Podyallup #65: Super Nintendo Chalmers

0:00Hello, y'all up. Welcome to another episode of Pod Y'all Up. This is episode number 65 for Friday, March 6th, 2026. My name is Andrew Snyder and I'm the host of the Pod Y'all Up podcast. Is it place for talking about Puyolab, Washington? The place that I call home, my community, my people, mi pueblo. Esas mi pueblo, si si si si estes mi pueblo, m remotely. themg is you now? Ah, I've got some things to talk about today, some interesting

1:03news. We have a new superintendent of the Puyolab School District and no it's not super Nintendo Team Talmers. Super Nintendo channel. No, this is Kevin Alphano. Alphano cliff, I'm not Alphano, Alphano. I'm not sure how we pronounce that. I've only read it, and I would pronounce Alphano in Spanish, and so guessing it's Alphano. Something like that. Sorry, Kevin. Kevin currently serves as the superintendent of Bifepublic Schools, and he's held that position since 2014, and has had nearly 30 years of experience in the Washington State Public Education field. His career in five includes service as an assistant superintendent, a principal, an assistant principal, and dean of students. And Kevin also is recognized for collaborative leadership, strong community partnerships, and a focus on improving student

2:04outcomes. While maintaining long-term financial stability, and I want to point that one out right now, as we know that Puyallup is undergoing some budget constraints that is probably, for at least the people that are in charge of the school district, the school board members and whatnot, I would imagine that is top of mind right now, as we're trying to make cuts, and we're trying to balance the budget and not go into insolvency as a school district. And it says he holds a super-intendant certificate from Seattle University, prestigious university in Seattle, and is completing his doctorate in Educational Leadership at Pacific Lutheran University. Go Loots. So pretty local. And just coming from next door in the five school district. And so I don't I don't have much more else to say. I don't know

3:07much else about him. I was unable to participate in some of the things. I got some text messages and things like that coming coming along. And that was that was something that I I wasn't able to participate in. I knew ahead of time a little bit, but not much. The other candidate, there were two other candidates. One of them dropped out. And the other candidate was Dr. Rebecca Kim. And she was an associate superintendent of teaching and learning in the Kent school district. I suppose she still is. And as 20 years of public education experience. And she gets she worked in Kent and Highland schools and was an elementary principal and classroom teacher, et cetera, et cetera. Just was not picked for this role. And so that is something that, you know, that's something that we I don't know. I have no idea. I don't know my other than the blurb about the two finalists. I don't know anything about them and ever spoken with them. Kevin, if you want to have a conversation sometime, I'd

4:11love to love to chat with you and just kind of see what your vision is for for for the school district and kind of how the process is going to go forward with balancing the budget and all of that. So you can email me Andrew at podyallup.com. I'd love to chat with you. My kids are in the district and I'd like to like to know more if you're interested. We could do a Zoom call, even if you'd like that. That'd be fine. Hey, I don't like Zoom calls myself, but you know, this is what it is. So I know your busy guy. So that's something to think about. I know that instantly there's going to be reactions, you know, something like this is going to have reactions. And we are living in a time where everyone is expected to have an opinion immediately about everybody. And we all come at it with different biases and we all come at it with our own background kind of filter things through. We have our own filters basically in it. You know, I used to work in the Kent school district and I have

5:15opinions about the Kent school district, but I don't know anything about how you even forget her name already. Dr. Rebecca came. I don't know anything about her. So other than the little blurb that I just read. So I have biases because I worked in that Kent school district, but and I didn't work in the five school district. But beyond that, I don't know which one was the better candidate. I don't know if there was a quote unquote better candidate. I know people online are going to have opinions and strong ones. And even if they have nothing to go on. So that's just kind of the nature of it too. You know, whenever you have a change in leadership like this. And honestly, there's not a whole lot of say that we have as parents in the district, like we have these forums where we get a chat to people, but you know, the school board is the one that will do the electing. And it wasn't a unanimous election of Mr. Alfano, Alfano, Alfano, Alfano, Alfano. And Kevin,

