Photo by Jon Anderson.
Cynthia Cruce was named the new principal of Chelsea Middle School by the Shelby County Board of Education on June 10. Cruce, who has a total of 29 years experience in education, said she’s excited to get back to Chelsea after spending the last nine years as an assistant principal at Oak Mountain Middle School.
When students return to Chelsea Middle School in August, they’ll find a new principal waiting to greet them.
But Cynthia Cruce, the new principal appointed by the Shelby County Board of Education in June, is no stranger to the halls of Chelsea Middle School. She has been there before, from 2006 to 2012 as an assistant principal.
Cruce, who has a total of 29 years experience in education, said she’s excited to get back to Chelsea after spending the last nine years as an assistant principal at Oak Mountain Middle School.
She said she hated to leave Chelsea Middle School when she did because she loves the school but had wanted to make the move to Oak Mountain Middle to be with her children. At the time, three of her four children were attending Oak Mountain Middle.
Now, they’re all in their 20s, and Cruce said she’s looking forward to a homecoming of sorts at Chelsea Middle School.
“I feel like I’m going home,” she said. “I love the people. I love the community. It’s like a family, and that school is like a family. … The community has grown so much, and the school has just flourished throughout the years, and I’m excited I can be a part of that and just continue the high standards and achievement that the Chelsea community has accomplished.”
One of the great things about returning to Chelsea is that a lot of the teachers are the same teachers who were there when she worked there before, and the departing principal, Caroline Obert, is a great friend with whom she worked at Oak Mountain Middle.
Obert moved to Huntsville after her husband got a new job there, and Cruce said she feels sure Obert will support her as she transitions into Obert’s old job.
Also, the two assistant principals at Chelsea Middle — Ken Thornbrough and Christopher Self — are fabulous, Cruce said. She previously worked with Thornbrough at Chelsea, and he knows the community very well, and Self is a master in leading and guiding in the special education arena, she said.
“I feel like they’ll be very supportive of my leadership, but we’ll be a team,” she said. “I feel like we’ll have a very strong leadership team for that school, along with the faculty and staff.”
Cruce said she has always been “a good second” on administrative teams, but she feels other leaders in the Shelby County school system have helped prepare her for the principal role.
She has always been big on building relationships with both the staff and students, and that will be a focus again at Chelsea Middle School, she said.
“I like to know the kids and be with the kids and support the teachers and what I need to do to help them,” she said.
She has had great examples in other administrators, such as Superintendent Lewis Brooks, she said.
When her house in Eagle Point was among many struck by a tornado in March, Brooks was one of the first people who checked on her, and he was among a group that brought supplies to help her family, she said.
Cruce said she is eager to get reacquainted with Chelsea Middle.
“I can’t go in there and think I know everything about that school,” she said. “I know the school has grown, and the people have changed.”
One of the biggest challenges she and the staff will have for the coming year is tracking the students’ academic growth, figuring out where there are gaps in learning and doing what is needed to make sure kids are successful, she said.
This is especially true because of the in-person instruction time missed by students over the past 16 months due to the COVID-19 pandemic, she said. There were times when everyone was learning virtually, and there were times when individual students went virtual due to quarantines.
Cruce has a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a master’s degree in secondary education from the University of Alabama. She started as an English teacher at McAdory High School in 1992, then moved to Oak Mountain Middle School in 1999 before being named an assistant principal at Chelsea Middle in 2006.
When she’s not working, she enjoys reading (especially mysteries) and is an avid Alabama football fan.
