Jey (00:15.048)
My audience, top notch. Love my live in studio audience and welcome to another week of the YoungDad Podcast. I'm your host Jay. I'm super excited to be with you guys today and host my man, Tim. Tim, you have been podcasting since 2012. You're the director of comms with Think Inclusive. You are also a husband of father. You primarily talk a lot about inclusive education, podcasts, and a bunch of nerdy stuff like science, sci-fi.
vinyl records, classic movies, and baseball. And you say you've basically been an old man your entire life. And same, baseball, I was watching, it was just last night, I was watching a cable channel over at my in-laws and the channel was talking about the rat population in New York City. And it was so interesting, my fiance changed it, and I was like, change it back, what are you doing? And then the next one was about the...
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (01:03.312)
Mm-hmm.
Jey (01:12.504)
trash in the sewer system in like New York and Manhattan. And that was so interesting. And then the next one after that was talking about like YouTube and like internet and things like that and how that's evolved and things like that. And I'm like, don't you dare change this channel. This is awesome stuff. So basically I've also been an old man my entire life. Sci-fi, science, classic movies, baseball, all the old man things are my kind of things. I love the old man stuff.
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (01:18.378)
Mm-hmm.
Jey (01:41.304)
I just say I'm an old soul. So yeah, so Tim, that's a little bit about you, a couple things we share in common. Go ahead and tell the listeners a little bit about yourself, what you do, and a little bit about your fatherhood journey.
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (01:46.372)
Yeah.
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (01:53.988)
Sure. Well, thanks for the introduction, Jay, and for the applause. I've never been in front of a live studio audience like that. So appreciate that. So my name is Tim Villegas, if you didn't know how to pronounce my last name, nobody does. It's fine. I have been podcasting for a long time. I've been podcasting for the same podcast. So I started Think Inclusive in 2012 with the Logitech headset mic.
I'm using GarageBand and Skype and I was just learning along the way, and just like everybody else. Um, at the time I was a public school teacher, so I taught in public schools for 16 years, and then in 2020, I transitioned out of the classroom and school district to, uh, communications. And so right now I'm the director of communications for the Maryland coalition for inclusive education. I'm sure we'll talk about that later. Um,
And I am a dad, you know, and I have three kids. I have a 17 year old. She's a senior in high school. I have a, a 14 year old who is an eighth grader in middle school. And I have a, um, 11 year old who is a sixth grader in middle school. So three kids, two year olds, one boy. And I w and my wife and I just celebrated our 20th.
uh, anniversary last year, last September. So I've been, been married a while too. So all the things, all the things.
Jey (03:29.468)
awesome. All the things. I love that. Well, that's awesome. Congratulations on the 20 years with your wife. That's an incredible feat, especially today. So, congratulations on that. That's awesome. What? So, you were in education for 16 years. You left in 2020 during the pandemic years.
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (03:48.229)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Jey (03:53.18)
Was that a big influence on you having to transition to like online learning out of the classroom and to uh Zoom world for education. Is that a lot of what kind of pushed you out or what were some of the The things that made you go from that transition because that's a long time to be in education. You're vested at that point You're all the things you're established. They're not going to take away your classroom. There's no way they're going to get rid of you
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (03:53.735)
Yyyy
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (04:14.276)
Mm-hmm.
Jey (04:21.612)
kind of thing, especially male teachers are such a needed commodity in the United States. There's not nearly enough, especially, you know, men of color are just so valuable because it's a reflection of these kids who you're probably teaching and working with to see that, you know, in front of them as an example of education. So what kind of made you leave from education to communications?
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (04:41.409)
Yeah.
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (04:50.772)
Well, I, um, there was a part of me that didn't want to leave. Um, I've worked for two, two school systems. So I grew up in California and, uh, that's where I call home. Uh, Pasadena was actually the school district. I lived in Pasadena and also worked in Pasadena Unified School District. That was my first teaching job. And then in 2008, we moved to Georgia.
for a lot of reasons we can get into that, you know, we can or can't, you know, don't have to, but.
Jey (05:25.716)
Yeah, you can't whatever you want to get into feel free to get into it And then also just so you know when I say men of color, I'm biracial I'm just very light skinned so I didn't meet any offense by that So please don't take any offense to that if you're listening, please don't just assume I called Tim a man of color for no reason I also am as well just Differently, so if you're on YouTube, that'll make sense If you're not watching the video format on this it probably won't make sense. So I just wanted to clear that with you
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (05:42.739)
Hahaha!
Jey (05:55.348)
I'll just make sure I didn't defend there, so.
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (05:55.52)
It's all good. It's all good. Yeah. And I typically don't I, you know, I typically don't do video podcasts. But if you are listening, yes, I am a brown skin man. I'm wearing a wearing glasses. I've got a hat, just like Jay, but different. It's blue and gray. And it's actually the Oklahoma State outline. And it's, it's okay, la because it is the minor
Jey (06:18.712)
That's.
Jey (06:23.656)
Oklahoma City Dodgers, the AAA baseball team of the LA Angels, or the LA Dodgers. I'm so dumb. I do beat writing for the high A affiliate of the LA Angels here in the Tri-Cities, the Dust Devils. So that's why I said LA Angels because I'm so used to saying LA Angels when I'm talking about baseball or talking about minor league baseball.
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (06:25.314)
Yeah, that's right. That's right.
Yes. LA dot. No, it's okay.
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (06:37.29)
Okay.
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (06:47.876)
Amazing. Uh, yeah. So, um, in 2008, we moved to Georgia and, uh, I started working in, you know, in special education classrooms. And the reason why I eventually left was because I am a passionate advocate for inclusive education, meaning I want to see, uh, learners, um, you know, with and without disabilities learning together.
Uh, in the same classroom, in the same spaces, having access to all the same curriculum and equipping educators to do that. And what I saw in public schools, you know, very, from the very beginning all the way until I left was, um, some really outdated mindsets about the, about what kids could learn and could do. Um, and I just.
