It is a fun way to recognize and reward good deeds at West Hills Middle School and it has become a big hit.
On this episode of the Supercast, find out why a local vinyl record shop has established a presence with a “Pop Up” inside West Hills Middle, creating a nostalgic vibe and rewarding students for positive behavior.
Audio Transcription
Tim Brooks:
I had a line that probably went 30 yards of kids waiting to just buy this one record from one little crate.
David Sherwood:
It's like he got me into records and got my whole family involved.
Tim Brooks:
They are highly sought after commerce because of things like this. Because of some of these other binders you see here like the coins. These are all things that kids can buy only with Positive Paws.
[Music]
Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host Superintendent Anthony Godfrey It is a fun way to recognize and reward good deeds at West Hills Middle School and it has become a big hit.
On this episode of the Supercast find out why a local vinyl record shop has established a presence with a “Pop Up” shop inside West Hills Middle School, creating a nostalgic vibe and rewarding students for positive behavior.
We're here with David Sherwood now to talk about your involvement with this store to help motivate students. Thanks for joining us.
David Sherwood:
It's good to be here. We've been longtime supporters and we're so excited to be here today.
Anthony Godfrey:
I think it's so cool that you're doing this now. I have been out. I have purchased records from you.
David Sherwood:
I know that you look familiar
Anthony Godfrey:
There are some 12-inch 80s singles that I was pretty excited to get at some of those Daybreak sales. It's amazing to me the collection of records that I found as I was crate digging. Going through those boxes and boxes of records.
David Sherwood:
I feel like there's something for everybody if you dig deep enough.
Anthony Godfrey:
There is, there absolutely is. Tell me about how you got involved and how you and the broader vinyl-loving community have been a part of this.
David Sherwood:
So I've been collecting records since I was a teenager, back before it was cool. But now, the past four years, have been doing this as a business. So during the pandemic, I was a travel agent and the pandemic just kind of wrecked us. So we're like, we need to do something to make money. We started selling records and the way we got involved in all this is my mom is actually a first-grade teacher in your school district.
Anthony Godfrey:
Wow, where does she teach?
David Sherwood:
Ridge View Elementary. She's a first-grade teacher.
Anthony Godfrey:
That's awesome
David Sherwood:
Linda Sherwood.
Anthony Godfrey:
That's our K-3 school now that just has those four grades.
David Sherwood:
And so the thing that got us started though was my mom actually a couple of years ago went through cancer. While going through this our group of record collectors rallied behind it and they wanted to do something to give back to the community. So it started with– we partnered with Primary Children's. We decided to donate and do some fundraisers for Primary Children's and then that evolved into we had extra records. We met Tim and he's like, you know, we've started this store in our school, it would be fun to put those records up for the kids. So that's kind of how all that came about.
Anthony Godfrey:
I love that. It's really exciting that the record-loving community and it's a great community. I've been part of a record-loving community for a very long time. But just the fact that you pulled other people from outside of the school that want to help and want to support and want to do something is really remarkable. I always say that, you know as the superintendent I'm supposed to be supportive of students. I'm supposed to be supportive of employees. But when people go out of their way to contribute and to really support students at being at their best that means the world. It's really a different kind of support that has a really, really big impact.
David Sherwood:
It's so funny that our group is so like– they are the most amazing people, kind-hearted. We actually had to hold them back because they wanted to donate more than we could handle. So we have to pace ourselves so Tim doesn't get overwhelmed here at the school.
Anthony Godfrey:
We love that. The exciting thing for me is that not only do students try to be at their best at school because of the motivations that you and the community have provided but also they start to love records and they connect with each other and that broader community as well. I think Tim is a perfect example of somebody who supports the music community
David Sherwood:
The reason I kind of got involved with Tim is I was one day at Costa Vida getting lunch. This girl behind the counter saw my Daybreak Record shirt on and she exclaimed loudly “Do you know Tim Brooks?” and I was like, this is so weird. How does she know me? She said “I bought records from the stores--the record store at the school” and she's like “He got me into records and got my whole family involved”. And she eventually came into our store in Sandy and ended up buying some records from us.
Anthony Godfrey:
Well, I love that and it does create a sense of community. The shirt you're wearing with the samurai, explain the logo to me here.
David Sherwood:
So part of what we did is we actually flew to Japan and sourced records from Japan.
Anthony Godfrey:
Wow.
David Sherwood:
So the records from Japan are higher quality and people were loving them here in the U.S. So we went to 55 record stores in Japan–
Anthony Godfrey:
Holy cow.
David Sherwood:
–and shipped back almost a whole pallet. You know the Opie? So yeah, I love that.
