which you'll have, you know, there's kind of some.

Courtney Domoney (22:45.596)
Yeah.

Courtney Domoney (22:57.28)
Yes. Right.

Rick Sola (23:12.92)
aspect of either welcoming them or even prior to the school year. So what or is that going to look like with spring once you kind of get enrollment? Do you have any availability to be able to do a meet and greet that early or is it is that even on the radar?

Courtney Domoney (23:30.644)
So one thing that we've already done, I've worked with our district communications team and we have created quarterly videos to be able to show families what the building is looking like. And that I think has been really positively received because you can only drive by and see so much. right now it's a construction site and you can't really drive in because it's a mud pit after all the rain and snow that we've had. So that's been a way using social media to connect and

highlight, you know, right now it looks like this, we have, you know, really creative people that have been able to show renderings and what the building is going to look like and different things like that. So that's been one way to engage with the community.

You know, I think in a lot of schools, especially the beginning of middle school is such a jump from elementary for students and their families. And so with our fifth graders, we have already identified an enrollment night, which is something that's a practice here. But what we can't do is have it at our school. And so we really thought long and hard. There's an one of the elementaries that will be our feeder is right on site with the middle school. But we felt like that might not be as welcoming to families from the other elementary feeder. And so we're actually going to

have it at Blue Valley Southwest High School. You know, we wanted to create a neutral place, but a place that also made sense just for the community. And so we are looking forward to doing that. Want to have our vision team, those teacher leaders be present and so that, you know, they'll see that we're starting to create our staff and building that excitement and support for kids. What we are hoping is...

that over the summer, once we're able to be in the building, we're really wanting to do meet and greets and invite families in. We are looking to create later this year, probably like April, May, to help identify student ambassadors that we know will be middle school students coming to be leaders at the new school and have them help actually lead some of those tours and just get people excited and get...

Courtney Domoney (25:35.74)
get in the building when we can so that it's not, we don't, we certainly don't want the very first time that our students or families enter the building to be on August 13th.

Rick Sola (25:45.293)
Very cool. You mentioned summer. When do you expect to be able to like actually work out of the building? I know there'll be there'll be odds and ends probably up through August 13th. But when do you expect to get your office and kind of do some work inside?

Courtney Domoney (25:54.464)
rate.

Courtney Domoney (26:01.787)
So I've learned a lot about construction for someone who's never built a home and there are phases to the release of the building and the front office will be the last part to be built because they want to get the classrooms ready, right? That's where we need to make sure that all the technology and HVAC and plumbing that people are going to be in most of the time is really, really ready. so classrooms will be actually released in April, but the front office will not get released.

until June 12th.

Rick Sola (26:33.376)
Wow, okay. makes sense the way to hear you explain it, but like that is not what I would have expected, I guess, when thinking through that.

Courtney Domoney (26:36.808)
Yeah.

Courtney Domoney (26:41.127)
Yeah, it was interesting. I was over at the school today and one of the awesome people from Macowan Gordon, who's the construction firm that's out there every day, he was explaining that to me and he just said, there's just so many more things in the classroom spaces that we have to make sure are prepared. So for example, those will be ready in mid April. The gyms that are very large spaces and a lot happens in there have less of the constraints that classrooms do, fewer, you know, pieces of technology.

Etc. And so the gyms will also be after classrooms. But yeah, June 12th is when the office will be ready. And so the city will not release the building to be worked in to answer your question until June 12th of this summer. Yes, there's a roof. covered. Almost every single window is installed now.

Rick Sola (27:23.961)
Is there a roof on it yet? Is it covered? It is. Okay. That's good.

Courtney Domoney (27:32.339)
And I mean, the progress is taking place or is happening very quickly. Every time I go out, which is usually one to two times a week, you know, they're starting to paint various parts of some classrooms and just different things like that. So it's really fun to see it come along.

