Pattie Neill resigns as superintendent

TRUSSVILLE -- Pattie Neill resigned as Trussville City Schools’ superintendent Nov. 1. 

“I am proud of the accomplishments of the students, educators, and staff of Trussville City Schools during the time I have served as Superintendent over the last 10 years,” Neill wrote in her resignation letter. “I believe this is the perfect time for new leadership to continue the mission of Trussville City Schools, and I have decided to step down in my duties as Superintendent.” 

Neill, the school system’s leader for almost 10 years, requested a 60-day administrative leave and the Board placed her on that leave Sept. 30 in the wake of a Hewitt-Trussville High School student being suspended in September after making terroristic threats Sept. 16, almost a year after he created a “death notebook” that contained the names of 37 classmates, a notebook that did not come to light to authorities until almost a year later.

During the Trussville Police Department investigation, it was learned that the same student in October 2021 had created a “death notebook” that contained the names of 37 classmates. The department was not notified by school administrators of the notebook. Hewitt-Trussville High School Principal Tim Salem was placed on administrative leave Sept. 27. 

“I think that you have to review your threat assessment protocol and when you have something like this, it’s appropriate to involve the [school resource officer] on day one and involve the superintendent on day one,” Neill said an hour after her resignation was accepted by the Trussville City Schools Board of Education. “The notebook is about a year old. It’s a year old now.”

In her resignation letter, Neill wrote, “Also, the investigation being conducted by the Board will affirm that I did not know of the ‘death notebook’ prior to September 21st of 2022. I love Trussville and I wish the very best for Trussville City Schools in the future.”

Neill said the “death notebook” ordeal was something she wanted to get Trussville City Schools through.

“When you have a high performing, [Class] 7A school system that runs into some sort of perceived barrier to the work, then it gets the attention of the State Department and statewide,” she said. “What we all wanted to do was just get Trussville City Schools back on track. It was very important to me contributing 10 years of my life to this school system to keep it excellent.”

Neill was under contract through June 30, 2026. After contract negotiations, Trussville City Schools will pay Neill through Oct. 31, 2023. 

Board member Kim DeShazo said pros of the move is avoiding litigation and negotiating Neill’s contract down from four years to one. It allowed a chapter to close.

“It provides us an opportunity to move forward,” DeShazo said. “It provides us an opportunity to have a fresh start. Those are all good things. Those are all good things that our community needs, our community wants. That is what’s in the best interest of our community, of our students.”

Acting superintendent Frank Costanzo was subsequently approved as interim superintendent effective Nov. 1. Costanzo was hired Oct. 13 to lead the school system in an acting role. Costanzo retired as the superintendent of Tuscaloosa County Schools in 2012. He has more than 40 years of experience in education as a teacher, bus driver, assistant principal, principal, central office director, assistant superintendent and superintendent. He has spent 10 years in educational consulting.

Board President Kathy Brown said the school system would be working with the Alabama Association of School Boards to aid in the process of finding a new superintendent. 

Neill, after serving as the interim superintendent of Trussville City Schools in July 2012, was named the permanent leader in November 2012. Prior to Trussville, Neill was the superintendent of the Cumberland County School District in Crossville, Tenn., from 2003 to 2007. From then to her appointment as Trussville City Schools’ superintendent, she served as an assistant professor of graduate studies at Samford University in Birmingham, where she oversaw elementary and secondary teachers earning master’s and doctorate degrees in education. 

In Trussville, she was named the District V Superintendent of the Year in 2020. She led the school system in 2014 when the seven-millage tax referendum passed that helped fund the construction of Cahaba Elementary and Magnolia Elementary schools. She was also the superintendent during the construction of Hewitt-Trussville Stadium. More recently, Hewitt-Trussville High School was named a National Blue Ribbon School by the U.S. Department of Education and in April the new Trussville City Schools Central Office was opened. 

Neill also provided a statement to the Cahaba Sun, in which she commended Trussville City Schools for having "an outstanding team of caring, passionate employees."

In that statement, she emphasized what she believed to be the school system's top accomplishments during her tenure, including its performance in school district rankings, the system's quality personnel, school safety, awards, facility improvements, working through COVID-19 and strategic planning chief among them.

Neill said she’ll take the next year to explore new opportunities, to figure out what’s next.

“That will give me time to reset the course of my life,” she said. 

*Editor's note: Story was updated Nov. 9 to include additional comments from Neill.