"Here within the walls of this public school is where the American dream can really begin for people." 


That's why Mr. Balcom believes in the power of public education. 


Mr. Nate Balcom, Principal at Newell Elementary School, joins The GIPS Cast to share his committment to cultivating a positive culture for all – students, staff, and families.  He shares his experience going from Media Integration Specialists to a Building Principal.  Balcom also reflects on how staff and students came together after losing their school playground to an unfortunate fire.  And what the honor of being named 2024 GIPS Administrator of the Year means to him. 


Because it's all about doing what we can every day to bring our best for our students. 

You may listen to the latest episode above or subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast platform.  

Transcript from the episode may be found below.

#WeAreGIPS 

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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Mitchell Roush  00:06

Welcome back to the GIPS cast, a conversation based podcast, bringing to you stories and voices from all corners of our district, Grand Island Public Schools. I'm your host. Mitchell Roush, Communications Director here at GIPS, and as always, I am excited to bring to you the latest from GIPS, because here we are driven by our mission of every student, every day of success.

Kari-Hooker Leep  00:33

This person brings joy to all the kids around him. He promotes a positive culture by focusing on the good that students are doing, providing golden tickets for those students who are respectful, responsible and safe. He is the driver of the visionary of the energy bus. His one rule on the bus is to have fun. Enjoy the ride. This person embodies fun. He is willing to wear a hat and an outfit of an elf or possibly a gorilla. Congratulations to our administrator of the year, Nate balcom, new school principal.

Nate Balcom  01:09

Hi, I'm Nate Balcom, and I'm the principal at Newell Elementary School.

Mitchell Roush  01:16

Thank you so much for being here. It's good to have you and to hang out and chat for a little bit. So you've been in the district for 21 years, which is very impressive. And seven of those years you've been leading Newell elementary as the principal. Before that, you worked as a media specialist, yep, Integration Specialist, media integration specialist. So you've got that rare media integration specialist to principal pipeline in your background. Talk to me about your journey to school administration?

Nate Balcom  01:41

Yeah, started out fourth grade teacher over at Starr, and then fifth grade for a little bit, but then was able to take the integration role. And once I stepped into that role, I was able to work with students K-5 which is awesome, and that that freedom allowed me the time and the planning ability to join the RTI process, the MTSS team at that point, and so got to work with a lot of different kiddos that way, and got to kind of take on some more leadership roles in the building. And I do want to give Mr. John Hauser a shout out, because he offered me a lot of leadership opportunities at star that helped me get me where I am today.

Mitchell Roush  02:18

Mr. Hauser is the real deal.

Nate Balcom  02:19

He is certainly is. He is a good guy.

Mitchell Roush  02:21

So, and I'm so glad you teed this up, because I that was one thing I was interested in as a specialist. You do get that rare opportunity to be with all students in the building, pretty much from all grades, and so that is different than a classroom teacher or a specific area of focus teacher at like the secondary level. So how do you think that that shaped you and prepared you for school leadership?

Nate Balcom  02:45

Yeah, it just gave me that, that real world experience with the students and being able to work with them on a daily basis, to get in there in the kindergarten classrooms in the first few weeks of school, to experience what that's like to see the fifth graders in the spring as they're just about ready to head to middle school, and just everything in between. And so it's just awesome to have that in my tool belt. Going forward.

Mitchell Roush  03:08

What's that like to prepare for K-5?

Nate Balcom  03:12

It's no joke. Definitely that kind of comes in bands. Kindergarten tends to be, especially beginning year, kind of its own thing and then. But you know, fourth and fifth grade a lot of similarities with what the skill set and abilities are, and so kind of just planned in chunks, but definitely had to differentiate for each level. Now, you're a building leader seven years into this role, but you've seen a lot 21 years in education, that's a lot. And so as you've been in this profession, what is your philosophy of education and kind of how is that shaped throughout your time? Yeah, I really see the potential of every single student. This sounds kind of corny. It sounds like our mission statement. Every student, every day, is success. But I believe that every student has that capacity to learn. Jeff Gilbertson hired me 21 years ago, over at Star and one of his famous sayings was, parents send us their best every single day. And so bringing our best for them every single day is super important for me, and so that plays a huge role. And then just being in Grand Island in our amazing diverse community, and being able to raise up that diversity and just empower it in the schools is super important for me, making sure that they feel safe in a learning environment that we have.

