Photo by Jon Anderson
Melissa Hadder is moving from the principal's job at Simmons Middle School to become the principal at Berry Middle School.
The Hoover school board on Tuesday night approved the transfer of Simmons Middle School Principal Melissa Hadder to Berry Middle School.
Hadder will fill the shoes of Chris Robbins, who recently was named chief learning officer for the entire school district.
She has been with Hoover City Schools almost nine years, including five years as an assistant principal at Spain Park High School, three years as principal at Shades Mountain Elementary and this current school year as principal at Simmons.
Hadder started her career as a K-2 music teacher for three elementary schools in Pike County in 1992. She then worked in four other school districts as a band teacher, counselor and assistant principal before coming to Hoover City Schools.
Assistant Superintendent Ron Dodson said there were at least 58 applicants for the Berry Middle School principal job. Her job change will create a vacancy for principal at Simmons Middle School.
The school board also on Tuesday promoted human resources specialist Kristi Williams to the human resources director role recently vacated by Mary Veal.
Williams has been with Hoover City Schools 10 years and prior to that worked more than 20 years in human resources in the public and private sectors, Dodson said. There were at least 33 applicants for the human resources director position, he said.
In other business, the school board:
- Increased the pay for substitute teachers to $100 a day in an effort to be more competitive with nearby school districts.
- Hired Arlington Engineering to do a land survey for a 10-classroom addition at Bluff Park Elementary School and approved a proposal for a subsurface exploration and geotechnical engineering evaluation for the same site.
- Agreed to pay Comfort Systems to replace a chiller at Bluff Park Elementary.
- Rejected the sole bid for a job to replace a heating, ventilation and air conditioning unit at Gwin Elementary School because the bid came in well more than $1 million over the amount budgeted for the replacement.
- Changed the job title and description for the assistant superintendent of administrative services position to be called chief administrative officer
