In this episode of Cool Coffee with Kansas principals, host Rick Sola engages with two accomplished principals, Inga Esping and Heather Calvert, as they share about the session they will lead at the KPA Conference on November 5th and 6th, 2025. They also discuss their educational journeys, the importance of data-driven instruction, and the role of social-emotional learning (SEL) in building a positive school culture. They also highlight the significance of community engagement and collaboration among educators,...
In this episode of Cool Coffee with Kansas principals, host Rick Sola engages with two accomplished principals, Inga Esping and Heather Calvert, as they share about the session they will lead at the KPA Conference on November 5th and 6th, 2025. They also discuss their educational journeys, the importance of data-driven instruction, and the role of social-emotional learning (SEL) in building a positive school culture. They also highlight the significance of community engagement and collaboration among educators, especially in the context of the upcoming KPA conference.
Register to attend the 2025 KPA Conference!
2025 KPA Conference Presenters:
Dr. Heather Calvert
- Principal, Grant Elementary School
- KCKPS
- heather.calvert@kckps.org
Inge Esping
- Principal
- McPherson Middle School
- inge.esping@mcpherson.com
Chapters (timestamps do not include intro music)
00:00 Introduction to the Principals
02:22 Career Paths in Education
06:57 Data-Driven Instruction and Collaboration
14:44 Building Belonging and SEL Initiatives
20:39 The Importance of Community in Education
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. Read more about the KPA HERE.
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FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT (timestamps do not reflect intro music)
Rick Sola (00:01.719)
Hello and welcome to Cool Coffee with Kansas principals. Today I am joined by two phenomenal principals who will both be presenting at the upcoming KPA conference November 6th, November 5th and 6th, Ms. Inga Esping of McPherson Middle School, USD 418 and Dr. Heather Calvert, principal of Grant Elementary School and USD 500 in the Kansas City, Kansas School District. Welcome Inga and Heather.
Inge Esping (00:27.67)
Thank you.
Heather Calvert (00:28.66)
Thank you, good morning.
Rick Sola (00:30.283)
Good morning. And it is a good morning. It's a bright and early morning and I am in conference week. Inga, you're in conference week and you actually have a day off and it is just after 7 a.m. So thanks for joining us. And Heather, you have a normal school day but conference is next week.
Inge Esping (00:43.918)
you
Heather Calvert (00:47.803)
Yes.
Rick Sola (00:49.213)
It's that time of year and kind of the grind. And before we begin, I do want to call your attention to the notes of this show, which include information on the KPA conference. We'll be discussing that today and also invite you to give this show a like and a follow. Leave a comment on your podcasting platform if you are so inclined or leave us feedback and suggestions at the forum in the show notes. So it is awesome to be joined by two very accomplished principals here today and
Inga, you were recently named the KPA's middle level principal of the year through KPA.
Inge Esping (01:25.602)
Yes, yeah, just what an exciting honor. I was certainly shocked and it's definitely a testament to the hard work that our staff and students are putting in here at MacPherson Middle School.
Rick Sola (01:37.845)
That's awesome. Congratulations to you and a plug as well. And I don't know if you knew this, but as of recording, which is October 16th, but your principal's perspective was actually dropped today, this morning. And so, thank you for your contribution on that. and then Heather, you are published. You've had a book out and within the last year, along with, with your husband co-authored, I think with your husband, is that correct?
Inge Esping (01:50.403)
you.
Heather Calvert (02:04.702)
Correct, yes.
Rick Sola (02:06.487)
And Topeka's top 20 under 40 named a few years ago. So awesome things going on and two very accomplished principals excited to hear more from you today. I do want to start and Heather, we'll just kick it over to you to start here, but a quick road in education and you are currently sitting at Grant Elementary in the KCK School District.
your road to get to the chair you're at right now, what did that look like?
