Episode Description
Scott Bolin, Director of Pupil Personnel at Garrett County Schools in Kentucky, reveals why rural districts are winning enrollment battles against homeschooling and online alternatives—not through flashy programs, but through genuine relationships and what he calls the intangible “it factor” that families can feel the moment they walk through the door. In this episode, Scott shares his 25-year journey from classroom teacher to district leader and explains how a small-town superintendent and leadership team prioritize people, soft skills, and emotional deposits with families to create school cultures that families choose—and choose again.
Noteable Quotes
- “Our biggest wins are our people.” [00:13:23]
- “Every person you come in contact with, you have an emotional bank account.” [00:06:06]
- “You can’t describe it, but you can feel it.” [00:12:33]
- “They don’t have to hear it’s a great school. They just know it.” [00:11:52]
- “The fundamentals are people and soft skills.” [00:21:29]
Full Podcast Transcript
Brighter Together [00:00:01]
Hello everyone and welcome to the Brighter Together podcast. My name is Janet Courtney and my special guest today is Scott Bolin. Scott is the director of pupil personnel at Garrett County Schools in Lancaster, Kentucky. Scott, welcome to the show.
Scott Bolin [00:00:15]
Yes, ma’am. Hey, thank you, Miss Janet. I appreciate it. And thank you for for that nice introduction. I appreciate that as well.
Brighter Together [00:00:24]
Awesome. Well Scott, tell us a little bit about about your journey to becoming the director of Pupo Personnel and a little bit about Garrett.
Scott Bolin [00:00:32]
So so a little bit first about about Gary County. We’re a small rural co county, school district just south of Lexington, Kentucky, about thirty minutes dead south. we are we have about twenty five hundred students. We have one high school, one middle school and three elementaries. so then I’ll feed that into me. One of the things about myself, is I’ve been here forever. So I’m forty nine years old and
I w I went to school here from kindergarten all the way till I graduated, went away for college, didn’t go too far, went to Eastern Kentucky University, and then came back and I’ve just completed my twenty fifth year in education. so I was a business teacher, assistant principal, element at a high school. I was an elementary principal, and then I’ve been the director of pupil personnel. Now I’ll just finish my fifth year as doing that.
Brighter Together [00:01:13]
Amazing.
Brighter Together [00:01:26]
So to be a pupil personnel, you do so is this special education, or what all does your job entail?
Scott Bolin [00:01:34]
So it it’s not. So essentially I’m like an old time truancy officer. So one of the things that we we have the we’re we’re in charge of the attendance, we’re in charge of in a small district like like Garrett County, we we only have a we only have like four folks in our central office as far as personnel that complete most of the task and so I have many, many tasks that we that I do. The director of pupil personnel is my main job. But essentially what what I’m
Brighter Together [00:01:40]
Okay.
Scott Bolin [00:02:04]
I’m in charge of is attendance, trying to remove barriers for families and for for kids that may be keeping them from coming to school, or there may be an issue. Or one of the great things about being in a small town and being here forever is a lot of these parents nowadays were my former students, and so or I go to church with them, or I see them at the store, or I see them at the gas station. So we have a lot of lot of
Brighter Together [00:02:23]
Yeah.
Scott Bolin [00:02:33]
So so sure, yes. So that’s one of the one of the great things about being in a hometown is I do a lot of home visits and because I’m from here and I have relationships with folks in in the county and where I have been here for a long time, they don’t see me as somebody that’s coming to to lay the hammer down or or to make sh make sure court is the next step. It’s actually they they’d see me as somebody that’s coming to be able to help.
to be able to help them solve problems and remove barriers. And if there is something there, find out what we can do to to help. And so that’s a the biggest part of my job. I really love that. I I love the opportunity to go out and to see folks and to see what we can do as a school district to better serve our kids and families.
Brighter Together [00:02:58]
Right.
Brighter Together [00:03:05]
Mm.
Brighter Together [00:03:16]
Yeah, well that’s awesome. And and the fact that they know you and that you have this community sense, I I I have a feeling it makes your job a little bit easier, maybe?
Scott Bolin [00:03:27]
It is. And so, you know, I I became a pr an elementary principal at at a small school. we had about four hundred students. It was Camp Dick Robinson Elementary, a little over four hundred. And it was about three miles from my house. it was about two miles from my church and it was about a mile from the store which we use all the time. So for me it’s never been a profession. It’s just been a lifestyle. Because, you know, I
Brighter Together [00:03:48]
Lifestyle. Yeah.
