In this vault episode from the Transformative Leadership Summit, host Jethro Jones interviews Will Parker, a high school principal from northeastern Oklahoma, about implementing KRAs (Key Responsibility Areas) in schools. Will shares how he adapted Dave Ramsey's organizational management concept to create clarity and accountability for all staff members—from secretaries and counselors to administrators. The conversation explores how defining specific responsibility areas upfront prevents confusion, enables cross-training, improves hiring processes, and creates a supportive environment where everyone understands their role. Will emphasizes that KRAs are living documents revisited annually, helping schools manage organizational structure effectively, especially during transitions like budget cuts or staff changes.

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In this episode of Transformative Principal, host Jethro Jones interviews Benny, a 16-year-old sophomore at Alpha School in Austin. Benny discusses his Alpha X project—a YouTube channel explaining how video games are educational.

The conversation explores Alpha School's innovative model, which combines AI-based academics in the morning with passion-driven project work in the afternoon. Benny shares insights on how video games teach critical life skills like problem-solving, resilience, teamwork, and communication through active learning environments.

Jethro challenges Benny to stop perfecting his first video and start publishing immediately, emphasizing that consistent practice beats endless research. They discuss the importance of learning through doing, the value of failure in video games versus traditional education, and how Alpha School's approach helps students develop real-world skills.

• Alpha School academics and workshops.
• Benny’s youtube channel
• Uploading many videos as opposed to researching to make one video.
• Active worlds do 1.5x better than kids in traditional learning situations.
• Video games teaching organic skills.
• Portal 1 and 2 are great for teaching logic
• Professor Layton Franchise - puzzle games.
• What makes you give up?
• Motivational models - motivating a student for doing a certain task or achievement
• How minecraft raised us better than our schools.
• Brainlift Google Doc

About Benny

Benny is a 16-year-old sophomore who attends Alpha High School. He enjoys playing video games, playing instruments, and debating a variety of topics. He has lived in Austin, Texas his whole life and has been attending Alpha for three years. At Alpha, students complete an AlphaX project, an individual project based on their passions. When he was in middle school and during his first year at Alpha High School, Benny’s project was based on music therapy. However, as he progressed through high school, he began to change his project to a YouTube channel that explains how video games are educational. This change was inspired by the first thing he does when he gets home from school, which is playing video games.

In this episode of Transformative Principal, host Jethro Jones speaks with Stan Koterba, an Ohio principal working on his doctorate in educational leadership. Stan shares his powerful personal journey of battling leukemia during his doctoral program and how that experience shaped his dissertation focus on principal self-efficacy—the belief that positive thinking and visualization directly impact leadership effectiveness.

• Dissertation Accountability group
• Started his dissertation in 2014, Leukemia slowed him down, but he persevered and is back on track!
• What self-efficacy means: Visualizing success and optimism that it’s going to work out.
• Personal experience first, and thinking about it.
• Tackle the toughest thing first.
• Start with the smallest win, and then keep going.
• Email is a procrastination tool.
• Schedule send is your friend!
• School email off my cell phone.
• Schedule times on your calendar.
• You are worthy of that yourself
• Don’t get too busy with the busywork to do the real work!
• Text blast for phones to communicate with parents
• How to be a Transformative Principal? Get in the classrooms!

About Stan Koterba

Stan Koterba is a School Administrator, and is a former Band Director and is currently a Doctoral Candidate in Educational Leadership at Youngstown State University, as well as a Google Certified Educator. His doctorate is in principal self-efficacy.