How Communication Can MAKE or BREAK School Leadership | Transformational Educators Ep. 18

What does it take to lead with courage when your campus is in chaos? In this episode of Transformational Educators, Dr. Matthew Flippen sits down with Todd Bloomer, Director of School Leadership for the Archdiocese of San Antonio, former high school principal, and author of The Blueprint: How to Survive and Thrive as a School Administrator. With nearly 30 years in education, Todd shares what it truly means to lead with clarity, composure, and servant leadership when crisis hits.

From navigating post-Covid campus conflict to responding to threats and community fear, Todd walks us through how transparent communication, visible leadership, and unwavering consistency can transform a season of instability into a culture of trust. If you are an aspiring or current school leader searching for practical crisis leadership strategies rooted in courage and compassion, this conversation will equip and encourage you.

Connect with Todd Bloomer:
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KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• Upfront and clear communication is key in any crisis moment
• Leaders must be the face and voice of the campus when fear is real
• Silence allows rumor and social media to control the narrative
• Drawing a clear line around expectations restores campus climate
• Visibility builds trust with staff, students, and families
• Overcommunication with district leadership protects the school and the system
• Student voice and daily relationship-building prevent larger issues
• Composure under pressure sets the emotional tone for the entire campus
• Never give up on a child, even when leadership requires consequences
• Trust is built through consistency, transparency, and servant leadership

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Transcript

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in any crisis moment, upfront and clear communication is key. You can never sweep anything under a rug because everything is public, And I would rather you hear from me. The building principal, before you hear from the children. And That is Todd Bloomer, director of school leadership for the Archdiocese of San Antonio, a former high school principal and educator with nearly 30 years of experience. He believes the most dangerous moment in a crisis is when leaders stay silent and allow fear, rumor and social media to take control. we experienced about a six week or eight week, just trial and tribulation where kids were fighting, every time I turned around, had some kind of conflict. tested everything in my heart and soul. It He explains what it is like to lead when fear is real. Staff are overwhelmed. Families are watching closely and every decision is under public scrutiny. I was face, the voice. I was the leader of that campus. And people needed to see me. I couldn't hide in my office. I couldn't pretend to have someone else take it. Today, Todd breaks down how leaders communicate during crisis, how trust is built when stakes are high, and why visibility and clarity matter more than perfection. By the end of this episode, you'll learn how to lead calmly, communicate clearly, and show up when your community needs you most. I'm Doctor Matthew Flippen, and this is Transformational educators. let's talk about, you know, when, a little bit about your background in the school that you were working in. And then let's talk about the what crisis hit and what and what happened from that point on. yeah, no doubt. Thank you. 29 years in public education. Just recently retired. Now work for the Archdiocese of San Antonio, Texas. As, director of school leadership did 12.5 years as, as a principal, both in middle school and high school, 18 years overall in administration. Serve the school that I lived a mile down the road from. And I think this is going to really ducktail into our discussion here as we talk a little bit about trust and and communication and being the face of a school. And as we talk about crisis and as we talk about, being the person that people look to in these times. I lived a mile down the road. My H-e-b was their H-e-b. My church was their church. In my part that I went and ran in was the park that they were in. Also when I went to the mailbox to get my mail, you know, parents were there, that that sent their children to there. And so it's really going to be a great conversation today as we try to talk and go back and forth, and I try to share a little bit about some of the things that I've, that I've gone through in the years, because I may not be perfect, but I've experienced pretty much everything, that you could have in a public school. absolutely, absolutely. So, I think the example we're going to talk about today, or one of them is about your time at Churchill High Yes, sir. Yes, sir. as, high school in the San Antonio area. Talk to us a little bit about the, crisis it hit. And, I mean, I know that, you know, when crises do occur, you're responsible for not only safety and decisions, but also what what family, staff and the and the public hear how they perceive leadership. So talk to us. What was one crisis moment that really tested your leadership? in any crisis moment, upfront and clear communication is key. You can never sweep anything under a rug because everything is public, whether it be Facebook or TikTok, the email that you send or the video that the kids are posting from your campus. And so anything any leader out there that's going through a crisis, understand others have been through this before. It's not easy. It isn't something that we signed up to deal with, but it is something that we have to address head on. And I would rather you hear from me. The