Connecting leadership and students: Shelby County superintendent Lewis Brooks launches podcast

As the superintendent of Shelby County Schools, Lewis Brooks said he aims to be many things, but one thing he doesn’t want to be is unapproachable. When he first ran for superintendent, Brooks said there was this idea that the superintendent didn’t listen to his constituents.

“One of the things that’s always interesting to me is that sometimes people won’t talk to me,” he said. “I’ll go to places, and I’ll get stared at, so I’ll just make my way over to people and start talking. I don’t want people to think I’m unapproachable, because I’m super approachable.”

One of the first things he did when he took office in January 2019 was start an advisory committee of teachers from every school zone. The group is called VOICE, which stands for vision, openness, insight, communication and engagement.

“We had meetings with teacher groups from every community, and we talked about things that are important to them: things that they would like to see the system do, things that we are doing well, things that they feel like we need to do better,” he said. “We want to be open and transparent.”

Another initiative that Brooks recently launched is his video podcast, “One-on-One With Dr. Brooks.”

He said students throughout the district are the most important stakeholders, and having a podcast is his way to connect to them. As the leader of the district, Brooks said he doesn't want to be disconnected from the students and decided to start a podcast because he felt it would be something that would be engaging for them.

“This whole podcast idea and our advisory committee idea connects me with families and communities,” he said. “ It allows me to hear thoughts and opinions about things we’re doing in our district. It gives me some thoughts on how we can be better, things we are doing well. It really highlights that we are all interconnected here, and we’re doing things with kids.”

The first podcast he recorded was centered around March Madness and featured two basketball players from Oak Mountain High School, Wilder Evers and Brady Dunn. Brooks said he’s been watching the boys play since they were 12 years old.

“They shared some stories with me about growing up together, what they like about each other and their state championship run,” he said. “We talked about school, their favorite teachers and what their futures look like.”

After the interview, Brooks and the boys shot some hoops. Brooks played basketball for the University of Montevallo and was recently inducted into the school’s hall of fame.

Other recent podcasts include Emily Key, another Oak Mountain student who interviewed Brooks when she was an eighth grader. Now a senior, Brooks said the two have kept in touch over the years and added that she is an “amazing kid.”

 Another one coming up will feature a student from Helena High School who switched from playing video games to reading books. Brooks said the podcast will explore that and what that’s meant to him along with the teachers that are important to him and what his high school experience has been like and what’s next.

While this year has focused on high school students, the plan is to move to middle and elementary schools in the future.

To find guests, Brooks said he reaches out to counselors and principals to find students who are interesting and do different things at their school.

“They share interesting stories with me so I have a platform to get them talking,” Brooks said. “And it’s fun.”

He said he is grateful to the media relations/public relations team Cindy Warner and Bryan Pope, who were key in securing some of the equipment for what he calls “a pretty big production.”

Warner said one group that isn’t afraid to approach Brooks are the kids. They just naturally gravitate to him and a lot of times they’re curious about who he is, she said.

“What I admire about Dr. Brooks is that he is very relationship-oriented, and I think he really wanted to maintain those relationships and be present in the schools and have the kids know him not just as the superintendent, but know him personally,” Warner said. “What I love about this podcast is giving them a personal direct one-on-one connection to him.”

Brooks said the advisory committee and podcast are about telling their story, which he feels is important.

“We can't necessarily depend on others to tell it because they’re going to create a narrative they want to create,” he said. “For me, I want people to really get an opportunity to know our kids and know what’s really going on in our schools. To be able to share stories with [the students] and them share stories with me, it’s made it a really cool podcast.”