Yancey Brown runs for Houston County School Board

HOUSTON COUNTY – Yancey Brown has joined the race for Houston County School Board, post 7.

Brown considers himself to be many things, including a husband, father, veteran and Assistant Pastor at Greater Victory Church in Warner Robins. He shared he has been married for 26 years and he and his wife have four children together. 

He has been involved in the ministry for 19 years and has worked in the youth ministry helping children in the area. 

Brown also works at Robins Air Force Base as a Community Resilience Coordinator and works with people in stressful situations, personal or professional. He also shared he is a disabled veteran and served in the Air Force. He was stationed at the base during the first JSTARS mission.

“For me, I just love to help people. I’ve always been able to help kids. I love helping people,” Brown said.

He shared three of his children grew up in the Houston County school system, and after a situation involving one of his sons, he became interested in how the school board works.

“That’s what really got me involved with the school board. We had a situation to deal with my son and I started really getting involved to figure out how the process works and everything. Going through the whole entire process I realized this is something that can be my way of giving back,” Brown said. 

He said during the process, he realized he is a parent first and is familiar with the area after living in it for 20 years. As a person who worked a lot with the youth as a youth pastor, he saw how much children needed assistance.

Brown shares that after seeing children’s need for help with homework, the church started to host a bible study program on Wednesday nights which allowed them to help.

“We believe in physical as well as spiritual. We try to meet both of those needs. I gave majority of my time helping children through the means of the church but when it comes to education, I really feel that on the board we need to have parents that actually have kids within the school board now,” Brown said. 

He also shared right after high school he worked as a teacher’s aide helping children with learning disabilities. Brown worked there for a year before leaving to serve in the military because his goal was to eventually become an educator. He said his goal was to become a history teacher for high schoolers. 

“Through the military and working on base for the past 13 years, I realized that I can still help out children but also fill a need that I need to have because I was a disabled veteran and so I felt the need to give back to my country by working on base and still fulfilling that role because I think it’s very important,” Brown said.

He believes he can bring a fresh perspective to the school board from a parent’s point of view. Brown said he will bring attention to things that need additional assistance and continue the board’s success. He will not change the board’s landscape, but instead provide new perspectives and ideas. 

Brown shared three components to his platform. The first is providing information on school board’s policies to the public, second being a liason between the community and the board.

He also shared he wants to have a strong presence with educators because he feels they are the ones that need more attention.

“I want to be a listening ear for the community — what I mean for the community, I also mean teachers, educators, parents and even children. I realized that by talking to some educators they kind of feel like they’re not being heard. They feel that there is some type of barrier between talking to school board members as well as the educators,” Brown said.

He said this is a difficulty he has noticed because a lot of policies are about educators, but he feels there has not been any input from them.

The third factor he runs on is hoping to communicate and compromise with current board members to make it better for students. 

Brown shared he loves the school board, but as a parent, he believes other parents should get involved as well. 

He also shared his campaign has been going great so far and he has received great support. Brown said this is his first campaign and his supporters have been helpful in his new journey. 

This campaign has been a way for him to get his name out and be more known in the community. He said he has been more of a “work behind the scenes person,” but he wants people to know more about him and his work ethic.

“One of the things I talk about with my kids is I believe that hard work beats talent every time. One of the things I pride myself on is no matter what, nobody is going to outwork me. I’m going to do what’s required, I’m going to put in the hours, I’m going to put in the time and the thing is I’m going to go in with the ideas of our educators,” Brown said. 

He said for things he does not know, he will surround himself with people that will provide the answers.  Brown also shares he is for the kids, and he is willing to do anything to make sure the board is better for them and the future.

His main priority if elected is to provide the assistance needed for educators. Brown shares his mother was an educator in Florida and grew up hearing stories about their day teaching children and seeing their students learn. He said this is what eventually drew him to the youth ministry.

“I may not be an educator in a school, but I can tell you that educating children on the Bible and teaching them, when that light bulb pops on and they understand what you are saying, that’s the greatest joy in the world. I know that hands down that is the greatest joy,” Brown said.

He hopes to continue that light and wants that joy to continue with educators. Brown said he wants to hear from them because they have all the answers. 

“We need to hear from them. We need to hear what they need, and we need to find a way to make that happen,” Brown said. 

He shares a lot of teachers are not coming back due to retirement, but the county has been doing good in making sure there is not a lack of teachers. Brown hopes to continue making sure the county retains its teachers.

“This is what I learned in the military, if you take care of the people the mission will take care of itself. That is the way that I function, that’s the way I run everything,” Brown said.

He also shares he wants to find ways to get parents more involved with their children, which is a concern he has heard from other educators. 

While working on base, Brown teaches a class on working with different personalities. Brown said teaching the class has influenced his leadership style. He said looking at different perspectives will be able to benefit everyone.

“I like to have a more inclusive style, to hear from other people. Because as leaders we have to realize that we have blinders in our lives, we don’t know everything. Our perception of how we view things is going to be different from other people’s. So, for me, I want to hear from everybody so that we can all make some type of effort to come together and lead that type of way,” Brown said.

Brown shared he will be prepared to communicate and compromise on the school board. He said this way he believes everyone will get what they want and move forward. Brown also said he will listen to the other members, learn from them and help. 

Brown believes citizens should vote for him because he will bring in the principles he learned from the air force, which is “integrity first, service before self and excellence in all we do.” 

He said while his children were helping him film videos for his campaign, they said they know he will do the right thing even when it’s not popular.

“One of the things for me is I’m upfront, honest and I’m going to work hard. I’m going to be accessible, I’m going to be transparent, and I want to educate our parents on how the system works because a lot of parents don’t know,” Brown said. “We need to do a better job at educating our parents if you want somebody that’s going to have integrity, if you want somebody that’s going to work hard and if you want somebody that’s going to be accessible then I’m the candidate that you would want.” 

He added during this election, people should look at what the people are offering. Brown said they should pick the candidate they feel is the best; he believes he is that candidate. 

“I’ve always exceeded at every job that I’ve had because I am determined to do the best job I can do, that I am allowed to do,” Brown said. “And with everybody’s vote, I know that I can come in and make Houston County a better county when it comes to the school board.”