I tried my best to move things forward in my districts. And I think some progress was made, but all the time I was doing that, I also had this other outlet of podcasting and blogging. And so I was meeting all of these different people from all across the country and the world, advocating and trying to do the same types of things. And I got to the point in 2020, where it's like,
Okay. The world is different, right? And we all started to reevaluate and think like, okay, well, like when we all get back in person, like, what do we want? What kind of world do we want? What kind of, what kind of schools do we want? And it just got me thinking. I had tried looking outside of the school district or moving like to a different, uh, roller capacity, uh, previously.
But that was, I think the thing that really made me go, okay, I think it's time for a change. So then when I started looking, then I realized, oh, there could be something out there. And I emailed, um, my resume to, uh, a friend of mine who, um, was. Like, sorry, my, sorry, my, my kid's middle school just called. So I think I might have to take this.
Jey (09:10.06)
You're fine.
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (09:12.664)
Uh, let me see there. Hopefully they'll leave a message. Um, so I emailed my, the, the CEO at the time of the Maryland coalition for inclusive education, cause we had developed a relationship over the years. And I said, Hey, do you have anything? Like anything related to communications? Cause that's kind of what I'm looking at. I've been doing all this work on the side. I, you know, built up a following.
Jey (09:15.755)
Okay.
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (09:40.636)
Um, this is really interesting, interesting to me. And she's like, actually we're looking for a communication specialist, but what do you think about just coming on and being our director and you can bring your podcast and the blog and all the work that you've been doing, you just do it underneath the nonprofit. And I was like, uh, hold up. That sounds like my dream job. So I immediately hung up and called my wife and I'm like, I'm like,
Honey, you will not believe what just happened. And so that set a chain of events into me leaving the school system, even though, you know, I still have my, I still have part of my pension, because I was in there for so long, but I don't get my full pension, of course. But yeah, it just was such a blessing. It was so fortunate. I'm very fortunate to be able to do what I'm doing, including talking to you, Jay, and having time to
tell people about my story and the story of our organization.
Jey (10:45.368)
I love that. No, I appreciate you having you on. Special education is something that's always like resonated with me even to today. So I never was in any special education growing up. I was actually pushed ahead throughout all the school. Very fortunate that I was blessed with those gifts and abilities. But I can remember all the way back to Head Start, four, five years old, very, very young. My best friend at Head Start, his name was Michael.
He was the only kid in the wheelchair. I was one of his only friends, going way back to Head Start, four years old, 20 plus years ago, 25 years ago at this point. And that was my best friend, was the kid in the wheelchair. I was the only kid at that school that he would let touch his wheelchair. That wasn't a teacher. Even after one day, I remember this day so clearly, it's wild, but we were out on the playground, I was pushing his wheelchair, I wasn't paying attention to what I was doing.
I didn't see the crack and his wheelchair caught and he went face forward into the ground.
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (11:50.317)
No.
Jey (11:51.248)
And, but we were still friends after that. He still let me push his wheelchair. Thanks for great. We were kids. So it's very forgiving, uh, situation. So special education always resonated with me throughout all the time. Uh, when I was in high school and learned to, um, when I got my water safety instructor, uh, certificate and was able to teach swim lessons at the pool I was at, I was a junior senior in high school.
And one of the things I did was I taught the adaptive swim lessons. And I got to teach the kids with the special needs. I would use my free periods and then that would line up with the adaptive swim lessons. And I would go from school across the street to the pool, teach swim lessons to these kids with special needs and then go back. So I did that for a few years in high school. Super fun. When I went to college originally, when I very first went to college, my major was special education, K through 12.
with the full intention of being a SPED teacher, KT12. Well, that wasn't the path that I ended up going. I got two years into the program. I had a professor. He kind of scared me out of it. I wish I would have known better, been able to work through that, but he said, well, if you're not 100% in this, this path leads to a high burnout. If you're not fully committed right now, then get out. So I got out. I changed my major to business. And then I ended up getting married a couple of years later.
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (13:09.632)
Hmm.
Jey (13:14.064)
and then dropped out of school, didn't go back to school for a while. Fast forward, got divorced. And now fast forward even more, divorce everything. Now I have my bachelor's and master's. My bachelor's is in human services with an emphasis on child and family welfare and my master's is in developmental psychology. So fast forward all that, tons of work with special populations, special education, neurodivergent.
brains, youth, families, all the people in between. So I have a true love for this work that I do. Currently, right now, I work in a wraparound program with intensive services, and I get to serve a variation of youth and families, a lot of them with special needs, but a lot of them also with very big behavioral challenges as well. And some of that is that families don't know that they can access
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (13:45.902)
Mm.
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (14:04.632)
Mm-hmm.
Jey (14:12.184)
accommodations, 504 plans, IEPs based on their behavioral needs alone. They don't have to have the special education needs, the autism, the developmental delays, the intellectual delays, the physical disabilities to be able to access these services and to be able to access these accommodations to help their kid who is just special but in a very different way. It could be ODD. ADHD. It could be...
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (14:20.849)
Mm, yeah.
Jey (14:42.584)
who knows in between anxiety that's crippling, depression that's major depressive disorder that's just crippling as well in its own ways that translates into these manifested selves in these behavioral challenges. They don't know that they can access these services and that they're able to do so because it's just not talked about. And the reason why is that at least for here that I've found working longer and longer in this field
and being on this side of it as the advocate for these youth and families is that the districts just don't want to put the time, money and effort into it. It's not that they don't have the time. It's not that they don't have the money. And it's not that they don't have the effort. It's just a lot of it's, well, I don't want to have to do that. We don't want to have to stay extra an extra 20, 30 minutes that we'd be here anyways to do a meeting. We don't want to have to use our resources that we already have here to evaluate.
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (15:27.341)
Thank you.