Scott Bolin [00:03:50]
That’s just kinda who we are. And you know, I I’ve I have folks that we we talk to all the time and and so I’ve never seen it as a job to where I have to get up and go and then I clock in or clock out. Because my next door neighbors had two students that were
Brighter Together [00:04:00]
Mm-hmm.
Scott Bolin [00:04:05]
best friends my daughter that went to school with us and n across the street from where I live were students and then all the people at church that I went so those are all folks so it was a lifestyle and it still is. And so that’s the the way I look at it is I I’m ingrained and you know and I wanna make sure that all of these folks around here know that we’re we’re here for them, we’re here for their families, we’re here for their kids. But we want to make it easier for them and make the school experience something that they can remember forever.
Brighter Together [00:04:16]
Mm-hmm.
Brighter Together [00:04:21]
Yeah.
Scott Bolin [00:04:33]
Obviously we want to get a fantastic education from from K twelve or pre K twelve. However, there’s even more to that, so we want to make sure that they have a great experience. The parents have a great experience and they they see us as a as teammates and not an adversarial type of situation.
Brighter Together [00:04:34]
Yeah.
Brighter Together [00:04:50]
Right. Yeah, it’s certainly easier to get children and parents to send their kids to school if they feel like they’re a part of the team for sure. Yeah. Yeah.
Scott Bolin [00:04:59]
Yeah, no doubt.
No doubt. I so I always told our our teachers, and we talked about this all the time, and we still talk about this to this day, you know, every person you come in contact with in school, whether a student, a parent, or a coworker, you have a there’s an emotional bank account that you have to be aware of. And you know, you you continually have to make sure you’re depositing into this emotional bank account because there’s gonna be times, you know, unfortunately, where you have to make withdrawals. And just like any other bank account, if you write a check and don’t have any money in there, it’s gonna cause some heartache.
Brighter Together [00:05:30]
It bounced down. Yeah, exactly.
Scott Bolin [00:05:30]
And so if you haven’t
If you haven’t had enough you know, deposits into that emotional bank account, then it’s gonna cause some heartache. So just seeing these kids and smiling at and calling by name and waving to parents and you know, those kind of things, even if you don’t say anything, just a good smile and a wave and you know, that’s a deposit. And and they know that when they see you in the mornings opening the door for their kids to get out and the first thing you see and the last thing that the kids see when they leave and get back in the car with mom or on the school bus.
us, they know that you love And so those are all deposits in my ac in my opinion.
Brighter Together [00:06:05]
Yes. Yes, absolutely. One thousand percent. I I I agree with you. And and knowing that you have this community, knowing that you care, knowing that they that they feel that. So what do you say? What would you say? and I and I I don’t want to just say COVID because there’s lots of but what’s I I know there’s been challenges that kind of have lingered, but also what are just some of your biggest challenges today? I mean, we’ve got AI, we’ve got we’ve got
computers and phones and a a million different things and social emotional issues. What are your guys’ biggest challenges?
Scott Bolin [00:06:40]
So so it’s funny you brought up COVID. So this is not you know, COVID was not completely bad because we were able to do something like we are today because of COVID. Normally there wasn’t a lot of team meetings, there wasn’t a lot of virtual stuff that was going on, but you know, so we were able to get that out of COVID. However, one of the things that hurt us as a small district and it’s hurt education, you know
Brighter Together [00:06:50]
Yeah.
Scott Bolin [00:07:03]
nationwide has been the uptick now of homeschool. And it’s not that that homeschool’s a a a good thing, bad thing, or whatever. It’s just there’s other options now. And so we have to as a as a district we have to make sure that we are selling our kids and our families on the great things that we can provide educationally
Brighter Together [00:07:15]
Mm-hmm.
Scott Bolin [00:07:26]
and non-educationally and and what we can do social emotional from the special ed aspect from the academic aspect from extracurricular aspects all of those things it’s it’s continuing to be an issue throughout the nation because homeschool has rose somewhere around the four hundred percent since COVID. You know, we’re trying to to continue to to sell our folks on why they should come here and and why it’s so important. And and I understand
You know, we we completely want the parents to do what they feel is best for their children. However, we want them to know what we can offer them and and what we want to do for And so it it that has been a a little bit of an issue because our enrollment has has dipped and it’s the ebb and flow of normal, but we have seen quite a quite a dip, more so than we would really like to see.
