Nobody gets into teaching because they have a bad heart. Everybody around you from the teachers to the administration to everybody in the room wants to see your learners and you succeed. Sometimes as teachers with our boots on the ground, we can forget the immense amount of heart and soul that it takes to be a leader in this field.

Today, I want to introduce you to somebody who I admire so much, Jamie Lugo. She's currently the principal at the Colorado School for the Deaf and the Blind, and her story is so inspirational. How she manages to balance being a principal, being a mom, a wife, a friend, a sister, just a person in the world, and somebody who has such a good heart, and also treats themselves really well. We're just gonna dive right into this today because I cannot wait for you to get these nuggets of inspiration from her.

In this podcast episode:

• Who is Jamie Lugo

• How Jamie got into the teaching

• Moving to a higher role in administration

• Biggest challenge as a principal

• Greatest thing to experience as a principal

• How Jamie balances personal and work life

• Taking a step forward

Transcript of the Episode:

Kassy:
Welcome back to the podcast friend. Today we have an amazing interview with Jamie Lugo. She is currently the principal of the Colorado School for the Deaf and the Blind, and somehow manages to be a healthy person, be an incredible wife, mother, friend, you name it. Today we'll get into how she got to where she is and I'm not going to tell you her whole story but I will read you her bio. She was born in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Graduated from the University of Wisconsin Madison with a degree in special education. She volunteered at an orphanage in Peru for a year after college and then moved to Austin, Texas, where she accepted her first official teaching job at the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired. She taught at TSBVI for four years and while in Austin, she met her husband. They got married in the May of 2008 and moved to Colorado Springs soon after.

Jamie worked for one year at Palmer High School as their staffing coordinator and as a special education teacher for both the day school and night school. She missed working with students who are blind so she applied to teach at the Colorado School for the Deaf and the Blind the following year. She taught as an elementary Independent Living skill and secondary English teacher for six years. She received her master's in visual impairment from the University of Northern Colorado in 2015. She was asked to step up as the principal and has had the privilege of leading the school for the blind for the last seven years. She now has her master's in administration from Adams State University. And most importantly, she is the proud mother of two children. Elijah who is nine and Naomi, who is fiv. They love to hike, camp, play volleyball, read Harry Potter and travel as a family. 

Who is Jamie Lugo

Kassy:
Welcome Jamie! Thank you so much for coming on this podcast. I told you off the recording, but I admire you and what you have built not only in your professional life, and also in your personal life so much because as women, we are expected to do it all but it's a really hard balance. And you seem to be able to balance it all and rise up to be such a great leader. And so first of all, I just want to say thank you so much for even coming on. This is such a pleasure.

Jamie:
Well, thank you for those kind words. It's amazing. I don't feel like I have the balance down to be honest, but I'm glad it's perceived as that so yeah.

Kassy:
Before we get into your life, I tend to think that everybody thinks that because the only view that we have of ourselves is in the locker room, right? Like we have the sweaty… we know all the plays that didn't work. We know all the times that we fumbled. But what other people see is like from the 50 yard line box seats, and they don't see all of that they just see us on the fields. And I mean, we all are much harder on ourselves than I think we need to be.

Jamie:
True true.

Kassy:
So, I would love for you tell our audience a little bit about yourself like who you are, and then we'll get into how you got to where you are.

Jamie:
Sure, sure. I'm Jamie. I'm Jamie Lugo, I am a mother of two beautiful children and a wife of an amazing husband. I am the principal at the School for the Blind in Colorado Springs. It's my seventh year being here as principal and my 13th... I just finished up my 13th year as staff at CSDB. But yeah, I mean, I guess I have a lot of layers. I don't know what more to tell you about. That's just like the immediate me right now.

How Jamie got into the teaching

Kassy:
So that's perfect. Let's go all the way back to the very beginning. I met you at TSBVI. And… so many years, I can't believe you moved away 13 years ago.

Jamie:
It's actually been 14 years because I worked in public education here for a year before I got into CSDB. So 14 years ago. Yeah.

Kassy:
Okay, but you were at TSB for a while prior, how did you even find TSB and fall into this field?