building principal, before you hear from the children. And that's extremely difficult in a digital age where instant information is sent to parents. And so the minute any crisis hits and that could be anything from, you know, a fire on campus which we've had anything, whether it be threats of violence on campuses, which is the sad reality of our schools today, it could be fighting. And that's going to be really the example that I start with first. And in any situation that you have. Understand that nothing is something that you don't want to share. And so the first thing that that after we came out of Covid, once we came back to school in the 18 months, really after Covid, were very challenging because kids struggled with how to handle conflict and they still do. And I do blame a little bit of social media with that, because I can just say anything to you and never see you and never have to worry about you. Well, that was the case. And kids came back to every campus in America, but Churchill High School in particular, and we experienced about a six week or eight week, just trial and tribulation where kids were fighting, and that's not the norm at our school. Kids could not handle conflict. And it was fight here, a fight there was a threat of a fight, rumors of a fight. And then you always worry about what's next, because the sad reality today is kids don't fight fair. A fight 20 years ago, 30 years ago was me and you looking each other in the eye and fighting. And others staying back a fight. Now is Matthew three of your buddies jumping in and attacking me? And then two of my buddies jumping in and the utter chaos and uncertainty and scariness that that provides, because you've got 95% of your kids that go to school, they're great kids. They just want to be there to talk to their girlfriend or talk to their boyfriend, or go play football or learn hopefully, like along the way. And then you've got a handful of kids that are there, and I call them climate changes that are there. And they really affect the climate of your campus. So we had a series of about six weeks of just, I'll call it chaos. And honestly speaking, it took my calmness. It tested everything in my heart and soul. It tested everything that the good Lord has given me to clearly communicate with, with the staff about how we were going to stop this because they were scared, I was scared also. This was something that every time I turned around, we had some kind of conflict. It took me saying, I'm drawing a line in the sand. And if you are here to fight, if you are here to cause a problem, you're going to be gone. And I had to suspend kids left and right. But that's the trust factor that your community wants and your staff want. If you're there, if you're going to change the climate on my campus and you're not going to be there to learn chemistry, you're going home and I'm pushing for you at an alternative placement. And we had a real take, a real strong stance. And I had to communicate that to my assistant principals to say, whether you blow up and want to fight or whether you throw a punch, you're going home. And that took some establishment, of what we have. I got the reputation of if if, you know, I'll work with you, I'll like it, I'll support you. But if you do this, you're going home. And then it took clear communication to parents. Parents needed to understand. I couldn't shake this under the rug and say it's not happening because kids were coming home and saying, oh my God, there was another fight in the cafeteria, in the bathroom, at the bus stop, you name it. And so one of the things I really learned was if you have an incident, call a faculty meeting. At the end of the day, bring your faculty together and say, you know what, guys? We talked at the beginning of the year about supervision. We talked at the beginning of the year about eyes on kids. We talked about the beginning of the year. Honestly, one of the things that we came up with was, if you have a conference period, the first five minutes of your conference period, please walk the halls and help me clear the kids out of the hallways. Get them in the class. We talked about not not allowing kids to leave class the first ten minutes and the last ten minutes of class. I put my chair outside of restrooms where there was issues or concerns. The staff had to see me and my team. The students had to see me and my team, and I had to stand in the front where parent drop off was in the morning after I sent an email to the parent saying we had an incident. So if they wanted to talk to me, I was available. I couldn't hide in my office. I couldn't pretend to have someone else take it. I was the the face, the voice. I was the, the, the leader of that campus. And people needed to see me. And if I was in aisle nine of H-e-b and someone came up to me and said, bloomer, I'm really concerned with what's going on, I could then share with them, you know what? I'm a parent. My my youngest children were there after Covid, and that was a scary time. my children are there. And if my children are there, I'm going to make sure I'm going to do everything I possibly can to make sure that is the safest place in the world. And I'm very glad to, to, to to say that, you know, we had the ups and downs of that time and it was very challenging. And it wasn't the only school in America that had that, but we had that conflict resolution. And then we really looked at as kids came back to the school, what support can we give them so that they can handle conflict better? And I made it a point, as the building principal, 2400 kids on the campus, to know that if little Todd is is someone that struggles with stuff, I had to have a daily touchpoint with him each and every day. And some of these kids were tough to