Brighter Together [00:08:22]
Mm-hmm. Yeah. And it’s interesting because I I want to touch a little bit on what you said. You real schools are having to market themselves much, much more than I mean, and I love the fact that we’ve got brighter together and it is a it it can be a marketing too. I mean it is. If let’s let’s let’s call a spade a spade. My mama’s that’s my mama’s saying. but
Scott Bolin [00:08:32]
You are. Mm completely.
Scott Bolin [00:08:42]
That’s right.
That’s right.
Brighter Together [00:08:47]
But sh but the that’s something that I’ve noticed is just that it really you know, this is a way this conversation, this brighter together is a way for Lighthouse to get its name out there. It’s a way for schools to talk about the amazing things that they’re doing and used properly its advertisement. you know, we’ve got the label, we’ve got the, you know, the logo, but we’ve got we’ve also give
Scott Bolin [00:08:58]
Mm-hmm.
Scott Bolin [00:09:03]
Sure.
Scott Bolin [00:09:07]
That’s exactly right.
Brighter Together [00:09:12]
I and I think most people know, but we give everything that all of these files, everything that we do here goes back to the schools. And because we want you guys also to have the opportunity to use it because you do, you do have to market. You do have to talk about, we do have to talk about the different the the good, the bad and the ugly, right? So so so having an opportunity to to come and to talk with schools and to use this platform in a way that
Scott Bolin [00:09:24]
That’s right.
Scott Bolin [00:09:31]
That’s right.
Brighter Together [00:09:39]
supports schools, you know, put your money where your mouth is because these are the people that are that are, you know, the paycheck and the and the beginning, the middle and the end of what we do as a company, like you know, lighthouse therapy. So, so I love that. I love that we can we can do it, you know. So
Scott Bolin [00:09:42]
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Scott Bolin [00:09:49]
Right. That’s right. Yeah. You’re exactly No, you’re exactly right. And you know, and I I tell folks all the time, you know, regardless of what you think, education is a business and it’s a people business. You know, we’re we’re in the business of people. And and so what what we’re trying to do is is to not not tell somebody you have to send your kid to our district. What we’re saying is we want you to. We would love for you to because
Brighter Together [00:10:04]
Yes people.
Brighter Together [00:10:15]
Mm-hmm.
Scott Bolin [00:10:16]
Here’s why w first and foremost we’re we love your kids and we wanna we’re gonna love on your kids just like our o their own. But here’s other things that we’ve got that we can offer as well and you know, hopefully
Hopefully, you know, another another saying is actions speak louder than words and so they can see that. They can they can feel that. We we want to when they walk into our school and and you know, when they walk into a a school or a classroom or whatever it may be, that they don’t have to hear somebody tell it’s a great school. They just know it. They feel it. They can they can sense it. They see smiles on kids’ faces, they see smiles on teachers, cafeteria workers, bus drivers, you know, the folks that are on the front desk. So you just know it. And you know, there’s a call
Brighter Together [00:10:32]
Yes.
Brighter Together [00:10:46]
Mm-hmm.
Scott Bolin [00:10:57]
culture and a climate and I always call it the it factor. You can’t describe it, but you can feel it. And you know it. And you know if it’s there, but you also know unfortunately if it’s not there. so those are those are always things that are, you know, possibilities. So we want to make sure that we’re we’re constantly working towards that goal.
Brighter Together [00:11:04]
Yes.
Brighter Together [00:11:09]
Mm-hmm.
Brighter Together [00:11:19]
so what would you say I’ll start that over. So what would you say are some of your biggest wins? We’ve talked about the struggles. We’ve talked about about how you know, so we’re what let’s talk about the it that you have.
Scott Bolin [00:11:29]
Right.
Scott Bolin [00:11:33]
Right.