Jamie:
Crazy story. And I would say just when you look at my life, from the minute I was born, I feel like everything is just like happened. I'm a true believer and things happen for a reason. But I… So I graduated from the University of Wisconsin Madison with a special education degree. I knew from a young age, I wanted to be a teacher. And then later on in high school, I really honed in on special ed. So I got my undergrad in special ed in Madison, Wisconsin.

I also have always loved travelling. I'm a seven on the Enneagram. I don't know if anybody knows about the Enneagram out there, but you know. Whatever looks like an adventure, I want to be there.

So right out of college. I volunteered in an orphanage for a year I lived in Peru, just outside of Lima in a little town called looting. And I volunteered an orphanage basically, I said if you will you provide me room and board if I just do whatever is needed. And they were games. So I lived there for a year and got to explore and travel all around Peru and also brushed up on my Spanish while I was there.

Returned to Wisconsin and well first of all, I didn't have to go through Wisconsin winter when I was in Peru. So I'm like I never want to experience Wisconsin winters again. So I just started to research and I'm like, Austin, Texas seems like a really cool place to go and live. Got in my CRV, drove down with a cowboy hat on my head. Like literally thought that I was going into cowboy land but it's very much not that at all.

So yeah, whatever I could pack in my CRV drove down, didn't have a job. I drove down to Austin in… Man, I think I arrived like in September sometime at 2004 it would have been… Yeah, 2004. And so no teaching job but just started to put fillers out there. I was working at a grocery store just to make ends meet be able to pay the rent for my apartment that I had, like found.

And it was one of my regular customers that was like, what do you do? Like, what's your degree in? And I'm like, Oh, I mean, I've got a special ed degree but I've never been a teacher and I'm looking currently looking for jobs. And this customer is like, do you know about the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired. And I had never heard of it. I've lived kind of more up north, the arboretum area. But I was like, I'll check it out.

So TSBVI was hiring paraprofessionals at the time, and I thought you know, I just won't get my foot in the door somewhere. I really want to be with kids and in education. So I applied, and within a couple months, Miles Fain was the principal, he still is the principal. He's the principal at the time, I remember him pulling me into his office and just saying, Hey, Jamie, we have a student in particular who's just really struggling, and she just needs more support than we can give her in her current programming. I know you have a special degree, which you take on a classroom for her specifically. And you know, slowly adding classmates and just create an environment that's supportive to her sounds like that sounds like a lot of fun. I don't know if I can do that I've never taught before but sure.

So that was like kind of the start of working with the blind and I just loved it from the beginning. Like all the accommodations adaptations, just TSBVI is just such a phenomenal school to learn at. So I have my spared background from classes. But then I was like just surrounded by these just amazing teachers of the visually impaired and the staff that I just learned so so much so yeah, like I went back to school. I got my master's in TVI through Texas Tech University, and then I finished up here at UNC. But man, it was just it was such an exciting time for me because I was like brand new to teaching but also brand new to blindness and visual impairment. And it was just my life like, I loved it, I still love it.

But just like all of that knew, going back to like learning for the first time, all of those things, and I, that was an extended story. But I think it's important because it just fell into my lap. Like it wasn't something that I was looking for. I'd spent one week at Lions Camp with people who are blind before that, and I just it fell into my lap, and it's become, it's become my life. And I just, I love it. Yeah.

Moving to a higher role in administration

Kassy:
Oh, I've loved that story so much, because it shows how people in a leadership position can see your light and uplift you. And because Miles did that, just… I mean, I bet he knows. He's watched your journey as well. And because of that, and he uplifted you to say, Hey, I see this in you, especially at the principal level, right? Because he's not seeing you every single day, even though it's a small bubble. And if you guys don't know how the school works, it's still a school like teachers and TAs don't see the principal every day because they're doing admin stuff.

While he can see that in you, lift you up and encourage you is beautiful. And yes, like, there's a reason that TSBVI is the princess pie in the sky place especially… I had my first year teaching there too. And man, just to walk into a room and be like, that's that person that's that person, that’s that person, oh my gosh. And to have all the professional development experiences that we got to have no learning from John Van Dyck and Barbara Miles themselves and people of that calibre and to be surrounded in a place that fosters that creativity. They want you to be creative. They want you to be innovative and explore. So that is such a beautiful story and how things really can fall into your lap and go along the journey.

