
Photo courtesy of The Altamont School
Students enter The Altamont School in Birmingham, Alabama, on Aug. 19, 2022 — the first day of the 2022-23 school year.
The Altamont School opened its new academic year Aug. 19 with 389 students, the school’s largest enrollment in 16 years.
The historic surge includes 83 new students from 20 zip codes and 40 schools, and puts grades 7-9 at capacity, according to Director of Admissions Thomas Goldsmith.
The school also welcomed new staff and nine new teachers, including new Head of School Cecil Stodghill, Jr. Stodghill, a Chattanooga native who came to Altamont in July after leading New York’s Doane Stuart School, is excited about the growth of the school and the opportunities he sees for community partnerships.
“We’re sitting on a goldmine in terms of global education and practical experiences, right here in Birmingham,” Stodghill said.
Taking full advantage of those opportunities would be good for the school’s families as well as the city, he said. “My goal is to create a cultural shift by which we become not just the independent school in Birmingham, but the school in Birmingham, not just because of our college matriculations or our AP scores, but because of the impact we truly have in this community.”
In addition to new faces, students found a new look in some school spaces as they arrived at Altamont’s wooded 28-acre campus on the first day of class. The extensive renovations of student spaces in recent years continued this summer with the installation of new furniture and the revitalization of the school’s tennis facilities.