6:22you're going to have to correct me on your pronunciation. How do you pronounce your last name? Andrew at pod y'all up.com. Well, yeah, I just think that it's going to be tough. And people are going to have opinions and people are going to be unsure. And when you have uncertainty, that definitely breeds more of that anxiety. And like, oh, no, what's this going to mean for the future of the school district? What's that going to mean for my kids education? And when people are worried about their kids education, they get all up tight. And I get it, you know, like I want my kids to have a good education. I want them to grow up to be critical thinkers. I want them to grow up to to go beyond just kind of go beyond even where I'm at right now. And I'm not saying that I'm like so far away from anybody else. And just saying, I want my kids to go beyond where I got. And that doesn't necessarily mean a formal education either. I just want them to be good citizens. I want them to be good community members. I want them to grow up to to to give back as much as

7:24they can give back to the community and build rather than tear down. And so, you know, that all comes into mind. It's like, okay, new change. This could be great. It could be status quo. It could be damaging. And there's that uncertainty. And when you have that uncertainty, it's very difficult to have an opinion that's not informed by fear or just that anxiety. I'm not knowing. So, not, I don't know. So, yeah, I don't know. I don't have anything to add really other than that. So, in incoming super intended, this summer will take over Kevin. Well, I'm going to call him Kevin because I can pronounce Kevin for sure. Kevin. Kevin Alfano. I think it's Kevin Alfano. Alfano. I don't know. Alfano. Oh, we're going to pronounce that Kevin. Correct me. Andrew at pod y'all up dot com. Kevin's taken over and that's pending a salary negotiation, which I didn't even realize that the superintendent

8:29could negotiate their salary. I can't negotiate my salary. And I am a state employee. I would like to negotiate my salary. I think I'm worth more than I'm getting paid. But that is the nature of the job that I have. So, hey, so interesting, interesting times, interesting times. I've been very, very busy. Again, this is not new. This is a change of subject also. I'm not talking about the school district anymore. I've started my Spanish class. That's online. That is called Spanish Story Lab. And that's been going great. I had one class on Tuesday. And I have class on Tuesdays going forward for a few more weeks. And I'm really looking forward to it. It's been very fun so far. And it's a small class. Again, I've got one student enrolled in that class at the Tacoma Language Academy. If you know someone, I only take adult learners. And we teach online right now. So it's going to be a Zoom class, but it's going to be a live one and lively. And you learn a lot. So

9:33if you know someone, an adult learner who wants to get better at Spanish and they don't want to go worry about credits or grades or anything like that, this isn't for a grade. It's just for getting better at the language. Having checked out Tacoma Language Academy, TacomaLanguageAcademy.com. And I picked Tacoma instead of Puyolup because I do serve people from around the country around the globe. And I've had, for example, I had a student from Texas. And I knew they were going to have trouble spelling Puyolup. So I picked Tacoma for that, for that very reason. Tacoma is easy to spell. It's spelled like it sounds Tacoma, Tacoma, Tacoma. The mother of all Tacos, as I said, when I was younger and I now know it means the mountain, Tacoma, Tacoma, Tacoma. Well, so that's been going good. And my classes at Pierce have been grinding this quarter. They've been pretty grinding. I'm getting

10:39a little burnt out. I do this thing where I do collaborative storytelling with my students. And I'm getting a little burnt out from it. And part of it is that I just have these block classes. And I think the students are getting a little burnt out too. And I just keep thinking, man, if I could have them back again four times a week shorter class periods instead of twice a week, really long class periods, they would be so much better off. And if they missed a day, they missed a day. But like we missed a day because there was a power out at a couple of weeks ago. And that class is just behind. And there's no way to fix it. Like I had to condense this last chapter into into four days. And I know it's like six or six and a half hours or seven hours, whatever the hour total is, I think it's only going to be like less than I think it's like six and a half, seven and a half hours, something like that. It's not enough time. And it's it's too intense. And yeah, you can learn a lot. And there's going to be people who do learn some, but there's going to be people who get left behind. And there's going to be people who miss class again. And

11:40so it's like, man, for this college that really claims to care so much about, you know, the they want equality of outcome is really what they want. It's just not going to happen if someone misses class. That person is not going to be in the same position as someone who is there. It's a lot of class to miss at once. So I'm against the block schedule very heavily against the block schedule. But for other subjects, it works great, you know, and so I understand that as well. And it could be more flexible for students. So that is kind of what we're trying to balance. I understand the reason reasoning behind it just does not work well for language learning. Does not work well. Doesn't work well for language learning. So it is what it is. And we'll make a deal with what we have when I'm not thrilled about it. I'm not thrilled about it. I tell you what I tell you a lot. So you can follow along and kind of get the little

