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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Jennifer Hogan, the newly appointed principal at Hoover High School, stands in the school’s courtyard.
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Photos by Erin Nelson.
Work continues on the new Hoover High School arts wing on July 10.
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Photos by Erin Nelson.
Work continues on the new playground at Trace Crossings Elementary on July 14.
As the summer break comes to a close and students head back to Hoover public schools on Aug. 10, they’ll see some new faces in leadership positions and find some changes to their physical surroundings.
One of the most visible changes in leadership is at Hoover High School, which has a new principal. Jennifer Hogan has taken the helm of the Buccaneer ship, following the retirement of John Montgomery.
Hogan is a familiar face to many in the Hoover community, having worked at Hoover High for 12 years, including 10 as assistant principal, before “retiring” in 2021. She is the first person to take the principal job who has a history as a Buccaneer student.
Hogan moved to Alabama in the summer of 1984 and started as a junior at Berry High School, which was the predecessor to Hoover High.
“I thought it was the worst thing that could have ever happened to me,” Hogan said. She was a three-sport athlete and was nervous about moving to a new city, having to make new friends and navigate everything that comes with joining a new school and new sports teams, she said.
But as it turned out, “it was one of the best things I can say happened to me in my life,” Hogan said.
She had a great experience at Berry and had an opportunity to be under the leadership of Bob Finley, who was her girls basketball coach and taught her a lot about the importance of having strong character, she said.
Hogan began her career as a science teacher and coach in 1992 at Pelham High School and stayed there four years. She got out of education and ran a gym with her husband for two years but then decided to give education another try.
She went to Vestavia Hills High School, where she spent six years as a teacher and coach and then three years as an assistant principal. She then was principal at Hewitt-Trussville High School for two years before coming to Hoover.
She spent two years as a teacher at Hoover from 2009 to 2011 and then 10 years as an assistant principal. Now she has Buccaneer orange blood flowing through her veins.
In 2018, Hogan was named Alabama’s Assistant Principal of the Year by the National Association of Secondary School Principals and was one of three finalists for National Assistant Principal of the Year.
She’s excited and humbled to be named principal at Hoover High, she said. “I love Hoover and want to be able to serve the community, the students and the teachers and just take us to the next level.”
Hogan said she plans to focus on the culture and climate of the school and looks forward to talking with students and teachers about that.
“I’ve been away for two years,” she said. “I want to listen to them, and we want to build something great together.”
Hogan is just one of many changes among administrators in Hoover City Schools this year. At least 10 Hoover schools have new assistant principals, and both Hoover and Spain Park high schools have new athletic directors.
Harley Lamey, who has been the head wrestling coach at Hoover for the past two years, has replaced Andy Urban as athletic director at Hoover after Urban moved to Mountain Brook High School.
Josh Donaldson, formerly a track and cross-country coach at Homewood High School, is now leading athletics at Spain Park High, taking over from Patrick Kellogg, who retired.
Here are some other administrative changes:
Hoover High math teacher Mary Johnson was named an assistant principal at Hoover, replacing Donna Smiley, who was promoted to coordinator of administrative services for the district.
Eddie Cunningham, formerly an assistant principal at Homewood High School, is now an assistant principal at Spain Park High, replacing Brandon Key.
Shonteria Culpepper has moved from an assistant principal job at Green Valley Elementary to become an assistant principal at Berry Middle, replacing Dana Ricks.
Kerry Efurd, an interventionist at Bumpus Middle School, has been named an assistant principal at Bumpus, replacing Pamela Davis.
Chelsea Bayko has moved from an assistant principal position at Bluff Park Elementary to become an assistant principal at Simmons Middle School, replacing Dominique Prince.
Alfreda Brown has moved from a counselor role at Hoover High School to become an assistant principal at Simmons, replacing Amanda Giles.
Emily Dunleavy, formerly an assistant principal in the Shelby County school system, now is an assistant principal at Brock’s Gap Intermediate School, replacing Meghan Denson.
Denson has shifted to become an assistant principal at Bluff Park Elementary, replacing Bayko.
Carl Berryhill, formerly an assistant principal at Gwin Elementary, has moved to an assistant principal job at Green Valley Elementary, replacing Culpepper.
Hunter Nichols, a teacher from Jasper City Schools, is now an assistant principal at Gwin, replacing Berryhill.
Matthew Stephens, formerly a math teacher at Hoover High, now is an assistant principal at Riverchase Elementary, replacing Dana Junkin.
Later in the school year, Hoover will see a change at the very top of the system, as Superintendent Dee Fowler takes his second retirement. Fowler on July 11 announced his retirement would become effective Sept. 30, though he could possibly leave earlier and serve as a consultant if another superintendent is brought on more quickly.
Stay tuned to hooversun.com for any developments in the superintendent search.
