Rachael Maves: Hello everyone, you are listening to the Rachael Maves podcast and I'm Rachael Maves, your host. Today we are talking to Kristen Mandel. Kristen is an experienced educator and administrator with a diverse background spanning K-12 leadership, admissions, and curriculum development. Currently serving as principal of Southern California Flex Academy, she leads a fully remote independent study program focused on innovative and student-centered learning.

With a strong foundation in Montessori education and public school systems, Kristen brings nearly two decades of expertise in educational leadership, strategic planning, and community engagement. Her passion for equitable, high quality education drives her mission to empower students and educators alike in evolving learning environments. Kristen, thank you for joining me today.

Kristen Mandell: Yeah, thank you for having me.

Rachael Maves: So I'm really excited to connect with you. This is our first time getting to know one another, which I'm always thrilled with on the podcast when I get to meet new people. And I am particularly interested in hearing your story. Tell me a little bit about why you chose education and how you ended up in this career.

Kristen Mandell: Yeah, so I think my story is really similar to a lot of educators out there. I had an exceptional teacher when I was very young and she made me feel like she truly genuinely cared about me as a person, not just as one of her students. I very clearly remember sitting in her class and

she's going over handwriting and we were doing cursive at the time and mine wasn't great. I was struggling. I was rushing is what it was. I was rushing through it and she sat next to me, she talked me through it, she helped me calm down, slow down. So she wasn't so focused on what I was doing but more how was I doing it.

Rachael Maves: I

Rachael Maves: Mmm.

Rachael Maves: Hmm.

Kristen Mandell: And that to me, even at, I was in fifth grade at the time. And even at that young age, I felt that. Like I felt, wow, she actually cares about how I'm doing this and what my experience is around this. And so what ended up happening was I didn't necessarily get

Rachael Maves: Yeah.

Kristen Mandell: better at handwriting, but I got more interested in being better at handwriting, if that makes sense. So just her moment, moments, let's be honest with me, it changed just how I looked at it. I wanted to do better, right? I wanted to say to myself like, wow, I can do this and look, can,

Rachael Maves: Sure.

Rachael Maves: Mm-hmm.

Kristen Mandell: I am capable because somebody else really believes in me. So I had that moment and from there it just sort of sparked this curiosity, this interest in helping others. That's really where it came from is that evolved into just wanting to be helpful. And I found along my college path a way to be helpful in the classroom. so in college I started at a tutoring center, really enjoyed it.

Rachael Maves: Hmm.

Rachael Maves: Mmm.

Kristen Mandell: from there went on for my credential and and spent several decades in the classroom and now in administration. So I really, it's all because of her.

Rachael Maves: I love that story and I love to the piece that you highlight of that understanding of a teacher of yes, there's this outcome with cursive that we have to get to, but to be able to really see you as the child to say, but in until we can deal with this piece, like your anxiety or frustration, you're going too fast. We're not going to get to that end outcome, which is just, I think, such a beautiful picture of good teachers.

Kristen Mandell: Exactly.

Kristen Mandell: 100%. Yeah, you were, you nailed it. For sure.

Rachael Maves: So I'd love to hear if you don't mind sharing a little bit more. Maybe you could tell our listeners, especially those who aren't in education, like you run a very different program, an independent study program that's fully remote. I'd love to hear if you could one, just give an overview of what that is and how that's different than traditional programs. But then also I'd love to hear how you ended up in that space. Like what was that trajectory like to go from?

know, classroom teacher, I would assume in like a traditional setting and then now moving into this space.

Kristen Mandell: Yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah, there's, there's, so many years in there. So I'll try to make it quick. It didn't sure happen overnight. It was it was it's been a very long journey of getting here. been with SCFA, Southern California, flux Academy for four years now. So I've already been in this space for quite some time. So let me start with just like who we are, what we do and what makes us unique and different. We're we're a charter we're

Rachael Maves: Hahaha!

Rachael Maves: Mm-hmm.

Rachael Maves: Mm-hmm.

Kristen Mandell: fully non-classroom based and we are independent study. And I always like to say that being one of those things that make us really unique and being all three together makes us super unique. And so basically the biggest difference between us and your traditional school, traditional brick and mortar school is our students work independently in the curriculum at home with a learning coach, which is sometimes the parent but

Rachael Maves: Yeah.

Rachael Maves: Mm-hmm.