Mitchell Roush  04:25

That's huge. I really like what you talked about with Mr. Gilbertson, kind of talking to you about parents give us their best. We've got to give them our best as well, too. And some days that's easy, and some days that's hard, just like with any job, right? But that concept of really seen every student that's a big job, and as a building principal, that's something that you have to steward. How do you help your staff feel supported and prepared to approach things from the Every Student component?

Nate Balcom  04:52

When we're having discussions about our school wide goals or school wide projects, we try to take it back to the individual student level as much as possible. We're trying to recognize what our what our groups of students look like at Newell, how that how that's changed over the years, how maybe we change our approach into different situations. I know that even just how we look at the data, we're looking at individual students, instead of huge swaths of data and making giant decisions based on averages, we're really honing on instruction into individual level too.

Mitchell Roush  05:22

I want to go a little bit deeper on that, if we could, especially for our parents that are listening when we say instruction at an individual level, like that's a really big deal for how we operate and how you operate here at Newell. So talk to me a little bit more about that. If, if I was a new parent in the district, and you say individualized education is important here, what does that mean?

Nate Balcom  05:40

Yeah, that is a great, great question. So right now we're in the middle of early assessment season. I'm watching kindergarteners walk by the door right outside. So some of our new families are getting their first assessment taste right now, so they're getting tested on their basic reading skills in the next couple weeks. Our PLCs, our professional learning communities will meet teams of teachers, and we will break down the data. We'll start at the big macro level, what's the grade level performance like. But then our team of teachers will sit and discuss the individual needs of each student, and then we'll make plans for each of those students going forward, whether it's basic letter sounds, or if they've got the mastery and they're ready to move on, we'll get them grouped up that way.

Mitchell Roush  06:19

Which I think, I mean, that's incredible, and that's what's required in order to see and take care of every student. But I, I think that's really meaningful for our community to hear too like the amount of care and time and expertise and attention to detail that goes in for for you and your teachers to sit down and to literally break down what this means for every individual student. That's a really big deal.

Nate Balcom  06:42

That is a huge deal. And it shows the passion and commitment that our educators in our community have for every student to sit and work on that together. And it's just it's powerful to see in the classroom.

Mitchell Roush  06:52

1,000%. Coming back again to kind of your approach to leading the building and preparing your staff. What's it like for you to interact with the students now as Mr. Balcom the principal, not Mr. Balcom the teacher?

Nate Balcom  07:03

Yeah, definitely the thing that I've enjoyed the most about it, and I got a little taste of it in the integration, is just being able to track students year to year and build those relationships over time. I did a fantastic job. I think at least building relationships in the classroom, students are still reaching out. All of my formers have graduated, but still, they reach out and connect and but it's amazing getting to make those connections, especially earlier in the school year, like right now, we've got students that are a little uneasy. They're walking into classrooms where they don't know the teacher yet because they're just starting the school year, and I get to be one of those anchor points for them of a relationship they had last year, and we get to continue forward into next year.

Mitchell Roush  07:43

Staff, culture and energy in the building is big for you, and that's indicative in the way that you lead, and it's indicative when you walk into the building with with everybody in here. So seven years deep into this job, you've had the chance to go really deep on those sorts of things. Would you be willing to talk a little bit about, what does culture mean to you in terms of the welcoming environment you're building at Newell?

Nate Balcom  08:03

Yeah, we are in the service industry in education, our customers are students, parents, families, and so having great customer service is super important for us. Over the last seven years, I started in and then we had covid, and we had covid Again, and we've had all kinds of stuff going on in the world, and everything every year is more complex than the next coming out of the covid years, and that shutdown time, morale at the building level is getting pretty low. We were pretty negative. People were kind of down. And so actually, as a leadership team, we did a book study for an entire staff, everybody from custodians to counselors, from social workers to cafeteria staff and classroom teachers. We did a study with the energy bus by John Gordon, yes, and the entire premise of the energy bus is just to build up the positivity in your organization. He's an amazing guy who works with NFL teams. He works with pro athletes and companies and fortune 500 and and he works with a lot of schools, and we are fortunate enough to go through that study, which really equipped our staff to empower themselves with the positivity to make it through hard situations. And so that's been a game changer for us over the last two and a half years, as we grow and just build that positivity together. And the number one rule is that you're the driver of the bus. It's all about you first, and once you get your attitude and your perspective under control, then we can focus on others too.

