Photo by Erin Nelson.
Students arrive at Oak Mountain Elementary School.
Bells will be ringing soon as the 2023-24 school year begins. Teachers begin professional development on Aug. 4, and students head back to classes on Aug. 10.
280 Living reached out to the principals at each of the schools in our coverage area to find out a bit about what’s ahead for the new school year.
Chelsea Park Elementary Principal Mary Anderson
Anderson
Anderson is in her 21st year in education, including a total of eight at Chelsea Park Elementary. She works alongside Assistant Principal Jessi Adams.
Q: Do you have any new administrative hires?
A: We will have a new administrative assistant, but we do not know who that person is yet.
Q: Can you share an update from your school?
A: Our students, faculty and staff finished the year strong. Our iReady data showed a lot of growth in our students. Construction has also been underway on campus. Our maintenance and custodial staff have been working hard this summer to prepare our building for when students return in August.
Q: Are there any expansion/construction projects taking place at your school?
A: Yes, construction has begun on an additional eight classrooms and the new gym. We are very excited about both of these projects and the estimated completion is spring 2024.
Q: How many students will you have for the 2023-24 school year?
A: We finished the year with around 876 students. We predict that our enrollment will be around the same, if not a little higher, since Chelsea is continuing to grow.
Q: What are your expectations for the upcoming school year?
A: Our expectations are that our faculty and staff continue doing an excellent job preparing our students for the future. With recent Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling training and new curriculums, we expect our teachers to provide our students with the best education possible. We also expect our faculty and staff to work even harder on building those positive relationships with our students, so that students feel safe, cared for and loved.
Forest Oaks Elementary Principal Stevi Sims
Sims
Sims is in her 27th year as an educator and her 16th year in Chelsea schools. She works alongside Assistant Principal Carlyn Duncan.
Q: Do you have any new administrative hires?
A: We do not have any new administrative hires for the 23-24 school year; however, we are hiring three new classroom teachers, one new PE teacher, a new special education teacher and two new paraprofessionals.
We are also excited to welcome two new custodians, a new child nutrition program worker (lunchroom) and a new instructional coach to our Forest Oaks family.
Q: Can you share an update from your school?
A: We are very excited to be celebrating the 10-year anniversary of Forest Oaks being open. This past school year, our students not only met the goals our school set in place for their reading and math achievements, but they surpassed both goals by leaps and bounds.
Q: Are there any expansion/construction projects taking place at your school?
A: Due to some flooding we experienced in December 2022, we will be getting a brand new gym floor and we cannot wait. Thanks to our PTO, we will have five new security cameras installed throughout the building as well as tint added to some of our exterior windows for safety purposes. Shelby County is also in the process of installing amplification systems in all kindergarten and second-grade classrooms to enhance student performance. All first-grade classrooms received these systems at the beginning of last year.
Q: How many students will you have for the 2023-24 school year?
A: We are expecting around 680 students in grades kindergarten through five for the 2023-24 school year.
Q: What are your expectations for the upcoming school year?
A: We are expecting big things from our students this year and have no doubt they are going to continue to learn and grow and exceed all of our expectations.
Chelsea Middle School Principal Cynthia Cruce
Cruce
Cruce is beginning her 31st year in education and her third as principal at Chelsea Middle. She works alongside assistant principals Ken Thornbrough and Chris Self.
Q: Can you share an update from your school?
A: We will continue to pursue high academic standards. To assist with this, we are going to build into our advisory class elements such as study skills, goal setting and learning styles inventory.
Q: Are there any expansion/construction projects taking place at your school?
A: We are working with the Shelby County Board of Education to develop a canopy plan at the front of the school to protect bus riders from extreme weather.
Q: How many students (approximate) will you have for the 2023-24 school year?
A: Around 900.
Q: What are your expectations for the upcoming school year?
A: We look forward to beginning the school year and continuing our high academic standards. We want to help students who need more support to achieve academic growth and provide opportunities for acceleration for those students who need more challenging courses. We want to establish positive relationships with our students and have our students build positive relationships with their peers. We want our students to know that they have advocates in our faculty and staff to support their needs.
Chelsea High School Principal Brandon Turner
Turner
Turner is in his 25th year in education and his fifth year at Chelsea High. He serves alongside Assistant Principals Latasha McMillan and Jessica Pickett.
Q: Do you have any new administrative hires?
A: We do not have any new hires from this summer, however, we did have a mid-year transition last year, in bringing on Dale Massey as our new administrative assistant.
Q: Can you share an update from your school?
A: Last year went well both in academics and extracurricular endeavors. We continue to exceed state averages in testing, and our teachers continually work together to develop methods consistent with best practices to meet the needs of our students and increase engagement. We saw success in many of our sports programs as well as through our fine arts and student leadership organizations. We were also fortunate to participate in the Hope Leadership Academy, which works in partnership with schools to develop and enhance character in the school environment.
Q: Are there any expansion/construction projects taking place at your school?
A: We will have new bleachers and a new floor in the gymnasium. Additionally, our city leaders are working to partner with the SCBOE to continue to enhance our athletic facilities that include a new hitting facility for softball, a visitor locker room expansion at the stadium, stadium seating, a new press box and a video board.