Kristen Mandell: It's the adult that is there with them who is supporting them in the home. And so we have an online based curriculum that we use. It guides the students through each piece of each course. And if you've ever done a college class online, it's very similar to that. They have modules. They go through the content within the modules. And after each module, there's a

Rachael Maves: Mm-hmm.

Rachael Maves: Thank

Kristen Mandell: practice that they do. There's formative and summative assessments that are embedded in there. And then they get to move on to the next module after they finish the previous one. So they do that independently at home. But what makes us unique to even independent study is that we also, we as a school offer several hours of live sessions for students. So they get to be on camera with their teacher.

for up to four hours every day where they can actually go through that content face to face with their teacher in their class with their fellow students. It's an option which we strongly recommend because it does lead to greater academic success. But it's a great way to foster that socialization piece, but it's also an exceptional way to get that content to the kids in a way that's digestible for them.

Rachael Maves: Mm-hmm.

Rachael Maves: Mm-hmm.

Rachael Maves: Yeah.

Kristen Mandell: We highly, highly recommend that students attend those live sessions that we offer every single day for four hours. So it also takes that burden off the learning coach that, put your kiddo with the teacher and have the teacher teach them and they're available. So that's what separates us out. How did I get to independent study? How did I get to online?

Rachael Maves: Yeah.

Rachael Maves: Yeah.

Rachael Maves: Yeah.

Kristen Mandell: I've done it all in education. feel like a lot of teachers could say they just wear a lot of hats, right? so I don't know if I could say there's like a very specific way I ended up online and in this space other than luck. Luck and the universe just really wanted me to be here. I'm not sure of another reason, but it has been an amazing journey with this school.

I can 100 % say that I have learned more about myself and about education and the role I'm in now than I have in my other two decades of teaching in the classroom and in my other admin roles. This has just been a phenomenal experience.

Rachael Maves: I love that. That's great. Well, especially in light of your unique context and what you said, think is right. Any one of those things would set you apart, but all three of them together. I mean, that's like a very narrow group of organizations that run in that space. I'd love to hear just a little bit more, Kristen, about like what keeps you up at night as you think about the students that you're seeing and engaging with your staff.

What are those things that really weigh heavy on you?

Kristen Mandell: Yeah, so I think the biggest thing that weighs on me, I wouldn't say weighs on me in a negative way, but it's just, it's always in the back of my mind. It's what drives most of our purpose at SCFA, but it really ties into my personal feelings of education is this balancing act that we have to do between supporting academic success and

Rachael Maves: Hmm.

Kristen Mandell: social and emotional wellbeing. you know, we as educators, right? We know we have a measurable result that has to happen. We have to grow academically and there are a lot of ways we measure that through data and we have to meet those goals. We want to meet those goals. But I feel like a lot of times,

Rachael Maves: Yeah.

Rachael Maves: Yeah.

Kristen Mandell: that social emotional piece, that social emotional wellbeing gets left behind in that drive for academic success. But what really makes me pause and go, okay, I have to find this balance is I think back to my own experience that I was not going to master handwriting unless I got out of my head.

Rachael Maves: Mm-hmm.

Rachael Maves: Yes, that's right.

Rachael Maves: Yeah.

Yeah.

Kristen Mandell: unless I stop thinking I can't do this and I my hand doesn't work like that. Like, I that's what I thought. you know, like, I had to have somebody had to help me get past that, that speed bump of my thinking my hand doesn't function like this. Like, you know, like, I can't, I can't do the that. And so I keep going back to that. And I think, okay, well, we can't

Rachael Maves: Hahaha!

Rachael Maves: you

Rachael Maves: Yep.

Rachael Maves: Yeah. Yep.

Kristen Mandell: get to that academic piece unless we first address the social emotional piece, that's the foundation. And so that's what keeps me up at night. It's how do we continue to address that social emotional piece and constantly be refreshing what we are doing to address it so that we're setting a positive firm foundation for that academic growth? I mean,

Rachael Maves: Yes.

Kristen Mandell: you don't build that foundation and then something can happen and they just get set back academically because something happened in their life that they weren't capable of handling because they didn't have the tools for it. So we are, it's something that we work on here. It's one of our main programs at SCFA is supporting students through social and emotional support. And I think that's been a really big

Rachael Maves: Yeah.

Kristen Mandell: piece of why we've been able to be successful.