12:40recap of the show. If you'd like at pod yallup.com slash 65. There's a bunch of links there as well. A bunch of links. I'll put a link to the school district superintendent search. In there, you'll get a little notification saying, Hey, we've got the we've got the person we picked. And then so Kevin is going to be our superintendent. It'll be a message that keeps popping up until you to stop. But I'm a little annoyed by it. I don't know if you can tell it's bad design. It's bad design. Like it should hold off. Next time I load the site, maybe every time I go to a new page, good, it's gracious. I'll read it to you because it's popping up. It says I'm going back to that theme late Wednesday evening March 4th, 2026. The Puyallup School District Board of Directors unanimously selected Kevin Alfano Alfano Alfano as the district's next superintendent. Kevin was selected following a three month long search process conducted by search firm

13:44Northwest Leadership Associates. Sounds efficient. The process culminated this week with finalists participating in a full day of meetings and school visits, concluding with separate live stream staff and community forums, the Board of Directors and Kevin Alfano Alfano. I mean, I say Alfano. We'll now enter into contract negotiations pending agreement. Kevin Alfano will begin his role as superintendent of the Puyallup School District, don't you live first. Now I'm going to click don't show again. I'm done. Yeah. Yeah. Kids and I have been listening to Harry Potter in the car and I take them to school on some days of the week and my wife takes them to school on other days of the weekend and we've been listening to Harry Potter when I've been going. Got the audiobook, the audible audiobook, the new cast and there is a scene in the third book where there is a night

14:45on a he tries to ride this horse but as he keeps falling off he's not a very good night kind of quixotic as he will. It's kind of quixotic and it's voiced by Matt Berry who is one of my absolute favorite actors. I'm a nice little surprise in the car this morning as I was taking them to school. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. There's a scene from a great show called Toast of London or Toast in London. Toast of London I think is what it's called and he's a down and downtrodden actor actor and he's quite funny. It's quite funny. Little inappropriate. I find it funny and I find the funny to outweigh the inappropriate. Interesting. So kids haven't seen it. Kids probably wouldn't like to see it. They probably think it's boring but you know what? It is hilarious. It is hilarious.

15:47Yes. Yes. I'm having too much fun. I'm having too much fun. So if you go to podyallup.com they're not puolup.com but podyallup.com slash 65 you can follow along and one of the things that you'll notice I still have the link to the budget reductions the proposed budget reduction reductions which is coming up here. I probably should look at that while I'm thinking about it talking about it. Yes. I also watched a clip of that Batman movie the other day with Bane. Oh I can't stand that voice. Yes. This is your city. Wow. No me gusta. No. No gracias. Yes. So we talked about it before about this these budget reductions. I don't see anything else on here that is has changed. So

16:54there is a survey to fill out. So if you go to that link in the show notes page you can fill out a survey and kind of voice your opinions on things. There's various items that are proposed to be cut. We talked about them things like library and technology going to try and cut a million bucks. Hey here's an idea. Get rid of all the laptops. They're going to get rid of them for some of them. Get rid of all of them. The students do not need that distraction device in the classroom. It is a military grade distraction device. Get it out of the classroom. I'm not opposed to computers. I'm on a computer right now. I work on computers a lot. I am a technology guy. But get them out of the classroom. Go back to the desktop model. Put them in a computer lab. Let students use the computer lab occasionally. Let them have a typing class. Get these out of the classroom. They're just using AI and they're smart. The kids are smart. They know how to get around your firewalls. They know how to use these things to chat in different ways. Like you were getting

17:54the cell phones out of the classroom. Get the laptops out of the classroom. Give them paper and pencils instead. Give them a blue book. I'm very opinionated about this. This should happen. And so cut all those laptops. Then you have these desktops which last five, ten years. Honestly, I'm working on a Mac. And I've had this Mac for a number of years now. Still running strong, baby. Hasn't slowed down a lick. You can put lin- you know what? Have the kids learn how to put linux on a machine. They're not dumb. They're smart. You can teach them. They can figure it out. Put linux on the thing. And then they actually know how to use a computer. I think it's a real problem. Disable the internet. Get the internet out of the classroom for the most part. I mean use it for some things as a teacher. You can put on videos and stuff. That's helpful. And you can share your files from one place to another easily. So there's