be around because they were. I'm not saying they're all of God's kids, and so God doesn't make anything that's not perfect. But they were hard to be around, like their language was, was inappropriate, disrespectful. Their attitude was they weren't there to learn, but I had to make a bond to be able to bond with these, these kiddos. And I'm really happy to say that years later, I see these kids at H-e-b in San Antonio, Texas somewhere, and I can go up to them and talk to them without worrying about what was there, and I might have suspended them or sent them to alternative school. But they knew deep down that I loved and cared for them. So upfront communication, being the face of the campus and then drawing the line in the sand to say, if you are not on this campus to learn, you can't be here, I'll love the heck out of you when you come back, I will give you a second chance. Every day is a new day, but I want to go home at night each and every day. Safe. I don't want to get hurt breaking up a fight or something. And so, honestly speaking, it starts with the school leader. It starts with a compelling vision to say this is not acceptable on our campus. and then honestly, it is branching out to say, staff, if you think I can keep a campus of nine buildings and 40 acres and 2400 kids saved by myself or with our one police officer, you're crazy. I need everybody at their door. I need everybody on duty. I need everybody eyes on kids. And if you hear something, let us know if you feel like something is happening. And when I left last year, I'd have people text me all day long. Hey, I think Todd and Matt might have a might have a problem, but we're on it. And honestly, we're on it to the point where we're on it and we're calling parents and we're saying, if this happens, here's what's going to occur. and so that is the key. And so I think as a as a strong school leader, it starts with you. You can't do it all yourself. But it starts with you. And it starts with honesty. And it starts with clear communication. And it starts with making sure that you are the most visible person on that campus. thanks for sharing that. I mean, there's so much great, so many great principals in there. You know, I was thinking about this idea that, you know, physical safety is step one. Right. Children can't learn if they're afraid. Right. And that's children of any of any age. then you go from physical safety to psychological safety. Emotional safety. And then and then you can get to how to to learning. And I think about just how important it was for you to identify that, you know, we're talking about crisis. And sometimes crisis is not an event. It's a season a season with crisis. And that's really what you're what you're talking about. And that that consistency in leading through that I know made a difference instead of it, you know, being 6 to 8 weeks, you know, it could have lasted Could still be going absolutely. I also wonder, did you have to garner support from the next level of administration for the method that you wanted to approach? Absolutely. every school leader has somebody at central office that is their guy or their, their gal, their their executive director or their associate supe somebody. And so one of the key components also to leading to any crisis is ensuring that your boss is in the know of every single thing that you're doing. Now, as you get in the job long enough, you understand what your boss expects. You understand their blueprint, their game plan. But I over communicated and I over communicated with my executive director and my communications director. And I made sure that I had a little group text with, with those, those two. And and usually, I'll put a third one, the chief of police for our school district, because a lot of these things involved, all of them, somebody may call them, somebody may call the media. And I never wanted my communication director to reach out to me and say, Todd, I got this, tip now, that's impossible. But that was my goal. Like, I wanted to make sure she was in the loop. And so she probably. And wonderful lady and she every once were, I would say like, you know, I overcommunicate it because I'll share. We had a, possum drop through the ceiling. Old building ran down the hallways. You know, kids were taking you know, it it caused a disruption. We had to close the doors. I had to get a broom and go down the hallway. But somebody might have called and said. So I let her know that. And so, like like. So I don't think over communication is a bad thing with key people at central office. My boss, my mentor, my good friend, the former principal of both schools that I lead, and the commissioner of our fantasy football team, which Doctor Justin actually won this year. I made sure that I let him know everything. And then I had a plan. But also he was my boss and he could see things that I couldn't see. So if you have a crisis like let's say that, that you have a crisis of a rumor that there could be a weapon on your campus and you want to do A or B, reaching out, gaining insight from someone that may not be there but has a global picture of what's going on districtwide. That is so key because sometimes as a principal, we go rogue and we can't go rogue like we can't. I am, I am the principal. I was the principal of Church High School, but that's not my school. It's the property of Northeast Independent School District. So my actions directly responsible for the district. And I would never want to do anything to put the district in any harm. So any communication that I sent out, I made sure that those two communications director and my executive director read them, gave me insight. Change this word, add this. Hey, I like this tone. What do you think about this? Because in a moment