Rachael Maves: Yeah, I think that's great. Well, and kind of on that note, I'd love to hear the specifics of like, what are the two things that you guys have really focused on around social emotional support that you feel like are making a difference for your students?

Kristen Mandell: Yeah, yeah. So we were in a really unique situation when we opened. We're a relatively new school. We opened just before the pandemic. So we didn't open in response to the pandemic. We didn't know it was coming, but we opened it just before. And we were a little small school, just kind of getting up and running. And the pandemic hit, the whole world changed.

Rachael Maves: Mm.

wow.

Kristen Mandell: Everybody went remote. And I think a lot of people found us because we had already been established. We had our program set. We weren't scrambling and to no fault of their own, but we weren't scrambling like other schools had to do in that moment. We had already had things set. So I think people found us and saw the stability there. So the result of that was a lot of growth.

Rachael Maves: Yeah.

Kristen Mandell: and so we, we did it. and it, what we found was everybody was just in, in like fight or flight mode, right? We were all, we didn't know what was going on in the world. parents were, were not working or they were working or we didn't know what was going on. And so we all as a team took a pause and went, and we went, yeah, we can't even.

Rachael Maves: Yeah.

Rachael Maves: Yes.

Kristen Mandell: Like I would love to do some math right now, but I've got kids literally panicking because they don't know where they're getting their lunch from. And I've got parents panicking because their refrigerator is empty. They're hungry, they're tired. you know, some of them are losing their housing. I mean, we were dealing with some really significant food insecurity and housing insecurity during that time. So what happened was we all, we,

Rachael Maves: Yeah.

Kristen Mandell: we got together as a small team and we went, what do we do? We got to address this. And so we developed what became the student success team is what we call it now. And so, and that was the name back then too, but we have student success coaches. And so basically what it is, is it's a team of now four individuals and their sole purpose

Rachael Maves: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Rachael Maves: Mmm.

Kristen Mandell: is to make sure that we're addressing the well-being of students and families. So it came from that, the human needs, right? It came from that experience where we just said, there's no way we can talk about testing scores right now. We need to address this basic level, basic needs. And then when we do that, once we get that settled,

Rachael Maves: Yeah, those human names.

Rachael Maves: Mm-hmm.

Kristen Mandell: we can really focus on our academic needs. Now that's not to say we didn't do them in, know, tangent together, right? We did them both together, but as we were building those academic supports, we were also putting in those social emotional supports. you know, basically it was like a stair. You put in a step here of social emotional, then you can build this one, then a social emotional, and then you can build the academic. So it really transformed

Rachael Maves: Sure, yeah.

Rachael Maves: Mm-hmm.

Rachael Maves: Yeah.

Kristen Mandell: into a resource for families who are struggling. And when I say struggling, I mean, in any way, whether it's physically because they become unhoused or, you know, they're in an unstable environment, they can't get food, and it's finding resources for them, right? So our student success coaches, they...

Rachael Maves: Mm-hmm.

Kristen Mandell: know the resources that are out there that are available and they get families connected with those resources.

Rachael Maves: I see. So they're almost liaisons between the community and the school. So their job is to know everything that's possibly available and then as needs arise, they can kind of be the connectors and concierge service almost,

Kristen Mandell: I'm a good guy.

Kristen Mandell: Yup. Yup.

Yeah, there you go. Absolutely. Yeah, it's not as fancy as that. But yeah, right. But that's exactly what it is. mean, they literally, like, imagine you're a parent, right? And you're in a situation where you know, and this has happened, where you know you have two jugs of water left, and you have a loaf of bread and a roasted chicken in your fridge, and that's it.

and that is it and you're not getting any supports for several days and you're panicking, right? You are in a or flight mode. You are not in a space where you're gonna be able to properly find a solution, because you're just like, I just need a solution. So that's where these student success coaches come in and they say, hey, listen, you live in Riverside County. This office and this office can help you to get food services. There is a food bank.

Rachael Maves: Yeah.

Rachael Maves: Yeah.

Rachael Maves: Yeah.

Kristen Mandell: you know, close by, oh, you don't have transportation. Okay, there's these ride services that are available or delivery services that are available. So, you know, it is it is a, it's a liaison. That's exactly what it is. They know what's out there. And they're in a place where they can just offer that support. And even even knowing just knowing that someone is in your corner like that is so helpful for parents.

Rachael Maves: Wow, yeah.

Rachael Maves: Yeah.

Rachael Maves: Yeah.

Rachael Maves: Yeah, yeah.

