PCSSD Superintendent Jeff Senn 8-14-26

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The U.S. Soccer Podcast. These players are battered and exhausted, but you don't hurt like this if you don't care about this team, about this country, about this game. You can feel the intensity, the goals, the energy that, wow, look at us. Here in the U.S., I have got some news for you. There's so much more to come. My name is Megan Klingerick, and we're just getting started. The U.S. Soccer Podcast, presented by Henkel. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. And good Friday morning to you, 14th day of August, just about 19 minutes in front of 8 o'clock. And now joining us during the Back to School Week is the superintendent of the Plaskey County Special School District. Jeff Senn, who's on the American League Detection phone line this morning. And Jeff, welcome back to the show. How are you on this first week of school? Back in action. Good morning, Toby. Thank you for having me. Hey, it's gone really well this year. We've had a great start to the school year. Yeah, I know you guys went on Monday. And so, Jeff, starting with the overall view for you. What are you excited about in the Plaskey County Special School District? Could you get the school year started? Really excited this year about a new pacing guide that we have created, which keeps all of our students on the same pace. We're finding that the information, we weren't exposing them to enough information to do well enough on the test, so we're going to try to increase our pace a little bit and cover more material so that we give them a better opportunity to score well. But just to start the school, we're trying to battle the heat. And so I know it's been horrible. So about three weeks ago, we still had 100 HVAC units that weren't working within the district. So our team, and I can't say enough about our team of maintenance and operating, they have done a fabulous job of getting all of our units working. Everybody has cool air inside their buildings, and we're providing water for our students as they get on the buses in the afternoon. But we have had a great start to this year. Outstanding. This pacing guide sounds like a really great thing that you've added to the district this year. Obviously, having a plan of how to get people into a better spot is always the first step, and so that's great that you've done that. I drive up and down to cancel, Jeff, every now and again, and I see the expansion going on at Joe Tyler Robinson High School. So we know there's that capital improvement going on. Any other – and I want to talk about that as well, but any other capital improvements across the district right now? Absolutely. We have three projects going right now. As you know, we got Robinson going, and we just finished putting brand new turf after turf on their football field out there. But we also are doing – $2 million renovation on Harris Elementary. Almost finished with that. It should be about October to be finished with that. And we're building a new college station elementary. They should be completed with that in April of 27. So next April, we ought to be good with that.

So we've got several projects going, and everything seems to be moving well, and we're just excited about getting into those new buildings. Yeah, no, obviously expansion is a great thing, and obviously getting some of the new facilities going is great as well as we're talking with Jeff Sen. He's the superintendent of the Plasky County Special School District, getting the school year underway this week. Jeff, I've got a kid in my house who just started his freshman year at Joe Tyler Robinson. He's in the driven program because he's already smarter than me. No kidding. You explain the driven program because it's my understanding that this, it's basically a charter school within the Robinson High School, but can you give the details on how this works? Absolutely. That school, it is a converted charter that we are allowed to have within our district, and those students in that program kind of work at their own pace. So they have shorter lesson time, but they are able to move at a faster pace or a slower pace, whichever works for them. But the best thing about that program is it keeps students moving. at a pace so that they're not bored with the education. So it is a great program, offers a lot of courses, a lot of students are completing their competencies, state-required competencies before the end of their sophomore year. So their junior and senior year are really, really converting over to AP courses or concurrent credit courses. So we're having students leave with 30 to 40 hours of college credit before they leave. Yeah, absolutely. So it's a great program. I am so glad that he is in there. And, yeah, he'll be excited about that program. Yeah, well, the first week has gone very well. Now, I have a couple other follow-up questions on Driven because being a charter school, does that make it possible for families to use, you know, they've got the EFA money out there for charter schools, but obviously you're a public school. And so is EFA money, is that a possibility with the charter school within a public school? Not if it's a converted charter within the public school. It is not. So with their money, I will say this. Our district is very uncommon to other districts across the state because our assessment value is so high that our students, we do not receive state funding at all. Right. So our students don't qualify for that. That would not affect them. However, if they were to go to like a real charter, then that money would go to them, but not if they're going to be within our district. Is it something that you would want to push for in the future? I mean, you've got a legislative session coming up at the start of next year. Is that something that you would want to have instituted in the future?

