As an assistant principal, David Schexnaydre thought a lot about how he’d communicate with students and build a healthy school climate when he finally became a principal.
Principals and teachers, he knew, could do all the right things, by creating a wide array of extra-curricular programs for students, starting a ton of clubs, and crafting a strong mission statement. But many times students and families don’t even know those efforts exist.
So about five years ago, Schexnaydre, the principal of Harry Hurst Middle School in St. Charles Parish in Destrehan, La., started recording short YouTube videos that students watch in homeroom on Monday mornings—a departure from the stodgy newsletter and intercom announcements.
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The Monday videos—most are around five minutes long—are light and breezy. They cover what’s coming up that week inside and outside of the school; lessons tied to one of the school’s core values of honesty, unity, respect, self-motivation, and tolerance; the growth mindset mantra of the month; and other things happening in school that Schexnaydre wants to address.
“I thought about reaching the students where they were,” Schexnaydre, the state’s 2023 principal of the year,
said. “If you’re a kid, you probably spend some time on YouTube. You probably spend some time on some type of social media. That was kind of my approach: I wanted to make a video for our kids every week, where I can talk to them about the things that were going on in our school, the ways they can be involved, the things we were doing to help them—just some positive messaging.”
The YouTube videos—they are mostly weekly, unless Schexnaydre’s work schedule gets too hectic—have gained a following in the school, with students now coming up to Schexnaydre in the hallways and lunchroom and suggesting new ideas.
Last December, on students’ recommendation, Schexnaydre conquered another frontier: he took the funny bits from the YouTube videos to TikTok. The resulting TikTok clips have gotten more than 1.7 million views.
A short comedic clip of Schexnaydre, dressed in a green polo shirt andkhakis, showing up at school without his ID to stress why it’s important for students to have their IDs at all times, had 300,000 views. Another of Schexnaydre dancing in the empty school hallway after students left for Christmas break last year notched 1.3 million views.
Using videos to improve school culture
There’s always an overt, though not preachy, lesson in the longer YouTube videos.
A few years ago, Schexnaydre came across a clip of Drew Brees, the former New Orleans Saints quarterback, practicing alone on a football field. Schexnaydre found a way to tie Brees’ commitment to the school’s motivation theme and include it in the Monday video.
“He was going through repetitions and throwing the ball by himself—that’s how motivated he was to ensure that the Saints won that week,” he said.
“Whatever the teachers are doing in the classroom, I want the kids to hear some of the same things from me,” Schexnaydre added.He shared his 8th grade report card, from 1996 to 1997, along with the comments from his teachers, in the Nov. 14 episode.
“My grades were not good,” he warned students, before the card appeared on the screen, with handwritten comments.
“David needs to take his work more seriously!” “Needs more self-control with his talking!” “Less play, more work!”
But there was a bigger lesson in revealing his old report card.
“Why am I showing you this?” he asked. “I want you to know that I struggled, maybe just like some of you are. These comments from my teachers show you that I struggled with grades and behavior. But even though my teachers corrected me and held me accountable, they cared about me, and they were pushing me to do better. Keep that in mind as we move forward in the school year, and remember that we care about you and we want the best for you even if you aren’t at your best right now.”
In another episode, students got to see the multiple flubs and behind-the-scenes outtakes from making the Monday morning video—proving that the principal doesn’t always get it right initially.
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