Kristen Mandell: that alone helps them to just take a breath calm and just say, okay, I've got this, it's gonna be okay. Somebody genuinely cares about what's happening right now. And then we deal with it, we get them, you know, hopefully get them what they need through the services that are available in the county. And then they can come to class and be fed and, and be available to learn once you know, mom has settled, right? Yeah.

Rachael Maves: Yeah.

Yeah.

Rachael Maves: Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

Kristen Mandell: So that's the program that came out of that COVID time that has now, gosh, are we four years out? Yeah, right. Four years out now have developed it into what is now the Student Success Team, which isn't now so much of a panic, fight or flight mode, but really more of a resource. So they've now developed what's called the Learning Coach Corner.

Rachael Maves: Yeah.

Kristen Mandell: and this team puts together different learning opportunities for parents. You you've got a, we have K-12, so we've got parents and all kinds of folks and a lot of our parents have teenagers for the first time, right? And they don't know what to do, right? Yeah, exactly, navigating the teenagers. And so our student success coaches,

Rachael Maves: Mm-hmm.

Rachael Maves: Yeah, I mean just that by itself navigating the teen years like where's the handbook?

Kristen Mandell: they have this learning coach corner, parents can come to them and say like, my teenager won't do his homework. I need tips and tricks. What do I do? How do I help them get motivated? What do I even do right now? And, and you know, they're, they just help. They just say, Hey, let's take a breath. Here's some tips and tricks that we, you know, we, we know in education that work with kiddos and you know, have you tried

Rachael Maves: Yes. Yeah. Yes.

Rachael Maves: Yes.

Rachael Maves: Yes.

Kristen Mandell: positive reinforcement, you know, the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. And, and again, it's not like they're solving the problems for the parent, but they're just showing them that there's someone in their corner, that they can go somewhere to talk to someone who genuinely cares. And that alone provides that support that a lot of parents just need to know that somebody is there and I could, I could just talk to them.

Rachael Maves: Yes.

Rachael Maves: Yes, that's right.

Rachael Maves: Well, what I love about what you've put together, Kristen, is, I mean, really it's somebody that you can be in partnership to navigate a lot of really complex things. know, like my husband works in Medicare and helps seniors navigate Medigap insurance. And I did not understand how complex that is until getting this insight now from listening to his stories. And it's this.

Kristen Mandell: So.

Rachael Maves: wow, to have someone as this needs naturally arise at a school system that can just be side by side with you to say, yeah, okay, I hear what you're going through and I can help simplify this and normalize this and show you the places to connect. I I just love it. I think that's brilliant. Such a great idea.

Kristen Mandell: Mm-hmm.

Kristen Mandell: It's it's it has become a very positive place for our families to spend time with with these coaches. They are the kind of sweetest people you could ever imagine and they are truly truly there. They are dedicated to to ensuring that these families feel supported.

Rachael Maves: Yeah, I see why.

Rachael Maves: Yeah.

Rachael Maves: Yeah.

Kristen Mandell: And I am so lucky to count them as colleagues, but friends. They just genuinely care. it's felt by the families too. I think that's a really important piece is it's authentic. So the families feel it and they feel comfortable with them.

Rachael Maves: Yeah.

Yeah.

Rachael Maves: Sure.

Rachael Maves: Yeah, yeah, I think that's great. Well, this is going to be our last question. I'm interested to hear what your response is given everything that we've talked about so far. What question in education are we not asking that we really should be?

Kristen Mandell: Yeah, so.

That's an interesting one. I'm a data girl. I love the data. And so I'm constantly asking questions and I'm constantly thinking, what do we need to know what's missing from the table and who's missing from the table that we need to address? And I think that's the question is who's missing from the table? And the...

Rachael Maves: Hmm. Yeah.

Kristen Mandell: What I think, this is just my opinion, but I think it's, I think a lot of times the students and the families get overlooked at the decision-making table for schools. I really see any school, any school that's out there, whether you're a brick and mortar, a non-classroom based, you are a community of people.

Rachael Maves: Yeah.

Rachael Maves: Mm-hmm.

Kristen Mandell: We have community partners that we work with and that's our teachers, our literal vendors and people that we work with. But I feel like the parents and the students get overlooked in that community and it's sort of taken for granted. Like, yeah, they're part of the community. Of course, they're part of the community. But is their voice being heard? Because we're doing things that impact them every day and we want to make sure that

Rachael Maves: Yeah.