of crisis, I'm trying to communicate to people, I might clearly mess up an email. I might not communicate something that is. And so so when you are in that situation, it's so important that you slow down to go fast. It's so important that you pick the phone up and you say, as you're walking to campus to do things, here's what I'm dealing with. And then allowing my boss to be able to say, you know what, I'm going to make sure maintenance gets out there. If there was a fire in the restroom, or I'm going to make sure that the police chief sends an extra officer out there at dismissal, or I'm going to make sure that the communication director has this information so that if the news reaches out, you can go from there. And so it is so important that you don't have to bear this yourself. And that's where I think leaders get caught up like, oh my God, there's a problem. I don't want to tell the parents because they're going to be mad. Well, you know what? They're going to be mad anyways. They might as well hear it from you. I don't want to tell my boss because my boss might be mad at me. Well, he's going to hear it in principles. You have to understand this crazy doesn't make an appointment. It just shows up on your campus. You can't prevent anything. The thing that I've come to in this is coming with reading the Bible and coming was really getting to know who I am. I'm in control of nothing. Like I don't control anything, you know? I'm there to react. My whole job is reactionary, and that's the hardest thing for a principal to think about, because we want to put good structures and good systems in place where we prevent that. No, you can't prevent anything that occurs. And when you have a campus that is embedded in a in a community and surrounded by all sides by apartments and businesses and homes, stuff happens there. And if it's happening in your community, it's in your school. So if you've got drugs or alcohol or violence or you name it in the community, it's in your school. And it might be there today and you might not even know about it. So it is so important when a crisis hits that you reach out to somebody and I don't care what district you're in, big to small, there are people there that their job is to help you. Their job is to come to your campus. Their job is to support you. You just have to reach out and you can't be afraid that they're going to be upset. And if they're upset, you can deal with that after the crisis. But in that moment, get the support. And if they say stop, don't do that. Listen to them, right. Ultimately, you're protecting your campus, but they're protecting the district and the campus. And that's a really thing that's hard to learn sometimes for leaders. Yeah. Now, how do you balance transparency with confidentiality in that kind of very specific example? just upfront about it I mean I don't print the kids name, but if I have a weapon and we've had weapons on campus, we've recovered weapons on campus and we've had rumors of weapons on campus. And that's not just my school, that's every single school. And I will say that is a private school, a charter school, a parochial school, and a public school. And if anybody thinks differently, they're crazy. To think that that stuff doesn't occur only occurs in other schools. And just like anything else, be upfront because you know what? If I'm hearing that somebody has got a weapon somewhere on the campus, I guarantee someone's got their phone and they just text their mom to say, hey, we're on lockdown, or all of a sudden now we go down that rabbit hole and there's a problem or incident or something that occurs. And so it is it is upfront. It is immediately communicating with your campus police officers, immediately gaining your leadership team together. We had we did a little, slogan on my campus. Hey, we need to huddle up and if I gave that radio call to my leaders, we need to huddle up. That means drop what you're doing, and we need to huddle up because something is important. It wasn't like, hey, can I talk to you? Where are you? Huddle up. Met something that was important. I was blessed to have a campus police officer. And any school that doesn't think they need a campus police officer is crazy. You need a campus police officer on your campus. He was great with kids, but he's in charge now, like, hey, like. And so this is a leadership lesson. Like, while I'm in charge of the campus, if I have a rumor of a weapon on the campus, I'm now deferring to law enforcement because they are my experts. And then you have to come up with, are we going to go into a lockdown? let's slow down here. We have a report. Let's, let's, let's take two minutes or so and let's figure out what we need to do before we overreact while the team is together. I'm calling my executive director. I'm calling the chief of police. I'm reaching out to them to be able to go from there. But a lot of times it's a rumor. Like a lot of times it's just a rumor. Someone post pictures or regenerate stuff or put something dumb on social media and I have to deal with it. Which is also a side note that maybe we could talk about it at some point. Social media has a responsibility, I think, to schools to be able to allow us to be able to find out who does this stuff a lot quicker, to be able to help us. And I and I do think that's that's something that's another topic. And so like, like immediately respond, whether it be, hey, I'm going as a school principal to this bathroom, to this classroom to hear we're pulling this kid. And then that's where we're going to go from there. Now if you find something you immediately handle it because like and honestly speaking. So if I get a kid and the kid has a weapon, okay, that kid's going to be arrested, that kid's going to be transported off campus. That kid's going to get the consequences and never come back to my school again. But now I got to communicate that to the staff, and I got to communicate that to the students. And I got to communicate that to the community. And all three of those groups are equally important. A lot of times, I think principals forget the importance of communicating to your student body. Now, if you're in kindergarten or something. Yeah. You know, they're reading, you know, Pete the Cat, hopefully not. Right? Right. 