Photo from Hoover HIgh School website
Hoover High School Principal Jennifer Hogan
Hoover High School Principal Jennifer Hogan on Thursday announced she is retiring for the second time, and her retirement will take effect July 1.
Hogan has been principal at Hoover High for two years but has spent a total of 14 years there. She first retired in 2021 after 27 years in education, including two years as a teacher and 10 years as an assistant principal at Hoover High. In her first retirement, she spent two years as a consultant with The Hope Institute at Samford University, helping K-12 schools create a culture of strong character.
When John Montgomery retired as principal at Hoover High in 2023, several people encouraged her to come out of retirement for the principal job, and she did. She initially planned to stay about 10 years if she was allowed, then shortened that time frame to five years after her first grandchild was born, she said. She now believes she needs to go ahead and retire to help take care of her parents, who are experiencing health challenges, she said.
“It’s a heart-wrenching decision,” Hogan said. “It’s not an easy decision. It’s one that I’m even still grappling with because I love Hoover so much and felt like we had done so many great things in the two years I was there. I sort of feel like I didn’t get to finish what I started.”
But “family has to come first,” Hogan said. That’s the advice she has given to others in the past, and “I’ve got listen to my own words,” she said.
Hogan said she doesn’t like to do things less than 100%, and she doesn’t feel like she can serve Hoover High in the capacity it needs and also be able to help her parents the way they need it, so she felt it would be best for Hoover High School to find someone who can give it 100%.
In a letter to parents and students sent out Thursday morning, Hogan said she has “come to realize that I am needed most at this time by the two people who were my very first teachers — my parents. Their health challenges require my full attention and care, and though it’s difficult to step away from a role and a community I love, I know this is the right next step.”
Hogan said she is leaving the job with a heavy heart and deep gratitude for the opportunities she has had at Hoover High.
“What I will carry with me are the memories — the thousands of handshakes and high fives, the early morning hallway chats, the pep rallies, the conversations with staff members, the joy of graduation days and the sacred trust of walking alongside students and families through both triumphs and trials,” Hogan wrote in her letter. “I will forever be grateful for the laughter, learning and leadership I experienced here.”
Hogan thanked students for letting her be a small part of their big stories and said the support of parents and community partners has strengthened the school in ways that go beyond test scores and accolades.
“Leadership is not about position, but about influence,” she wrote. “And I hope that in my time here, I’ve influenced our school in a way that leaves it better than I found it — more compassionate, more welcoming and more focused on helping every student reach their fullest potential.”
In an interview, Hogan said she is proud of the work that has been done to improve communication at the school in the past two years. When she first took the job, she consistently heard from people that communication was very important to them, she said.
She established a weekly newsletter with teachers and staff that included a google form where they could share any questions or concerns directly with her, which was helpful with such a large school, she said.
She also has done a quarterly video message to parents and tried to communicate quickly with parents when incidents happen and have an open door for parents to communicate with the school.
Also, she worked hard to identify some core values that bring everyone together, she said. Everyone believed their program was the most important thing at the school, but the missing element was some anchors that apply to everyone whether they’re on the debate team or football team or in the engineering academy or art program, she said.
Last year, she sought input from all stakeholders and came up with respect, responsibility and integrity as core values that have served as a guide and cornerstone for everything done at the school, she said.
“If you’re at Hoover High School, those are the things that unite us,” she said. “Those core values kind of became our filter for making decisions and helping us understand the behavior that was expected and the standard that was expected from everyone inside the building.”
She feels now that everyone is pulling the rope in the same direction, she said. “Everyone’s on board — wants to raise test scores, but also wants to help students not just be smart, but be smart and good and be positive members of society and just good people.”
Hogan, a graduate of the former Berry High School, 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.
In 2018, Hogan was named Alabama’s Assistant Principal of the Year and was one of three finalists for National Assistant Principal of the Year by the National Association of Secondary School Principals.
In her letter to parents and students, Hogan said even though she is stepping away from her professional duties, her heart remains with Hoover High.
“I’m not just leaving a job. I’m leaving a family,” she wrote. “And families never truly say goodbye; they just say ‘see you soon.’”