Rick Sola (27:48.973)
That's what's always struck me with such a large project. You have the rooms that are painted and finished, and then you've got an office that has like they're still in studs and they're not even doing anything. Yeah. No, that's great. You know, you've probably encountered lots of challenges already. What are some of the challenges that you're you're trying to anticipate? You know, I think there's always that sense of like, you know,

Courtney Domoney (27:55.87)
Yeah, yeah, the office is just the steel beams right now.

Rick Sola (28:14.552)
of what I don't know is, you the concern of what I don't know, but what are you trying to anticipate and get ahead of and challenges, maybe talking with others who have been through this?

Courtney Domoney (28:22.943)
You know, so I think there's a logistical part to any project. And I feel like I've kind of just accepted that, you know, there may be a few things on day one or even month one that aren't quite what we wanted or that we uncover, you know, an error or an issue somewhere physically within the building. And I just know that that's gonna get taken care of. You know, I have visited a school in Lee's Summit recently that...

that opened in the last year or two. And she talked about on the first day of school realizing when it was time for the Pledge of Allegiance, they didn't have flags, stuff like that. So I feel like those are small things. Those are things that will take up some of our time and efforts. But honestly, kind of going back to the creation of our vision team and the hiring process, really wanting to...

Rick Sola (28:59.672)
Yeah.

Courtney Domoney (29:13.651)
take care of the people moving to a new school, whether that be student or it's really students and staff.

in our district, in this portion of our district, that's where the growth has been in the last, you know, 10, 15 years. And so we will have students who have moved elementary schools twice and now have to move a middle school within that time. And families who have been through multiple school transitions based on the growth and new buildings being built. And so that's really what I won't say it keeps me up at night, because I know we're going to, you know, wrap around these families and these kids. But making sure that

they feel welcomed, that they feel excited, and that they feel like this school is theirs. That to me is the most pressing issue. so ways to wrap around that, I have a student advisory committee at both of the elementary feeders. I've met with a middle school student advisory committee and I have a parent advisory group. And so we'll meet five times each group probably this year. I've already met with both all of those groups twice and gotten really good feedback.

One of those things being actually our parents said we want the kids to feel like they're all new next year. A lot of times in a middle school you focus on just your new students, which is maybe a smaller group, but your sixth graders, for example. You you make that a big deal because the beginning of middle school is such a transition. And so we are planning to host a kind of a camp in August for all students to come.

and have building tours and go through activities. And that's something that sometimes just sixth grade students have had an opportunity to participate in. And so I think the problems are just wanting people to be excited about school, because we love school, we're educators. But then making plans and getting people involved so that we can make sure it happens.

Rick Sola (31:16.396)
Yeah, I'm glad you brought up the whole like new middle school because you're right. You've got some families that have been maybe they're on their third or fourth child who's gone through other middle school and now their boundary is sending them to the new and it's easy to be excited. It's a brand new building bells and whistles all these things. But for some people it's no you're taking me from I can't go to where my the rest of the family have attended. And so there's a little bit of that.

Courtney Domoney (31:30.281)
Yeah. Yeah.

Courtney Domoney (31:41.097)
rate.

Rick Sola (31:42.838)
And so that is a reality anytime there's a new building, because yeah, you're right. That's something to keep in mind.

Courtney Domoney (31:48.585)
Well, and so for some of our middle schoolers, our sixth and seventh graders this year who will be seventh and eighth graders, some of their friends are not going to go to the new middle school. You they'll all end up at the same high school in our feeder pattern. So, you know, that's comforting. so having to be really intentional about creating relationships with all students. And I thought our parents gave great feedback. Treat all of the kids like new students next year. And so that's that's what we're starting kind of in the early stages of planning that.

Rick Sola (32:15.394)
Well, that's great. It sounds like you have lot of different voices that are really positive and productive to be able to kind of help steer some things. And I don't know if you want to speak too much about it, but as I'm seeing you here, this is obviously an audio podcast only, but you've got a board behind you with all sorts of, just looks like, I mean, there's a lot of thoughts up there. What's going on behind you there?