GIPS COMMERCIAL  09:30

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Mitchell Roush  10:06

The ability to remain positive through difficult situations. That is, that's kind of where the rubber meets the road, right. And I know you probably figured we would talk about this, but you you got a phone call that every principal dreads last year and your team went through a massive amount of turmoil because of some unplanned circumstances. So I imagine that the you don't want to go through those things, but the work that you did through the energy bus is is probably something that helped you a great deal. But you want to talk a little bit about what happened at the beginning of last school year, and how did you and your staff handle that?

Nate Balcom  10:47

Yeah, so beginning of last school year, we were rocking and rolling. We had a couple great days of professional development. We back on the energy bus for year two, we were getting a little digging a little deeper into the 10 rules of that, that program. And then six days into school, after a couple of hot days where we couldn't go out for recess, six days into school, I was working late, got got home about 5:25-30, and got a phone call as soon as I got home from a teacher that had reported the neighbor posting about schools on fire, yeah, and so immediately turned back around and headed to school, and our playground was burned down by the time I got there. Shout out to the ground fire department. The fire was extinguished. It didn't spread to the building. They did an amazing job getting us taken care of. But out of that, I don't think if we had gone through the energy bus and our positivity building program that we did, we wouldn't have weathered the storm like we did. We had a solid foundation of we are moving forward no matter what, yes and that common language that we built through the energy bus, the looking for the positive, not wasting time on negative, driving with a purpose, just loving on our passengers is was a huge core support for us to get through those times and then to see it in the community. We within, you know, five minutes, district leadership was on site, ready to support yourself and others. We had Grand Island Police Department, SROs here helping with the investigation. We had communication plans made to communicate with families about the safety and security of the building, and, you know, partnering with the fire department and then ground police department, we had the individuals identified and doors knocked on within an hour of the event happening. So just that, that immediate and swift response to what happened to the playground was amazing. And you know that Mr. Rogers quote, look for the look for the good, look for the heroes in the you know, I always mess up the quote, but it's really true. And then, you know that night, as I'm leaving to kind of check things out on my way out the door. We've got, you know, board members out there. We've got Mr. Fisher was out there checking things out. Josh Holly, who lives in the neighborhood, he was out just, just making sure everything was okay. And the community really came together that night just to come and see what happened and kind of grieve the process. But then the next day, it was joy. We had brownies brought to the office from another board member. We had donations and supplies coming in from different schools and different families around the community. And so that really helped boister That joy too, to help see that light in the dark time it's it's a very unfortunate situation, but really incredible to see how how much people will go to take care of each other.

Mitchell Roush  13:43

And I'm so glad that you framed it the way you did, because it really it required a community effort. But you know, one thing that's really interesting is, and I get it, we all signed up for this to be to be in the education sector, but y'all had school the next day and and so as staggering and deflating as the news is for you and your adult staff, you've got to be ready to welcome kids back and navigate that with them. What? And so what was that conversation like with your staff as you're trying to prepare for students when they're grappling with the news themselves?

Nate Balcom  14:13

Definitely one of the things that we have at school right away in the morning was have a quick morning meeting time with all of our students in the classrooms, and so the teachers have that time where they can sit down and address issues of the day. And it, for sure, addressed the elephant in the room as as we just kind of worked into it, and just letting the teachers take that time to talk with their students, for the students to ask meaningful questions, what's what's really weighing down on them? You know, the fear that they're feeling is real. You know, are we okay? Are we safe? And you know, all of those things, are we going to have a playground again? Yes, we are just giving them time to process and adjust through that. Was, was really important. And then, you know, just being really transparent with the staff about the process, and, yeah, stuff going forward too.