So what made you after you were a teacher want to step into a higher role in administration?

Jamie:
So I mean, very similar story, in the sense of I had no plans to ever be an administrator. I was always just very, very happy, content, fulfilled in the classroom. So it was actually back in 2015. My husband and I had been living in the springs for about five years at that point. And while… Yeah, seven… five, I can't do math very well. But we had been living in the springs for some time. And we figured we wanted to be close to family again, because by this time, we had a two year old and so we were talking about coming back to Texas. I had reapplied at TSBVI.

So at this point in my career I had been teaching at just select for timeline I've been teaching at CSTB for six years. And my husband and I started planning to go back to Austin, because we loved it there. We had family that were closer to us in Austin than they are here in Colorado. And I just knew that I loved working TSBVI so I reapplied actually interviewed was offered more of a lead teacher position at TSBVI.

So we were ready to move back home. I even sold my snowboard. I sold my snowboard like I was committed to going back to the hot tub, Texas weather. And the superintendent of CSDB pulled me into her office and said how can I convince you to stay like we need you here. And I didn't have answers for her. I just said well, you can't bring my family close. You know, I love it here Carol. I mean, I was in tears leaving CSDB too. I didn't want to leave but I felt like it's what we needed to do as a family. And I loved like the thoughts of going back to Austin.

But at the time, but we had many several leaders at CSDB especially in the School for the Blind, had gone through a lot of different principals. Some of whom were great, but just that it wasn't the right fit or who you know, had left their family in Washington and come to take a job and their family never moved with them. I mean several stories of principals. So in my first six years here I had five different bosses. So the superintendent need consistency and she just said Jamie you’re it. Would be… She's like I know you don't view yourself as an administrator as a principal or as a leader but I see it. I see it in team meetings. I see it in PLCs. I see it in your classroom. And she said, Would you consider stepping up being the principal of the school for the blind?

So I thought she was crazy. I asked her if I only gave her two years if she still would like, I just said, Would you regret your decision? If after a couple of years, I figured out this isn't for me? And she said, not at all. She said, If you give me two years of like effort, and just to see if this is for you, she's like, that's, that's what I'm asking for is just some consistency for the staff.

So, yeah, so and then one of my other requests is at the time, I was like, best friends with somebody on staff. So I said, Do I just supervise this person? Could I just like, maybe not supervise that one person cause going from, you know, being a colleague, to everyone to on your boss like, and literally overnight is what it felt like, I knew I needed to protect myself as well. I knew I needed to create those boundaries. But I also didn't want to give up my best friend. So those are my two requests is that would you please don't be mad at me? Well, no, it's actually three, I said, I need to call TSBVI and make sure I haven't burned any bridges, because I love them. And I want that door to stay open if I were to ever come back, because I've already like informally accepted a position there. So I don't want to burn bridges with them. If I don't like this after two years, please don't be mad if I go back to teaching. And then I don't want to supervise my best friend.

So all of those things worked out. Well. Yeah. So that was fall of 2015. I became principal here. So now I've been… it's crazy. But I've been principal here longer than I taught here, which is mind blowing. Because I thought, I thought I was going to give two years and be out. So yeah, so it's funny how God works in the universe, whatever your belief system is, I can just… miraculous ways to how things just continue to fall in your lap if you just let them so.

Kassy:
Yeah, and work hard, right? You didn't just like, stay in bed all day.

Jamie:
All right, it's not… I guess there's some hard work involved as well. You're right.

Kassy:
Because some people might be like, Oh, Jamie said, I don't have to… No.

Jamie:
Okay, you have to kind of graduate too.

Biggest challenge as a principal

Kassy:
I also thought… I want to make sure that the people graduating right now. Oh, yeah, she got to be principal. We don't have to lesson plan. We don't have to… You did do a lot of work. But it's also your personality. You also have a gift for this. So what has been like a challenge that you've had as a principal? Because you didn't go from teacher to lead teacher to assistant principal to principal, you went like teacher to principal.