Heather Calvert (02:38.45)
Yeah, it's been a fun, fun road. So I grew up in Topeka, Kansas, started my teaching career in 2007 in the Topeka Public Schools District and just kind of worked my way up through classroom teacher, instructional coach, building intern, assistant principal, and then principal. I've been at Grant now for seven years and we have just, it's just been crazy being over in Kansas City, Kansas public schools. I love this district so much. Our building is, is just
taking off. The staff here are outstanding and we're just making waves every day with our students and our community and so excited.
Rick Sola (03:18.123)
That's awesome. Was there a moment in your career where you felt like, okay, I'm going administration. Like you were just tugged or did it just kind of happen or how did you get into administration?
Heather Calvert (03:28.446)
just kind of came naturally. I was blessed with a lot of opportunities that just kind of opened at the right time. When I was a classroom teacher and a couple of my fellow teachers were starting a master's program in curriculum and instruction and they said, come on, let's do it together. And I said, okay, great. You know, what else is going on? So did that and then that opened the door to instructional coaching. As I was finishing that degree, our district started a program partnership with K-State to do a program for educational leadership.
as a cohort embedded in the day and that turned into a doctorate and just that pipeline just pulled me right in and I've loved every minute of it.
Rick Sola (04:08.087)
Awesome, very cool. Yeah. It's amazing how you start like unraveling things and all the next thing you know, you're, knee deep and you're moving forward and, uh, you know, opportunities start to present themselves and really cool. Awesome. Well, Inga, you are at McPherson middle school, uh, your road to that chair.
Inge Esping (04:27.532)
Well it's a little bit funny I actually student taught in this building. So there's the the gal that I student taught with just retired two years ago. So that's it's been fun just to come full circle. But I student taught here I was a teacher here at MacPherson Middle School. I went to the Mays district as well. I was a teacher and principal there. I've been the assistant director of special education for MacPherson schools. And during that time I I
it was a little bit of an accident to get into that role. I started hiring and training paraeducators. I was a special educator and became really passionate about how do we make sure our paraeducators have the skills that they need to be successful in supporting our students with special needs. That kind of morphed into assistant director of special education through some changes and expansion. And then I really missed kids. I missed being around kids all day long. So became very motivated to go back and
the building. I became the assistant principal and athletic director here at MMS. I went to Mesa's principal for a short stint and then this building opened up as head principal and I just had to come back. I definitely love this district and love this building in particular.
Rick Sola (05:44.908)
I love that. Actually, you just prompted an idea for another show, which is principals who were formerly at the head office and decided to come back. They miss the kids too much or, you know, they say we go to the dark side. Is that the darker side? And then like, we got to come back. I don't know. No, that's awesome. And I got to imagine that a special ed director, he said assistant director. What a, what a valuable experience to have.
Inge Esping (06:07.448)
Mm-hmm.
Rick Sola (06:11.741)
sitting where you're at now as far as a building principle goes.
Inge Esping (06:16.418)
Yes, we host all of our cooperative specialized programs for middle level students. And so that experience has been really valuable to have to help coach both our special educators, but then our general ed teachers on how to be best support students with special needs from that general ed lens too.
Rick Sola (06:38.133)
Yeah. Well, so you're both on here because I was looking at the presenters for the upcoming KPA conference and you were both listed and you're both presenting. And so, you know, this is a conference that as I've gotten to become more familiar with and attend, I've just really enjoyed in part really because it's a principle focused conference and the networking is so valuable. All those things, but
I know that going to every session, it's going to be super relevant to what it is that I do and that we do. so I wanted to be able to share this out because this episode will come out with about two weeks until the conference, just under two weeks. And so to provide a little bit of a preview. so Heather, we'll start with you. The name of your session and kind of in a nutshell, I think you have, you know your time slot or has that been confirmed yet?
Heather Calvert (07:34.62)
Yes, I will be Thursday at 8.30 in the morning, bright and early.
Rick Sola (07:38.519)
All right, kicking off the day. So what do you?