CAPITAL PROJECTS
Hoover schools have seen a host of physical improvements to school campuses over the summer, including:
- A $1.4 million upgrade to the heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems in 24 classrooms at Gwin Elementary School.
- A $1.4 million project to replace about two-thirds of the roof at Simmons Middle School. The rest of the roof is scheduled to be replaced next summer, Operations Director Matt Wilson said.
- A $1.2 million job to build a new athletic storage facility and restrooms at Bumpus Middle School.
- A $744,233 job to replace a cooling tower in the air conditioning system at Riverchase Elementary.
- A $707,000 renovation and expansion of the football locker room at Hoover High, adding more shower heads and restroom facilities. The school also is using local school money to replace the lockers, Wilson said.
- A $577,672 job to add a cosmetology and barbering classroom at the Riverchase Career Connection Center, for a new academy in that field.
- New playgrounds at Trace Crossings and Riverchase elementary schools, costing $249,000 each.
- About 290 other projects throughout the district, including painting, floor replacements, sidewalk repairs, glass replacement, gym floor resurfacing, pressure washing, tree removal and lighting upgrades.
Several other big capital projects will continue during the school year, including a $15.4 million new performing arts center at Hoover High. The roughly 35,000-square-foot facility will include a 940-seat auditorium, Wilson said. In mid-July, workers were about 80% done with steel work and about 50% done with brick work, and internal construction was to follow, Wilson said. The performing arts center is scheduled to be complete by January, he said.
Photos by Erin Nelson.
Work continues on the new Hoover High School arts wing on July 10.
The school district also will be building new restrooms for the baseball, softball and soccer fields at Hoover High and baseball and softball fields at Spain Park High. The job was estimated to cost $1.2 million and should be complete in time for the start of those spring sport seasons, Wilson said.
Over the Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks, school officials expect to complete installation of new kitchen hoods at Simmons Middle School and Gwin Elementary, for a combined cost of $765,000.
Design work is being done for a theater renovation at Spain Park High School, including a new sound and lighting system, stage modifications and adjustments to the heating, ventilation and air conditioning system, Wilson said. The budget for that project is $1.5 million, and work should begin in March and be completed by the start of the 2024-25 school year, he said.
ENROLLMENT, ACADEMICS
The Hoover school system expects to have 13,143 students this school year, but that’s a conservative number and could be higher, Fowler said. The school district’s enrollment has been shrinking, falling by 638 students over the past seven years, Fowler said.
He attributes that to a slight population decline, an aging population with fewer school-age children and the COVID-19 pandemic, which he said motivated some parents to shift toward private, virtual or home schooling options.
As a result of a declining student population, Hoover schools have reduced their teaching workforce the past two years, cutting about 20 teaching positions last year and another 16 this year, he said.
The declining enrollment has made school officials less concerned about school crowding, but home building and growth in the western part of the city likely will lead eventually to a need to rezone more students from Hoover High School to Spain Park High, Fowler said. However, that’s not an immediate concern, he said.
Fowler said student safety is the No. 1 priority for school officials, but academics are the driving focus.
“We’ll build this district on the rock of academics, and everything goes back to academics,” he said. “We have very high expectations for teaching and learning.”
School officials have been pleased with the academic progress shown since students have returned from the COVID-19 shutdown, Chief Academic Officer Chris Robbins said.
Achievement and growth test scores have been increasing for students as a whole, as well as for students from low-income families, and the percentage of students needing academic intervention has been declining, Robbins said. Hoover educators want to continue to drive those scores in the right direction, using data to drive decision making, he said.
This school year, they’ll focus on continuing to make sure teachers are teaching the state’s new math and English standards and using the proper resources, Robbins said. There also is a continued focus on professional development, with teachers getting two paid days of professional development the past two summers, he said.
The requirement for third graders to be reading on grade level to be promoted to fourth grade goes into effect at the end of this school year, after being delayed previously, Robbins said.
The most recent test scores haven’t been released yet, but the previous year’s test scores showed 90% of Hoover’s third graders reading on grade level, Robbins said.
The past two summers, Hoover has held a summer literacy and math camp to help struggling students catch up, he said. About 150 students in grades 1-3 participated this summer, he said. Any students not at grade level by the end of this school year can retake the test after attending a summer camp, he said. There also are exceptions for some students, such as special needs students or those who speak English as a second language, he said.
The Hoover school district also has started new leadership academies to help assistant principals and teachers grow in their administrative and leadership skills, said Terry Lamar, Hoover’s chief administrative officer.
Another change for this year is all new Chromebooks and classroom projectors at Hoover High School. The computers are changed out every five years, Chief Technology Officer Brian Phillips said. Spain Park students’ Chromebooks were replaced last year, and next year, students in all elementary schools will get new Chromebooks, he said.
The Hoover City Schools website and all individual school websites also will get a new look, with a change to a new website provider that should happen in August, Phillips said.