Oh, it would be great. It would be great if we could meet that matrix number, but that number is lowering this year, so it's going to be harder for us to get into that. Sure. One thing about... about our district is that we're in a good place financially now. We're getting more stable that we're able to offer programs so that our students can be successful. And I'll just tell you, my vision when I came last year is about creating opportunities for kids to do what they want to do. And that's a lot of what Driven does. And so it creates opportunity for them to go in a pathway that they want to go. I'm not so much concerned right now about the funding piece. I'm looking to... to offer our students in the entire district, whatever they want to do, given them that opportunity. We're talking with the Plaskey County Special School District Superintendent Jeff said this morning. So, Jeff, last year at this time, when I had you on the show, we were talking a lot about cell phones being put away for the school day. This year, I mean, even just across the state and across all the different school district, not really hearing a lot about it. I mean, is this still being instituted in your school district, the bell-to-bell, no-cell? Absolutely, Toby. Hey, I did not, I could not believe it, how well it went last year. I thought that students and adults would have fought tooth and nail about not being able to have access to their phones. But we didn't really have that much trouble at all. And so I was very surprised and really, really students were saying to me that it wasn't as bad as they thought and that they kind of found themselves being more engaged in the work. unbelievably, it worked well. And so the expectation is now set. We have no issues with that. Students know what's expected, and they go right in and get to work. Now, so do you do, are you doing yonder pouches this year, or is it just put it in your backpack and keep it away? No, we do the pouches also. And we also have. sort of lockers if you want to take it inside and put it into your own locker you can do that as well but but we're still using the pouches we just we the main thing is is that we don't want them to be on them during the school day we don't look for them but we don't you know we have We just want to, we don't want to see them so we know that they're not on them. That's right. Look, I'm a big fan of this policy. And I think we're seeing evidence already that it's something that works. I mean, we're seeing better numbers across, you know, all schools right now. And that has to be part of the, part of the input of that. So they're talking with Jeff said this morning from the Applasky County Special School District. How's the district doing on having all the teachers that you need going into the year? Do you have everything that you need right now? Are you still looking to make some hires as the year gets started?

We are always looking for high-quality people to hire. I'll tell you, our high-needs areas right now are special ed teachers. Sure. That's a high need across the state. I will tell you that all of our core teachers have been hired, and we are in very good shape across the district. When you're talking about hiring about 2,000 certified... staff we're down to about six to eight positions so wow excuse me to be but we're doing hey we're exceptional we have been very fortunate and we've hired some exceptional teachers this year And so we're headed in the right direction. Wow, that is great news. Well, it sounds like it's been a terrific start to the year. Sounds like you got the momentum that you need to make it a great school year. Of course, folks, if you need information about the Plasky County Special School District, you can find them online at pcsd.org. That's the website. And, Jeff, I appreciate you coming on the show this morning. I hope you have a great school year. Of course, we'll check in as the school year progresses, but appreciate the time this morning. Hey, absolutely, Tobin, let me tell you, I appreciate you trusting us to educate your children. Thank you, brother. The U.S. soccer podcast. I'm your host, Megan Klingeberg. And after interviewing so many dudes during this men's world cup, I'm so happy to be back with my U.S. women's national team players. I know the U.S. men's national team has changed how I think about myself, how I think about being an American, how I think about being on a team. It's one year out from that World Cup, and we're going to talk about the brightest prospects in U.S. soccer. You ready? I'm ready. Let's do it. The U.S. Soccer podcast. Presented by Henko. Follow and listen on your favorite platform.