So I I think our our it and and our wins are are simply our people. You know, our are the folks that we have truly want I I tell folks a lot of times we we still are in a little bit of a bubble. you know, unfortunately there’s so many things in the world that’s tough and people but it in in our small town we’re still in a little bit of a bubble and our people are so great on loving on kids and just loving on families and and giving them the the help that they need and and so we always say our biggest wins are are our foes.
folks and you know and we truly believe that and our superintendent is retiring now and he’s done a phenomenal job and we’ve got a new superintendent coming in that’s been in our district for a long time and he does a phenomenal job of that is just making sure that our people are supported because without them again back to the business it’s the people business you gotta have the right ones and so we we just feel we just feel so blessed to be able to do what we do but to have the folks that we have the kids the families the staff
Brighter Together [00:12:25]
Yeah.
Scott Bolin [00:12:34]
staff, that’s kind of our our biggest win and and our job at central office or as DPP is to p so support those folks and to make sure that ’cause they’re on the front lines every day and the ones the you know we talk to our bus drivers all the time. They’re our first the first to see and the and the last to see and our bus drivers take that so serious.
Brighter Together [00:12:52]
yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Scott Bolin [00:12:54]
They take it so personal and and ’cause they’re smiling and they’re making sure at six forty five in the morning that they’re welcoming a kid up on the bus or or whatever it may be. So, we’re we just feel like our biggest win are our people.
Brighter Together [00:13:08]
Yeah, yeah. And and that and people definitely will create a culture and a feeling of positivity or negativity. They really will. They absolutely really will. I always tell I’ve always said, you know, here w you know, we mentor all of our therapists and we always tell them there’s no stupid question. The only stupid question is the one you don’t ask. So make sure you ask the questions. And because of that, I’m like, I and I’ve I’ve said this many times too, is like
Scott Bolin [00:13:15]
Yes, ma’am.
Yes, ma’am.
Scott Bolin [00:13:28]
The trim it.
Brighter Together [00:13:36]
If your therapists, because our mission, Lighthouse’s mission is to be a therapy company run by therapists for therapists, but ultimately for the betterment of kids getting around my microphone there. Just like you guys, you’re there for the kids. This is why we do what we do. So if you have therapists and you have people that are happy, that are taken care of, that feel like the administration, or in my case, the the up front office, cares and has their back and wants them to be successful.
Scott Bolin [00:13:55]
yeah.
Brighter Together [00:14:04]
No matter what, that flows through. And and the and the opposite is true. If your people are frustrated and don’t feel like they they have and they’re even though we’re all professionals, because we are, if you’re unhappy in your job, a tiny bit of that, no matter how much of a professional you are, is gonna see seep through. And so we want happy people here because happy people mean it goes to the kids. And kids, I don’t know. I think kids have a sixth sense.
Scott Bolin [00:14:15]
That’s right. Mm-hmm.
Scott Bolin [00:14:24]
yeah.
Scott Bolin [00:14:30]
Deaths. They really do.
Brighter Together [00:14:32]
They a and we as adults sometimes lose that, yeah. And so giving yeah, so
Scott Bolin [00:14:36]
They really do.
Todd Whitaker, Todd Whitaker, I’m sure you’re familiar with him. He talked he’s wrote many, many books about school culture. He one of his famous sayings was, If if a principal sneezes, the whole building catches a cold. And and I believe that from the aspect of, you know, they know. They know if you’ve had a tough day. They know and and so these kids like you talked about, they know particularly. And and they know that you if you care about or they know if you’re putting on. and so those those are super important e each and every day to make sure you show that to
Brighter Together [00:14:49]
Yeah.
Brighter Together [00:15:08]
Yeah, for sure. Sure, sure. I it it kids they they they just are they’re incredible. The and animals are like the kind of like that too. You know, they’re just like if you’re not if you’re not happy, if mama ain’t happy, nobody ain’t happy in the house. What’s going on? What is going on? So taking care of making sure that they are, you know, that’s it’s it’s true. It’s so true. so what would you say is gonna what does the next five years look like for you?
Scott Bolin [00:15:13]
They are. That’s right. That’s right. That’s what is going on? That’s right.
Scott Bolin [00:15:36]
So so for me personally it’s you know, I I’m I’m kind of I’m on the the back end of my career and so so for me personally it it’s continuing to you know to do whatever is needed throughout the district. And what we want to do is we we’ve talked about it, you know, in education right now to kind of back up just a little bit. We’re preparing kids nowadays for jobs we don’t even know exist yet. You know? So we we are trying to prepare them to to be whatever it may be and in fifteen years they
Brighter Together [00:16:00]
Mm-hmm.