18:55benefits. But my goodness. My goodness. It's a real problem. And you can save a lot of money that way. They're trying to cut custodial services. They're trying to cut the school-based administration. The school-based administration. So some principals or assistant principals are getting eliminated. Am I goodness. They're eliminating 13 positions. 12.2.5 assistant principals. They're going to eliminate the dean role. So it's 10.5 positions. That's $2.3 million savings with 13 people. And I know some of these jobs are hard. That's all I have to say about that. The central office are trying to cut 29 administrative positions. And all of that. That's $6.8 million. They're going to pause vacation buybacks for administrative staff. So there's a number of things like that. They're trying to cut $60,000 for

19:58mass athletics. You're going to cut high school gymnastics. They're trying to cut all of this stuff. And so if you want to voice on it, you got to participate in that survey. I can't guarantee you that they'll listen to anything you have to say. They have a hard target. And this new superintendent sounds like fiscal responsibilities. One of the names of the game. So Hmm. Hmm. Minecraft movie, villager. That Minecraft village villager at the end of the movie is voiced by Matt Berry. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Funny times. Funny times. Dual immersion. There is a Spanish language dual immersion at the P.O.A school districts. Enrollment for that is open. It's been open for a while. Check that out if you want your kid in dual immersion. Great program. Wonderful program. I use that word

20:59wonderful a lot. And I mean it though. It is full of wonder. Marvelous. It is a marvelous program. Maravilloso. There's also a dual immersion for sign language. So for ASL, check those out to get a link in the show notes for the Spanish one. But you can also check out ASL. Let's take a look at arts, upcoming arts in the P.O.A school district. I know my boys, band concert got canceled post-bond due to some illness in the director's family. So that got canceled. Tonight, Emma Ridge has the half-time musical from 7 to 10 p.m. that also appears on Saturday the 7th from 1 to 4 and again from 7 to 10. There's a matinee and then later in the evening as well. P.O.A school has the musical wind in the willows west in version from 7 to 9 p.m. at the P.O.A school auditorium. We've got a bunch of concerts coming

22:04up next weekend. I've got this. The arts in P.O.A live calendar. A link to that in the show notes. Page pod yallup.com slash 65. Then, if I take a little look-see at the athletics in the region, I've got a couple of losses, I believe. I show this somewhere over the rainbow. On March 4th, we have a couple of wins. P.O.A beat Chiawana, Chiawana or Chiawana, I'm not sure. I want to say Chiawana, but that sounds like DiHuana. And Emerald Ridge beat Redmond. So on Thursday, P.O.A plays Gonzaga Prep and Emerald Ridge plays Mount Side. That's today when I'm recording, by the time this comes out, that will be final. And I think if I'm correct.

23:07Oh, now we're starting to look at baseball. Now we're starting to look at baseball coming up. Yes, P.O.A is going to play Emerald Ridge. On Saturday, March 7th, as a scrimmage, Rogers is going to play Emerald Ridge. Also, as a scrimmage, P.O.A is going to play Rogers. Also, as a scrimmage, that's all on March 7th at Heritage Park Recreation Fields. And that's coming up. So baseball season is starting. And I know that as well because I have meet the coach tonight, tonight, Thursday, I get to meet my players. Some of them I already know, some of them I don't know yet. And I would love to get to know them. And we have a field day on Saturday where we go to help serve the community and make ready the ball field that we're going to use all year, kind of make it ready to play on. And furthermore, we have a our practice is starting next week. So we are coming up on real life baseball. I'm very excited coaching in the Puyallup Cal Ripkin League. I didn't think I'd be this excited, but I'm super excited. I've been working with my boy on pick-off moves and getting leads. We've been in the living room. I've just been

24:12showing him different looks. And I've been picking him off left and right, baby. Woo, picking him off. Yeah, really, really, really, really excited to teach kids about the pick-offs and lead-offs. And I've developed some signs. And, uh, oh, it's going to be fun. I'm geeking out over here. Gonna be fun. All right, well, what can I tell you else? I will tell you that Puyallup is a value for value show. So if you're finding value in this show in any way, shape or form, and you've maybe been getting value for a while, why don't you send some value back my way? And you can do that in many ways. One way would be with your time. You could send me a message at andratpodyallup.com. Tell me a story. Tell me how your family got here. Tell me your history. Tell me some interesting facts. Whoa, somebody just drove around the corner 100 miles an hour. Woo. I get distracted sometimes when people are driving around the corner. I can see them clear as day. All of a sudden this super fast, super forester came flying around the corner.

