SchoolStory by ROE #30
SchoolStory is a ten-episode podcast series brought to you by Matthew Hickam, Regional Superintendent of ROE #30. The project is the audio companion piece to SchoolStory Magazine, and is intended to create greater awareness of our schools in the public mind and to start important conversations with and between members of our communities. SchoolStory is produced by Journey12, whose mission is to create greater connection between local schools and the communities they serve. In this series, we explore the role public schools play—not just in educating children, but in holding our communities together.
Recorded across Southern Illinois and hosted by Craig Williams, these conversations bring together superintendents, regional leaders, educators, and partners who are doing the quiet, complicated work of leading schools in a time of change. This is not a podcast about slogans or silver bullets. It’s about proximity. Stewardship. Dignity. And the deeply human decisions that shape what school feels like for students, families, and communities long before the data ever catches up.
Across the series, we explore why small schools still matter in an era of consolidation, how collaboration strengthens—not weakens—local identity, and what it really means to prepare students for a workforce that no longer fits a single narrative. We talk candidly about the future of teaching, the evolving convergence of trades and technology, and the invisible labor schools carry as hubs of care, connection, and continuity.
You’ll hear honest conversations about equity and access as lived experiences, not abstractions. About leading amid public pushback without losing integrity. About mental health as essential to learning. About special education as a promise, not a program. And throughout it all, we return to a central truth: when schools don’t tell their stories, something else fills that space—and it’s rarely complete or fair.
SchoolStory exists to share the important discussions local district leaders are having with one another—openly, thoughtfully, and across district lines—so communities can better understand what’s happening inside their schools, why it matters, and who it’s for. These are conversations rooted in Southern Illinois, but the questions they raise—about trust, belonging, leadership, and the future of public education—resonate far beyond any one region.
At its heart, SchoolStory is an act of stewardship. A belief that schools are not just institutions, but human systems. And that telling their stories—carefully, consistently, and with integrity—is essential to the health of the communities they serve.
We hope you’ll enjoy hearing from this group of hardworking leaders — all of whom are our Southern Illinois neighbors — from across the Region.
SchoolStory by ROE #30
Meeting Students Where They Are Through Equity, Access, and Dignity
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Today’s conversation is one that reaches far beyond policy or buzzwords—and into the lived reality of what school feels like for children and families navigating difference, belonging, and opportunity.
We’re talking about equity and access—but not as an abstract framework. We’re talking about it as something you can see in a lunchroom. Feel in a hallway. Witness in the quiet courage of a child being fully themselves for the first time in a place that says, you belong here.
In this episode, I’m joined by two extraordinary leaders: Dr. Andrea Evers, Superintendent of Murphysboro Unit District 186, and Dr. Yaa Appiah McNulty, Superintendent of Unity Point School District. Together, they lead in communities where diversity isn’t a talking point—it’s the daily fabric of school life.
You’ll hear us explore how schools become safe harbors in shifting cultural tides, how access is created through partnerships with universities and unions, how leadership sometimes means standing firmly in uncomfortable moments, and why the strength of a school community might best be understood through an unlikely metaphor: a sheet of OSB—ordinary-looking, imperfect, but remarkably strong when every strand is pressed together with intention.
This is a conversation about pressure, possibility, and the quiet work of building schools that don’t just educate—but protect, expand, and dignify the lives entrusted to them.