Scott Bolin [00:16:06]
may be doing something making huge amounts of money in a job we don’t even know what it is. So so for us it’s just continu or it doesn’t exist yet.
Brighter Together [00:16:11]
Or doesn’t even exist right now. Yeah. Does it mean it that job yeah, exactly. Mm-hmm. Yep.
Scott Bolin [00:16:16]
And how do you how do you do that? And so so what we’re trying to do is can continually to show them the love and and and encouragement, however, to keep your head on a swivel to figure out what’s coming next and how can we better serve our kids because the way that the this district w as great as it was, the way it served me as a student in the eighties and nineties is not how they’re serving or we’re serving my student my children or our kids in our district in two thousand and twenty-six.
And it won’t be how we serve their children in two thousand and forty five. So it’s it’s just continuing to figure out, you know, what’s next,
Brighter Together [00:16:49]
Forty five, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Scott Bolin [00:16:55]
How do we use that for the betterment of our kids? How do we use that for the betterment of our district? and and just again, trying to continue to do what we do extremely well, but then all also having our eyes open to figure out what’s coming down the pipe, what’s really gonna benefit our kids and what’s gonna benefit our district, and then how can we better serve or f go in that direction? So it it’s just it’s always different. again, I’ve I’m finishing twenty-five years and not one year’s ever been the same. I mean
Even if it is something something completely the the principal chooses how to change something or the superintendent or the State Department or the whatever it may be, there’s always changes. So just trying to figure out how we can continue to serve on on on the level on which we are, but also having our eyes open to see what’s coming next.
Brighter Together [00:17:26]
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Brighter Together [00:17:37]
Yeah.
Brighter Together [00:17:47]
Yeah, yeah. It comes whether we want it to or not, I’m afraid, right? It’s really it’s AI is a big one. I can’t believe how quickly I I’ve been talking to people because we’re working on our own software for AI to help our therapists and to help our kids and because it’s just it’s propelled programming so far. I mean, like you we
Scott Bolin [00:17:50]
That’s right.
Brighter Together [00:18:11]
You’re you’re talking about something that would that would cost us a million dollars before and now I got two guys that work for me full time. Now they’re not cheap guys, but you know, that are working on it and it’s it they’re they’re under my salary. It’s not like I have to have this outside firm and all these programmers and and it’s just it I t I’ve been telling people as I’ve as we’ve been talking about it that AI it I feel like AI I the feeling I get about AI is the same as I felt when we started now I’m ninety four, I’m a little bit older than you.
Scott Bolin [00:18:21]
That’s right.
Scott Bolin [00:18:40]
Yeah.
Brighter Together [00:18:41]
started, graduated from grad school in ninety-four and started my master’s from my master’s and we were working I you have your clinical fellowship year as a speech therapist and I was I was I was just starting to hear about the internet back then. have you heard about the internet? Have you heard about this thing? And I’d went I remember the first time going, well that wasn’t all that great. Now it’s like, how do we live without it? Right. And so yeah, and I think I
Scott Bolin [00:19:08]
Right. No, I mean you’re exactly right.
Brighter Together [00:19:09]
It’s gonna be. Yeah, it’s coming. Whether and it’s so fast. Yeah.
Scott Bolin [00:19:12]
It’s gonna change. And you know, unless something drastically happens over the and and machines and robots take over, we’re always gonna have people though. And the people are gonna be the the constant. And and so what we were ta I I’m in a in a state organization for administrators and we’re we have a a a big coun conference every year. And so we were talking about what’s coming next and what can we do this and what can we do that. And you know, I I’ve
Brighter Together [00:19:21]
Yeah. yeah. One thousand percent. Yeah. Yeah.
Scott Bolin [00:19:39]
we were all going through it and and I I spoke up and told him I said, You know, the thing we don’t need to forget are the fundamentals. You know, the fundamentals of what got us to where we are and that’s people and that’s soft skills. And that’s the ability to write an email in a way that you don’t act like you’re screaming at somebody. That’s the way to talk to to an upset parent that is really upset about something that happens and make them feel heard and and
Brighter Together [00:19:46]
Mm-hmm.
Brighter Together [00:19:50]
People.
Brighter Together [00:20:03]
Very true.
