Trussville principals wrap ‘roller coaster’ school year

TRUSSVILLE -- The principals of the five Trussville schools wrapped up the 2021-2022 school year at the May Trussville City Schools Board of Education meeting.

The three elementary principals, one middle school principal and one high school principal all discussed challenges, triumphs, events and statistics during their presentations to the Board.

Hewitt-Trussville Middle School Principal Jennifer Abney spoke first, saying that the 2021-2022 school year was a “roller coaster.”

“That’s really the only way I can describe the high and lows,” Abney said. “It was fast, a lot of twists, turns, and unexpected things kind of came up. We just stayed focused and stayed the course with academics.” 

Abney said the school year started with 1,117 students and ended with 1,147. She said she was proud of the students’ focus despite the challenges the school year brought.

“They were eager to have some normalcy, and I think they were craving social interaction,” she said.

Abney said the middle school has seven empty classrooms, which allows room for growth. The upcoming sixth grade class will have 386 students, she said. 

“Growth continues to happen at HTMS and through all of our schools,” she said.

Hewitt-Trussville High School Principal Tim Salem said the school year started with 1,552 students and ended with 1,595. At one point, the high school included more than 1,600 students. Salem said just four teachers are expected to leave the high school. 

“We’ve had a year of pretty much normalcy,” he said. 

Cahaba Elementary School Principal Joy Tyner said enrollment had “backed off” during the COVID-19 pandemic but the school had 525 students now. The school includes six empty classrooms to expand into if the student population increases.

“I think we’ll probably have our highest enrollment this coming year,” Tyner said. 

Magnolia Elementary School Principal Phyllis Faust said this school year ended with 369 students, 59 of which will now head to the middle school. The school is losing only two teachers – one to retirement, one to relocation. Both positions have already been filled, Faust said.

“We look forward to another wonderful school year next year,” she said.

Paine Elementary School Principal Lisa Lothspeich said the “unprecedented enrollment” at her school was 1,328 students at the end of this school year. She said the two major challenges this school year were COVID-19 pandemic effects such as masking and social distancing, and the high enrollment numbers. A year ago, enrollment was at 1,203 students, an increase of 125 students. 

Trussville City School Superintendent Pattie Neill then spoke about growth in Trussville – specifically the northern end of the city – and the need for a fourth elementary school to ease overcrowding at Paine Elementary. In recent months, the Glendale Farms property has been discussed as a possible site of a fourth elementary school.

On May 10, the Trussville City Council held a first reading of the rezoning ordinance, which was met by nearly two hours of discussion. Neill was one of the first to speak at that meeting, noting the importance of 21 acres of “free land” designated for a fourth elementary school to ease overcrowding at Paine Elementary School.

“That allows us to fast-track our plans from 2019 forward in the pre-planning stages to go forward quicker with the elementary school,” Neill said. “I want to reiterate that since 2019 we’ve been looking for a place, and when the developers offered the land for the fourth elementary school, that could launch us into the planning stage.”

Lothspeich spoke about the overcrowding at her school. She said the school is designed for 1,000 students. The expectation is that number will swell to 1,500 over the next couple years. 

“We can manage that the best we can,” Lothspeich said. “It’ll be very challenging.”

The city council, barring any major changes to the plan for the planned urban development project at Glendale Farms, is expected to vote on the development June 14. Neill said no other property on the northern end of the city has come up as a possibility for a fourth elementary school. 

“It’s been a difficult year for space and what we’re trying to do,” Neill said. “We’ll just look and see what happens in June. We’ll consider anything on the northern side of Trussville.”