100%. They're reading the book. Pete the Cat. Right. And so like, but nine through 12th grade, which I did a, you know, primary where I served. They've got every right to know everything that parents know and that teachers know. And and a lot of times the kids are the ones that read their school email before the parents read the email that I send out. So it's extremely important to do that. And then you handle it and you put it out there, you know, it's going to be on channel four news. You know it's going to be in the newspaper. You know it's going to be posted on Facebook. And you know, somebody is going to say something negative about your leadership, but you can't control that. Your your job at that point is to make sure the campus is safe, make sure people know about it, and then understand that, the system worked like like let's say this, like, let's let's say we do find a weapon on the campus and a young lady or young man comes forward and says, hey, Todd's got something in his backpack. He shouldn't have. The system worked. We have instructed kids to see something and say something. And so in my communication to parents, I think two students came forward and reported this. Multiple students came forward, reported this, and I say the system worked well. It's scary and I don't like this and I'm not proud of this. It worked. We prevented something from occurring because kids knew right from wrong. Thank you for talking to your kids about this. And then I always put, if you want to, talk about this, you can call me not not the assistant principal. Me. And then I always put something in any letter that I had when my children attended the school. My children are in attendance here. And your concerns are my concerns because that was so important. And then you dealt with the you dealt with the fallout. You dealt with 36 hours of you didn't sleep well at night. You know, you tossed and turned. You ate poorly. You worried, you know, is something else going to happen? What are they going to say about my leadership? And then you just had a really realized I can't control this. I can control the reaction. And if I tried not to tell you, like you would crucify me. Rightfully so. Because as a parent, you trust me to be your campus leader. And that means I need to communicate with you. That's why, if there was a rumor and I didn't send something out. But I sent something out about a possum running down the street or down the hallway, like you would say as a parent, that guy over communicates if there's a problem on the campus, he's going to tell me. And so I had developed that trust because I overcommunicate with parents. But I also lived in the community. I also served the community. You could talk to me at church, you could talk to me in the grocery store, but I overcommunicate it. And I think that's the key, because if you don't communicate, parents fill in whatever they want. So if there's no information, I'm going to tell the narrative I want to tell. And that's not okay. So let me get ahead of you. Let me tell you the narrative. And even if that's a weapon, let me be the first one to tell you so that you have that information so you can talk to your children. And then you can talk to me if needed. And I just think that's so key in your situation. Absolutely. Scary. so I know there was a little bit of this. It was ongoing. I mean there's always potentially a safety issue when you have this large of, of student student body. But this first season you talked about coming back from Covid. as you moved through that. What changes did you start to see in staff confidence or family trust? Let's start with staff. something that we, we, we really learned in during Covid, you know, we only had about 400 kids on campus, nine buildings like. So we got real comfortable with a campus with 400. And so we might have relaxed too much when it came to supervision. And so we came together as a group. And I'm a big proponent in, in if you've got an issue or a concern, bring it to me and bring me a suggestion. And I'm the type of leader that I think I got all the ideas. But if you've got a better idea, we're going to go with a better idea because I'm not the smartest, you know, tool in the shed. And if you've got a better idea to make our job better and safer, we're going to do that. And so one of the things that we came out of was an understanding that we just need more people to be on duty, and nobody likes extra duty. Like, you go on Facebook and you see people complaining all the time about no duty. Our campus realized we need eyes on kids, and we went to before school, lunch duty after school. And then one of the things that I think came out of this, which was which was something I would encourage every school leader to do the week before any major break Thanksgiving, Christmas, spring break, you name it. And the school, everybody was on duty. Everybody. you know what? There might have been one person. Nobody complained because they understood that if their presence was there, they prevented stupidity from occurring. And the stupid stuff leads to the real stuff. Great quote, my buddy Nate Shaw that's listening. The stupid stuff leads to that. And people realize that if we come together as a staff, We