Anthony Godfrey:
So you shipped those pallets over–
David Sherwood:
And because everybody wants something that's not around. So people in the US want Japanese records people in Japan want U.S. records. It's kind of funny like that.
Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, I see. That's very clever. Well, you've you've you've really raised the I don't know awareness of vinyl and and the pleasures of vinyl. You opened a store recently in Sandy. Talk to us about that.
David Sherwood:
We're called Daybreak Records, but we're out in Sandy. So we got an opportunity out there we couldn't turn down. Partnering with a friend of mine out there who has a bookstore. So it's a combo book and record and then we also do our weekly online things on Facebook. So we do a live record auction and then a buy-it-now post.
Anthony Godfrey:
So where can people find the auction and the store?
David Sherwood:
So go to Daybreak Records on Facebook. It's a group. It's a lot of where our charity stuff is done, too so that's a fun one to join and then out in Sandy we have our store. It's in Union Square.
Anthony Godfrey:
Fantastic. Which brings us to this huge collection of records that you and and the group have donated in addition to our assistant principal here Tim Brooks.
David Sherwood:
I'm excited to be here. I can't wait for you guys to see the store.
Anthony Godfrey:
Now I have to tell you, the first record that caught my eye was not the very cool Beatles record. Not the very cool Taylor Swift record, but the K-Tel Disco Rocket two record set. Now I have bought K-Tel records from you. Yeah, I absolutely have. So 12 inch 80 singles, but I've also bought K-Tel records because these are the ones that I saw on TV that I thought if only I could afford the shipping and handling from Ronco to get this K-Tel record.
David Sherwood:
You should have done the penny deals they did back in the–
Anthony Godfrey:
I did!
David Sherwood:
You did?
Anthony Godfrey:
Yes. And then and then the $9 record or cassette showed up the next month and I thought “Oh, yeah I was supposed to cancel this What am I going to do with this Don Henley CD? I guess I'll listen to it. Hey, wait a minute. It's really good.” I said CD. It was a cassette I'm making myself sound younger than I am. But yeah, the thing about K-Tel records and greatest hits generally was for me growing up It was like it was basically a bargain. I was thinking how many hits can I get for $10 instead of all the dross that might be included on an album.
David Sherwood:
I love a compilation of greatest hits Those are great for me.
Anthony Godfrey:
So I love that. Some record collectors are a bit disdainful of the compilation.
David Sherwood:
I'm not your average record collector. Neither is Tim. Tim has excellent taste.
Anthony Godfrey:
Let's talk with Tim. I've also bought records from you Tim out there at Daybreak in in subsequent years. So let's talk about the store and why you set this up and how it works for students.
Tim Brooks:
Well, that's a good question. About five or six years ago one of my daughters asked for a record player for a Christmas gift, and she asked for an Abbey Road album. At that time in my life I had no records because I had sold them all away because I was into the CDs and then digital.
Anthony Godfrey:
So you converted from vinyl all the way to CDs.
Tim Brooks;
Yeah, and then I converted back because once she got that record player on Christmas morning, I just started yearning for one myself. So I started buying records and then I saw David across the street at the biannual Daybreak Yard Sales selling records. I went over there and I bought a few and started accumulating my own collection. Then I would sometimes buy a better version of an album and so I'd have two of the same record. I'm like, “Well, I need to get rid of this one, why don't I do what David does? I'll just sell some records from my front yard.” So I did that and it just kind of snowballed.
When I used to work at Fort Herriman Middle School we had a school store over there. And then again at Mountain Creek Middle School in South Jordan and we would sell typical little trinkets and things to the kids. Bracelets, pencil sharpeners, erasers and fun stuff like that. And I thought “I’ve got some records in my own collection I really don't want. I don't want to take them to the thrift store, that just hurts too much to donate them.”
Anthony Godfrey:
I cannot donate records. I can't do it.
Tim Brooks:
I brought it. I brought one —
Anthony Godfrey:
I’d donate my car before I’d donate records.
Tim Brooks:
So I brought one crate to the school store and just put it out and see what the students wanted. And I was asking three of the good behavior cards. Little cards for good behavior. I was asking three cards for records.
Anthony Godfrey:
So you earn three cards and you could go buy a record if you wanted.
Tim Brooks:
Yeah, they were junky old records. Scratched, not very popular and I had a line that probably went 30 yards of kids waiting just to buy these one record from one little crate. I was like, “This is awesome! Okay, they really like this.” Next week we upped the price to five cards and it tempered things down a little bit. I kind of did a little–
Anthony Godfrey:
Dynamic pricing.
Tim Brooks:
Yes, dynamic pricing and it just snowballed from there. Then I told David about that and he said “I've got some old records I'm not moving at all” and David has brought me crate after crate after crate after crate. I used to say he gave me hundreds of records. It's got to be in the thousands now. It's got to be in the thousands. I've done the math on it, two or three thousand maybe.