Courtney Domoney (32:37.662)
There are, yeah.

So this, says welcome to Wolf Springs. So the very first day I moved into this office, I wrote that because that I was kind of like, what do I do? You know, I had to figure out everything with lots and lots of support, but at the end of the day, I needed to make sure that my mind was wrapped around it correctly. But we actually have a new strategic plan this year. So our district has a strategic plan that was brand new this year. And I made sure to write down our three priorities.

for that so that I can make sure as we are making decisions that it aligns to what our district sees for the entire school district. And then I started thinking about questions that I would want to ask students, parents, and our vision team as we started to get to know them. But I've definitely had just transition on my mind. so like questions I wanted to ask students were, you know, what is something you love about your current school that you would want to take to the new school?

Another, but on the flip side, there an idea that you have that you wish that your current school did that we could think about? Parents, I asked, know, if you, for those of you who have been through multiple new schools,

If you had a great transition, awesome, but if there was something that would make it better, what might that be? And being able to share all of that within our vision team and starting to work together, and again, we've only met a few times, but how can we put some of these hopes, wishes, and dreams into action?

Rick Sola (34:14.36)
Yeah, I imagine there's probably new thoughts and ideas that just kind of fire at random. I don't know if you carry a notepad with you or it's in your phone or whatever it is, but I can imagine. No, it's really cool. I wish it could be seen because it just looks like a really good thought board. And I love that. I don't know. To me, that there's some humor in the fact that if you walk in, it's an empty office, a blank board and well, welcome to Wolf Springs. And then, you know, well, here we go. You know, it just.

Courtney Domoney (34:21.534)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Courtney Domoney (34:41.148)
Yeah, here we go.

Rick Sola (34:43.16)
Well, it's going to be awesome and all the best to you in the coming months. And I'm sure it probably feels a distance away, but it'll be here also very, very quickly. things, you just like in the schools, you get into the springtime and things move so quickly, and as I'm sure it will for you as well. You know, we are recording this, I mentioned on December 3rd and

We're headed into the holidays and so just a little fun, a little trivia for you before I give you a chance to brag on all the people out in Blue Valley. what is your Mount Rushmore of Christmas movies, holiday movies?

Courtney Domoney (35:27.08)
So that's a tough question because I mean so many experiences that I love in life wrap around this time of year because of the things I get to do or you know did growing up or with my family now but every year on Christmas Eve my husband and my two daughters and I we watch It's a Wonderful Life and so we know that you know before we go to bed that that's something that we're going to watch together and we can quote all the lines but that that is my that is my Mount Rushmore of holiday movies.

Rick Sola (35:55.789)
Yeah, that is a good one. I think I asked this this time last year and I speak in with Melissa Evans out in Hutchison and we ended up going into a debate on whether Die Hard was a Christmas movie, think, too, because there's that that whole.

Courtney Domoney (36:09.512)
My husband would say it is, but for me, I did not grow up with that and I didn't grow up with a brother even and so Die Hard is not one of my Christmas movies, but he likes it.

Rick Sola (36:14.189)
haha

Rick Sola (36:20.512)
I think there's an argument to be made either way. tend to argue, I go toward Rocky IV. I'm a big Rocky fan. Rocky IV is a Christmas movie if Die Hard is a movie, because they fought on Christmas Day. I'm totally, I mean, I tend to, It's a Wonderful Life is really a good one. I enjoy Christmas Story quite a bit and Christmas Vacation. Those are automatics. They have to be watched. I've already seen, I've seen Christmas Vacation already this year. Elf is really,

Courtney Domoney (36:30.59)
How about for you, what's yours?

Courtney Domoney (36:43.922)
You have to watch him.