Jey (15:36.82)
to go through the evaluation process, to give this kid who needs the accommodation the accommodation. Well, if it's just a want that they don't want to do, unless they have to do it for the highest intensity and highest need kids. But that's what it's really about. It's about getting all these kids who do need it, the equal access to education, because there's a big gap in the accessibility and equal access to education that isn't...
talked about nearly enough, especially for kids who aren't just straight disabled. We know that those kids are going to get accommodations built in automatically, no doubt. But what about the other kids who also need it, but in a different way? So that's kind of a lot of the why I love what you do, even though you're out in Maryland, right?
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (16:12.176)
Thank you.
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (16:33.007)
Yeah, our organization's in Maryland, but we do work with districts across the country.
Jey (16:37.828)
Oh, awesome. Awesome. So yeah, so that's a little bit about why I love, you know, your coalition, the podcast, you know, the inclusivity piece of it to make sure education is inclusive because we went through generations of segregation in education. We went through generations and we still do see a lot of that today, that disparity in education between. You know,
color, between ability, between gender, and there is still a lot of that old thinking. I see with working with different educators, even now, who aren't too much older than me, that are maybe five to 10 years older than me, that I see that are just like have that old mindset. It's very limiting. Their mindsets are limited to what a child can and can't do and could and should be doing and could be doing.
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (17:22.905)
Mm.
Jey (17:37.036)
to this certain level. It's very concrete, it feels. That all these levels are concrete, like all they're here, concrete. You need to be right here, pass the standardized test, and when you're good, off you go. It's not fluid nearly enough.
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (17:55.94)
Yeah, there's, there's a lot, there's a disconnect, you know, for sure. Um, and I think there's a lot of, a lot of educators, um, they just weren't prepared or equipped that they're, I mean, they're not, you know, they're not equipped to work with every learner, um, which is why you get a lot of pushback, I think. And, um,
And so that's why our organization exists is to, is to equip, you know, teachers to, to know how to include, because if they've never seen it done, if they, they don't know if, if you're, uh, let's say a general education teacher in middle school and you are, you know, a seventh grade math teacher. And all of a sudden someone is telling you, okay, this learner that has a down syndrome.
an intellectual disability, they're going to be going to your class and they're going to be like, what? Like, I can't teach this kid. What are you talking about? And so there's a big leap in the just practical applications of how you adapt instruction for a learner with that kind of profile. The thing is though, it's happening all over the country.
And educators are being equipped and are educating learners. Um, and those learners are succeeding and making progress on their IEP goals and are, are thriving. It's just how you get from a school that's never done it before to, um, them working towards inclusive practices can be a long journey. Um, and so one of the things that we focus on
is working with leadership. So, you know, when I was a teacher, I had this idea that inclusive education was the right thing to do, that it was best practices. I was reading all the books. I was reading all the journal articles. I'm like, Hey, y'all, like, this is this we've known that this is the right thing to do and that we can do it for decades. So why aren't we doing it? I just did not understand. Um, and as a teacher,
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (20:22.596)
I had very little power to change what was going on. All I could do was go to my next, you know, my next door neighbor teacher and be like, Hey, do you know about this? Uh, do you want to collaborate on something? Um, Hey, can I bring my kids into your classroom? You know, cause I taught in a special education class. Those are the things that I could do, but I could not by myself change the culture of a school. That's the
that's really the role of a principal. And then I also cannot change the culture of a school district that is an assistant superintendent or superintendent's role. So what we try to do as MCIE is really target conversations around changing mindsets of principals and school district leaders so that they are the ones driving the work.
And we don't actually go into schools and be like, okay, you're doing this wrong. Um, you have to do it this way. It's all about, um, inquiry, right? So we have a list of, you know, best practices essentially. And, uh, we go through and we talk through that with the principal or with the district leader and be like, Hey, these are the things that we've identified that inclusive schools do.
Where do you think you are? You know, as you look at these, look at these assessments, right? Look at these, uh, the survey, and then they decide what is the priority for them to work on, you know? Um, and so, so yeah, there's just, there's a really big knowledge gap. I'm hoping that we can close that knowledge gap. And as a communications professional, I'm trying to leverage media.
including podcasting, including short form video, including, you know, um, uh, newsletters, um, just all of the communication tools that we have available. I'm trying to leverage that so that we can see change, uh, towards inclusive education. So that's why I get up in the morning every day. This is what I do.
Jey (22:36.58)
100%. No, I love that. And do you so working with the leadership at the top of the school? For me, I work with a lot of principals. I work with district level people for these different services that my kids may need that I work with. But how I find a lot of the times that the principals are, yes, they can create change and influence that change. They 100% can and they 100% should because they are the people at the top of these schools influencing it among the teachers. But
I feel that some principals and some administration and some schools and even at the district level are afraid to make these changes because they're afraid to lose the educators they do have that will not agree with it. So they just don't do it. They can say, yes, that's great. Yes, we could do this in this way. Yes, we could do that better. Or yes, we could accommodate this. But you know, that teacher.
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (23:22.013)
Mm-hmm.
Jey (23:34.06)
isn't probably gonna see with that so that's gonna be difficult and it's like well you're his boss you're her boss can you influence that a little bit can you help direct that can you help encourage this a little bit um and a lot of times it's like well i'll talk to him it's very timid because it's like i don't want to piss him off because i don't want him to leave and quit
because he could go to any of the other 15 elementary schools in the area. He could go to middle school if he really wanted to. He could jump over to the high school. It's like there's no shortage of schools, at least in our area where I live here in the Tri-Cities, that educators could jump to on any given day for any given reason from one to another.
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (24:02.02)
Yeah.
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (24:15.352)
What part of Washington, I'm not familiar with Tri-City. So what.
Jey (24:17.716)
I'm in the Tri-Cities. So it's Southeast Washington, Richland, Kennewick, Pasco, expands to like Benton City, Finley, and we're like 30 minutes from Hermiston, from the Oregon border, couple hours away from the Idaho border, Coeur d'Alene. So we're kind of down in like that Southeast region, kind of. So yeah, it's, so it's hard for some of these principles.