Anthony Godfrey:
I love that. It's such a great support.
Tim Brooks:
And so we sell them, and then here at the store I have–if you buy one it costs five cards, if you buy three it goes to twelve. I just go through the pricing of whether it's an LP, which is the 12 inch 33 and 1/3 records or the smaller 45 7 inch records.
Anthony Godfrey:
This is such a it's physical, tactile inter-personal sort of experience that's made possible through all these donations. Do any of the kids try to haggle?
Tim Brooks:
Yes, and I say “Sorry dude. Nope, I’ve got other people. I’ve already given you a screaming good deal on this.” Some of the things that I've been thinking about this over the years, there's so many different things we teach about vinyl records. You've got to be economical if you want to buy a mass amount and get them for cheaper. The history that's in all these records. David donated about a year ago of probably about 20 or 30 vinyl records of poetry, just spoken narration. We put those in there. There's their stuff about you know patriotic music there. I have some old records that are just dedicated to Civil War music. These records introduce the kids to something that they're not typically listening to on their portable electronic devices. There are genres in here they've never heard before like opera or yacht rock.
Anthony Godfrey:
Well, yacht rock. Yacht rock. That's a whole separate episode of the podcast.
Tim Brooks:
Yes, we need to do that.
Anthony Godfrey:
Stay with us. When we come back we'll have more on the big vinyl record comeback and how students at West Hills are lining up and going all in on vinyl records.
Never miss an episode of the Supercast by liking and subscribing on your favorite podcasting platform. Find transcripts for this episode and others at supercast.jordandistrict.org.
Break:
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Anthony Godfrey:
So tell me, please, please tell me that people are choosing records based on the look of the album cover.
Tim Brooks:
They are. A lot of times a student will buy a record and I said “Why are you buying this Ellie?” and she'll say “Cuz it's a good-looking cover.”
Anthony Godfrey:
Yes
Tim Brooks:
Or they’ll say “I don't even have a record player, but I'm just gonna put it up on my wall.”
Anthony Godfrey:
I love that. I've discovered so many bands just by saying this album cover looks cool. In the 80s. I discovered the Housemartins because I thought the Housemartins, how would a band sound that has the name the Housemartins? And now I have every single note they've ever recorded.
Tim Brooks:
Yeah, yeah, one of the things too, that a lot of listeners might not know is it used to be that one or two kids at a school would have a record player. There are so many kids who have record players now. It is a resurgence. There are tons of kids who buy the records because they know they have a way to play it at home. Like last month which was Christmas time. I brought out some crate that was just Christmas-related records, and there were some kids who were going through that but other kids were going through and saying “I'm buying this Neil Diamond record or this Andy Williams record because my grandpa liked this music when he was younger and I'm gonna give it to my grandpa for a Christmas gift”
Anthony Godfrey:
That's so cool.
Tim Brooks:
It was really, really cool. One of the things I love about these is I'll talk with students that come up to me and say”Mr. Brooks, what record should I get?” I said “Well, what are you interested in? What genre?” and we'll talk about that. Sometimes it'll be a particular artist that has great deep lyrical content, literary content in their lyrics. And there's so much literary analysis available with these records.
Anthony Godfrey:
And I think that's an important thing to talk with kids about because interpreting works of art and getting the most out of a work of art shouldn't be reserved to the dusty classics. It ought to be I don't know, something that students can— they need the skills to interact in a meaningful way with the pop culture they're going to be exposed to.
Tim Brooks:
And they can relate to it.
Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah. How do students earn these cards? These good behavior cards. Tell me again what they're called? Positive Paws?
Tim Brooks:
Our school calls them Positive Paws because we are the Wildcats and these are paws. We emphasize that the three-pronged approach of our school, which is Respect, Responsibility, and Safety. But I will often do this for anything. Like if the kids are playing with sporting equipment and they come back in and bring the sporting equipment that they borrowed I'll give them a card. Teachers will circulate up and down the aisles students who are on task can receive a card. You know actively and appropriately participating, get a card. Showing good effort in the class, showing improvement, all sorts of things like that. These cards have now become highly sought-after commerce. Because of things like this, because of some of these other binders, you see here like the coins, the baseball cards, the Pokemon cards, the paper money, these are all things that kids can buy only with the Positive Paws.
Anthony Godfrey:
Hmm, very nice.
Time Brooks:
And one of the things we do is, is it alright if I take a quick little tangent?
Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah, please.
Time Brooks:
Some of the coins and the paper money, I will deliberately price them high. So I've got coins from all over the world. I found a coin dealer who gave me a screaming good deal on it. I tell them that if they buy the coin, there's a price on the back of each coin, then if they buy the coinm if they fill out a little paper about that coin's history I will give them a 50% refund on what they paid for the coin.
