Dr. Tyler Alexander, associate principal of curriculum and instruction, returned to Southwest for the 2021-22 school year. Read more below to get to know Dr. Alexander.

Q- Can you describe a typical day in this role?

A- There aren’t too many typical days. One of the good and bad things, I guess, is sometimes I never know what’s going to come up. But typically, I have a handful of meetings. Depending on the day, it could be district-led or in the building, but all four administrators meet weekly. I meet with our different [special education] teams weekly. I meet with the counselors weekly…And then, you know, emails, answering questions from teachers. I always have lunch duty. So that’s part of a typical day. IEP meetings, 504 meetings. And then a variety of other issues. For my job, I work with the counselors a lot. So there’s a lot of in and out of them asking me questions about can we do this or that? And just kind of helping facilitate that.

Q- What’s your favorite part of your job?

A- I enjoy seeing students find success in difficult situations. I definitely like working with our teachers. I sit in on PLCs, help them strategize instruction and different assessments, help and collaborate with different ideas for that. So I would say working with teachers and helping them find success is probably my favorite thing. 

Q- What are your hobbies outside of work?

A- I have two little kids. I wouldn’t call that a hobby necessarily, but it keeps me busy. I have a 4-year-old son and a 2-year-old daughter. So there’s a lot of stuff going on with them. My son’s getting into soccer and some things like that. They’re definitely a big part of my outside-of-work life. And then I ride bikes, like cycling. I do that for exercise and as a stress-reliever. I write a lot, and I write often. That’s probably my biggest hobby, other than just being a dad.

Q- Why did you come to Southwest? 

A- I used to teach here. I opened the building in 2010. That was my first year out of college. I taught here for five years, and I coached here. I was the assistant soccer coach for boys and girls. I always loved the building and just had fond memories of it…I went to [Blue Valley] Northwest for six years, and then had a chance to come back. I had a lot of good memories of working with [principal Scott] Roberts. I thought it’d be fun to work with him as a colleague, rather than when he was my boss as a young teacher. And so I’ve just always kept in touch with the Southwest community. I always thought it would be cool to come back and see what traditions had held on that I helped create, and what was new, and reconnect. 

Q- What’s changed about Southwest since you first worked here?

A- A lot of different staff. There are a lot of new faces. But a lot of it seems really familiar. Like when I’m working with students, and I had older brothers or sisters in class. We took a couple trips overseas. I took somebody’s older sister to Italy a few years ago, so there are a lot of familiar faces and families. The building still feels the same. It’s still the same size it was when I left it. All the uniqueness that has been Southwest is still here. A lot of the traditions that we started when we opened are still here, which I think is really cool. I think the biggest change I see now is there’s just more ownership from students. We are a Southwest community. For the first few years, Southwest students were like, ‘I was supposed to go to West,’ or ‘I was supposed to go to [Blue Valley] High.’ But now it truly feels like everybody wants to be here. They go to Southwest. They identify with that. The culture has definitely gotten stronger with the students and just kind of school pride. And that’s cool to see. 

Q- What are your goals for Southwest? 

A- I think anybody’s goal coming after the year that we had is to try to reestablish why we come to school … How can we support students — well, everybody — coming off of last year? … [I want to] try to capitalize on the momentum of being excited about coming to school again, which some people lose over the years. And I want to continue to grow that, and come out doing some new innovative things versus what we’ve always done.