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (24:26.851)
Okay.
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (24:33.251)
Okay.
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (24:40.63)
Okay.
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (24:44.748)
So yeah, and I, so since you're in Washington, let me bring this up because this is something that I know about Washington. So OSPI office to superintendent of public construction. That's your, you know, the, the big, the big bosses, right. In the, the state department, um, one of their initiatives over the last couple of years, it was called, it is called
Jey (24:59.552)
Yep, Osby, yep.
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (25:09.888)
or was at the inclusionary practices project, inclusionary practices, professional development project or something like that. I was just there in Washington. Well, I guess now it was, was it 2000? It was last year. It was last year 2023 in March. That's I think that was right, February or March. And I visited
three school sites. McMickin Elementary School in SeaTac, Ruby Bridges in Woodinville, and Seahome High School in Bellingham. And I was on the West side, yeah. But at the time, and I'm not sure if this is increased or not, at the time there were 16 demonstration sites.
Jey (25:55.32)
Okay, so you're on the west side of the state. Okay.
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (26:08.116)
So the, uh, and, and I'm sure there was at least one on the, you know, the Southeast side of, of Washington, but all of these sites were in collaboration and in, you know, receiving technical assistance by the university of Washington, uh, Washington Herring center, which is their center on inclusive education. Um,
And it's one of the only models that I've seen, and I try to pay attention to everything that's going on in the country with regards to inclusive ed. It's one of the only places that is there's a strategic plan in place at the state department level to increase inclusive practices across the state. Now I'm sure, you know, um, but you know, for the benefit of our, the listeners.
State departments of eds actually have very little power to change what is going on in local school districts. In the United States, the majority of the power is at the local level and at the school board level. Okay. And even, even some states, the principal has the more, more of the power because we have our education system is localized as much as.
As much flack as the Department of Education, the federal Department of Education gets for being, you know, whatever, overreaching and, you know, telling people what to do and common core and blah, blah. Like very, very little power at the, at the very top, at the federal level and at the state level. But in saying all that, I have not seen a
a strategic plan like this, like what's happening in Washington, happened across the country. And what I've heard, you know, from the people that I know across the country, there are states trying to replicate this model. And so what they're transitioning to in Washington, and so, you know, we know, we're colleagues with Tanya and May, who is the assistant superintendent.
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (28:27.992)
uh, one of the assistant superintendents in Washington, and then, uh, Carrie Martin, who is the, um, I believe the executive director of special education. I'm sorry if I got that title wrong, but they are working towards making it more of a network. So a network of schools in Washington that are all pursuing the same sorts of things, uh, equipping leaders, uh, changing practices, changing mindsets and culture.
in the school and the family in the community towards more inclusion. And I absolutely think it's wonderful. I love it. I sing Washington's praises all the time. So I'm very, very happy to talk about that and to share that with you.
Jey (29:09.916)
No, that's awesome. I had not known about that because we actually don't have a site that's included in that project. So I just pulled up the map. It looks like there's 13 demonstration sites, three early learning, five elementary, three middle schools, and two high schools. None of them fall within my ESD. I'm in ESD 123. That's my local one to me, and there's no demonstration site within ESD 123.
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (29:15.889)
Oh, okay.
Jey (29:39.44)
But this is a really cool project. I'm looking at it and it really does fall in line with a lot of what Our governor I governor Isley had committed to over these last couple years of his term Knowing that he couldn't be reelected. So we're gonna have a new governor here in our state But he decided to put a lot of money into projects like this and he also put a lot of money into behavioral and mental health as well
for you. So he put a lot into these different projects. So this lines up kind of with exactly where he's been at the last couple years, the last couple years of his term to leave on a, I guess, positive foot out the door. And, you know, it's really cool. I didn't know about this, you know, all students have the right to a meaningfully. It's a whole thing. It began in 2019.
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (30:04.688)
Mm-hmm.
Jey (30:31.08)
Washington was one of the 10 least inclusive states in the nation. While Washington has made great strides in the last two years, we remain in the bottom half of national ranking. Moving Washington towards a more robust and self-sustaining system of inclusion is going to take continued time and effort across all levels of education system. There's data from the first two years of the IPP. It shows that we're ready to take the leap into more inclusive educational cultures. Our goal for the first two years of the IPP...
IPP was by spring 2021 was to increase LRE. One so it's access to general education for 80 to 100% of the day to 60% of students for receiving special education services by the end of 2020. Washington met that goal. The IPP pilot district showed an increase LRE over 11%. Now the project has been funded for two more years and they need to set a new goal for spring 2023 to determine what the 2023 spring inclusion goal will be.
OSPY was seeking out a recommendation from the Special Education State Design. So just kind of to give it a little bit more, this is kind of, actually I'll pull it up here because I forgot I can share my screen. Let's see, this one right here. So this is the map that we're kind of looking at right now in terms of what the different sites are going to look like.
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (31:48.961)
Mm-hmm.
Jey (31:54.957)
I'm pulling it up on a different tab to blow the map up.
Let's see if it works.
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (32:03.776)
I have not used this feature before, so this is cool. Thank you for sharing this.
Jey (32:09.88)
Yeah, no problem. So I'm trying to see just to kind of give you give everyone an idea Of what this looks like in the state. So the pink I believe are the current active sites That are using this IPP program The pink And then you look down here these green ones. I want to say are the planned Expansion sites so looks like i'm right here. So this is my area right here
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (32:35.896)
Okay.
Jey (32:38.432)
These two, whatever two schools these are. So it looks like there's gonna be one in Pasco, one down here.
looks like. So this is there's only gonna be one in the county. So this is Benton County. Looks like there's gonna be one here, one here in Findlay and then one over here in Franklin County. One out here in Benton City, one in Richland, one in Kennewick, one in Pasco. So it looks like they're hitting the Tri-Cities. Prosser, Benton, Richland, Pasco, Kennewick, Findlay. So this is my area, this is my district, the ESD 123. So very interesting.
