Leading with Heart: A Conversation with Principal Sarah Strassburger — Transcript

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1. 0:09Hello and welcome back to the Skier Mike
2. 0:11Small Town Big Ideas. I'm your host
3. 0:13Palmer Olston and today I am joined by
4. 0:16someone who has had an incredible impact
5. 0:19um on every student at Aspen High
6. 0:21School, our beloved principal Sarah
7. 0:24Strawber. Um thank you so much for being
8. 0:26here today. Oh, thank you Palmer. That's
9. 0:28so kind of you. So Sarah has been a part
10. 0:30of the Aspen School District for almost
11. 0:3220 years. She studied English literature
12. 0:35at Colorado College and earned her
13. 0:37master's degree at um University of
14. 0:40Denver. So um she joined Aspen High
15. 0:44School and became chair of the English
16. 0:46department and then assistant principal
17. 0:48and then later principal. Um so she's
18. 0:51helped lead what is known to be one of
19. 0:53the most rigorous and well-rounded
20. 0:54public high schools in the country. um
21. 0:57which offers like the IB diploma and
22. 1:00then she continued to build like a
23. 1:01really strong experiential learning
24. 1:03which is really cool because we have
25. 1:05like accents every year where we can go
26. 1:07to Mississippi um you know surfing in
27. 1:10San Diego biking so it's just really
28. 1:12cool experiences um so her leadership
29. 1:15focuses on the whole student so like
30. 1:18academic excellence well-being and then
31. 1:20also just like meaningful connection and
32. 1:22lifestyle which I think is really nice
33. 1:24to have like that well-rounded um aspect
34. 1:27and you recently accepted a new position
35. 1:29as assistant superintendent of
36. 1:31curriculum um instruction um of the
37. 1:34Aspen School District which will be so
38. 1:36this means like this is your last year
39. 1:38as principal. So your daughter Stella is
40. 1:40also graduating and she's going to
41. 1:41Syracuse which is really exciting. So
42. 1:44yeah, welcome to this fierce night.
43. 1:45Well, thank you so much for having me
44. 1:47following her. I'm excited to talk with
45. 1:48you.
46. 1:49>> Yes. Um so I have a couple of questions.
47. 1:51in the past 20 years of education. I
48. 1:53would love to share what inspired you to
49. 1:55get into education.
50. 1:57>> Um, great question. I actually I majored
51. 2:00in English and um I didn't think I would
52. 2:02be a teacher. I really thought I was
53. 2:04going to go to law school and then I was
54. 2:07working in San Francisco, you know, kind
55. 2:09of an entrylevel job for a big company
56. 2:12and they wanted to give back to the
57. 2:13community. So, they allowed us to
58. 2:15volunteer in the community as as part of
59. 2:18a work week. And so I volunteered in a
60. 2:20huge public high school, like 2,000
61. 2:22students and I was in an AP English
62. 2:25classroom and I think in that classroom
63. 2:27there were probably five first languages
64. 2:30>> and I was helping kids write essays and
65. 2:33just sitting with them and talking with
66. 2:35them and I thought this is so fun and so
67. 2:38inspiring and I learned so much from
68. 2:40them and so I went back to school at the
69. 2:43University of San Francisco to get my
70. 2:44teaching certificate and started
71. 2:45teaching. That's amazing.
72. 2:46>> Yeah. Um, so what did you decide like to
73. 2:49move from teaching English um to more of
74. 2:52like a leadership position?
75. 2:54>> I don't know that I'd ever really made a
76. 2:55clear clear decision, but I think I was
77. 2:58always interested in change on a little
78. 3:00bit bigger scale. So when I was in the
79. 3:02English department, I had all these
80. 3:04great colleagues and it was like, well,
81. 3:06how can we do this even better? And so
82. 3:09as you know department chair who was
83. 3:11able to learn from people but then help
84. 3:13us all just do things I think um even
85. 3:16better than we have been doing that. So
86. 3:18then I applied for assistant principal
87. 3:20and then and then principal. So always
88. 3:22just looking about how you can make
89. 3:23change on a bigger scale. You really
90. 3:26have to understand like firsthand what
91. 3:28problems you want to change you know in
92. 3:30the end like if if there's a problem in
93. 3:32the classroom like you're making that
94. 3:34change on a bigger level. Um, so I'm a
95. 3:36second generation Aspen family and I
96. 3:38like love living here. It's it's really
97. 3:40great. Um, so what do you think makes
98. 3:42Aspen High School so special? I mean, I
99. 3:45think exactly that that people want to
100. 3:48be in this community and there is a
101. 3:50long, you know, long long-standing
102. 3:53traditions. I think we're always a
103. 3:55little off of guard. um you know it's a
104. 3:58highly you know athletic community that
105. 4:01really um loves the outdoors but it's
106. 4:03also a really highly intellectual
107. 4:05community then there's the arts aspect
108. 4:08and so when you think about all of those
109. 4:10things um I think that kind of goes back
110. 4:12to why we're you know this IB school and
111. 4:14you think about well-rounded battalions
112. 4:17it's not just one thing you know it goes
113. 4:19back to the pepy ideal of you know mind
114. 4:21body and spirit so I think you know
115. 4:23Aspen High School when um We had the
116. 4:27idea and we started the alumni magazine.