can keep all of us safe. And the realization was, Todd can't keep anyone safe. Todd can't keep himself safe. But we all can do a better job of this. And so I personally sent an email to every staff member individually instructing them on where I wanted them and the time, and I followed up on that, and we would have 20 people at bus duty. But you know what? The week before every break, bus duty was seamless. We'd have 20 people on duty, before school, before school was seamless. So I think that is something that we learned as a staff. The community also just became a trusting community, because I made sure that I was visible and approachable at any point. My children hated to go out to eat with me, because if you wanted to walk up and talk about something, let's go. Let's make this our conference right here. Social media allowed that. I put it, I put everything out on social media. I communicated everything that I have and that was also the champion of the school. Like I made sure people knew this was the only school your child needed to attend, because how much I loved it, how much I cared about the school. And so really that's what they learned. And lastly, it's it's one of the things I really learned is voice of students is so important. Like, and I was at a high school and we did bloomers Lunch Bunch and four times a year we took a different group of kids and we met with them and we listened to what they were talking about. Like what what what bothers you? What concerns you? I had so much fun doing that. I went to Sporting good. I went to sporting teams, I went to the band, they went to the orchestra, I went to different groups and I listened to kids. But then also I made it a point that if I saw you walking down the hall, I inquired how you were doing. We talked fantasy football. My fit. Do I look good? What about my sneakers? What music should I be listening to? that trust allowed me to be able to go up to you? If I knew you were upset about something to calm you down. If my first interaction with you was trying to break you up when you're fighting someone, you're not going to listen to me. But if you're if you're interaction with trust, and I'm here to protect you, and I could call you by name then, then a lot of times that help the situation. It also modeled for staff that, you know what? Don't pass a kid in the hall and not say hi to him. Don't pass a kid in the hall and not interact with them like that is how we built community. That is how we build family. We listen and and as much as I like to think that school was, was, was was great because of me, that school is great because of the kids that went there, the staff that went there, and the parents that live there. And I listened to them, and that got me fired up about it right now. Like, I want to go back and listen, I didn't make the fantasy football playoffs in my in my league, and I used to sit at a table at lunch and say, hey guys, who should I start at quarterback? I got Lamar, he's hurt and I got Jaxson Dart. Go Giants! Right. But who shot? And that interaction just broke that family like trust. And then people saw that and people saw, hey I can go up and talk to people during lunch duty or passing period or hallway duty and that just built that. And I also think that in a roundabout way, made our campus safer because, like, we broke down the barriers of kids that didn't look like us or didn't look like you, but you weren't afraid to walk up and say to that kid that got that new tattoo right here of his grandmother and was begging you to say, tell me about it like I would. I've got six tattoos. I would go up and I would talk to kids about that because that was important. And that built that trust that we had to wear last year. I'll tell you this, my last year at Churchill High School was the best year that we had. safety wise, school wise, we still had problems, you know, issues that, you know, stupidity. But the best year because of what we had built organically on that campus to make it a true community of where we had. And it was rich, poor and everybody in between. You know, 25% of the school didn't speak English. You know, like we were below the poverty line of what we had. But it was a family. We all got along. The lunch table was was everybody from the kid that got a Jeep on their 16th birthday to the kid that had plastic furniture in their apartment that they had, and it all got along because of just, the way that we led the campus and the way that we loved the kids, the way that we listened to kids and a long, long way that really helped us. That was something we learned, to keep our campus safe, especially during crisis times. Well Todd I'm a little bit surprised they let you retire. Yeah, I had I do miss it. I do miss. I just so much admire the approach. You know you really have a lot of courage to. And even though even though there were times where I know you were scared for your for your own safety and even your own children's safety, you still led with with courage. Just really a value that is there You can I share one thing here that just makes me so honestly speaking, like Poker Face is so important in leadership. Like they can never see us. Well, like, honestly speaking, our job is to maintain the same demeanor all the time. And I had a friend, he became an assistant principal and a coach and a great, great dude. And he said, you have mastered the art of walking around here like nothing bothers you. And that was the furthest from the truth. But if you can get to that point where every day. No, nobody has to to read your mind and nobody has to think, you know, is Boomer upset because when when the principal sneezes, everybody catches a cold. Like that's the old analogy that they have. You have to maintain in that