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (32:54.593)
Okay.
Jey (33:18.352)
Looks like these are probably planned sites. I'd be I want to know if it'll show me the school That this is at Oh in my So this I believe is going to be Lewis and Clark LM. Oh Stevens middle. So it's gonna be a pilot school Stevens middle and then See if we can zoom out a little bit Maybe a lot of bit So looks like we got one impasse go there
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (33:32.26)
There you go. Look at that. Wow.
Jey (33:47.488)
Alright, let's go over here to Kennewick.
Jey (33:53.972)
This is going to be off West 4th. I wanna say this is probably either, I wanna say this is probably Highlands Middle School.
Jey (34:06.9)
This is just the school district in general. But this school right here, this is Highlands Middle School, I believe. Well, I'm kinda looking at the location. I believe that's Highlands. So that's a little bit about, it looks like there's some planned sites that aren't quite active yet, but probably schools that have agreed to it to be the pilot will be doing this. So it's really cool to see these middle schools, especially this Pasco location.
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (34:11.83)
Okay.
Jey (34:35.52)
Pasco is probably one of our most under-privileged areas locally. We have so much to the point that we have, our program has opened up our own location in Pasco alone to be able to serve the population there. They're mostly Spanish-speaking. They don't, they rely on public transportation.
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (34:53.284)
Hmm.
Jey (35:02.116)
And so there's some barriers. So we're going into Pasco to eliminate some of those barriers with our program, uh, with our wraparound intensive services, uh, mental health and behavioral health program. It's very cool, uh, that we're doing that and getting into that community. So, but yeah, I had no clue about that. I think that's great because it is so important for that inclusivity. Because our, our system as it is stems from
Segregation. Our education system stems within segregation. All the policies that were written 100 plus years ago within the last 100 years, a lot of them stem from segregation. That's just the fact. You can look it up. Look up the jury segregation. Look up the legal segregation of color people and whites post World War II. And you hear post World War II, you think that's a long time ago.
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (35:34.22)
Mm-hmm.
Jey (36:02.36)
It's only 80 years. It's only 80 years ago. That's one generation that hasn't even died off yet. Kind of thing. So we are still in a generation that, or a generation gap with boomers and everyone who are still in this mindset, who grew up through the legal segregation. Especially if you live in densely populated areas, like if you live in the Bay Area, pretty much,
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (36:04.365)
Mm.
Jey (36:31.848)
Everything within the Bay Area is rooted in this de jure segregation. The suburbs, the stacked housing, everything like that, all of it's rooted within the legal segregation. New York, New Jersey, big city areas where there was a lot of big business, big populations, all of them rooted in de jure segregation. So very, it's sad, but a lot of our policies and things stem from that. That's why it's taking so long because we have to do literal policy change. But.
those at the top in our leadership, in our country, are from that time. So they're mindset. So until we're completely kind of flush, it's gonna be hard. And then you go down to the school board level, kind of like you were mentioning, well, who serves on the school board? Aspiring politicians, keyboard warriors, moms for liberty, are the kinds of people that serve on school boards. Have the school board people ever worked in a classroom, taught in an educational classroom?
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (37:17.689)
Mm-hmm.
Jey (37:31.176)
couple, maybe for the most part, it's elected people who campaigned, who have their own agendas, who don't have the best interests of the kids at heart, who are more about the political side of it, pushing a narrative, pushing an agenda, pushing a ideology, pushing, you know, a mindset, pushing all these things. And if I was talking to my boss or anyone at work right now, they'd be like,
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (37:33.592)
Mm-hmm.
Jey (38:01.212)
And it's not right-wingness. I like to consider myself very moderate. Uh, but it's so obvious, like people who go into these positions go in with the narrative or they get placed there with a big enough campaign by someone that's buying them to go into that position for whatever reason, maybe it's a tech, local tech company's wife that wants to push a certain narrative and agenda so they have the money to push her into it.
and they push her into this role, she ends up working in it, and then she's able to say, oh well I can get a donation from my husband's company if you do this for me kind of thing. It happens everywhere. It happens everywhere. And that's the problem with school boards. School boards are laughable.
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (38:42.504)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Jey (38:49.9)
Some of them, not all of them, mine locally are laughable because it's just, it's keyboard warriors, it's Karens, it's all the Kevins, it's all the people who have never stepped in a classroom. Some of them are... It's a male version of Karen. But you know what I mean? Like it's, that's what our school boards are.
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (39:02.796)
Whoa, what did Kevin do?
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (39:15.42)
Yeah, I mean, I don't really have a, I don't really have any thing to add as far as, you know, opinions on school boards that it's definitely very mixed. And, uh, you know, some are, some are elected, some are appointed, uh, there there's, you know, I think my main, the main, the main thing I wanted to get across as far as school boards go is that they have a lot more power than you would think.
Jey (39:42.771)
Mm-hmm.
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (39:42.816)
So it's very important who is on the school board, you know, so as you know, I mean, we're, we're in an election year and all that stuff. Um, so definitely make sure you know, who is running for school board if they do are, if they're elected in your area to really pay attention to that. Um, it's always really interesting, uh, when that comes up again, but, um, but anyways, I just, I'm glad that you.
Jey (39:46.005)
Exactly.
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (40:13.392)
Uh, this was new information to you. And, uh, if I could plug a podcast because, um, I, I am a podcaster. I do three podcasts. I produce three podcasts. So I produce think inclusive, which is, um, my weekly show for MCIE. And that's on, uh, inclusive ed, what inclusion looks like in the real world. Um, and I talked with a lot of different people from disabled act.
advocates and activists to educators, to parents. Um, and one is actually, yeah. So yeah, weekly, weekly podcast and then inclusion stories, which is my narrative podcast, um, narrative podcasting was always something that I really, I wanted to learn and get into. So when I talk about narrative podcasts, like think this American life, radio lab, um,
snap judgment, serial, that type of thing, where it's multiple interviews cut, you know, into one long form story. And so inclusion stories is a five part series about families and school districts who are pursuing full inclusion for their children and students.
