Educational Leadership with Principal JL
Principal JL is an educational leader who explores various topics facing educational leaders today! The Mission of this podcast is to inform and inspire other Educational Leaders on how to be their best for their Schools by honing their skills and talents so they may impact their teachers, staff members, students, parents/guardians, and community members positively for their School District! Come with a Growth Mindset as we journey through Educational Leadership!
Episodes
80 episodes
Episode 79: Faith & Leadership: Following Jesus as a Public School Principal
Can you be a public school principal and openly follow Jesus without crossing the line into pushing beliefs on others? We’ve been sitting with that tension for a long time, because public school leadership demands fairness, trust, and service f...
Episode 78: Principals' Perspectives: Professional Development for School Leaders: Conferences, Staff Culture & Leadership
Most educators have felt it: you walk into a conference excited, sit through a few great moments, then go home with so many notes you can’t tell what to do first. Robert Hinchliffe and I get honest about why conferences are often hit or miss, h...
Episode 77: How to Successfully Merge Two Rival High Schools: Leadership Lessons with Virginia Principal of the Year Derek Cantrell
Two rival high schools can share a zip code and still feel like different worlds. When consolidation finally becomes real, leaders inherit decades of pride, fear, and unfinished arguments, and the smallest decision can feel personal. We sit dow...
Episode 76: AI in Education, SMART Habits, & Student Engagement with Kendall Terry (Part 2)
The fastest way to damage trust as a school leader is to make a big decision before you truly listen. Kendall Terry joins us for part two and gets honest about the leadership lesson he had to learn the hard way: slow down, gather more perspecti...
Episode 75: Building a High School From the Ground Up: Leadership Lessons with Kendall Terry (Part 1)
What would you change if you could design a high school from the ground up and actually make it real? Kendall Terry has lived that challenge, moving from high school science teacher to department chair to STEM coordinator, and then into schoolw...
Episode 74: Principals' Perspectives: Building School Culture, Leading Teachers, and Preparing for a New School Year
Two principals sit down with no script and compare the real, messy, meaningful work of educational leadership. Robert Hinchliffe, Nevada Elementary Principal of the Year, brings the metro elementary lens from Las Vegas. Principal JL brings the ...
Episode 73: Tough Conversations That Transform School Culture with Erika Bare & Tiffany Burns
The conversation you keep delaying is probably the one shaping your school culture right now. We talk with superintendent Erika Bare and instructional leadership coach and former principal Tiffany Burns about how educational leaders can handle ...
Episode 72: Principal Mo on AI, Leadership, and the Future of Education: Practical Strategies for Today's School Leaders
Your to-do list is not the job, and it definitely isn’t leadership. Principal Mo is back, and our catch-up turns into a real blueprint for how educational leaders can protect their time, build stronger systems, and still show up for kids and st...
Episode 71: The Missing Link Between PLCs and MTSS: How Schools Improve Student Achievement with Kurtis Hewson
PLCs can be strong and MTSS can be strong, and schools can still feel like they are missing the connector that turns good work into a coherent system. That “missing piece” is what Kurtis Hewson calls the collaborative team meeting, a sim...
Episode 70: School Leadership, Culture, Social Media, and Comedy: How Nick Holtvluwer Builds Trust, Teams, and Impact
A lot of leaders feel pressure to be polished, serious, and unshakable. I do not buy that, and neither does Nick Holtvluwer, Principal of Mammoth Heights Elementary in Parker, Colorado, who somehow manages to lead a school for a decade, build a...
Episode 69: Principals’ Perspectives: Hiring Teachers, Staffing Shortages & Real Talk on School Leadership
Thirteen hires by April. Internal transfers that “go over like a turd in a punch bowl.” Schools trying to keep construction, CNA, phlebotomy, and dual enrollment alive while staffing gets tighter. If you’re leading a building right now, you kno...
Episode 68: How Principals and School Leaders Grow: Educational Leadership Lessons from Dr. TJ Vari and Dr. Joe Jones
Your leadership isn’t defined by your intentions, it’s defined by what your week actually looks like. We sit down with Dr. Joseph Jones, superintendent of Newcastle County Vocational and Technical School District, and Dr. TJ Vari, former deputy...
