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Photos by Erin Nelson.
Larry Haynes, the recently retired principal at Oak Mountain Middle School, stands in front of a mural in the school’s atrium. Haynes retired at the end of the 2022-23 school year after 37 years of teaching and 17 as a school administrator at Oak Mountain Middle.
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Photos by Erin Nelson.
A yearbook photo of Haynes impersonating Tom Cruise from the movie “Risky Business” during teacher skits for Oak Mountain High School’s homecoming week in 2006 is pictured in a yearbook.
For Larry Haynes, school has been home for a long, long time.
“I grew up next door to my elementary school and was always close to my teachers,” he said. “They’d come up to the schools in the summer or in the afternoons and would get me to help them do stuff. I’d help the custodian, too.”
Years later, that school — Raimund Elementary — closed, and after it sat empty for a while, Haynes’ grandfather bought it.
“He salvaged as much of the building as he could,” Haynes said. “Then my wife and I bought it and made a house out of it. We did all the work ourselves. And we really enjoyed living there.”
He loved it so much that it took another school to make him leave it — Oak Mountain Middle School, where he served as principal for the past 19 years until his retirement at the end of June.
“We moved so I could be closer to the school, and over the years, I was really glad we did,” Haynes said.
He was glad he was close when a tornado hit the school in 2021 and he could go check on it, and he was glad when they dealt with floods and a gas leak over the years and Snowmageddon in 2014.
“The thing about education is there’s never a dull moment,” Haynes said.
And he’s loved that reality his whole life, for many more reasons than just emergency management.
After growing up next to the elementary school, he knew as a McAdory High School student that he wanted to teach one day because he “had some really great teachers.” He attended the University of Montevallo and studied mass communication and English, and a week after graduation he started as a teacher at Montevallo High School.
“I taught there for 15 years,” he said. “I loved it.”
Haynes didn’t see himself going into administration, but after others encouraged him, he applied for an assistant principal position at Oak Mountain High School and served in that role from 2001 until 2004, when he moved to the middle school.
Once there, Haynes found he was passionate about preparing students to transition well to high school. He spent years researching and learning from other schools and principals and did his doctoral dissertation on that topic as well.
“Working in middle school allows that opportunity to help students find a great path for themselves and know there are lots of choices ahead and help them set goals,” he said. “We get to challenge them, provide great opportunities for them and nurture them. That’s been my mission, and I’ve loved it.”
Haynes said OMMS is “a model; it’s a lot to be proud of.”
“This is a wonderful community,” he said. “We’ve got fantastic parents, great community support, and I’ve worked with some of the most amazing students.”
Photos by Erin Nelson.
A yearbook photo of Haynes impersonating Tom Cruise from the movie “Risky Business” during teacher skits for Oak Mountain High School’s homecoming week in 2006 is pictured in a yearbook.
It’s been a family affair for Haynes also. His children went through OMMS, and his wife, Samara, has been to more school dances than he can count.
“We’ve got so many photos together from proms and homecomings,” Haynes joked.
Sheryl Jones, OMMS assistant principal, said the school “was his world.”
“He gave almost two decades of his life to Oak Mountain Middle School. Hundreds of staff members and thousands of students are better because he was here,” she said. “He treated everybody like family and was here all hours of the night sometimes and would not rest until the job was done. He always tried to do what was best for the kids and the staff.”
Haynes said he will miss everyone at the middle school, but he feels like the season is right to move on to a new role — coordinating student interns at the University of Montevallo.
“I’ve enjoyed developing new teachers while I’ve been a principal, helping them grow and giving them new opportunities in leadership and to grow in their classroom instruction,” he said, noting that this new role will offer the chance to do that in a new way.
“It’s bittersweet,” Haynes said. “I’m going to miss my students at Oak Mountain Middle School, but this new chapter is exciting to me.”
Taking over the principal position will be Sandy Evers. She brings 27 years of experience in education and has served as assistant principal of Oak Mountain High School since 2017. Evers said she knows she has big shoes to fill as she follows Haynes.
“It is with great enthusiasm and excitement that I accept my role at Oak Mountain Middle School as principal,” she said. “I’m very grateful for this opportunity, and I look forward to building positive relationships with the dedicated students, staff and teachers. It is my goal to uphold and enhance the longstanding tradition of excellence at OMMS. I am confident that as a team we can achieve great things together and provide the best educational opportunity for our students.”
