3rd principal to leave Hoover City Schools; some parents alarmed

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Hoover Schools

Riverchase Elementary School Principal Alice Turney is leaving Hoover City Schools to become principal of the i3 Elementary public charter school in Birmingham, and the departure of a third Hoover elementary principal is raising concerns among some in the community.

Emily Masters, president of the Riverchase Elementary School Parent Teacher Organization, was joined by numerous other parents at Tuesday night’s Hoover school board meeting, asking the board to investigate the reasons for multiple principals leaving at the same time.

In addition to Turney leaving Riverchase, Rocky Ridge Elementary Principal Dil Uswatte is also moving to the i3 Academy in Birmingham to be the chief academic officer there, and Trace Crossings Elementary Principal Quincy Collins is taking a one-year leave of absence.

“I find it deeply concerning that three longtime elementary school principals recently decided to step away from their schools,” Masters told the school board. “These administrators that are leaving Hoover are not your average principals.”

Uswatte, who has been principal at Rocky Ridge for 10 years, in 2019 won the Alabama Educator of the Year Award, in 2020 was named a National Distinguished Principal and in 2022 was appointed by the U.S. secretary of education as the elementary principal representative on the National Assessment Governing Board, which oversees and sets policy for the National Assessment of Educational Progress, also known as the “The Nation’s Report Card.”

Turney, who has been principal at Riverchase for 10 years, in 2021 was named the Distinguished Principal for District 4 of the Alabama Association of Elementary School Administrators and in 2022 won the Hoover school system’s Finley Award for outstanding character among all faculty in Hoover City Schools. Under her leadership, Riverchase twice has been named a Blue Ribbon School of Excellence, and both Riverchase and Rocky Ridge elementary schools achieved science, technology, engineering and math certification from Cognia, a national accreditation agency.

Uswatte and Turney also are both graduates of Leadership Hoover, a nonprofit that gathers community leaders together to learn more about the city and brainstorm ways to make Hoover a better place to live.

Collins, who has been principal at Trace Crossings for eight years, also won the Finley Award for outstanding character.

“They are mentors and leaders in the community affecting education policy at the local and state levels as they serve on various committees and share their expertise,” said Masters, who is a 10-year resident of Hoover with four children in Hoover schools. “Why are they all leaving Hoover City Schools? Did something change recently? Are we doing something wrong, and what are we doing in this system to celebrate and retain top-class administrative talent?"

“For all of them to leave in one school year is cause for alarm, and I implore you, our school board and parents here tonight, to seek answers regarding this troubling trend and demand transparency and open communication from our leaders at the central office,” said Masters, who formerly worked as a high school teacher in Tennessee. “Are we conducting exit interviews with these principals to find out why they decided to leave, and are we as a system inviting stakeholders to have a seat at the table when important decisions are being made at our school?”

Riverchase Elementary is losing both its principal and assistant principal, who is being transferred to Berry Middle School. “There will be very little administrative consistency, and I hate that for our children and our staff,” Masters said.

She asked the school board to invite select stakeholders in the community to be part of the decision-making process regarding the appointment of a new principal for Riverchase. That’s a reasonable request because that’s what was done just a couple of years ago when a new principal was selected for Berry Middle School, Masters said.

“We all love Riverchase Elementary School and want nothing more for Riverchase Elementary School to remain a top-notch school for everyone in our community,” she said.

Neither the school board nor Superintendent Kevin Maddox gave a public reply to Masters, and Maddox left the room almost immediately after the board meeting ended. Efforts to reach him and board members for comment later Tuesday night were unsuccessful.

ALICE TURNEY

Turney began her career as a teacher and student support specialist at Eastside Elementary in the Metro Atlanta school system from 1997 to 2002, then was an assistant principal at New Manchester Elementary, also in Metro Atlanta, from 2002 to 2005 before moving to the Hoover school system in 2005.

She started as an assistant principal at both Greystone and Riverchase elementaries but in January 2006 was dedicated as an assistant at just Riverchase and in 2014 was named principal.

In her more than 25 years, she has taught all grade levels from pre-kindergarten to fifth grade. She has a certificate in school management and leadership from Harvard University, is a certified instructional leader, serves on the credentialing committee with the Council for Leaders in Alabama Schools and has served as a principal mentor for the Council for Leaders in Alabama Schools in 2019 and 2021 and in 2021 was the District 4 president of the Alabama Association of Elementary School Administrators.

Turney also has multiple certifications in reading from the International Dyslexia Association, Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling, and Orton Gillingham.

Turney, in a new release put out by the i3 Academy, said the school has an amazing group of educators who are committed to working together for students. “I was fortunate to be selected to be part of the network,” she said. “I look forward to building strong relationships with students, teachers and families in this special school community for inspiring excellence.”

The i3 Academy, a public, tuition-free charter school which has a motto to imagine, investigate and innovate, opened its elementary school campus in the fall of 2020 in the Woodlawn community in Birmingham. The next year, the academy launched a middle school in the former St. Barnabas Catholic School on First Avenue North in Birmingham, and this fall, the i3 Academy is launching a high school on the north Jefferson County campus of Jefferson State Community College.