Heather Calvert (07:40.508)
Yes, so my is called data cycles and effective method for data analysis and it's just kind of grown. So this work started actually when I was in the classroom as a teacher in Topeka public schools and you know districts.
that time, early 2000s, we were really moving into the PLC model of collaboration and wanting teams to take ownership of what those collaborative team meetings looked like, but focused not on the busy work, but more on the actual data-driven work, diving deep with your teams, collaborative planning. And it just, sounds really easy when you say that, but what happens when you're in that as a teacher or I learned later when you're trying to lead that as an instructional coach or a principal is that it's easy to get drowned out
to not know what that specifically looks like every single time and really make the best use of that time to keep it focused. And so we created an Excel spreadsheet with all these formulas in it that make it super easy to stay focused, to walk through a process of what it looks like with your team, to really collaborate on what standard are we focused on in this upcoming unit, where are our students at right now, what instructional strategies do each of those students need specific to the student, not just to the whole group, and then how are we tracking
that throughout, what does it look like at the end? It graphs the data for you. So as a leader, we've really just leaned into this with our teams here and our instructional coach and myself, we have backed out of really running every collaborative team meeting and turn that back over to the teachers. But it gives us a way to follow that process for them, even when we're not sitting with them, but also for them to really see the meaningful work that they're doing and be able to attack those gaps and disparities right in the moment.
It's just been absolutely changing. I've led it in multiple buildings. I've shared it with principals across our district here in Kansas City, Kansas public schools and watching the data shift and the teachers collective efficacy really rise through that process has been absolutely outstanding.
Rick Sola (09:41.24)
So you've been at Grant for seven years. So you said seven years. So would you say when you started, you mentioned the PLC model and the use of data. Did you feel were you kind of starting at ground zero or did you have kind of a foundation to build off of from from that point forward?
Heather Calvert (09:44.745)
Mm-hmm.
Heather Calvert (09:58.9)
We were absolutely starting at ground zero. Teachers were very hungry for it. So we were a TSI school at the time, CSI school, and our state assessment scores were under 5 % proficient in every grade level and had been consistently for a long time. And so it gave us a great leverage point to say, what do we have to lose by trying it with teachers? Even if you don't like it or it doesn't work.
Okay, you know, we're not going down from here, but watching them leverage and we, it's just become very ingrained. It's in our Indistar plan. It's been very ingrained in the work that we do. Teachers throw it around, you know, all the time. Oh, what step are we on? You know, all the things and they feel that they have the ownership and the power to pick the standards that they want to really leverage into our curriculum as a resource. We are the owners of that. We are the educators. We are empowered to do the work that we need to do with our students.
Rick Sola (10:49.377)
What were the challenges that you had early on trying to kind of build a new framework and it sounded like there was a want for a buy-in and a need, but what were some of those roadblocks or stumbling blocks that you had early on?
Heather Calvert (11:02.9)
Yeah, even with the want, their data's scary. And putting your data as a teacher in any sort of visible format is always scary and very intimidating for teachers because it's very vulnerable. It puts you in a vulnerable spot. It makes you question if the students didn't get it. It's just personal for educators. What did I do wrong? It's my fault they didn't get it. so,
Having to shift that into it's the team, it's all the kids at the grade level. They're not your students, they're our students and we're all in this together. So don't ever be embarrassed or feel upset about your data. It is what it is and we're a team that's going to rally behind you and our students to improve that. But it really, it's shifted our team conversations, it's shifted that collective efficacy with our teams. It's empowered our teams to seek extra resources through our intervention teacher, through our ESL teacher, through our
department they're asking very specific questions now instead of just saying well I don't know what to do you know I need you to help me do this.
Rick Sola (12:03.799)
Did you find, I like that word scary with.
with data because it could kind of feel that and that that vulnerability and you know and just personalize it. Yeah I try to emphasize the data is our building data. It's not a particular department but that's a really hard sell for those that are in that department and they see their name next to it you know that sort of thing. Was there anything that you did intentionally to really kind of try to remove that feel or in hindsight you look back on like I would I would kind of frame this differently to try to
make it more comfortable.
