New principals at Simmons, Spain Park bring hard work ethic to job

The Hoover school system gained two new principals over the summer.

Amanda Esslinger, who has spent the past year as an assistant principal at Hoover High School, is replacing Larry Giangrosso as he retires at Spain Park High School.

Walter Womack has taken on the lead role at Simmons Middle School, coming from the Tarrant school system.

Esslinger has 16 years as a full-time educator and 10 years of experience as an administrator. She taught for six years at Homewood High School and then spent nine years as an assistant principal at Homewood before coming to Hoover High a year ago.

Chris Robbins, the chief academic officer for Hoover City Schools, said the committee that interviewed candidates for the Spain Park principal job had a very difficult task because the slate of candidates was very strong.

“The committee took note, though, of the amazing leadership that Dr. Amanda Esslinger has shown over her years in a variety of roles,” Robbins said. “There’s not a whole lot that Dr. Esslinger hasn’t done. In addition to her extremely successful leadership in the area of curriculum and instruction at Hoover High School, she has a track record of schoolwide leadership experiences and natural leadership skills that make her the ideal candidate for the next leader for Spain Park High School.”

Esslinger said she has loved her time at Hoover High and during that time has had an opportunity to communicate with people throughout the district and knows there are some amazing leaders and support staff at Spain Park.

Given her background and experiences, Esslinger said when she learned of the opening at Spain Park, it just seemed like the right thing to do to throw her name in the hat for the job, and she’s so thankful it worked out.

She’s thrilled with the opportunity to lead Spain Park and looks forward to getting started as soon as possible, she said.

Esslinger noted her first teaching job after earning a bachelor’s degree in English and English language arts education from Troy University in 2006 was teaching summer school at Spain Park High School that summer.

Womack, the new principal at Simmons, grew up in a blue-collar community in Greenville, south of Montgomery, where he said he learned to have a hard work ethic. He hopes to bring that same work ethic to Simmons.

Womack, who comes to Hoover from his former position as principal at Tarrant Elementary School, has 22 years as a professional educator, including 17 as an administrator in Tarrant.

He began his career as a teacher at Keith High School in Dallas County and then spent three years as a teacher in Jefferson County’s alternative school.

He decided he could have a greater impact on students as an administrator and moved into an administrative role at Tarrant’s alternative school for three years, followed by three years at Tarrant Middle School and eight years at Tarrant Elementary School.

The principal job at Simmons came open after former Principal Melissa Hadder was transferred to Berry Middle School in February after less than a year at Simmons.

Womack said he saw the opportunity and felt the time was right for him to move back to the middle school level. He said he has always heard a lot of great things about the Hoover community and saw the Simmons job as a good opportunity to be a part of the Hoover system.

The fact that he has lived in Helena for 17 years and will have a much shorter commute was just “icing on the cake,” he said.

Simmons Middle School has had a good track record, and Womack said wants to be a part of that track. One of his goals will be to bring Simmons in line with Hoover’s other middle schools in terms of test scores and things of that nature, he said.

“I’m eager to get to work and get started in Hoover,” he said shortly after beginning his job at Simmons June 1. “Everywhere I’ve been, I’ve always expected excellence not just from myself but from those I work with.”

Womack spent the summer filling some vacant teaching positions, setting up the calendar for this school year and getting to know his administrative team, which includes three assistant principals — one for each grade level. He also went through some training on the state’s new education software.

Many administrative job changes don’t happen until July 1, so Womack said he was glad Tarrant released him earlier than that so he had an extra month to get acquainted with Simmons and the Hoover community before school starts Aug. 11.

Superintendent Dee Fowler said he was very excited to get Womack hired at Simmons because the school needs some stability.

Womack is the fifth person to serve as principal at Simmons since early 2019. Fowler said he asked Womack for a commitment to stay at least three to five years at Simmons, and Womack said he’ll stay as long as the Hoover school district will let him.

“I’m not the type of person that uproots easily and moves around,” he said. “I like to try to stay in one place as much as possible.”

It takes time to create change, and “I want to stay put at Simmons as long as I possibly can,” he said. “I think it’s going to be a great fit for myself and students and faculty as well.”