Jamie:
Yeah. Wow, my biggest challenge has been, I mean, I always want to put kids first and then putting kids right behind kids is like, hey, then putting my staff next because I did this mind shift of like, okay, I was a teacher over my students in the classroom. Now, my staff are my students, like, I want to protect them, advocate for them, fight for them as much as I did for my students and how I still feel like I do for the students in the school. So the hardest thing has been like, just when I know in my heart of heart, I'm making the right decision. But it's maybe not popular, or I've upset people in the process. Because I do like to please people, I like people to be happy. I want… you know, the enthusiast and me again, back to the Enneagram the seven like I just want everyone to be happy. And I know that in my role. That's impossible.

But I do find that some of those the hardest decisions I've made or some of the relationships that have been difficult through my time as a leader, it seems to come full circle. I mean, it seems like a couple years later, they're contacting me maybe after they've left the school and just like thanking me or like really reflecting on their experience here and so and I make bad decisions sometimes and when we all we're all human we do it by just that has been the biggest challenge for me is the people pleaser and me wanting everyone to be happy. And knowing that that is just not always possible.

So, but I can always like what I always like to think about is I can still support like I can still be supportive, and the best leader that I can be to them even if it… If they're not happy, I can still be supportive to them in any way. That's, that's possible, if that makes sense so.

Kassy:
It makes sense to me because, I have to make those decisions all the time. But it's still very difficult for me because I'm also a people pleaser. And as teachers, we aren't taught the leadership side of things. I'm sure you go through actual classes by this point to learn all of that. But as teachers… I remember walking in and having an assistant of my own, an O and M assistant who had been doing my job for longer than I had been alive. And it was so hard to just say, I want to do things a different way than the way that you've been doing them for longer than I've been alive. 

Jamie:
It’s so true.

Kassy:
It's really hard sometimes.

Jamie:
You know, I mean, still having that like respect for the years that they've served and been in the field or been at the school because many state schools for the blind have, you know, been established for a long time. And a lot of the employees are here for a very, very long time, like end up retiring here with 30 plus years. So yeah, like honouring that, and respecting that and acknowledging that background and knowledge, but also knowing, right, like you have a new vision or you have… or you're really convicted that a sort of decision needs to be made. Yeah, just having to balance all of those fields around that decision, and the years of experience, etc, etc. around you.

Kassy:
I think that's hard also as women because we're socialised to be people pleasers. And we're socialised to not make waves, because, you know, primarily if we do make waves in our little community, you know, back way, way, way back when and we were ostracised that could mean death. So our bodies, and our brains still can react to it. And I read the book Dance of Anger that really helped me… It's really good. It really helped me, like, just how we're socialised. And then how that shows up in our relationships. And they talk more about women and like, family relationships, but I've used this a lot in, you know, my working relationships, hiring or having, you know, having to say I'm cutting your contract, because A, B and C and it's not because I don't think you're a great teacher, but you didn't follow the contract.

So things like that were, you know, I really have to put on like this… I'm gonna step out of my comfort zone, and makes it hard move. Do you have like a litmus test that you run decisions through?

Jamie:
Oh, man, I wouldn't say anything. Like any specific litmus or procedure that I run decisions through. I mean, I am a… definitely think on it. Let it marinate. I'm a heart… I mean, like, Does this feel good in my heart, I'm kind of like, you know, in silence, like a gut feel on the side. I don't have a specific no specific litmus test that I ran it through.

But being like a quick thinker that I am and self diagnose ADHD, like, I really think I have to sometimes tell myself to give it time sometimes. Because I think ultimate… Like usually I have… I know right away how I feel about something. And that might not always be accurate. So usually just telling myself to… to give it more time than I typically would want.

But sometimes that creates even more turmoil, because then you're like, second, I'm second guessing myself, where I'm, I definitely like to, like, I don't know, discuss with some of the people that I really, really trust. My husband being one of them. So then he throws ideas at me and I start to second guess myself so I don't know if you've got like a great litmus test, like please share it, cause I don’t have one.