And that's actually how I got to visit Washington and even learn more about inclusive, the inclusionary practices project, because, um, OSPI was a supporter of the project and so I was able to go out there and visit those sites and, um, and do some recording. So I got to, I got to talk with a bunch of different people. So that's, that's the one that I wanted to plug, uh, especially for this conversation because, um,
What's really nice about this is you get to hear directly from students and from parents and from educators on how they got there. So, uh, great resource. I want everyone to listen to that. Who's interested. Uh, and then the third podcast is a podcast trailers. So that I do, I co-host with Ariel and this and black who is, um, a podcast Maven, let's, let's just say she's wonderful. She does a great job. Um,
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (42:32.096)
She is the community. I'm going to get her title rung, but she works for Descript. She's like the community manager for Descript. So, um, uh, but anyways, yeah. So, uh, wonderful. And I want to make sure, you know, we talk about that stuff too, because, you know, that's trailer park. Yeah. Trailer park, the podcast, trailer podcast.
Jey (42:39.02)
Okay.
Jey (42:47.52)
That's trailer park, right? Trailer park, okay.
I'm just throwing these up on the... I threw up the other two on the screen here for everyone to see. So I just wanted to make sure that everyone's able to see this.
So that's the podcast trailer. If you're looking on YouTube, I shared the other two up on there, so, super interesting. I personally have struggled with my own podcast trailer. It gets way more views and listens than it should and it hasn't been updated for a very long time.
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (43:07.332)
You bet.
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (43:24.5)
Yeah, everyone should have a trailer and it's, you know, all you gotta do is update it and there's no, you know, no worries.
Jey (43:30.571)
Yeah.
No, it just replaces what you got right now. But no, I think it's great that we were able to spend a good chunk of our time talking about education and school boards. And the last thing I'll mention, kind of like what you said, make sure you know, like pay attention to your local elections. I have far too many colleagues and friends and people I know who just don't vote in their local elections. And those are so important to make sure that you vote not only in the national and presidential election, you know, as throughout this year goes on, I will definitely be encouraging.
on the podcast to go and vote. I don't care who you vote for. You're not going to know who I'm going to vote for. I don't care who you vote for. Just please go vote. Vote in your local elections, your state elections. Please just go vote because it's your duty as an American. If you're over the age of 18, go and vote. So please go vote and know who you're voting for. They send those little pamphlets in the mail for a reason. So you can read a little bit about each candidate. And guess what? We have Mr. Google.
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (44:11.1)
Mm-hmm, absolutely.
Jey (44:30.84)
who you can go and read more about on each candidate and learn more about kind of what they stand for. If you are into digging and you are behind a keyboard, behind a screen, and you like to deep dive into people's life, it's all gonna be out there. They're public figures, they're gonna be out there. Who supports them, who endorses them, and all those things. Find the right candidates to align with you. And a lot of times, if you are religious as well, your religious institution will have a list of candidates they endorse and support. So if you wanna make it easy for yourself,
go and ask your church leaders who they endorsed in the local elections. My church is really cool. They bring in the local officials who are running in the elections who we endorse. So we can actually hear them speak on Sundays and at services. So it's a great way for them to have publicity, but for us to know like, oh, this is a real person with real values. And I got to hear their five minute, kind of pitch about themselves. Like that's different.
Like these guys are going out of their way to go and talk to their communities who they know will vote for them. So it's really cool. So definitely go and make sure you go vote because your school boards have so much power locally. So make sure you are putting the right people on there. Or if you are that right person. And you feel like you're being pushed in that direction of your life, go and do it kind of thing. So, but yes, so about dad life.
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (45:54.104)
Absolutely.
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (45:59.736)
Yeah.
Jey (46:01.208)
for you, you became a dad in 2006. Like you said, you have a 17 year old senior in high school, two middle schoolers, and you have been doing things differently than your dad, your whole dad journey or trying to. A lot of that comes with loving your kids no matter what. And I'm sure you're in a very different phase of parenting than I am. I have a three and a six year old. And so mine are little, they're fun.
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (46:13.805)
Yeah.
Trying to. Yeah.
Jey (46:30.26)
I get to be present for everything and involved no matter what and they're just little bundles of love. But for you, they're older, they're middle school, high school, I'm sure they make some questionable choices that have you scratching your head going, where, what did I do wrong? What? You're being hard to love right now with your attitude. I mean, you said your oldest is a 17 year old girl, so I'm sure.
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (46:53.325)
Yeah.
Jey (46:59.329)
That's been a...
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (46:59.704)
They're well, so I will say, I will say that they're, they're very, they're very good kids. Uh, you know, they're, they're wonderful kids. Um, and it's more on, it's, it's more about how we support them in, you know, whatever choices and, um, and their activities. Um, you know, all I have to go by is how I grew up and, um,
Well, I, I love my dad. Um, you know, dad, if you're listening, because you never know. Uh, I love my dad. But, uh, there, there definitely, you know, were some gaps in support. Um, and, and we've talked about that. Uh, and, and what's really interesting is, uh, we just.
Jey (47:36.658)
Hehe
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (47:55.296)
I recently had a conversation with my dad and my sister. So my, my sister is 13 years younger than I am. And, uh, it's just the two of us. And I don't know if you or the listeners have had really tough conversations with your parents. Um, but it's just as, as an adult, you know, um, it's, uh, it's difficult. It's difficult because on one hand, you know, I don't want to.
Jey (48:13.558)
Yeah.
Jey (48:18.068)
Mm-hmm.
