Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. Superintendent Jim Roberts is at the mic again, but this time, he’s hanging up the Elvis jumpsuit and taking on a current pop culture icon.
Roberts urges students to get in one last swim at the “old town pool … before you can’t no more” in a auto-tuned rendition of Lil Nas X’s No.1 song in America, “Old Town Road,” featuring Billy Ray Cyrus.
“Summertime is about a lot of things, and that includes going to the creek, lake, pond or pool to swim,” said Roberts, a music fan and Elvis Presley impersonator.
“We had two objectives with this. One was to be sure people saw BCSC in a positive way, and we thought this would be a fun way to get our message out. The second piece is reminding everybody it’s time for school.”
The corporation posted the music video to its Facebook page Sunday evening ahead of Wednesday’s first day of school when more than 11,000 students will trade their beach towels for backpacks and bid summer farewell.
The video features Roberts performing the rewritten lyrics to the song and several BCSC teachers, administrators and staff lip-syncing the lyrics, including cameos from Columbus North High School principal David Clark riding off on a motorcycle and Columbus Signature Academy — Lincoln Campus principal Brett Findley riding a scooter through the hallway.
Administrative assistant Jenny Thompson wrote the revised lyrics to the song, and Roberts is singing. It was filmed by BCSC communications coordinator Josh Burnett and videographer Dustin Lowman. Columbus Parks and Recreation loaned the use of the Donner Aquatic Center during after hours to film the video.
The video has already received over 32,000 views since its debut with more than 1,100 shares on social media.
This is the second music video that Roberts and BCSC filmed this year. The corporation shared a music video in February of Roberts singing rewritten lyrics to the Clash’s 1982 hit “Should I Stay or Should I Go?”, which chronicled the tension-filled moment when Roberts makes the call of whether BCSC students are going to school or have a snow day.
Roberts, who appreciates all genres of music, said it was fun to go from a punk-rock classic like “Should I Stay or Should I Go?” to “Old Town Road,” a mix of new country and rap that has consistently topped the Billboard Hot 100 charts at No. 1 for 18 weeks.
“Having kids come back to school is a really fun thing,” Roberts said. “It’s the most exciting time of the year for me. We get in this business to be with kids. As we build up this excitement, we wanted to do something fun and hopefully this video captured that.”
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To view the video, visit Bartholomew Consolidated School Corporation’s Facebook page at facebook.com/bcscschools.
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