Heather Calvert (12:39.508)
I mean, it sounds really harsh, but I would openly just continue to ask in whole group sessions, you know, who has been written up for their data.
And having everybody watch, like, what negative consequence have you gotten because you put data on a spreadsheet that wasn't 100 % of kids passing or 100 % of kids meeting a standard? And as teachers start to realize that even as an administrator, I'm in this work with you and I'm not here to judge or critique or tell you that you're not good enough or your data is not good enough, we're asking you to try every day and try to get a little bit better every day and just keep having the right conversations and you will see that shift. And it empowered our teachers just to be comfortable.
to start that work and then when the data started to shift it was just all steam ahead. You know they believed in it then they saw it and they were more willing to take risks and be more vulnerable with their data.
Rick Sola (13:31.799)
Are student celebrations a part of that at all? when they like, do you have data, you know, I don't want to say real time, but in a way that you can bring students into that or is there an angle on that with students?
Heather Calvert (13:46.86)
So we've started, we added that in a little bit later, and so we do it a couple different ways. We're PBIS school and district, and so one of our character words is pride, and so teachers have started nominating students for pride in that work.
and just for the students recognizing their growth, not just waiting for the teacher to say it. We also added in data cards that students can collect their data on. Even at the elementary level, it works. Our kindergartners are doing it with stickers on charts and dots and colored things in. And our intermediate students are more using data points and graphing. And we don't do it a lot. It's not like an everyday task, but we do like to show them this is where you started and this is where you ended. Look at your growth, even if you're not where we need you to be or where we want you to
or what the state standard says you need to be at. Look at your growth, keep working. And it's shifted our student culture as well of I can be a learner.
Rick Sola (14:40.331)
Yeah, I really love the focus on growth because sometimes we'll see students grow and they don't grow out of a level or something. But we need to be able to celebrate with them. Hey, you're making strides. sometimes things take time. It'll take time, but you're making growth. And I think that's really important. That's great. So 8.30 Thursday morning, November 6, you're kicking off the day. And is this your first time?
presenting at KPA.
Heather Calvert (15:11.826)
This is my first time presenting at KPA. I'm super excited. I'm excited that it's in a great time of year, know, when I think administrators are really needing that refresh, but also looking for new ideas to start planning seeds for second semester. I'm excited just to meet and navigate with other Kansas principals.
Rick Sola (15:29.847)
So it's 830 Thursday morning, Dr. Heather Calvert. And I'm sorry, it's called Data Cycles. Is that what we're going to be looking for in the program guide, which I have not yet seen and published. But all right, very good. Inga, and you are also presenting. And what is your topic titled?
Heather Calvert (15:36.456)
Yes. Yes.
Inge Esping (15:51.308)
Yeah, ours is building belonging, how our bullpup time has transformed our SEL here at MMS.
Rick Sola (15:59.7)
Awesome. And so in a nutshell, what is bullpup time and what is that going to look like?
Inge Esping (16:07.596)
Yeah, so we've we've dedicated 20 minutes a day to our SEL, our character development types of lessons. That's where we start each morning. We have seen a huge shift in our student culture. We really believe that this dedicated time has helped our teachers feel more equipped, our students have a positive start to their day. We've put a variety of other structures in place here at MMS that that I'll speak to and my counselors are joining me as
They are the ones in charge of developing the lessons with our SECD team. But we are now on year four. We've got a solid plan for sixth, seventh, and eighth grade. Our Mondays start with grade checks and discussions there. That's where our Zello lessons come in for some career exploration. Every Tuesday, we do Teamwork Tuesday. We do our dedicated SEL lessons on Thursdays. And then Friday, we work on community.