Rachael Maves: No.

Kristen Mandell: what we're doing is actually helpful. So we're making decisions on their behalf. So we want to make sure that they have input and say into what those decisions are. And I think that's an important piece for any school is to remember that we can't exist exclusively without the other. we need the students and the parents, they need us. So we need to have a kind partnership with each other where we're saying,

Rachael Maves: Yeah.

Rachael Maves: Yeah.

Rachael Maves: That's right. Yeah.

Rachael Maves: Yeah.

Rachael Maves: That's right.

Kristen Mandell: right, where we're saying, hey, we want to offer you the service. What services would be helpful to you? Right? Right? It seems obvious, right? But I think that sometimes that can get overlooked. And so we, you know, we're trying to incorporate more and more of that into our school. I'm, you know, I'm going to be doing my best to make sure that our students

Rachael Maves: Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Kristen Mandell: and our families' voices are heard and that we are incorporating what they feel would be helpful to them, you know, within obviously within reason into our school. And I think that student success, that is really where the student success team came from is we heard from parents that they were struggling, confused about how things work, confused about where to get resources.

Rachael Maves: Yeah.

Rachael Maves: Yes.

Rachael Maves: Yes. Yeah.

Kristen Mandell: panicked in general about just life. And we would have, we would have parents come and go, I don't understand graduation, which in and of itself is a complicated thing. Right? Like,

Rachael Maves: Seriously, yes, as someone who just had somebody graduate two years ago and my middle now is about to graduate, I'm like, good night. There's so many pieces to this and I'm an educator.

Kristen Mandell: Yup.

Kristen Mandell: Yeah, it's a lot. It's a lot. know. Trust me, I know. It's a lot. And so we heard parents saying, yeah, these are things everybody takes for granted. Your kid graduates. How? We had parents who didn't realize, we had parents who didn't realize you don't just graduate, right? You have to earn credits to graduate. And that was like a big surprise. now, so now we've

Rachael Maves: you

Rachael Maves: Yeah. Yeah.

Rachael Maves: Yeah.

Yeah.

Kristen Mandell: We have an eighth grade orientation that all eighth graders are required to attend before that, maybe a week before school ends, right before they go into ninth grade, where we tell them all this stuff about high school. But they, and we say, learning coaches come listen to this, please. And we work, you know, we try to get as many parents on board as possible, but we tell them, Hey, you, you in the past, you went from six to seven, seven to eight, right?

Rachael Maves: Sure, yeah.

Rachael Maves: Yeah.

Kristen Mandell: Well, now it's a little different. gotta earn credits. It's different. You have to earn credits and there's a certain amount of credits and not just that, but it's certain credits in certain classes that you have to pay. And it's different if you wanna go to a UC or a Cal State or a two year, know, it's all, that is so confusing. And it's something that a lot of our parents don't know about.

Rachael Maves: Yeah, it's different. Yeah, yeah.

Rachael Maves: Yeah, that's right. And it affects your trajectory and it has a ripple effect. And yeah, absolutely.

Rachael Maves: That's right.

Kristen Mandell: We heard them say, we don't get it. And so we went, great, let's figure this out. Let's do it for an orientation and give you this information, front load it for you at the very beginning. And then after that, they meet with our academic counselor every year to keep going on their path so that they're supported. I think that is something that I am excited about for the future is continuing to.

Rachael Maves: Yeah.

Yeah.

Rachael Maves: Yeah.

Kristen Mandell: bring the students and the families to the table for their decision making.

Rachael Maves: Yeah, I love that. Well, kudos to you, Kristen, because it takes a lot of leadership to be able to base what you're doing and how you're thinking about things and having that set the tone for your system. So yeah, that's just great. Yeah. Well, I want to thank you so much for your time today. It's been a pleasure to connect with you and to hear your story and about the amazing work that you're doing with your students and the families.

Kristen Mandell: Thank you. Yeah.

Kristen Mandell: Thank you so much. It a pleasure. Thank you for having me.

Rachael Maves: A friendly reminder that PARSEC Education's updated early bird sale for PARSEC partners is live until September 30th. Partners get 25 % off tickets for the 2026 Measure What We Value Summit happening in Fresno, California. Don't miss this limited time offer. Secure your tickets now at parsecsummit.com.

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This transcript was created from the episode's captions and lightly edited for readability. It may contain small errors; please refer to the audio for exact wording.