A little less than a month into the 2020-21 school year, Brownwood High School principal Lindsay Smith recently provided an update on the campus happenings thus far.

“It’s gone really well,” Smith said. “I’ve actually been pretty impressed with the kids being excited to come back, the teachers were excited to come back, and I know I was. It felt like, and we really did, have a six-month summer. I’m glad to be back.”

Smith, a former assistant principal at BHS, was announced as Mitch Moore’s replacement when Moore took the position of Assistant Superintendent of Business and Finance. Smith became interim principal on March 9, just as COVID-19 forced schools to shut down in-person learning and shift to an online format. She was named full-time principal on April 6.

“I was telling Mr. Moore recently I don’t know if I should consider you a friend or not,” Smith said with a laugh. “You definitely knew when to get out of everything.”

More than 82 percent of the students chose in-person learning when classes returned in Aug. 19, and Smith senses a greater appreciation by students and teachers for this school year.

“Some of the positives that have happened with COVID is I feel like our teachers hit the ground running in a way they never really have before,” Smith said. “They didn’t know what would happen in the future and they wanted to make sure everybody was ready to go remote in case we did have another shutdown. The teachers, when they came back right before school started, they were uber organized and excited. I felt that was a positive.

“Of course right now we all have to wear masks and I think that’s a good thing, I think it helps to keep us all safe. I didn’t realize how much I communicated with kids and parents through my facial expressions, but I miss seeing the kids faces and being able to talk with them. In a lot of ways, we’re in school, there’s a lot of normal with everything going on. If you go into a classroom it looks like school. If you come up to the high school in a lot of ways it looks like it always has.”

Smith admitted that the conclusion of the previous school year led some teachers to opt for retirement instead of returning in such uncertain times.

“We had a lot of teachers who had been with us for a long time that were at a point last year with all the changes and COVID they were ready to retire,” Smith said. “I was excited for them, and we were able to bring in some new blood. Some of the people we hired are long-time Brownwood people, they graduated from Brownwood High School and I was excited to bring them back. I think it’s really cool when you have people that have gone to school at a place then come back and continue to educate others.”

Among the new additions on campus this year as Lady Lions soccer head coach Alexis Mosqueda, Lady Lions golf coach Chris Hicks, and Lady Lions assistant coach Cherita Munguia.

“We have Coach Alexis Mosqueda, she graduated from Brownwood High School and we have Coach Cherita Munguia and she graduated from Brownwood High School,” Smith said. “It’s super exciting to have them back, and then have a new golf coach, Coach Hicks, who is replacing long time Coach Laura Martin. It’s been really fun to see the energy he’s bringing to that program.”

Smith’s road to Brownwood began in Big Lake, ventured through Odessa and trekked to Tyler where she met her husband Mike.

“I’m originally a Reagan County Owl,” Smith said. “I went to school and got my first teaching job in Tyler, Texas at Robert E. Lee High School. I taught there for six or seven years and then I became an instructional coach which was by far the best job I ever had outside of being the Brownwood High School principal. I really got to help teachers really hone in on their craft. I thought that was exciting and I still do, to have the instructional experience background. Then I was an administrator in Tyler and I met a local boy, Mike Smith, from Brownwood – Lumpy as some people know him – and I came to Brownwood and was an assistant principal here for quite a while under Mr. Moore. Now I’m high school principal and I’m super excited that my husband graduated from Brownwood High School and our kids will go to Brownwood High School, so continuing that tradition is really fun.”

The Smiths have two children, Lucy, 6, and Hank, 3.

Regarding her decision to choose education as a career, Smith said, “I had a really awesome English teacher in high school and I liked her. I enjoyed the interaction she had with me and other kids. I was a bookworm when I was growing up, and I thought what a cool thing to be able to talk about literature and talk about kids and interact with kids. I didn’t think I wanted to be a teacher and then it was one of those things God led me toward. I’ve enjoyed it and haven’t looked back. I believe I’m where I’m supposed to be.”

Looking ahead, Smith said, “Mr. Moore did a great job of just adding stability to the high school. The structure of the high school is strong and I’ll forever be grateful for him.”

Regarding areas where she would like to see continued growth, Smith said, “I’d like to see us continue to add more choices, more options, I think that’s one of the awesome things about Brownwood ISD and Brownwood High School in particular. It’s that sweet spot where we’re not so small we don’t have options for kids but we’re not so large that a kid gets lost in the shuffle.

“I would always like to see us adding more classes, we added some classes this year that needed to be added, for instance we added Sign Language 2. We had first year sign language and Mrs. (Renee) Fraze teaches that and she’s been a phenomenal addition to our faculty. I’d like to see us continue to add more foreign language options if possible. Right now a kid can take Spanish, they can do Computer Science which is actually a foreign language, or they can do sign language. Then for our Health Science program we added a course called Pathophysiology, Mr. (Gene) Brandstetter teaches it and does some really cool things. I would like us to continue to diversify and that’s part of the reason why we’re the district of choice, because of all the selections and all the things that we offer, especially at the high school.”