Mitchell Roush  14:57

And how many recesses did you go?

Nate Balcom  15:01

Oh, oh, what was the count 1000s? 2000 I think was the was the final count that we didn't have a playground, and we went through a lot of different systems and a lot of different challenges. Luckily, we've got about three, three and a half acres of land to play on, a lot of green space, a lot of space to spread out and go but we got some inventive new games that we played and some different things. And yeah, it was, it was difficult for the students. It was difficult for supervision. Just because they were spread out more the playground kind of tends to concentrate the groups a little bit more. But they did. They persevered. And last spring, we got to break ground on the new, beautiful replacement.

Mitchell Roush  15:37

So I was gonna, I was gonna mention the the groundbreaking day was like top five, one of my favorite days in the district since I've been here. Absolutely incredible to see the new equipment, but to see all the kids just go out there and play.

Nate Balcom  15:53

We focus on learning so much. But they are kids, and they just love to play. Sometimes they just want to be down a slide. So that first group of fifth graders, they got to play on it. They had an amazing time that morning. And that morning.

Mitchell Roush  16:02

Amazing. That is so cool. And the playground looks beautiful, by the way. Listeners, if you have not seen it, when you drive by, you can spot it. It is amazing. So throughout that whole thing obviously made your year more challenging. But I've heard you say this before, in other capacities, it gave you opportunities to try to focus on positive so what were some positive things that you were able to unearth throughout that?

Nate Balcom  16:27

Yeah, one of the things is just the creativity of our staff coming together to encourage to teach new games at recess, to problem solve around individual situations. We really wouldn't have made it through or without the amazing staff that we have at Newell, yeah, the support of families that sent us things to help, you know, cornhole and different games to play at recess, to help just kind of ease the the initial go, and then just the willingness for the staff and the students to be flexible, as we not only lost the playground, but then throughout the year, we had to make adjustments as demolition happens. And then, you know, bare ground for the cold months of the year because it was too cold to do anything outside. And then the patience as it was slowly building being built back up. And so, yeah, just that amazing resilience of our staff and students was fantastic to watch.

Mitchell Roush  17:20

So grateful that, well, no one got hurt, and that your new your new playground, is beautiful and going strong, and everyone's enjoying it.  So recently, just a couple of weeks ago, Mr. Balcom, another big thing happened. This one more positive, thank goodness. But you were recently named the administrator of the year by the GIPS Foundation, and an award that they give out every year. And that is something that people are nominated for from the community, parents or students or community members. Can nominate anybody that's an administrator in GIPS to be up for this, and you were, you were awarded the administrator of the year. So talk to me about that. What that's amazing. Congratulations, yes, but how does that feel?

Nate Balcom  18:05

It was an amazing surprise that morning, sitting in the auditorium upper Grand Island Senior High School to well, to hear the descriptions and then put two and two together, figure out that it was going to be me. And it was just a huge, really humbling and validating experience for me. Our team is our team, and our team is me, and so me getting this recognition really is a reflection on every person that works with students at Newell, and it's a reflection of the students and the hard work that they do, because I couldn't do what I do without them, and the support that they give to me. And so it was just awesome to stand up and kind of accept that on behalf of Newell as a whole. And they shouted out some of the fun stuff that we do, that we have, our positive support system, with our golden tickets and things, which is just amazing. A lot of schools do it. I can't take credit. It's district wide that students really love it here. It's a good motivating factor. I think energy busses mentioned, we talked about that earlier. And the the Elf on the Shelf, which is great for great for clicks and likes, but really like, what I'm most proud of is like, in the last year, we've also Newell's gone from good to great status, and our ranking rankings educationally. So we've been working for years to get out of good because we're a great school. Actually, we're an excellent school. We're getting there, but so that great, you know, validation for that hard work, all the work that we've done with our DIBELS, results that we're getting with our students, like we talked about earlier, it's just very validating for me, humbling for me, but validating for the work that me and our staff are doing.