Greatest thing to experience as a principal

Kassy:
It sounds like you’re doing the right thing by listening to your gut. My litmus tests are our core values and SOPs. Sure. Yeah. If you didn't follow this. And I do have to go with my gut. Because sometimes it is, it's hard, like these are people and they might be relying on like an income or they might be relying on something that, you know, you may have said might happen. And what I end up doing is I end up second guessing myself, like how did I hold myself to all of these standards in all of our interactions? What else can they come back?

But ultimately, it just goes to like, sometimes I'll write two emails and I'll sit with one and then I'll sit with another And I just have to be like, which one feels like the correct not like, Oh, we're gonna be friends. Like you might be mad. But which one feels like the correct way? So I think I do the same thing as you because sometimes I just have to sit with it and make a decision. Yeah.

So what's been one of like the greatest things that you've gotten to experience as a principal?

Jamie:
Oh, wow. Man, I don't know if I could just pinpoint one thing. I have favourite days. I love graduation day, it's so special I think for obviously more than just me as the principal I'm… for all of our staff, even the elementary staff because they might have had that graduating senior, you know, in elementary school. And it's just such a special day on our campus. We have, you know, the local news teams come in and, and they say it's just one of their most special graduations to photograph and record just because you can tell the staff and students hear it. It sounds kind of cheesy, but we are like family. I mean, it really becomes family because we're residential school, right? So our students live here, they're on campus more during the school year than they are at home.

So graduation day is really special. And I don't think I felt like the full… I don't know just really, really acknowledged how unique and special it is until I was in the principal role. Because I mean, it is a day where I get to be on stage and give every single one of those graduates like just this the biggest hug and congratulate them. And I get to do auditory description on stage with what's happening during graduation. It's just a really special day for me. It reminds me every year why I do what I do. But honestly, I've just had some really special moments with staff as well and just seen, you know, I really… I do miss the classroom, but I am able to in my role, now I'm able to impact, I feel like more students and more staff because of getting to kind of have my hands and everything, which is really fun for me, but like not a micromanager. But just… yeah, just seeing a teacher grow like from their first day teaching at CSDB, or ever in their life to, you know, becoming a leader of a professional learning community or taking on a role in the strategic plan and just seeing, like, it's kind of like they're my students. Like I said earlier, those are special days, those are special moments, being a principal.

And then the relationships I have with families, I feel like I always had strong rapport and relationships with families as a teacher as well. But now it's a different type of relationship as the administrator of the school, I love that piece of it as well. So just to say one moment, I don't think I could pinpoint one but just… yeah, lots of layers of my job that are really, really fun for me still, so.

Kassy:
Yeah, I can sense how much heart that you have for your job, and for making an impact. And yeah, the fact that you are a little bit higher up, we could say, in a sense, you do get like the ripple effects of your impact. And you get to see, you mentioned your staff and their moments of growth. And the students of your school in their moments of growth and how beautiful like, as somebody who's a teacher, now I'm contract. So I apparently see the principals, whoever. I see the special ed directors, I see maybe like a dean or whoever my contact of the caseload contact is. But the principals, I wouldn't even know who they were if they walked right by me. And sometimes it can just feel like they're like in their own world, crunching numbers, doing their data, making their budgets, you know, their ends meet or whatever.

And we don't, we can forget, as the people with our boots on the ground and in the classrooms or you know, on the streets or wherever, that principals also have a heart and they're in this for the right reasons. And so even if we question their decisions, hopefully somebody who's listening to this conversation can just remember the principal, that special ed director, that AP they are still in education because they have a heart and they have a love for the students but they also have a love for the staff too.

Jamie:
Absolutely, yeah. 

How Jamie balances personal and work life

Kassy:
I love listening to that. How do you balance it all? Cause you're in leadership and education, which is not easy. You mentioned your beautiful family and you have a personal life and you know, I know just Because I know you a little bit that you're very healthy, and you really take care of yourself and you're very active. What does that look like? How does that work?

Jamie:
Man, I mean, it starts again with knowing how I can be my best self every day. And that's for me, this might not be for everybody, But for me, it's starting the day off with time for me. So I have amazingly supportive husband who… so he does the morning duties every day during the week with our families. So I am usually out the door by like, 5:30am in the morning to get my time in. So I'm either going to the CrossFit gym, or I'm on a trail run with my running crew, or maybe just doing a solo hike somewhere just knowing that if I get that in, before I walk in the door for my job, I'm going to be a better leader having had that workout first because it gives me time to kind of disconnect from my career and just have fun. And yeah, just like jumpstart kind of the day. So that's like, that's my big thing is if I can get out first thing in the morning, I just know my day is gonna go well.