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (48:25.132)
I don't want to drudge up the past, you know, and say you did this, you did that and all this stuff. Like that is so far, you know, water under the bridge, right? But I want to, even though our relationship had been strained in the past, like I want to move forward with a positive and healthy relationship. And so, and saying all of that, right?
Like there were some really tough times where, you know, my dad wasn't around as much as he could have been or should have been. So how am I going to change the patterns that had been set, you know, by his father and by him and now me? Like it's on me to figure out what am I going to do differently? And so...
What I'm doing differently is trying to be present with my kids and be involved in their lives, in the day to day of their lives. The example that was set for me was to drive myself into my work, to completely be engulfed and consumed by work. That is what was shown to me. And so it is really easy.
Jey (49:49.112)
Mm-hmm.
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (49:52.068)
me to do that. Like, like, I could work all the time. I could, you know, like if I let myself, I'd be, I'd be working 12 hour, 14 hour days at my computer, you know, creating writing, all that stuff. And I would like it and enjoy it, but I'd be missing so much else. So that is what I have to keep telling myself.
Jey (49:59.799)
Mm-hmm.
Jey (50:16.668)
Mm-hmm.
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (50:22.32)
I have to invest in my relationship with my wife. I have to invest in my kids. I have to let them know that I am there for them no matter what, no matter what, right? And so that is how I break the cycle, right? I break the cycle because that is what I'm doing. So, and the other thing is to invest in friendships and relationships with other men.
Jey (50:39.636)
100%.
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (50:52.492)
Like that sounds like it sounds weird for me to say, you know, a little bit sometimes, but like my, like I need friends, you know, I need, I need male friendships. You know, I do, I do. And yeah, yeah. And, um, and so I need to develop that and not just like social media. Like I need to like, be able to be like, Hey, you want to go for a hike on Sunday? Yes, absolutely. Let's go for a hike and talk, you know,
Jey (51:03.8)
Is that true? No, it's so important.
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (51:21.944)
Let's go out, you know, uh, for dinner or, you know, let's get some coffee or let's go out to lunch, you know, or let's just talk on the phone, like develop really, really healthy, um, friendships because. Also that is something I feel like I need to break the cycle for, for my family. So that, you know, but I don't know what it is about, you know, my.
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (51:48.174)
I think my kids have done really a great job of like finding their people, you know? And so I just want to make sure that they continue to do that as they grow because it's so important to have like your people that you trust and like your circle of friends.
Jey (52:04.312)
No, all that's so important. I love what you said about investing. You have to invest in those relationships. You have to be intentional about that investment. I use this analogy all the time at work with families, with parents, is that you have cups, right? Some cups are little baby tiny shot glasses that you take communion in at church. Some are big old water bottles, right? And each area of your life is going to be a different size cup.
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (52:09.776)
Mm-hmm.
Jey (52:33.52)
and you determine how big that cup is going to be. And you have to determine how much you're going to pour into each of these cups based on what you have. So if you're a full cup and you're overflowing because you're taking care of you, then those cups are going to be filled. But you have to be very careful because you can't fill a little baby cup and flood that with water because that's going to take away from some other area in your life that, like this, that needs a lot of water in it to be successful.
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (52:59.341)
Yeah.
Jey (53:02.816)
Like this, you can consider this like your relationship with your wife or your kids. And you can consider this little baby cup. I don't know. Um, how much.
with something really kind of smaller, like smaller scale. But it's very easy to get distracted and lose sight because you can pour way too much into this cup and not pour nearly enough into the big one. That's so important to invest that right amount of time, energy, love, devotion, passion, energy, all the things into your relationships. And you have to pick and choose.
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (53:19.286)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Jey (53:43.056)
I'm very much the same. You can go back and listen to episode 100 with my dad, where we got to talk about a lot of those things like from my childhood and talked like very openly as adults about things that I was told by my grandmother versus his perspective and share those perspectives. It was a great episode. It was a ton of fun. Maybe this one will come out after 100, but it's important to have those conversations, but it's also important to then be intentional. My dad's at the same example.
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (54:13.37)
I need to take this. Is that okay?
Jey (54:15.296)
You're good. Go ahead and mute yourself.
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (54:18.896)
Hello.
I am, but I'm good.
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (55:38.)
Okay, so sorry about that.
Jey (55:40.08)
You're good. So yeah, kind of like we were saying, it's important to invest in that relationship with your kid and be intentional about that investment. Let's jump into the last little part of the podcast here, the YDP-3. The YDP-3 are three questions that I ask every guest to kind of leave us on a very philosophical note. I forgot to preface you with these ones, let you know that we'd be doing this at the very end, but I never tell the questions until we get here. So.
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (56:10.595)
Okay, I'm ready.
Jey (56:11.353)
The first question here is where are you rooted and you can interpret rooted as where you're physically rooted or also like core values like what makes up 10 Vegas?
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (56:23.92)
Uh, that's a great question. Um, the first thing that came to mind was, um, was my faith. Um, I, I do, I do say that I'm a Christian. Um, my faith has evolved over the years. It's changed. It looks different. Uh, I had a great conversation with, uh, Matt Gilhooly. I hope I'm saying that right, Matt.
Um, on the live shift podcast, if you want to look at that, um, but that is ultimately where I am and where the, this passion for inclusion comes from. Um, which is why, you know, I get up, I get up, uh, and do what I do every day. I think that
I think love and acceptance and belonging are really, really core passions and values of mine. And so no matter who you are, no matter who you are, if I can show you love, accept you for who you are and create an environment of belonging, then I feel like that is my purpose.
Jey (57:40.572)
And I can't echo that enough. My podcast, I talk about faith all the time. I'll talk about God, I'll talk about Jesus, I'll talk about the Bible. It's not a taboo subject on my podcast. If the listener doesn't like it, cool, stop listening. Maybe it's not for you. Or stick around. Maybe you'll feel inspired or enlightened or something will move in you in the right place, right time. You know, God makes no mistakes. And we always approach it and I always approach it. Same like you just said, from that place of love, if I can make you feel accepted, because that's what Jesus did. That's what we're taught.