Anthony Godfrey:
You've thought about every angle.
Tim Brooks:
It's so much fun.
Anthony Godfrey:
To make this is a great experience.
Tim Brooks:
We want to suck them into learning. Suck them into learning.
Anthony Godfrey:
That's awesome. Okay, before the students come in tell me one record that you wore out you listen to it so much. You had to replace it because you'd listen to it so many times.
Tim Brooks:
For me it was Abbey Road, baby. The Beatles Abbey Road.
Anthony Godfrey:
Well done sir.
Tim Brooks:
Over and over and over. Side two is immortal. It's etched in my mind. I don't have to listen to it. I can just look at the record and I start hearing it in my mouth. It's so good.
Anthony Godfrey:
And how about for you?
David Sherwood:
I mean, I'm a Beatles fan and I think that's why Tim and I connected. But the other one for me was probably Pearl Jam Ten. It's just the grunge error was my era. Like that changed music and created alternate rock and so for me that was the one for me.
That album, that was a seismic shift in music. Like wait, music can do this and it can sound like this? Yeah, love it. Great choices. Okay, let's let's let's talk to some students as they come in.
You want Beatles records? What do you like about the Beatles?
Student 1:
I've listened to them since I was really young with my grandpa. We actually bought, me and my friend bought two last week. We got, uh, I can't remember which ones we got but we got two and it was really cool.
Anthony Godfrey:
Do you have a favorite Beatles song?
Student 1:
I like it “I Want to Hold Your Hand”.
Anthony Godfrey:
That's a great one. That is a great one, a classic. How about you two? I see your Taylor Swift shirt, are you hoping for this Taylor Swift Red record?
Student 2:
Yeah.
Anthony Godfrey:
Are you both fans?
Student 2:
Yeah.
Anthony Godfrey:
So the Taylor Swift, is that an auction or how can you get the Taylor Swift?
Student 2:
I’m pretty sure it’s an auction
Anthony Godfrey:
Are there other records you've bought already that you've enjoyed from the store here?
Student 2:
Midnight Rain.
Anthony Godfrey:
Midnight Rain Is that on the new record?
Student 2:
Um, it's on “Midnights” it’s one of her new albums.
Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, the previous one, not the most recent Poets one but the one before, very good. I like “Mean”, that's a good one. I mean, and “Cruel Summer” but everyone likes that one. Nice shirt. Zoe, talk to me about what you think of this record store.
Zoe:
I really like it because there's like a lot of vintage ones and like ones that like collectors have but they're like really cheap, so like they're worth more than what I bought them for here.
Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah, it's great that people have donated them to make that possible. Tell me about some of the records you've bought that you've been really excited about.
Zoe:
I have a couple of Elvis ones. Those ones were like, those are probably one of the most worth lot. And then I have Summery Oldsman.
Anthony Godfrey:
Oh really?
Zoe:
Yeah.
Anthony Godfrey:
Wow.
Zoe:
I have Paper Roses, that one’s nice. So I have like a bunch of other ones that had like cool cover art.
Anthony Godfrey:
I love that you appreciate the older music and the cover art. Is that sometimes why you're interested in a record? Because of how the cover looks?
Zoe:
Yeah.
Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me some of the things you've done to be able to earn the cards that allow you to buy some records.
Zoe:
Um, help teachers around the classroom or picked up stuff outside.
Anthony Godfrey:
Very cool. Well, keep it up and enjoy that great music.
Hi guys, tell me about what you think of this record store.
Student 3:
It's great, there's some cool records in there, and um, yeah. It’s a cool store.
Student 4:
Yeah, I think it's pretty nice. I like how they have like a lot of records and how much there's like so many records to choose from.
Student 3:
Yeah, a lot of options. I like the options.
Student 4:
Any music taste you can come here and buy some records.
Anthony Godfrey:
What are the records that have caught your eye? What are the ones you purchased?
Student 3:
Um, I think like a Beach Boys one.
Anthony Godfrey:
Oh yeah, nice.
Student 4:
I bought a Sublime one and a Taylor Swift one.
Anthony Godfrey:
A Sublime one? Wow.
Student 4:
I'm hoping to get that Red Taylor Swift one right there. That's really the one I had my eye on for a while. I’ve been saving up for a while.
Student 3:
Yeah, it’ll be a cool record.
Anthony Godfrey:
There is something about listening to a record compared with listening to your phone, isn't there?
Students:
Yeah
Anthony Godfrey:
Thanks for joining us on another episode of the Supercast. Remember, education is the most important thing you will do today. We'll see you out there.