117. 4:29The whole idea was to celebrate the fact
118. 4:31that what makes our community rich um
119. 4:34and I don't mean that in terms of
120. 4:36finances but rich in resources and
121. 4:39connection is because people um we have
122. 4:43that longstanding like the memory of
123. 4:45like multiple generations and wanting to
124. 4:48give back and the generosity of this
125. 4:50community and thinking about how to
126. 4:52inspire people and in every facet of
127. 4:55kids' lives you know in in our community
128. 4:58I think they're connected to some other
129. 5:00organization and life's just really
130. 5:02meaningful
131. 5:02>> and I think that's so cool too because
132. 5:04my dad actually went to Aspen and he
133. 5:07said like a lot of his friends were like
134. 5:09you know we want we want more I mean
135. 5:11goodness work in the city and so many
136. 5:13people ended up coming back like I think
137. 5:15we have so many teachers like Merc and
138. 5:16Brett are teaching now so that's really
139. 5:19nice um so during your time here like
140. 5:22what is the decision that you're the
141. 5:23most proud of that you made
142. 5:25>> I definitely am proud um of you know
143. 5:27that we went ahead the NYP certificate
144. 5:31um for 10th graders and the personal
145. 5:32project they've acquired for all 10th
146. 5:34graders. I'm a big believer in just do
147. 5:36it and then um if it doesn't work, you
148. 5:39fix it or you get rid of it. Um but you
149. 5:41have to you have to truck. Um so I think
150. 5:44that was really that's powerful and it's
151. 5:46improving each year. I think um I'm
152. 5:48really proud of taking a stand with the
153. 5:51cell phones. I know it's not always
154. 5:53popular with the students, but I think
155. 5:56as we consider all the research that's
156. 5:58coming out and the highly addictive
157. 6:00nature of social media, um what I see
158. 6:03even when students aren't that happy
159. 6:05about it is kids playing spikeball and
160. 6:07checkers with cards and chess and now
161. 6:10hack sack is back.
162. 6:11>> Oh my gosh, it's everywhere,
163. 6:13>> right? And I think that wouldn't have
164. 6:15happened if we still had it with Let me
165. 6:17show you screen. And so, um I'm proud of
166. 6:20that. even it's not perfect, but um I've
167. 6:22had a lot of schools reach out and want
168. 6:24to know how we did it. Um and I think
169. 6:26again it was just
170. 6:28>> you just go for it and there were people
171. 6:30that were really upset and uh didn't
172. 6:32think it would work and I think it's in
173. 6:35general been a pretty good success.
174. 6:36>> Yeah. Um so you touched, you know, on
175. 6:39this cell phone policy, like how do you
176. 6:40think it's going in general? Like what
177. 6:42are the trials and errors that you've
178. 6:43learned? Um well, I think it's actually
179. 6:46gotten a lot better.
180. 6:47so many fewer infractions this year. So,
181. 6:52they've been so small. It's really not
182. 6:54that many. Last year, there were
183. 6:55definitely a lot more. Um, I think we've
184. 6:58learned that consistency is always the
185. 7:00key. So, I think that's an area of
186. 7:01growth is that are all, you know, adults
187. 7:04in the building holding kids
188. 7:05accountable. And again, it's not to get
189. 7:07into a fight with kids. It's not to be
190. 7:09mean or punitive. It's more just like,
191. 7:11hey, this is the role. We're just going
192. 7:13to stick to it. Um what I would love to
193. 7:15see and no one will probably agree with
194. 7:17me is just a cell phone freebuilding
195. 7:19period. Um in the sense that immediately
196. 7:22at 3:20 everybody gets on their phone
197. 7:24and I'm like gosh that makes me sad and
198. 7:26you should all be talking to each other.
199. 7:27Yeah.