Q: How many students will you have for the 2023-24 school year?
A: Currently, we are expecting approximately 1,300 students for the upcoming year.
Q: What are your expectations for the upcoming school year?
A: My expectations are always for us to improve as much as possible from year to year. Every day, our students hear us state our key values of Learning, Service and Character, and we want to consistently make strides in all of those areas on a daily basis. We have great students that are capable of excelling to great heights, and it is important for us to help facilitate a quality experience while they are here.
Mt Laurel Elementary Principal Tina Neighbors
Neighbors has been in education for 25 years, including a total of 19 years at Mt Laurel Elementary as both a teacher and assistant principal. She took over the principal position after former Principal Celita Carmichael accepted a role with the central office as an instructional supervisor. Abbie Akers was recently hired as the new assistant principal.
Q: Can you share an update from your school?
A: Mt Laurel Elementary received the Legislative School Performance award. It was also recognized as a National Blue Ribbon School in 2021.
Q: How many students will you have for the 2023-24 school year?
A: We will have approximately 520 students this school year.
Q: What are your expectations for the upcoming school year?
A: Mt Laurel Elementary School’s expectations are to continue to provide students with high quality instruction while building positive relationships with students, parents and community stakeholders.
Oak Mountain Elementary Principal Jan Curtis
Curtis
Curtis is in her 28th year in education and her third at Oak Mountain Elementary. She serves alongside Assistant Principal Cynthia Monroe.
Q: Can you share an update from your school?
A: In May, we received a Legislative School Performance Program Award for being one of the top 25 schools in the state of Alabama. This ranking is based on the school report card for the 2021-22 school year. We began our new character program, Bluebird Best, in January, and we are excited about having a full year of implementation this year.
Q: Are there any expansion/construction projects taking place at your school?
A: Our front awning is being replaced this summer. Additionally, we have painted several classrooms and a hallway, we are restriping the parking lot and we are working to update our beautiful courtyards.
Q: How many students will you have for the 2023-24 school year?
A: 725.
Q: What are your expectations for the upcoming school year?
A: We will be implementing Teamwork Tuesdays, where students will receive an enrichment special. This extra arts, music or library visit will be focused on our character program (Bluebird Best at OMES), and students will have the opportunity to learn about character traits through the arts. Our grade-level teachers will be working in their Professional Learning Communities to analyze academic data, participate in professional development sessions and plan for engaging instruction.
Oak Mountain Intermediate Principal Laura Junkin
Junkin
Junkin has been an educator for 21 years and has been at Oak Mountain Intermediate for the last eight years: five as assistant principal and three as principal. She works alongside Assistant Principal Marlana Hodo.
Q: Can you share an update from your school?
A: Oak Mountain Intermediate had a fabulous 2022-23 school year with many new improvements due to the ongoing support of Indian Springs Village. Some of those included a new gym floor, sensory playground and playground improvements. Additionally, the support from our parent organization with Indian Springs allowed us to install a new projection system in the cafeteria and equip all of our classrooms with Smart Boards. We added an additional outside learning space, and fourth grade teacher Mrs. de la Torre was named a state finalist for the Presidential Award for Mathematics Instruction.
Q: How many students (approximate) will you have for the 2023-24 school year?
A: A total of 650 fourth- and fifth-grade students.
Q: What are your expectations for the upcoming school year?
A: We will continue to focus on parent engagement through a variety of activities, including a parent academy with our counseling department. We are working to bring more technology- and STEM-related activities to the classrooms and expose our students to real-world problem solving.
Indian Springs School Head of School Scott Schamberger
Schamberger has 23 years of experience in education (both higher education and independent schools) and three years as head of school at Indian Springs School.
Q: Do you have any new administrative hires?
A: We have two new administrative hires (a new school counselor and a new advancement office associate) as well as seven new members of the teaching faculty, who will be instructors in math, Latin, photography, history and science.
Q: Can you share an update from your school?
A: This past school year marked the milestone 70th anniversary of Indian Springs School’s opening in 1952. We continue to lead as a school in our state with the percentage of National Merit Scholar finalists, and over 10% of our graduating seniors will be participating in collegiate athletics this fall (several in Division 1 programs). We are excited to welcome more than 90 new students joining us from all over our region and all over the world and introducing them to our concept of learning through living.
Q: Are there any expansion/construction projects taking place at your school?
A: We opened our new state-of-the-art Kayser/Samford Community Commons this past December. This 12,000-square-foot facility is the school’s new dining and social hub with spaces for dining, meetings, events and recreation. We also continue to invest in renovations of our on-campus faculty housing and have begun what will be a multi-year renovation of The Hut (our school’s older lakeside recreation building), as well as several other infrastructure projects.
Q: How many students will you have for the 2023-24 school year?
A: 331 students in grades 8-12 from 11 different states and 15 different countries.
The day before 280 Living’s press deadline, Brooke Dunham was named principal of Inverness Elementary and Sandy Evers was named principal of Oak Mountain Middle.
Responses from Oak Mountain High, Briarwood Christian and Westminster were not received before the press deadline.