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (57:52.016)
Yeah.
Jey (58:09.916)
the Bible. That's what Jesus did. That's so important. The next question here is what grounds you? If you're feeling all stressy and depressy, kind of out of whack, out of sorts, what kind of brings you back and helps you realize it's all going to be okay? I got this. Let's keep rocking.
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (58:23.56)
Yeah.
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (58:28.384)
Um, so I'm a, I'm a really big music, um, person and nerd. Um, and so I have basically Spotify on, you know, all the time and I've got playlists, uh, I have a, um, my family laughs at me because they, you know, we have a family plan and so they like curate their own playlists and like all that stuff. And, uh,
I do that sometimes, but I have a liked, I have a liked song. My like songs list is like, I don't know. It's got like 1500 songs on it. It's growing towards 2000. And all I will do, like, if I just need to like feel good about myself or feel good is put on my like songs and just, you know, rotate shuffle. And I'm just like, Oh yeah, I forgot I put this on here. Oh, this is amazing. You know, and, uh,
It that always, always makes me feel better and grounds me. Um, and if, if I'm really going through something real specific, I, there are certain albums that I can just put on and be like, okay, this is one of my favorites, I can just let it, let it roll. So music.
Jey (59:41.472)
I love that. I love that. I do the exact same thing. I have my likes. I'll go to my likes on Amazon Music and I'll just hit shuffle and let it go. Um, I'm pretty sure let it go is on there. Not by my choice, but because I have young daughters. Um,
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (59:57.312)
No, I get it. I heard that many times.
Jey (01:00:00.124)
So many. Right now they're in their Taylor Swift area. So every time they go to take a shower and use the bathroom, there's an Alexa in the bathroom and they tell the Alexa to play Taylor Swift and it's lovely. You can listen to Never Grow Up on repeat so many times. The last question here is I'm gonna set the scene for us. Let's say we're at the park with our kids.
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (01:00:15.7)
Yep, yep, there you go, there you go.
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (01:00:21.732)
I'm out.
Jey (01:00:29.664)
Took your kids to the park, you're playing, you're engaged, you're happy, you're smiling, you're vibing, you're way up there. I take my kid, but I'm not on that same level you were. I'm like low, I'm like stressed, depressed, the bags are down to the bridge of my nose. I'm just so tired, I'm exhausted, you can see it on my face. I look across at you, you look across at me, we make eye contact. Classic Hallmark movie, love story. And we make eye contact. I see you and I'm like, man, that guy looks like he's got it together.
What is his secret? What is he doing? So I get up, I walk over to you, I sit next to you, and I'm like, look man, I don't know you, you don't know me, but you look happy. You look like you got some kind of secret sauce recipe, like you look happy with your kid, you guys are having fun, my kids are over there, I'm here, but I'm not here. In that moment, I'm telling you I'm down, I'm sad, I'm stressing, I'm depressing, all the things. You can see it on my face, you can feel it radiating off of me. In that moment, you get to tell me one...
to one and a half pieces of advice to try to set me on a path to get out of that.
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (01:01:34.34)
Huh.
Um, one and a half pieces of advice. I like that.
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (01:01:46.084)
I, I think one of the reasons why, um, I'm so happy, cause I am, I am happy, um, is that I try to spend as, as much time with my family as possible and like not, and when, when the kids are little, it's, it's really easy. It's easier because
If it's like, if you have a spouse and then your kids, right. It's like, they're little so that it's like, they're not, they're not going places all the time. Um, usually if you're going somewhere, you're taking them. Right. And like spending time where it's just the, you know, whatever, you know, two, three, four, five of you at once.
spending as much time as possible, even if they, the kids especially are just like, no, I don't want to be here. That it like it imprints on you, um, time that you are never going to get back. So like, as the kids are getting older, um, we still try to spend as much time as possible with each other.
You know, like we still eat dinners together, like at the table. Um, you know, even, even with how busy we are, it doesn't happen every single night now, but you know, the majority of nights we tried to like sit down at the table and have a dinner and like talk about the day. Um, and, uh, we go on road trips. So like we've taken three major road trips. Uh, we have a Honda pilot and we've driven, uh, from Georgia to California and back.
You're driven to Maine and back. And then just this last summer we drove to Vancouver and back. That is a lot of time together a lot, like weeks of time. Um, but it's so valuable. Like that has really. You cannot recreate that time. Um, and then pretty soon, oh geez, I'm going to get emotional.
Jey (01:03:46.217)
Yeah.
Jey (01:04:02.2)
It's okay.
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (01:04:09.536)
My kids going to college, so that time's not going to be around anymore. So yeah. Yeah. That, that, that's like the, like the actual time spent is the glue. It's it just is it's the glue do as much as possible, as much as possible, because eventually it's not going to be around, but I think that hopefully, and I don't know this for sure, but, um, hopefully, you know,
She's going to go off to college and she's going to do her thing, but she always knows that she can come back and it's us still. So that's what I'm hoping.
Jey (01:04:52.136)
I love that. I love that. Well, Tim, thank you so much for your time today. Much appreciated. Go and tell the people one more time where they can find more of you, more about what you do, and follow along with your work that you're doing.
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (01:05:08.164)
Sure, yeah, I'm on the socials, I'm really easy to find at TheRealTimVegas on threads and Instagram. And you can look at me up on the web at timvegas.com. I work for the Maryland Coalition for Inclusive Education and our handle is Think Inclusive. And happy to connect if you have any questions or if you just wanna say hi.
Jey (01:05:35.166)
Well, Tim, thank you so much again for your time today. It's much appreciated.
Tim Villegas (he/him) ~ MCIE (01:05:40.012)
It's my pleasure. Thanks for having me.