200. 7:28>> Um or if you look at a sporting event
201. 7:29and and everyone's in the stand is like
202. 7:31this. Um, it's just a big shift and it's
203. 7:35nationwide, worldwide. And I just I
204. 7:38don't want students to lose the
205. 7:39opportunity for human connection. Um,
206. 7:41because there's plenty of time to be on
207. 7:43your phone like out and about the world.
208. 7:45And so, how might we foster more of
209. 7:48that? Like, let's make eye contact,
210. 7:49let's laugh, let's have fun. Um, I do
211. 7:52think the biggest success has been the
212. 7:54um the decibel level. I wrote a oped
213. 7:56right when we done like implemented the
214. 7:59um groups the no cell phones and what
215. 8:02everyone noticed is that it was loud. It
216. 8:04was loud in the halls. It was loud in
217. 8:06the comments because nobody was looking
218. 8:08at their phone. Everyone was talking and
219. 8:10laughing and greeting each other. So I
220. 8:12think I would love to see that bigger
221. 8:14scale. I actually um just studied in
222. 8:16Madrid which was a really cool
223. 8:18experience and my school there we were
224. 8:20allowed cell phones and I really did
225. 8:22notice like the difference in the sense
226. 8:24we had something called MP time um which
227. 8:27is like kind of set but more free you
228. 8:29don't really have to go to a classroom
229. 8:30you can just um hang out and do work or
230. 8:33not um which I really enjoyed that but
231. 8:36everybody was on their phones because
232. 8:38there was no discipline of you can't be
233. 8:40on it and so we had like I think 45
234. 8:43minutes a day to just study like similar
235. 8:45to set and nobody would study, you know,
236. 8:48because they have that distraction,
237. 8:50right? That
238. 8:51>> I think it's a smart smart decision
239. 8:53>> and I think honestly adults, you know,
240. 8:55we're all addicted to our phones, too. I
241. 8:57mean, we all grew up with no cell phone.
242. 8:59We I mean traveled through Europe. I
243. 9:01traveled across the country, never had
244. 9:02phone, right? And so, but now I feel
245. 9:05like we all have this crutch, right? So,
246. 9:07like if you're waiting at the doctor's
247. 9:09office or you're waiting for something,
248. 9:11everybody's just on their phones.
249. 9:12Whereas, um it would be nice on a world
250. 9:16scale to to think about how could we
251. 9:17pull people a little bit. I saw a really
252. 9:19interesting image yesterday that showed
253. 9:22um in the year 1980 and it showed, you
254. 9:25know, a crowd of people on the sidewalk.
255. 9:27Everyone's talking and their heads are
256. 9:29up and then they showed one from 2026
257. 9:32and every single head is like down. I
258. 9:34know. So now you are transitioning to
259. 9:38assistant superintendent and how did you
260. 9:41like make that decision to take on that
261. 9:43role?
262. 9:43>> Well, I did not make it lightly young
263. 9:46and I really really struggled because
264. 9:48you know 20 years at the high school I'm
265. 9:50I'm just I'm sort of I'm still a teacher
266. 9:52through and through kids. Um I think
267. 9:55again it was that desire to be like wow
268. 9:58can I make an impact on a bigger scale?
269. 10:00So, not just the high school, but
270. 10:02thinking about the middle school and the
271. 10:03elementary and the prek. Can I make
272. 10:05Aspen School District even better? Um,
273. 10:08and I help people like follow a project,
274. 10:11improve something. Um, and I thought
275. 10:13maybe it's time for somebody else to
276. 10:15lead the high school. You know, I've
277. 10:16been here for a while, but um, it's
278. 10:18definitely bittersweet. This week has
279. 10:19been real sad for me. So, the district
280. 10:21offices are attached to the high school.