Mitchell Roush  19:38

Absolutely and and I'm so grateful that you kind of wrapped it up there holistically, right? Because it's instruction, but it's also the culture that you have here, and it's the experience, it's all of these things, and that takes care and intention. And I think you're absolutely right, if that wouldn't be possible without everybody on the bus, no, definitely not, definitely not absolutely. Well, congratulations again on an honor that is absolutely incredible, and I think well deserved.  So kind of wrapping up here you think about two decades of education in Grand Island Public Schools. I said it before, you've probably seen a lot. Is there other than the playground saga and winning administrator of the year? Is there another story or moment that sticks out to you as you think back on your time, one of the things that has really special is the longevity that I've had at Newell over the, you know, six years?

Nate Balcom  20:28

So last year's fifth graders were really special group to me because they were my kindergartners when I first started. Yeah, and so getting to getting to work with that group of 60 ish kids all the way through elementary school, from their very first day of kindergarten to their very last day, walking out the doors as fifth graders was just amazing experience for me to see that through line and that follow through and just, you know, that unique ability to be able to work with those kids from beginning to end and get them off and ready for middle school is awesome.

Mitchell Roush  20:56

You've shepherded a whole, a whole crew from beginning to the end of their time here. That's that's a seminal thing.

Nate Balcom  21:03

It very much was it was very emotional at the end of the year last year. It was pretty awesome, though. And imagine that is really cool. And then this year you'll have your second group, second coming in, and next year we'll have my first group graduating from high school. So that'll be as well my fifth graders when I came in. So it'll be awesome for them too.

Mitchell Roush  21:22

That's really cool. And I love that for you as well, too, to be able to say like you've been here long enough to get to see those through lines all the way through.  So Mr. Balcom, I'm going to ask you a question that I ask everybody on this podcast for a couple of reasons. One, I'm always fascinated by the answers, but also because I think it's just a good reminder for our listeners, too, about what we're doing here and why we're doing it. So I'd like to hear from you, what is one thing Mr. Balcom about public education that you wish people knew or better understood?

Nate Balcom  21:53

Yeah, that was a great question.

Public education is so dear to me, obviously, 21 years in the business, one of the things that I think is the most important about public education is I believe that here within the walls of this public school, it's where the American dream can really begin for people. And every student comes through our doors, no matter where they come from, what their circumstances are, how rich or poor they are, how many different languages they speak at home. We've got students from Paris, we've got students from Egypt, we've got students from Guatemala, we've got students from Grand Island, students from Lincoln. They all come to our doors, and it's our responsibility and our joy to feed them with knowledge and experience, to get them ready for their lives and their careers, you know, middle school, high school, and then whatever they're ready for going on. But for public schools to be able to give those those basic building blocks, no matter where they're at, and just let them soar, is just amazing.

Mitchell Roush  22:47

Man, that is the American dream starts here. That is a good word, absolutely a good word. And I could tell you believe it and that matters. So thank you so much. Anything else you'd like to share, Mr. Balcom?

Nate Balcom  22:58

No, just really proud of everything that we've done at Newell and cannot thank our community of support enough.

Mitchell Roush  23:04

Absolutely, you have a lot to be proud of. Thank you so much for what you do every day for your educators and for your students. Mr. Balcom, it is making a difference.

Nate Balcom  23:11

Thank you, sir.

Mitchell Roush  23:12

Absolutely. Thank you so much, listeners for joining us here on the GI PS cast, we couldn't do this without you. We appreciate you journeying with us as we share voices and stories from Grand Island Public Schools. Of course. Thank you to Mr. Balcom again for being willing to share his voice to the podcast and to share his story and his love for public education with all of us. If you enjoyed this episode, or if you enjoy the GIPS cast. We invite you to give a rating or review on your favorite podcast platform that helps other people discover us along the way. And of course, please visit www.gips.org that is the district website gips.org your hub for resources, information and everything you need to know about the district.  I would specifically like to shout out the link, www.GIPS.org/budget.  We just recently finished up all of the work that goes into the 24-25 fiscal year budget, and we have a load of resources, plus another podcast episode there with our CFO and our superintendent that you can check out. So again, thank you, listeners, and we will be coming back to you soon with more stories for the GIPS cast!