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Vinson honored for tenure with Shelby County Schools

Photo by Leah Ingram Eagle

Superintendent Dr. Lewis Brooks honored long-time Shelby County Schools employee Cindy Vinson upon her retirement. 

During the July 29 Shelby County Board of Education meeting, Brooks said it was a special night as he recognized an outstanding employee for the school district.

Vinson worked for Shelby County Schools for 25 years in the role of paraeducator and job coach with the special education department.

“She leaves a legacy in our district, as she was the starter and founder of the HOPE project (herbs offering personal enrichment) that has given our students with disabilities an opportunity to add relative experiences to their learning,” Brooks said.

Vinson created the program, along with Taziki’s owner, Keith Richards, which Brooks said has enriched the lives of many students by providing opportunities for them to participate in meaningful work.

The students in the program learn to use math, agriculture and science skills while providing an income for their program.

The process includes planting the seeds [tending the garden] and selling them to Taziki’s, which uses them in their recipes.

“Students in the program are taught transferable life skills for work and home,” Brooks said. “This has been a great project that Cindy had started for us and this project, in my opinion, is very worthy of the prestigious Journey Shaper award. 

Vinson was presented with a certificate and a medal from Brooks, who thanked her for all the work she did with her students and for her service with the school district. 

“You truly represent what we want and that is to be a model of excellence,” Brooks said. 

During the instructional report, Debbie Horton gave an update on summer school. 1,293 students participated in summer school in June, including 681 elementary and 612 middle and high school students.365.5 credits were recovered for the high school students. 

“This was a collaboration effort between the transportation, child nutrition and instructional department,” Horton said. “We provided bus routes to be picked up and dropped off at their schools and meals were provided for breakfast and lunch. Our paraprofessionals and teachers did an outstanding job engaging students and helping them to recoup some learning. We are making great gains in closing those achievement gaps.”

The state assessment for third graders was released, and the state average was 78% of third graders statewide were reading on or above grade level. In Shelby County, that number is at 86%.That equates to 1,280 of our third graders reading at our above grade level. 14% (209 students) are still below grade level, but Horton said there are plans in place to meet those students where they are and help get them where they need to be by the end of the year. 

Superintendent of finance John Gwin said his department is working on budgets for next year and that the first budget hearing will take place at the Aug. 25 board meeting and the second at the Sept. 15 board meeting.

The board also approved: 

The next meeting will be Aug. 11 at noon at SCISC in Alabaster.

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