281. 10:24Um, but you know, I'm going to have to
282. 10:26give give the high school a little space
283. 10:28just so that the next principal could
284. 10:29like, you know, make her way. Um, but
285. 10:32yeah, no, it's really really
286. 10:33bittersweet. Um, when I think about all
287. 10:35the seniors graduating and the March of
288. 10:37the Graduates and how I got a little
289. 10:39tearary yesterday cuz I got all my
290. 10:42daughter, but then I was like, "Oh, this
291. 10:43is not last graduates." um that your
292. 10:47time here has definitely been so
293. 10:48cherished and you know my mom and I are
294. 10:51very close and and she always told Nick
295. 10:52she was like the leader is everything
296. 10:54and like the fact that you were here and
297. 10:57really implementing change and making
298. 10:58like decisions that weren't just being
299. 11:01said they were actually being done like
300. 11:03that was one of the reasons like I came
301. 11:05and yeah and and it's been like such a
302. 11:07great experience and like you supported
303. 11:09my time abroad and it was just it it's
304. 11:11been so um helpful to have such a great
305. 11:14leader so we're all going to miss you
306. 11:15But I know her. I'm going to miss you
307. 11:18guys so much. Do we know who the um next
308. 11:21year
309. 11:22>> um Sarin appointed Nina Pleti who's the
310. 11:24assistant principal. She is going to be
311. 11:26the interim principal which means that
312. 11:30um she'll be in place as principal next
313. 11:32year, but then they will open up a
314. 11:34national search in like uh December or
315. 11:36January. Um and then they'll go from
316. 11:38there. Usually when there's a high
317. 11:40school principal job, they want to have
318. 11:41a pool of candidates and they want to,
319. 11:44you know, have a pretty lengthy um like
320. 11:46interview process and meet and greet
321. 11:48with the community. And so um I think
322. 11:52they because of the timing of the job
323. 11:54posting, etc. It just wasn't ideal. So
324. 11:57Nina's going to do a fantastic job. She
325. 12:00already, you know, worked with her for a
326. 12:01year, so I think she'll just she'll keep
327. 12:04this uh you know, ship steady. Um and
328. 12:08then hopefully um she'll be able to make
329. 12:10some little changes to make it even
330. 12:12better. What is your job like going to
331. 12:14look like on like the on district level?
332. 12:17>> That's a great question. Um [laughter]
333. 12:19I'll be in charge of curriculum and
334. 12:21instruction. So that'll really mean um
335. 12:24you know ensuring highquality
336. 12:25curriculum. That'll be looking at you
337. 12:27know our data to make sure that we have
338. 12:30um you know the appropriate highquality
339. 12:32instruction in place. I think that's
340. 12:34really where I want my focus to be is
341. 12:37let's not do more. Let's do what we do
342. 12:39and do it really really well. Um I think
343. 12:42we've had a lot of feedback that that
344. 12:43that not all of our students are finding
345. 12:46um joy in coming to school like K12. So
346. 12:49how do we ensure that the student
347. 12:51experiment experiment the student
348. 12:54experience is at the center of
349. 12:56everything that we do? Right? Students
350. 12:58should come to school and feel the same
351. 13:00joy and excitement that they do on
352. 13:01outdoor eding. So where where can we do
353. 13:05things a little bit differently and a
354. 13:06little bit better so that that joy is
355. 13:09felt you know throughout the school day.
356. 13:11Yes, there's going to be stress. It's
357. 13:13but
358. 13:14>> in general how can we make everything
359. 13:18more about the students? So I would love
360. 13:20to see it be the norm for students to
361. 13:23take on a project like you did all on
362. 13:25your own, right? Which is really
363. 13:27incredible because then you were like
364. 13:28I'm passionate, I'm interested. So now I
365. 13:31have something I'm really proud of and
366. 13:32work hard. That's very different than
367. 13:35just being assigned to work in the
368. 13:36classroom. So how do we lay the
369. 13:39foundation so that more kids have that
370. 13:41opportunity and then that becomes more
371. 13:42of the norm.
372. 13:43>> Yeah. And that kind of connects to like
373. 13:45the well-rounded aspect like not only
374. 13:47are you, you know, doing well and and
375. 13:50submitting everything on time, but
376. 13:51you're also finding like what you love.
377. 13:53For some people, I think they don't even
378. 13:55know what they love. They have to have
379. 13:56to dig deep a little bit
380. 13:58>> um to figure that out. most students
381. 14:00today do you think they need to feel
382. 14:02prepared in the future? I think as as we
383. 14:05have kind of the uptick in all the AI um
384. 14:09we need to be really thinking about um
385. 14:11humanity and we need to be thinking
386. 14:13about that human connection. So exactly
387. 14:15what you're doing you're using
388. 14:17technology with intention right to tell
389. 14:19stories about humans. Um that's the
390. 14:22important thing. Do students have some
391. 14:24of those um skills which are I can I can
392. 14:27speak. Um I can read and write, I can
393. 14:30communicate, um I can understand without
394. 14:34you know it's that that IB goal of um
395. 14:37even without people even with their
396. 14:39differences. It's that idea of seeing
397. 14:40the humanity in others even when they're
398. 14:42really different. Um I think in short
399. 14:44it's about empathy. Um you know
400. 14:46technology is not going to be
401. 14:47empathetic. That's an impossibility. But
402. 14:49if we can have that lens of empathy. Um,
403. 14:52and we also need to make sure that
404. 14:54students have opportunities to use
405. 14:57technology and be taught technology with
406. 14:59intentionality. Not just like here's
407. 15:01your screen, here's your computer, but
408. 15:03like what's a tool you want to learn?