So we are really building towards more restorative practices throughout the school. We've finally been able to leverage our community circles from that bullpup time to now when there's been a wrong that's happened between students in the school. We can come back to the community circle and help students process what happened. What was I thinking at the time of whatever offense? How can we come together and move forward?
forward with one another. So really that shift towards a more restorative approach. We're putting the tools and the skills to build belonging, to build these types of high level conversations in the hands of both our teachers and our students. And our data, has honestly been a little bit crazy. Another piece that we added with this was going cell phone free throughout
the day. Our first year alone our suspension rate reduced by 70%. It's middle school. Of course there is still plenty, too many instances of bullying happening, but to see such a dramatic drop.
Inge Esping (18:25.422)
to see our attendance rate skyrocket, to see our grades begin to become more meaningful for students. And then we're also starting to see that transfer just into our general data, our state assessment data, our fast-bridge data.
formative assessments and things like that. So we've been able to really get a good solid base for building a positive culture here. And now I'm super excited to go to Heather's session and think of how we can deepen our work in our PLCs too.
Rick Sola (18:57.783)
Yeah, that's awesome. So you kind of alluded to where I'm at, we're a PBIS school and ownership is one of our pillars and you're talking, what you're describing to me sounds like building a lot of ownership and kids and letting them.
have such a big role in their learning, in their behavior in the building. And what I found too is, and I hear this resonating in how you're describing your building, it's just that common language across the building amongst staff to be able, for kids to be able to hear really the same message. And that's really what I have found to be so powerful with some of the SEL approaches and the PBIS approach and that sort of thing.
What time is your session?
Inge Esping (19:43.854)
It's Wednesday at 845.
Rick Sola (19:46.633)
Alright, so you're both not competing with each other.
Inge Esping (19:50.038)
I was thankful to hear that because as I was listening, I was taking notes over here and I was like, thank heavens it's not at the same time I can go to Heather's session.
Heather Calvert (19:51.4)
you
you
Rick Sola (19:57.848)
Well, and I know Heather had a little bit of a shift in time. And so then I'm thinking in my head, because I know you weren't competing when I arranged this, but then there was a change. I'm like, oh gosh, I hope you're not like squaring off on the cool coffee podcast here. But no, that sounds really awesome and two fantastic sessions. And I'm not sure if.
you're going to present and you have got a team of people that's going with you and you're all kind of dividing and conquering. Is that something that like McPherson and KCK, are you the only ones going out there? Are there others joining you to this conference?
Heather Calvert (20:34.452)
I am going solo.
Rick Sola (20:37.142)
Okay.
Inge Esping (20:38.67)
Same, I'm going solo and Mr. Beam, my assistant principal is going to be here making sure things continue to go smooth, especially since I'm taking our entire counseling department with me for our sessions. So please send him all the positive vibes you can for next Wednesday or I can look for now.
Rick Sola (20:56.183)
No drama allowed on those two days at the middle school.
No, it's really cool. This conference, I happen to be able to be going with a team. Our middle school principals are going. And I was going to say that dividing and conquering of sessions, truly there will be, and there are, I've seen a list of competing sessions that are just really strong and having to make a decision. But having you both on here.
today really is kind of a reflection of what I think this conference is all about, what the KPA is all about as far as bringing principles together from different parts of the state, learning from each other. And truly I have learned a lot from each of you and I would love to see both of your sessions and hope to be able to do that. Before we close off here today, I want to just give you both a chance to speak to your kind of experience with
with KPA, the role that you've had and kind of the value that you've had with it. Of course, now leading into this conference, that'll be a couple of weeks away when this comes out. And then I do want to give you both a chance to just brag on your people at McPherson and KCK and for all the millions of listeners of this podcast to hear all about your awesome people that you work with. So Inga, we'll start with you and then we'll flip it over to Heather.