25:16Woo. Yeah. So send me some some stories. I'd love to hear your history or anything that you feel like the people of Puyallup should know. I think that would be a wonderful marvelous, incredible, fantastic thing. One of the words could I use besides wonderful. Wonderful is a problem. I keep saying it and I hear myself saying it in real life. I'm going to try and stop. Wonderful is overused on the Podyallup podcast. Marvelous is good. Magical. I don't know. I'm stuck. I'm stuck on the thesaurus. Why don't I go to thesaurus? Check this out. Thesaurus. If I go to the thesaurus, sounds like some sort of dinosaur. Dinosaur of words. If I type in one. No. No. Go away. I typed it in the send me emails box. Lovely. Terrific. Marvellous. Hey. Marvellous. Fine.

26:24Excellent. Beautiful. Fabulous. Stellar. Great. Awesome. Superb. Prime. Famous. Hot. Heavenly. Splendid. Splendid. Exceptional. Sensational. Quality. Nifty. Nifty. Nifty. Gifties. Choice. Unserpast. Bar excellence. Bar excellence. Bar excellence. Swell. Topping. Banner. Sterling. Keen. High-class. Groovy. Superior. First class. Fab. Oh, that's Fab. Righteous. Blue Chip. Number one. Peachy Keen. Out of side. Attiquit. Attiquit. That's my favorite. A.O.K. That's A.O.K. Numero Uno. All right. Passable. High-grade. Fancy. Tolerable.

27:28I'm having fun. I'm having fun. But we have fun here. So if you are interested in supporting the Podyalla podcast, the slick Podyalla podcast, the Dandy. Polyp. Podyalla podcast. The Polyp. That's not so dandy. Peachy. Oh, the Peachy Podyalla podcast. You're interested in serving and contributing to the Peachy Podyalla podcast. Send me a message at and or at podyallup.com. You can also send a monetary donation and you can do that at podyallup.com slash donate podyallup.com slash donate any amount, any frequency. It's all appreciated. Donors of over $50. We'll get your name and a mount listed on set on the show. And if you have a short note for me, I will also read your short note. Wonderful. Nah. Peachy. Peachy. Pahex. Helens. Pahex. Helens. Unser past. The Unser past. Podyalla podcast. Any amounts definitely appreciated though. Those small amounts

28:35$4 weekly donations are super appreciated. They're choice. They're fantabulous. They're superior. They're groovy. They're high class. They're keen. They're banner. And they're so helpful because they help us when times are slow. And you know, it's not free to do this. And so it's very useful. It's very noble to donate. It's exceptional. You know, so miraculous. Surprising. Awesome. Stunning. Sublime astonishing. Stupendous. Prudigious. Fascinating. Full of awe. Awful. Awful sounds the wrong words. That sounds like an antinem. Excuse me. Awful. No, no, no, no. Full of awe. Yes. Aw inspiring. Smashing. Invigorating. Stimulating. Captivating. Energizing. Mind. Abending. Podyalla podcast. Thanks for contributing. Podyalla.com. Slash. Donate.

29:38Lastly, I like to talk about things that are going on at the fair. And this weekend we have the Mike and key electronic show and swap meet four by four off road and high performance swap meet as well. So there's the ham radio one, which is on Saturday, September, September, wrong Saturday, March 7th, $15 admission. And you're going to use the gold gate for that one for the four by four off road and high performance swapping. That's on March 8th Sunday, $15 to get in 12 and under free. And you're going to enter using the blue gate. Always stuff going on at the Piole of Fairgrounds. Always interesting things happening. And there's no reptiles show this weekend. So I could go and be fine unless the reptiles were left behind for some reason. And I saw snack and I would not be happy. I would not be pleased. Well, I think that's it for me.

30:38I think that's all I got to say. So I want to say thank you for listening. And send me a message and you're at pod y'all up dot com. If there's some story, some news, some breaking thing that I need to know about in the Piole area pod y'all up dot com slash donate to help out the show. Thank you again pod y'all up dot com slash.