NewTech High--It is Personal!

Peyton Mills Podcast Principal, Renville County West February 22, 2026 Peyton Mills is the High School Principal at Renville County West for the past three years.   Prior to coming to RCW, Peyton was a high school social studies teacher in central Minnesota for one year in Parkers Prairie and two years in Waubun / Ogema White E arth. He was recently named Superintendent of RCW for the 2026-2027 school year.  Link to the Zoom Peyton is one of the youngest administrators you will find, and I'm guessing, will be the youngest Superintendent in Minnesota next year. He already has some great experience and has a fairly robust arsenal of knowledge about programs that are high school flavored. Some of those things we speak about in the podcast are: MTSS and Intervention programs, West Central CEO program, PSEO and Enrollment Options, and different leadership concepts.  Bill Sommers serves as a guest to the podcast and has several things to share, as well.  Learner-Cente...

Good afternoon!  We had a host of emereti educators on our podcast today. Unfortunately, forty minutes were not enough. Each of these people has a very deep past of experiences. Here was our group of presenters today:  Bob Wedl, former MDE Commissioner Lucy Payne, Educator at the University of St. Thomas Jerry Robicheau, Former Superintendent/Board Member Bill Sommers, Former HS Principal, College Prof and Author Ted Kolderie, Jack of All Trades (He does show a copy of his updated book, "Thinking Out the How". If you want a copy, please send me your address.) Podcast from Today

Episode #23 Dawson-Boyd HS Podcast,  Good afternoon. I apologize for not getting this out to you on Wednesday, but had family conflicts that I was unable to navigate successfully enough. Nevertheless, we did have a little audience which was very nice.  The NewTech HS podcast that we were focused on Wednesday was Dawson-Boyd in LacQuiParle County. Some would say '"pert near Sodak". These two communities are highly agricultural. The high school has under 200 students. I took a couple of pictures to share to give you a context of their area.  Dawson-Boyd  Podcast Video Link (here) Water Tower /Ethanol Plant            Local Elevator                   Downtown Dawson.   As part of that district, we welcomed Holly Ward, D-B Superintendent, and Ryan Stotesbery, D-BHS Principal. Both of these individuals employ so many of the things that we value in NewTech High. Holly speaks of how they got inv...

E22-"How to See Labor Trends Ahead" Luke Greiner, DEED, February 4, 2026 Today's Podcast                          LINK Today, we hosted Luke Greiner, who many of us have already had some experience with, others of us a lot more. Luke is so eloquent and candid about the labor market and economic forces. In this episode, Luke and I discuss many things including:  How he got into this field.  How skills and content interplay in high schools.  What skills/certifications are diminishing; which may be decreasing in value?  Exciting and scary changes in the workforce and professions.  A lot of discussion about the effects of AI thus far and peering into the future.  Deed Survey Luke and I discussed one aspect of DEED that they emphasize with schools. There is a labor market survey for students that can be a great tool to start these discussions with students and high schools. If you want your studen...