Rick Sola (36:49.804)
funny. There's a lot. That's a hard one. yeah, I try to stay kind of in that ballpark there, I guess, for the... I think I'm probably missing some, but... No, so you've been in Blue Valley your entire career. You've been in, you said, at least eight different schools, nine different schools. You've worked with a lot of great people, I'm sure. This is a chance. Brag on Blue Valley and the people of or future people of Wolf Springs.

Courtney Domoney (36:58.1)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Courtney Domoney (37:10.111)
Yeah.

Courtney Domoney (37:19.146)
I have just been incredibly fortunate to have had the career that I have had up to this point and you know the career I'm looking forward to and it's always been because of the people that I've been surrounded with so every principal that I had as a teacher who actually both of them are no longer in the district and have moved to other districts

really got me to where I am today. then as an administrator, principals that really helped me, Chris Leglider would be one. And he, I was his assistant for two years. And then we were co-assistant principals before he was my boss for a year as well. But just having the opportunity to work with him and, you know, see how he did things at the beginning of my career was really foundational to, you know, getting me feel like I was prepared to lead professional learning, to tackle

challenges and remain calm. That would be something. My boss, Shelly Nielsen, was a principal at one time and she's an executive director of school administration. She is someone that

always calls you back even you, you know, she happens to be on the phone or be busy or dealing with, you know, a different building and those issues. It always amazed me as a building principal how responsive she was, how caring and genuine she was. And then I've had a chance to work with her more closely this year being at district office and working on a few different projects and getting to work a little bit more alongside her, how, you know, she makes sure that everybody really feels taken, taken care of. And then just all of my middle

school colleague, principal friends in the district.

Courtney Domoney (38:57.874)
Well, I'm number 10 now, so I'll be the 10th middle school. But it's great to have colleagues that you feel like, okay, if I'm dealing with an issue, even if I know it's gonna be hard, I just need to hear someone kind of let me vent or talk me through it or give me a couple words to get started. I could call any of them. I think what makes great principals is having great people around you that you can lean on for support when needed. And I've just always been so fortunate to have that in Blue Valley.

and hopefully that I can do that for others as well.

Rick Sola (39:31.8)
That's really great. And you mentioned a lot of names there. Chris Leglider, friend of the show. He was on here last year. you know, and I think everything you mentioned, you both within the district and then even outside, like you and I met at Elevate, the Elevate II cohort that we're in together. And, you know, that's part of the value of the KPA and just the networking of all that we can learn from each other. And I really appreciate you taking the time.

Courtney Domoney (39:35.945)
Yeah.

Courtney Domoney (39:45.823)
Yeah.

Rick Sola (40:00.522)
at a really busy time, but to share just a little bit of insight about opening a building, because it is unique, but it's always kind of fascinated me. And there's so much, I think we just scratched the surface. I'm sure there's so, so much that you're about to embark on and already embarking on, but it looks like you're well on your way.

Courtney Domoney (40:10.57)
I

Courtney Domoney (40:19.422)
Something I think I've thought a lot this semester as the pace has just picked up so much is really like everything is figureoutable. I think that's a t-shirt or something somewhere. But I do know that while it's all new, while it's bringing a bunch of different people together, if you can keep your focus on taking care of your people and your students, everything is figureoutable and we're going to do great things.

Rick Sola (40:41.73)
Yeah, that's great. It'll fall into place. You've got the family around you and it'll all fall into place. Well Courtney, thank you so much for the time and I really do appreciate it and all the best to you. I look forward to hearing more about it as the year progresses and as you get closer to August and kicking it

Courtney Domoney (40:47.677)
Yeah.

Courtney Domoney (41:01.128)
Yes, thanks for having me and I hope that we get a chance to connect again soon and that anybody that listens, if they ever want to reach out to me and hear some crazy stories about how it's going, that would be fun too.

Rick Sola (41:13.61)
Awesome. your information, contact information will be in the show notes. So check that out. But Courtney, a great rest of the year and enjoy the holidays and we'll talk to you soon.

Courtney Domoney (41:24.971)
All right, same to you. Thanks, Rick.