moment, command the leadership where you are in charge. When people are scared, they look to the principal. And if I'm frantic and my hair's flying out, I got flames coming out of here, then everybody is going to feel that way. But if I keep my composure, if I'm not afraid to answer tough questions, if I'm not afraid to step up in and break up a fight, or go into a restroom or handle a situation or an upset parent, the whole campus falls apart. So that pressure that is on you, that's part of why I had to retire. Like honestly speaking about where is it you and and this this may be a different thing, but but as an administrator, if we don't have a way to to get that out of our system, cripples us if we don't work out, if we don't read the Bible, if we don't take care of ourselves, if we don't take care of our family, we can't take care of our school. So being vulnerable. Right. Versus being in, having composure. Right. And so you can do both of those at the same time. And so I just always want to encourage leaders. Yes. Is the leader. You have to keep your composure. you can also under composure be vulnerable about I'm struggling with this. I need help with this. I'm having a hard time. My child is sick or I'm sick, you know? But again, under composure. And I think that, conveys strength, obviously. But the consistency of, regulating our emotions as leaders, is, is vital. I mean, we have to we have to be able to do that. Totally agree. when you think about a just a very specific interaction with one particular family or one particular student related to this kind of crisis topic that really moves you when you reflect back on it. A student that when I met him as a freshman, sent him to alternative school for for, you know, a month in the school, struggled academically when he got back, truancy, possibly drug use, fighting outside of school activities that just weren't desirable. Came into my office one day and just sat down and said, you know, I'm tired of this, and, I need help, and I want to graduate. And, was behind in credits big time. And we we put a plan together. And, I mean, the trust that he had to come in to the principal was, was was awesome. And, I dropped everything I was doing, walked him to the counselor and we sat together. I didn't drop them off and leave them. We sat together and came up with a plan of how he could get credits to be able to go to a, an acceleration school like we have, you know, alternative type schools, not discipline. But for kiddos in this same boat that might be over age and want to graduate. And so we talked long and hard about that. recommended him for a job, which was which was something I would have never thought that I would have done. And he is at the school now. And when I left last year, he said to me, are you going to come to graduation? And I said, absolutely. And and that is one thing that I have not gone back to the school because I've just have not been able to do that. Yeah. And when he walks the stage, I'll just be somebody in the crowd. But I look forward to giving him a hug and telling him how proud I am of never giving up. And I really, give that as a as a testament to never giving up on a kid. And, you know, God didn't make anything that wasn't perfect. And that's just something that I've really, you know, I had to struggle with sometimes because there's times where our kids are, they're tough to get along with their, their, their language toward me. I was like, wait a second, I'm your I'm your guy. Like, who are you talking to? Like, what? What are we doing here? And so really, through those situations, I think if I could give advice to leaders is never give up on a kid. Sometimes they go to a bottom of a list. But we never give up on that kid or that family because that family, in my mind, they're sending the best that they can to you. And if you think they're perfect at home and just bad at school, that's not the case. That's. And the parents don't know. And they're asking you for help. And what? A parent reaches out and says, I need help. Can you help my kid? I'm like, yeah, let's go game on. I can do this because I can connect with any kid. may take a day. It may take a week, it may take a month. Because trust is so important to that kid who everybody breaks trust with that kid. And I'm going to be that consistent factor in their life. When people are inconsistent, I'm going to be the person that no matter what you if you use the F word to me on Monday on Tuesday, it's a new day. I'm going to say hi to you in the hallway, or you're going to get consequences because we don't talk that way. Like we we have expectations and we don't talk. You don't talk that way to staff. You don't talk that way to kids. But I'm always going to be that person that's consistent in your life. And I'm going to be positive and I'm not going to lecture you. I'm not going to raise my voice. I'm not going to talk down to you. I'm going to talk to you as an individual, somebody who God sees as being someone that you're in my life now because, okay, God, I now know why you're here. You're here because I need to be able to assist you and living in the community, like like I told you, I would see children all the time that are now 25 or 30 5 or 40 years old that would come up and introduce their children to me. So I'm thinking of one student in particular I'm thinking of so many that have reached out to me or have come up to me and said, just thank you. And I'm thinking, oh my God, you know, like like I never thought I got through to you. But people have reached out just to say that either that they remember me or they thank me for it. So my plea to leaders is never give up on a child, never give up on a family. And while it's difficult and challenging, every day