409. 15:06What's a tool you want to use? How you
410. 15:08know? And that
411. 15:09>> I think is going to be really really
412. 15:11important with future unfolds. It's an
413. 15:14idea of exploration and risk takingaking
414. 15:17and trying something and again if that's
415. 15:19grounded in connecting with humans I
416. 15:22think that's going to be the game
417. 15:23changer.
418. 15:23>> Yeah. And I you know you talked a little
419. 15:26bit about like AI and um Aspen High
420. 15:29School has a very specific like way of
421. 15:32doing it. We um have our Chromebooks and
422. 15:34then we have Gemini which is like an a
423. 15:37an AI platform. Was that a decision that
424. 15:39you were a part of um to let that
425. 15:41happen?
426. 15:42>> It was not. I mean that did come at the
427. 15:44kind of the district technology level
428. 15:46and then once we realized the level of
429. 15:49Gemini that we had because really
430. 15:51rewriting everybody's papers um they did
431. 15:54pull that back because I think it's
432. 15:56really important for students you know
433. 15:58you have to be able to wrestle like how
434. 16:00do I write this thesis statement but
435. 16:02then it'd be really great to make sure
436. 16:04students now know how to use say Gemini
437. 16:06or Chuck or Claude or whatever it may be
438. 16:09to change to to be that thought partner
439. 16:12for revision
440. 16:13>> because if you're still just learning
441. 16:14how to write and organize and and to
442. 16:17determine what your voice is, um AI is
443. 16:21going to take that away from you, right?
444. 16:23Because most things with AI sound very
445. 16:25very similar. Um and so how do you know
446. 16:29what you know what is valid in AI? What
447. 16:32actually sounds like you? So it's I
448. 16:34think I mean it's a struggle for higher
449. 16:36ed. It's a struggle across all schools
450. 16:39and I think that's going to be the big
451. 16:40push. How do we teach students to use
452. 16:42it? But how do we teach them how to have
453. 16:44their own voice and develop their own
454. 16:46voice first and then use the tools to,
455. 16:49you know, augment what they need to
456. 16:50augment?
457. 16:51>> My English teacher um in my school in
458. 16:53Madrid, he he always said like you can't
459. 16:55unsee it. Like if you see like the way
460. 16:57Chachi BT would rewrite something, it's
461. 17:00really hard for your brain to like
462. 17:02>> make it your own because you're reading
463. 17:04it and it's so perfectly written that
464. 17:06you're like, why would I what what else
465. 17:07can I add? So, I think that that
466. 17:10struggle is so important and like it's
467. 17:12hard, you know? I I love English and
468. 17:14it's it's like my favorite subject, but
469. 17:16it's hard when you sit there and you're
470. 17:17just like, I have all these ideas. How
471. 17:19do I write them out? How does it flow?
472. 17:21But that's such a when you finish it,
473. 17:24you feel so accomplished. And it's
474. 17:26something that AI just shouldn't be able
475. 17:28to take away from students. So, I do
476. 17:30think that's really cool about like
477. 17:32Gemini is a great resource to have and
478. 17:34it teaches me like, you know, if I'm if
479. 17:37I missed a class.
480. 17:38>> I think that's the key, right? You don't
481. 17:39want it to produce things for you. You
482. 17:41want it to support your learning and
483. 17:43allow you some struggle. Um, I love what
484. 17:46your teacher said about you can't unsee
485. 17:47it cuz it's so true.
486. 17:49>> So, um I love to end each of my um
487. 17:52episodes with a segment I do called
488. 17:54Pockets of Joy. Um um I love to see what
489. 17:57my guests are like. Um, so what's like a
490. 17:59moment or like a core memory that's been
491. 18:02bringing you fulfillment recently?
492. 18:04>> Boy, I think right now it's really um
493. 18:07because my daughter's graduating, I am
494. 18:09remembering, you know, all the photos
495. 18:11that come through. So remembering like,
496. 18:13you know, learning to ski on Buttermill
497. 18:15and like the first hikes up Smuggler.
498. 18:18Um, and so just walks with the dog
499. 18:20through the meadows.
500. 18:21>> Okay. Well, thank you so much for being
501. 18:23here today and yeah, see you next time.
502. 18:26Thanks, Palmer.
503. 18:31>> [music]