WEBVTT

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Hamilton County Schools is excited to launch

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Let's Talk HCS. This is a bi -weekly Hamilton

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County Schools podcast. I'm David Carroll. I'll

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be guest hosting throughout the year. And we

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are excited about doing this. Dr. Robertson,

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I know this is something you've looked forward

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to. Why are we doing this podcast? Our communications

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department has been pushing me for a while to

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do this, and I've been quite resistant. But what

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we've learned is that our community wants to

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be engaged. They want to know what's going on

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in Hamilton County, and we thought that this

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would be. a really good avenue to do it in an

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authentic way to engage with them, but also with

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your segment to do it in a timely manner when

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things are happening and to really get information

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out, but also to get questions in and get those

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answered. And this is kind of a pivotal time

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for Hamilton County Schools. There's a lot going

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on. Is that one of the reasons you want to do

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it now? That for sure. But what we learned last

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spring is I felt like we've got a lot of people

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in this community that want to be engaged, that

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want to be a part of Hamilton County schools

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and know what's going on, even if they don't

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have kids in the district. And so we felt like

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this is an opportunity to, again, engage them

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in a real way, but also to find out more about

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our students. We have some amazing students.

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We have some amazing teachers. And so in between

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your every six week real talk session, we'll

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go out to schools. go out to the community, talk

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to our partners, and try to get some information

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out. And I'm going to just roll out numbers that

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I really don't know for sure, but you have 75

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-something schools, you have thousands of employees,

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45 ,000 students, and I know sometimes some of

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them feel like they're on the outside looking

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in. You think it's important to kind of give

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them an inside look? Absolutely. I think people...

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misunderstand how complex this district is when

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you're running a school district for 45 ,000

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kids with close to 6 ,000 employees. There's

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lots of ins and outs. And I know in the first

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episode with you, we'll probably talk about the

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opening of school. And that's a really good example

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of how complex this district is. So it's going

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to be an interesting podcast. Let's talk about

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the format. What do you have in mind down the

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road? So we've got a couple of different sections.

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You're going to lead real talk. And we thought

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that you would be. a great host for this. Number

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one, because the community trusts you and you're

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going to ask some hard questions, which is what

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we want. In between that, we're going to use

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a bi -weekly segment to engage with the community,

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to go do a podcast at schools, to get to know

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some of our kids, to get to know some of our

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teachers. We're also going to go out to our community

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and talk to our partners, talk to our business

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leaders, maybe even talk to some elected officials.

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to get their opinions and thoughts on public

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education. We know that public education is the

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foundation of this community, and we want to

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make sure that we're getting out there and making

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sure that we're communicating in an effective

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way with this community. Well, I'm looking forward

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to this. Once every six weeks, I'll be hosting

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Real Talk with Dr. Robertson. I'll be asking

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the superintendent some timely questions related

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to what's going on with the district, so you

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know every episode is going to be different.

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And we're going to kick it off with our first

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full -length episode on August 4th. And how can

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people listen in? They can listen in wherever

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they listen to their podcast on Apple, any form

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that you do. We're also going to post it on our

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website and put it out on social media. So any

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place that you regularly listen to podcasts,

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you can find it or you can find it on our social

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media and website. Well, Justin, I'm excited

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about doing this. I know people will want to

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hear more about the glamorous, rewarding, stress

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-free world of being a superintendent and all

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the things that come with it. So we'll get started

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soon. Thanks for doing this, David. you