Scott Bolin [00:20:05]
you know, supported and and having d the that conversation on the phone. And so those things are always gonna be there. And we have to make sure that we don’t lose sight of that going forward too, because regardless of how great technology is and it’s fantastic to a lot of aspects, however, people are still gonna be there. And as long as people are around those soft skills and those fundamentals. I was an old basketball coach and so I like to talk about fundamentals, but fundamentals in
Brighter Together [00:20:34]
Yeah.
Scott Bolin [00:20:35]
equal skills are super important as well.
Brighter Together [00:20:39]
One thousand percent I agree. The human factor, you cannot a machine, I don’t think I don’t know, I don’t can you know, they say that it can they can be more and more human, but there’s there’s just something. It’s that same it you were talking about, you know, it’s like if if you just it’s just there’s that’s not yeah, you just g y i y they try to fool you sometimes, but it’s like, I that ain’t a human. That ain’t a real human. So
Scott Bolin [00:20:53]
That’s right.
You know it, you know.
Mm-hmm.
Scott Bolin [00:21:06]
No, you’re right. And you know, and it’s becoming it’s becoming more and more hard to determine with some videos you see and different things that are created, but but you’re still gonna have to sit across the desk from somebody or or to carry on a conversation in in certain aspects of every business. and so hopefully we can continue to you know to do those things well as as we move forward.
Brighter Together [00:21:12]
Mm, yeah.
Brighter Together [00:21:29]
Yeah, yeah, for sure. So Scott, tell tell us where people would come if they wanted to learn a little bit more about you or what’s happened at Gerard Gerard.
Scott Bolin [00:21:38]
Sure. Absolutely. So we are, you know, a again, we’re a very small town and very small district, just south of Lexington. Garrett is spelled G A R R A R D and our our website is Garrett.kyschools dot US. feel free to come and look us, you know, look us up, check us out. I think we have a
We have a phenomenal district. You’re you’re w always welcome to email me. My my email is my first name dot last name at Garrett.ky schools.us. Would love to talk to you about anything that you could possibly have any questions about. And you know, again, we we’ve got all of the social media platforms that are out there because we want to celebrate our kids and we want to celebrate our our folks and that’s what that’s what we love doing most of all. But any any way we can ever help, again, this is a
Brighter Together [00:22:19]
Yeah.
Scott Bolin [00:22:27]
We’re it’s a huge partnership. So although we’re in Kentucky, if there’s one in California and New York and Florida and we’re all in this together, I mean it’s it’s a tough, a tough deal and we want to make sure that everybody throughout the nation is continuing to to give the best platform for our kids to be successful and any way that I can learn from you, I want to. Any way that I can ever help, I want to. But folks like folks like you, Miss Janet, you know, and what you guys do with Brighter Together is phenomenal.
Brighter Together [00:22:29]
Yeah, for sure.
Brighter Together [00:22:50]
Yeah.
Scott Bolin [00:22:56]
because there are things now that that kids have more needs and and not that they didn’t have needs years ago, but now they’re more specific and they’re we have to figure out how to how to help kids in all kinds of different angles. And so I appreciate folks like you guys that are that are reaching out to families and schools and offering resources ultimately for the bottom line for the kids. So thank you for all you guys do.
Brighter Together [00:22:58]
Thank you.
Brighter Together [00:23:20]
Yeah. Yeah. Just keep the kids in the in the center of everything you do and in this in this industry of education and the rest of it comes. I’ve always told people that the rest of it just comes. You just be honest with people and tell the truth. Yeah. Cause people can sniff out that fakey
Scott Bolin [00:23:26]
Yes, ma’am.
Scott Bolin [00:23:34]
That’s exactly right.
That’s exact that’s exactly right. And just yeah, and you and they know. I mean, they know. And so when you when you get up and I still we just had graduation last Friday night. and so I was able to, you know, to see all the graduates and a lot of those graduates I had as elementary school students and and they still come up and they’re wanting to give me a hug and they’re wanting to talk and you know, and some of those kids that are graduating, we had some really hard situations to deal with growing up.
Brighter Together [00:23:44]
Yeah.
Scott Bolin [00:24:06]
And and man, they are just they you they don’t come up and tell you like thank you or come and but giving them that hug and and you know, and letting wanting to see how proud you are of them, it just that just warms your heart and to know that they’re going off to great things, and whether that’s to to to be any whatever it may be, but they’re going off to great things. And so those are the things that educators we we get to hopefully get to see and and to see these kids and
Brighter Together [00:24:15]
Mm-hmm.
