What kind of relationship do you have with the public school system? Does it give you anxiety? Do you feel like you are always trying to advocate for your child- especially if you relocate a lot? What if we could all work together (better) just a little bit more? What if (like any other relationship) we listened more and built a relationship of understanding?
I invited Dr. Keith Mispagel, superintendent of Fort Leavenworth School District 207 to the podcast. He has a doctorate in military child transition and studied what kids need to be resilient and thrive academically. Even more, his district transitions almost 1,200 new military families every summer for the Command and General Staff College that teaches some of our military’s most competitive officers To put it plainly, he is a rockstar leading his staff in welcoming and helping children of all ages transition only to do it all again the next year. I can honestly say it was the best year ever for my kids (who were weary of transition as it was). He is now teaching other districts how to build better relationships with military parents and kids.
Listen in as we talk about the school-parent relationship and what the public schools are going through to make the next year a safer one for our kids.
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Music by Rudy Vaughn
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Corie Weathers, LPC, BCC, NCC
Catch up on Past Briefs:
Brief 02: The Rhetoric of Lethality
The vocabulary of and toward the military has narrowed to a single attribute — and the person who carries it has been edited out.
Maximum lethality. Hunt, and kill. Without mercy. None of it is wrong — they are warfighters. But this brief traces where that register has worked, where it has failed, and what it asks of the people who must live inside it.
Brief 01: Follow the Money: The Warrior Ethos, Redefined
The FY2027 $350 billion mandatory defense request, and what the Warrior Ethos banner funds now.
The language calls it the Warrior Ethos. The scope has changed. This brief walks through three connected shifts in 2026 — in words, money, and how the institution treats the people who sustain the force — and what they mean for military families.