Episode 67: Principal Baruti Kafele on Transformational School Leadership, Turnaround Strategies & Instructional Leadership
Some schools don’t need a new program, they need a leader whose voice actually lands. I sit down with Principal Baruti Kafele, a nationally recognized turnaround principal, author, and longtime educator, to unpack what transformational educatio...
Episode 66: Trust and Inspire Leadership in Schools: How to Move Beyond Command and Control
If leadership feels like you’re carrying the whole school alone, the problem might not be your work ethic. It might be the model you’re using. We get real about how easy it is for principals and school leaders to slip into command and control l...
Episode 65: How Principals Can Hire Great Teachers in a Shortage: Recruiting, Retaining, and Building a Teacher Pipeline (2026)
Hiring in education isn’t just “hard” right now, it’s faster, noisier, and far less forgiving than it used to be. If you’re still waiting to collect a perfect candidate pool before you act, you’re probably watching your best applicants accept o...
Episode 64: How to Build a Real PLC Culture: Dr. Chad Dumas on Collaboration, the 4 PLC Questions, and Guaranteed Learning
What if the reason your PLCs feel flat is because they’re treated like a calendar event, not a culture? We sit down with Dr. Chad Dumas, former music teacher, principal, director of learning, author, and Solution Tree PLC at Work associate, to ...
Episode 63: Assistant Principal Leadership Playbook with Dr. Sonia Matthew: Equity, School Systems & Student Achievement
A single line can change a career: “You’re not just an assistant principal.” Dr. Sonia Matthew joins us to show what that looks like when reflection, equity, and well-built systems collide to keep students in classrooms and learning at high lev...
Episode 62: 2025 Pennsylvania Principal of the Year Laura Tobias on Restorative Leadership, Culture, and Student Engagement
What if a high school could heal and improve at the same time? Principal Laura Tobias, 2025 Pennsylvania Principal of the Year, shares how she led a 2,400‑student campus through crisis into a culture defined by love, restorative practices, and ...
Episode 61: Stop Eating Our Own: How Educator Language Shapes School Culture and the Future of Teaching
What happens when the stories educators tell about their work turn into the strongest recruiter, or the loudest warning, about our profession? We dive into Stop Eating Our Own by Robert Hinchliffe and Shawna Quenneville and unpack how a single ...
Episode 60: School Culture Over Programs: Robert Hinchliffe on Principal Leadership That Actually Works
What if the fastest way to better scores isn’t another program, but a stronger culture? We sit down with Las Vegas principal and author Robert Hinchliffe to unpack how trust, clear systems, and teacher autonomy transform schools into places kid...
Episode 59: Leading as a Learner: Dr. Jess Quinter on MTSS, School Culture, and Principal Leadership
What does it take to lead a single school so well that your influence reaches across a district, and into state and national conversations? We sat down with Dr. Jess Quinter, Principal of Park Forest Elementary in Pennsylvania and NAESP Zone 2 ...
Episode 58: Dr. Danny Steele on Becoming an Instructional Leader: How Principals Reclaim Time, Support Staff, and Strengthen School Culture
Feeling stretched thin by the demands of school leadership yet determined to move learning forward? We sit down with Dr. Danny Steele; teacher, AP, principal, and author of The Instructional Leader in You; to unpack the practical mindset shifts...
Episode 57: Nebraska Education Advocacy: How the 2026 Legislative Session Will Impact Schools with Dr. Mike Dulaney & Tim Heckenlively
Laws that feel distant in a statehouse become very real in a classroom. We sit down with Dr. Mike Dulaney of the Nebraska Council of School Administrators and consultant Tim Heckenlively to map what the new legislative session actually means fo...
Episode 56: Lindsey Allen’s Leadership Journey: How a Principal Scaled Influence, Protected Teacher Time, and Boosted Student Achievement
A school changes course when leadership starts by listening and then protects what matters most: time, clarity, and opportunity. We sit down with Lindsey Allen, Georgia’s 2025 Principal of the Year and principal of Walnut Grove High School, to ...
Episode 55: Year-In-Review 2025 (Part 2): Leadership Lessons From 12 School Leaders
Ready for a fast, no-fluff leadership reset that actually translates? In this 2025 Year in Review, we highlight twelve standout leaders and the single move from each that shifted trust, culture, and learning in real schools.You’ll hear h...
