Hoover school employees challenged to get ready for 'showtime' as first day nears
Hoover schools Superintendent Kathy Murphy today challenged the school district’s 1,750 employees to get ready for “showtime” as students prepare to come back to school this Wednesday.
Teachers, administrators, counselors, custodians, lunchroom and office workers, bus drivers, nurses and others filled the sanctuary at Hunter Street Baptist Church for their annual back-to-school “institute.”
It was designed to be an inspirational session to get everyone motivated for the new school year. This year’s gathering had a movie theme, so the superintendent shared movie clips related to education and inspirational talks and included famous quotes from movies that school employees should and shouldn’t say to each other.
Murphy said she’s been in education 33 years now, and “it doesn’t look like it used to look.”
Things are changing in Washington, Montgomery and even in Hoover, she said.
“One of the things that’s so awesome about you all is the flexibility you bring to get it right regardless of all the changing elements around you,” Murphy said. “It may not feel like Hoover used to feel. It may not look like Hoover used to look. Education sure looks differently when I look in the rear-view mirror and I look at where we are today, and it’s not all a bad thing.”
Murphy told school employees to fasten their seat belts because it’s going to be a bumpy ride ahead.
“I don’t say that because I’m anticipating horrible, wretched and awful stuff to happen in Hoover City Schools, but there are going to be some bumps in the road. There are going to be some difficulties we have to face and some complexities we have to address,” Murphy said. “I know you have what it takes to be bold and to be creative and to be energetic.”
Murphy invited Christian Cooper, a 2009 Hoover High graduate who suffered burns to 80 percent of his body in a February 2016 car accident, back to speak to school employees for the second year in a row.
Last year, Cooper had just been released from a burn center in Georgia and talked about the importance of keeping a positive attitude when facing adversity. This year, after undergoing 70 more surgeries, Cooper encouraged school employees to be role models and speak words of motivation to one another.
“You never know what small impact you’re going to have on a student, on a co-worker,” Cooper said. “Anybody you interact with every day, you’re going to have an impact on, so my challenge to you is to have a positive impact. Be a leader. Be a role model.”
Murphy also asked Hoover High math teacher John Henley to share a few words. Henley over the past year underwent multiple surgeries related to colon cancer and also had open heart surgery. Doctors told his wife he might die, but he miraculously survived, he said.
Through it all, he was surrounded by family, friends and co-workers who shared love and acts of kindness to help him get through the difficult days. He’s grateful for the community that rallied around him and his family, and he is ready to give back this school year with a new perspective, he said.
“I’m ready for those children. I’m ready to take on those challenges,” he said.
Murphy took time to thank each of the different groups of employees that make up Hoover City Schools and challenged them to keep students at the center of what they do.
“It’s showtime. They’re about to come into your room, and they have great expectations for what you’re going to do this year with them,” she said.
In keeping with the “showtime” theme, the lights darkened at one point, and spotlights were put on students spread throughout the auditorium who shared their own challenges with the adults who will work with them this year.
Dalton Dismukes, a seventh grader at Simmons Middle School, asked school employees to pique students’ curiosity with humor and stories that help them see how they can apply the instruction to their future careers and use their talents to benefit the community.
Eric Robinson, an 11th grader, encouraged teachers to make learning fun and engaging and to make him feel welcome in the classroom. Taylor Lynch, a student at Brock’s Gap Intermediate School, asked teachers to give some assignments on paper and some through technology, and asked principals to teach consequences for kids who misbehave and rewards for those who do the right thing.
Buddy Gray, the pastor at Hunter Street Baptist Church, thanked the school employees for answering the call to change children’s lives. “You could make more money and have more prestige, but there’s nothing more important than what you’re doing,” he said.
Gray also stressed the importance of teamwork. “It takes all of us to get something done,” he said. “You cannot do it own your own. You need each other.”
Gray prayed that God would encourage and inspire the school employees to see one another as having a common task and asked God to open up the minds and hearts of children and to lead them along the path that he has set for them.
School system leaders also took time to remember Lucas Dunigan, an 8-year-old Rocky Ridge Elementary student who died in May after battling leukemia for 2½ years, and Kelly Cash, a Green Valley Elementary teacher’s aide who died at the age of 33 in September of last year.
Rocky Ridge Principal Dil Uswatte said Lucas, though only 8 years old, taught many lessons with his life, including how to cherish the people in your life and that no matter how bad you feel, you should put a smile on the face of others. Lucas also taught that “no matter how sick you are, there is always time for Legos and learning.”
“Lucas Dunigan will forever be in the hearts and minds of those he touched,” Uswatte said.
Jeff Singer, the former principal at Green Valley Elementary who now is an assistant principal at Brock’s Gap Intermediate and Deer Valley Elementary, said Cash taught others how to take life one day at a time. She positively impacted the lives of people around her with her infectious smile, loving spirit, genuine heart for kids and a knack for seeing the potential and ability in each child, Singer said. “We treasure the lessons she shared.”
Kristin Amos, a counselor at Greystone Elementary, said today’s back-to-school gathering was excellent. “Every year, this is so thought-provoking,” Amos said. “It just gets better and better every year.”
She appreciated Murphy reminding school employees to challenge themselves and make sure they’re ready for students on Day 1, she said. Students are depending on school employees to show up every day, not just physically, but with their minds and hearts, so they can be at their best, Amos said.
Stan Doran, a science teacher and cross-country coach at Bumpus Middle School, said he appreciated the challenge from students to raise the bar and listen to students more, and the emphasis on cooperation. “We’re family. We can depend on each other,” he said.
Kim Gurganus, a first-grade teacher at Shades Mountain Elementary, said she was motivated and encouraged by the personal stories from Cooper and Henley. It helped her remember that other people have faced a lot harder challenges than she has and were able to overcome those challenges by having a positive attitude, she said.
Employees also were entertained today by Hoover High’s First Edition jazz band and show choir, a choir of elementary students, and unicycling, juggling and jump rope teams.