I just have so many… I mean, I wish I could do everything. I'm interested in everything. I want to try everything I love experiencing everything so but I would say my like big go twos. I definitely are CrossFit hiking, trail running. I love triathlons. And my kids have like, picked up on this too, which is just really, it's just so awesome to see them. There's jokes that are CrossFit gym, they were like born in the gym, but and they kind of were to be honest, like, I mean, the minute I could bring them in their bucket seats, like they were coming to the workout with me and now both of them just have I've just like, by modelling it, I feel like they just, they love to come work out with me, they begged to come to the gym with me, my daughter's, you know, modelling just kind… of like mirroring whatever I'm doing at the gym. So that's been really fun.

And then yeah, it's just beyond that. It's… it really it comes though with having like, a great partner in life. I mean, I'm really lucky to have somebody by my side, that understands how important that is to me to stay healthy and to get my workouts in. But it does happen before. My kids are even up in the morning so that I can leave the school day and pick them up and be mom after work for them. And then we adventure a ton on the weekends. We love to camp, we love to hike together, we love to… I mean, my both my kiddos play soccer. So it's just fun to be like the soccer mom and the soccer parents when on the weekends or after school. Yeah, it's, again, it's, I wouldn't say there's balance, I would say there's times where my job is absolutely coming first. And I wish it wasn't and there's times, but then there's times I'm able to like flip it again and be like, No, my family comes first now and I need to disconnect and go on that vacation and not bring any technology and just completely, you know, disengage from that part of my life as well.

But I'm lucky to have my kids and my husband know that my job is also my life. And so they're very comfortable on campus, they come to my office with me, they support me, they know my students by name and my staff by name. And yeah, just just lucky to be able to feel like I can do it all. I don't think I'm always doing at all, but it's yeah, good times.

Taking a step forward

Kassy:
That’s such an inspiration, like the fact that you make time for yourself and that you've worked it out with your husband that he does one morning and then you do the afternoon and that you get to live this beautiful life. None of us feel like we have it all balanced at all times. I mean, if anybody does, like send me a DM, because I definitely don't. But I remember being you know, a full time teacher and I would work out in the afternoon because my husband was a personal trainer. So he was working at 530 in the morning. And what I would do Jamie, is I would like make sure to get there five minutes early. And I would do a five to 15 meditation. So however many minutes I got there early, and I would just Just breathe my car in the parking lot. I don't care who's walking by. And as many minutes as I have, I'm just going to take it for myself and breathe. So it doesn't have to be like a full workout. It can just be a few minutes.

I want to thank you so much for your time for sharing your heart with us! Oh my gosh, it's been such a pleasure. One last question that I like to ask everybody is if you were to share one piece of advice on how our community can take one step forward to being better versions of themselves. What would you say?

Jamie:
Oh, man, I don't know, I'm on this recent kick. And I've just, you need to know yourself first before you can be a better version of yourself. And a lot of that is getting to know your own flaws. I really think so. Yeah. So just like kind of being humble enough to recognise and reflect and know, what doesn't come naturally to you or, like areas that you need to kind of reset or look at from a different lens that I know, over the past year. Gosh, especially the trauma everyone's been through through COVID has really helped me is I've become a better version of myself, because I've gotten to know what I'm not great at, like things that don't come naturally to me and really recognising understanding that and being okay with that, but also knowing how to handle that like in a better way. So taking those five minutes to meditate, breathe before you walk into a room or taking that time to work out before you go into your job. Just… yeah, just recognising those things that don't come naturally and what you can do to improve yourself in those areas. 

Kassy:
Oh, thank you. That was so lovely. We agree. Thank you so much for your time. I know that you're super duper busy, but I cannot tell you how much I appreciate you on the spot.

Jamie:
Well it’s great to see you. It's been too long.

Kassy:
I know! All right.