Brighter Together [00:24:18]
Yeah.
Brighter Together [00:24:26]
Yeah.
Scott Bolin [00:24:35]
We’ve got folks that are, you know, my former students that are back teaching now and are are doing other things and and just to see and you know, the good Lord continues to bless you and you know, to to be able to do those kind of things. But I there was many times, Miss Janet, when I was in high school, my teachers would have told you that guy’s never gonna be a be a high school teacher, more or less any anything else. But I I tell people I I used to have
Brighter Together [00:24:56]
No.
Scott Bolin [00:25:01]
Well, I the reason I was a principal is I had the most practice growing up because I knew I’d how it all operated. And and it wasn’t that I well, I was in the office all the time, but it wasn’t because I was in trouble. I just wanted if I could ever get out of the classroom, I wanted to go up and just talk to somebody. And so my principal was phenomenal. So he and I he and I would hang out and so though it those were good times. But but yeah, it’s it’s a great profession. We’re very blessed to be able to do what we get to do.
Brighter Together [00:25:05]
Huh? You were in that office more than more than others?
Brighter Together [00:25:18]
gotcha. Awesome. That’s neat. Yeah.
Brighter Together [00:25:29]
Yeah. Abs one thousand percent. I love that so much. Yeah. Yeah. I it’s it’s and it and that’s it. That’s exactly it. The the people that get this, it’s what we it’s not and I love how you said it. We get to do this. It’s not like we have to, it’s not like a job. Those people that are in education where it’s a job, you can tell, you know, it’s like I’m here to collect a paycheck, but that there are so few of them because it doesn’t it the paycheck isn’t the isn’t the the end of the story for sure.
Scott Bolin [00:25:43]
yeah, no doubt.
Scott Bolin [00:25:56]
No. That’s right. It it’s not. And it’s those things it’s those extra things like those relationships and those opportunities and the many things that you can go back and you know, I I think back to my schooling and and my favorite teachers and I I d I can’t tell you whoever it was as my favorite teacher wasn’t because they had the most precise lesson plan or because they gave the most rigorous test. You know, I they were my favorite teachers because they cared about me.
Brighter Together [00:25:59]
So yeah.
Brighter Together [00:26:20]
Mm-hmm.
Scott Bolin [00:26:24]
They were my favorite teachers because they were engaging about what I had going on in my life. They were my favorite teachers because they showed interest in me. And so that’s what I tell folks when when we hired teachers at at my elementary school, a lot of t well, not a lot of times, all the time, I would never ask the the person that we were interviewing really anything about teaching because most of the time there’s people in our school that could help you to teach you what you need to know. What we would ask was
Brighter Together [00:26:25]
Right.
Brighter Together [00:26:53]
Mm-hmm.
Scott Bolin [00:26:54]
Do you have energy? Do you are you empathetic? Are you do you do kids, you know, tell us about situations where you’ve you know have handled tough situations? What do you what’s your communication strategies? If I walk into your classroom, what’s it gonna look like? ‘Cause what’s it gonna feel like? Because the the interpersonal part is what you have a harder time teaching. And so you either have the it and that that’s what we were hiring for. So we’ve got professionals that can always help the teaching aspect. But I wanted to know that you loved kids. And if we hired somebody that loved kids
Brighter Together [00:27:11]
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Brighter Together [00:27:20]
Yeah. Yeah.
Scott Bolin [00:27:23]
We weren’t gonna go wrong.
Brighter Together [00:27:25]
Right. Exactly. Exactly. One hundred percent. All right. Well, it Scott, it has been a pleasure to have you on Brighter Together. Yeah. And keep up what you’re doing. Keep it up. I’m but and we will keep doing what we’re doing and all will be better for it. So God bless you and have enjoy the summer. Yeah, enjoy the summer.
Scott Bolin [00:27:32]
thank you, Mr. Dannett. I appreciate that. Yeah.
Thank you so much.
Scott Bolin [00:27:42]
Well, we appreciate all you guys do. That’s right. That’s right. Well thank you, Miss Janet. You all have a fantastic summer. In any way we can ever help in Garrett County, Kentucky, let us know.
Brighter Together [00:27:55]
Okay.