Inge Esping (22:26.796)
I think that the most special part of being part of KPA is just being able to connect with other principals, other leaders. It can feel very isolating sometimes to be a principal. In my district, I'm the only middle school principal. You can get so very busy that it's hard to connect with others, learn from others. being a member, being part of this organization is just so very important to.
know where you can reach out to, who you can reach out to, and I'm really excited for the conference to be able to learn from others and just to be able to grow that networking system too. And then here at McPherson Middle School, I tell you, I was here as a teacher, I was here as an assistant principal, and now as principal, I just can't give this place up. I love it here so very much. We have such a dedicated staff. We have folks
who are willing to be brave to try something new. Our conferences, for example, we completely changed the structure this year based on some parent feedback last year, and they were brave enough to say, let's try it, and then let's get feedback and let's go from there. And I think that it just, it takes a lot of guts to be willing to try something new in education, to put yourself out there and be vulnerable in that way as a building. And I'm so thankful that our teachers are willing.
to be vulnerable and that our community is willing to support the ideas that our teachers and our site council have moving forward and willing to give us feedback on this was great. Let's tweak this and I feel that we're pretty special in that here in McPherson that we've got that willingness to allow that type of growth.
Rick Sola (24:16.681)
Awesome, very good. Heather?
Heather Calvert (24:19.71)
So I am really new in my KPA journey and experiences. I think I've been a member on and off for a couple years throughout as I've kind of bounced between a couple different districts. But super excited just to really leverage in. I think it's a great organization. We can never have enough people in our corner as administrators. Like Inga said, it can be very lonely and very isolating and it's really hard to find people to collaborate with that really understand the struggle that you're going through sometimes or to celebrate with you in really authentic ways because they know the
that it took to get to those celebrations. So really excited just to meet and network and get more actively involved in the organization. I cannot say enough positive things about KCKPS and Grant Elementary. You know, we're a very large district, very diverse district. There's a lot going on in the community all the time, a lot going on to be involved in. Our building is a small little building, very community-based elementary school, and watching the shifts that have been made with our community wrapping around us.
And then watching the City of Kansas City Kansas wrap around us, our building one, we got an award from the mayor for just being involved in the community and to be recognized in a very large urban population for those things is very, it's just telling to the work that's done every day and watching our staff grow and just bond with each other through the difficult moments, through the happy moments. There's just never enough of that. So super excited to meet everybody next or in a couple of weeks. I do it in a couple of weeks and really branch out.
and build more connections.
Rick Sola (25:51.574)
Yeah, well I hope to connect with both of you as well. It'll be fun to meet so many of our principals across the state in person. You one thing I liked about both of your answers, you both mentioned your community.
and extending beyond the walls of your school. And I just don't think that can be overstated how important a community is and how important a school is to a community. And then for working in the school, the value of the community around you. And I just love that you both you both reference that and brought that up. So, you know, this episode will come out and let's see, I think it's like October 24th ish or somewhere around there. It's right before Halloween. So I'm to put you both on the spot. What's your favorite scary
movie.
Heather Calvert (26:34.205)
I hate scary movies. no. Hate them all.
Rick Sola (26:36.055)
Hahaha.
Inge Esping (26:38.51)
Well, I don't know that I have a favorite scary movie because I'm right along with Heather, but my children love scary movies. Right now their obsession is mama, so I've actually been able to make it through the whole thing without screaming myself. I think that's just a point of pride. So not a favorite. I just was proud of myself for being brave on that one.
Rick Sola (27:00.011)
Well, I'm going to tell you, I'm right along with both of you. I cannot stand scary movies. I don't watch them. I've seen one I think that actually qualifies as a scary movie and that's The Shining. And that was like when I was in high school. I was done. I'm done. I don't like scary movies. I, you know, not to be kind of like a downer on it, but I always kind of enjoy November 1st when Halloween's behind us and we can get onto Thanksgiving and Christmas. So,
Heather Calvert (27:26.004)
100%.
Inge Esping (27:27.534)
For sure.
Rick Sola (27:29.429)
Well, hey, really appreciate both of you. know it's early on a day off and it's early on a full day of school. And so that you both were willing to jump on here means a lot. Look forward to seeing you here in a few weeks at the KPA conference and we'll sign off.
Heather Calvert (27:46.15)
Thank you.
Inge Esping (27:46.168)
Thank you very much. Thanks for hosting us.
