CC#115: Better Together--One School/One Culture/Two Rivals w/ Derek Cantrell - Alleghany HS - Cov...

Principal Derek Cantrell is the 2026 Virginia Principal of the Year from Alleghany High School in the Alleghany Highlands Public School District located in Covington, Virginia. He is also author to the book Better Together: Building One School, One Culture, and One Community from Two Rivals (https://www.amazon.com/Better-Togethe...) . In this episode of Cool Coffee, Principal Cantrell shares insights on school consolidation, community engagement, and leadership strategies. He discusses the journey of merging two high schools, maintaining traditions, and fostering a positive culture to ensure success.  Connect with the guest: [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) Connect on X: @derekcatch19 (https://x.com/Derekcatch19?s=20) References from the show: Better Together: Building One School, One Culture, and One Community from Two Rivals (https://www.amazon.com/Better-Togethe...) --------------------------------- Contact host Principal Rick Sola: [email protected] (mailto:[email protected],)  or [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) The mission of the Kansas Principals Association (https://www.ksprincipals.org/o/kpa) , an organization committed to educational excellence and the lifelong success of all students, is to develop and support all principals through optimized learning, collaborative leadership, networking, and service. Read more about the KPA HERE (https://www.ksprincipals.org/o/kpa) . Provide Cool Coffee feedback! Click HERE (https://forms.gle/nSVj4nNw1Yn74WVu8) to share thoughts and suggestions--including guests to have on the show! Click for ALL Cool Coffee (https://coolcoffee.podbean.com/) episodes! Connect with Cool Coffee on... Follow us on X: @KSPrincipals (https://x.com/KPACoolCoffee) ; @KPACoolCoffee (https://x.com/KPACoolCoffee) Facebook: KSPrincipals (  / ksprincipals  ) Contact host Principal Rick Sola: [email protected] (mailto:[email protected],)  or [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) ---------------------------------- Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Derek Cantrell 00:52 Derek's Educational Journey 02:55 The Consolidation Process 04:17 Catalysts for Change 06:04 Building a New Culture 07:40 Merging Traditions and Identity 09:49 Staff Integration and Challenges 13:08 Creating New Traditions 16:01 The Book: Better Together 16:37 Advice for School Leaders 17:43 Communication is Key 20:29 Finishing Strong in the School Year 21:53 Celebrating the Team 25:05 Looking Ahead to DC   FULL EPISODE Transcript Rick Sola (00:01.561) Hello and welcome to Cool Coffee with Kansas principals. Today I'm visiting with principal Derek Cantrell, principal of Allegheny High School in Covington, Virginia. That's correct, right Covington? Okay. And also Virginia's 2026 principal of the year as part of the Virginia Association of Secondary School Principals, which is KPA sister organization. Derek, welcome to Cool Coffee and congratulations to you. Derek Cantrell (00:12.846) That's correct. Derek Cantrell (00:27.854) appreciate it and thank you for the opportunity to be on the podcast and look forward to the conversation. Rick Sola (00:33.997) Yeah, I'm really excited to have you on. We were able to connect through our, I guess, mutual connection to the NASSP and saw that you, well, you've written a book which we'll get into, but specifically talking about the consolidation of schools, which is a very unique topic, but also one of great interest and like even personally some. relevance where I'm at even over the next few years. But so looking forward to really getting into that. But I want to start as I start with with most of the shows and hear about your road to the chair that you are currently sitting in and kind of filling in, you know, the background here of of your educational journey. And I do want to state, first of all, I'm really excited. So, you know, cool coffee with Kansas principals. You're the first non-Kansas principal, Virginia principal here. To Beyonce, welcome to this platform. Derek Cantrell (01:34.09) Awesome, appreciate the opportunity. Education wise, my mother, my uncle. were educators. Mother taught pre-K and did a little bit of special ed. My uncle, who helped raise me as well, was a shop teacher and eventually became a technical center CTE principal. So they really helped influence that kind of idea as I went through school. I graduated, went to Liberty, finished at Farum University and got my master's degree at James Madison in Virginia. Started off... in Allegheny County Schools as a student, came back and was a teacher and a coach in the county system and then became the last principal at Covington High School, which is the city school that's surrounded by the county that did go into ...