is a new day. And while you can suspend a kid, you can also hug them at graduation. And that's how I and this story is what I will do when he walks the stage. And I will cheer and I will get him a little gift card somewhere, and I will give him a hug. And I will be just so proud of them. But that's the final product that we see as leaders. It's easy to to high five. The captain of the football team or the cheerleader? The captain of the cheerleading team. It's easy. Right? It's easy to do. The kid that goes to Rice or Texas or A&M, it's easy. It's hard when it's the kid that's that's at times, tough to be around. And but that's why God put us here, and that's why God has us in these schools. And you know what? I may be the only one that calls that kid by name. I may be the only one to ask about the tattoo or say, dude, the haircut looks smoother. Hey, what are you listening to? I may be the only positive one, and that may include their parents. And when you think about it that way, I know why my calling was public education for 29 years, and I like to think at the end of the day, made a small difference in the zip code that we that we served in San Antonio. Well I'd say more than a small difference. How many children attended Church Hill High School. At one point we were about 2800, and that was that was 15 years ago. We're about 2300 now. And some change, as growth and stuff. And so quite a few. So you think about that over 12 years. It's a lot of people that you've influenced, you know, a lot of people, it's so great. Last night my wife and I went out to dinner, went to a family, restaurant barbecue joint here in San Antonio, Texas, owned by a Churchill family. And, you know, got the update on their children. One in college, one still there. And at the end, they thanked me and gave me some, extra barbecue ribs to go home for. Right. So, like, I got a I got dinner tonight and so I, I was fired up about that, but it was like the cool part was like, well, I probably never met their parents face to face. Like I knew the child had graduated. I did not know the younger child. They knew me and they thanked me and they recognized and they said that they missed me. And so I it's not what it's all about, but sometimes it's about like, hey, we saw what you did. And in those moments of crisis where we were scared to send our kid that we thank you for being that person out front and loving our school, loving our community, and thank you. And so it's there. It's there on me too. Can't wait to hit them ribs either. Casanova Barbecue in the Pearl, San Antonio, Texas. Let's go. If you're ever there, if you're ever there. Yes, yes. thank you for sharing today. You know, I mean, just the clarity, calm and the courageousness that defines your leadership is really inspirational. So, you know, I think that. I mean, your story just reminds, reminds me that, you know, crisis doesn't create leaders. It reveals them. Right. And, and so that, you know, when you communicate with this care and truthfulness, consistency, you know, communities, entire communities, you know, staff, children, families, you know, can find stability even in times of uncertainty. Where can our listeners connect with you and and learn more about your work? You know, I'm, I turned 50, right? And so all of a sudden, I'm starting to post TikTok videos. And so reels on TikTok and Instagram. Probably the best way to start is, at, tod underscore bloomer underscore author on both Instagram and TikTok. Tod bloomer on LinkedIn. Any of those kid Todd M bloomer dot com is a website. All of those are great ways, to be able to to connect with me. I love that, you know, my my handle is author. I did write a book. You know, I will share the the blueprint. It says, how to survive and thrive as a school administrator. It's about a year and a half old currently working on, the blueprint 2.0. That is until Jay-Z and ROC Nation, you know, throw me a lawsuit to be able to stop that. But I'm working on a month by month guide for what administrators should be doing. And I think that's going to be a really powerful, thing for administrators in July. Here's what you should focus on in April. Here's mindsets and stuff. And so, you know, any of those are good. I branched out I'm coaching some principals around the country. If anybody needs a thought partner, you know, I'm kind of doing that. I've gone I've been a speaker. I'm excited about some opportunities here in the spring to be able to get out and speak to some aspiring administrators. If there's just anything I can ever do, like, And the last thing is, my success was because others before me, like, took me under their wing, and they shared guidance and wisdom. And if I could ever do that for anyone else, I'd be honored to do that. Well, you know, we have incorporated some elements of your book into this master's in educational leadership. So, I thank you for sharing that with me. When we were starting to design of that program. And it's really, it really is a great resource. I encourage, you know, all current and future leaders to, to, use that as a reference and a guide. It is a playbook. So. Well, well done with that. So if today's episode was helpful, please share it with a colleague. Who would benefit, you know, follow transformational educators so you never miss an episode. And until next time, keep leading with purpose and transforming schools into places where everyone thrives. If today's conversation gave you fresh insight or inspired you to lead with purpose, please follow the show and tell a friend. It helps us reach more educators who want to make a difference. For more stories, resources, and tools to support your leadership journey, visit graceland.edu. Until next time, keep leading with courage and care.