Photo by Jon Anderson.
Riverchase Elementary School Principal Alice Turney greets kindergartner David Juarez in the hallway before school Dec. 3.
Riverchase Elementary School Principal Alice Turney has been named the 2021 Distinguished Principal for District 4 of the Alabama Association of Elementary School Administrators.
Turney has been principal at Riverchase since 2014, when she moved up from the assistant principal spot to fill the position of retiring Principal Dianne Baggett.
Since that time, Riverchase Elementary was named a Blue Ribbon School of Excellence by the U.S. Department of Education in 2018 and achieved science, technology, engineering and math certification from Cognia, a national accreditation agency, in 2019.
The school also has received more than $20,000 in grant money from the Hoover City Schools Foundation during her tenure.
Turney has served as a principal mentor for the Council for Leaders in Alabama Schools in 2019 and 2021 and this year is the District 4 president of the Alabama Association of Elementary School Administrators. She now is in contention for the statewide Distinguished Principal award.
The Distinguished Principal Award is given to principals who are respected and a force for positive change, contribute to the well-being of the educational community, help create a positive environment, motivate and inspire others, go beyond what is expected, serve the community, show strong leadership, operate an orderly and purposeful school, and set high expectations that lead to increased student achievement.
Turney grew up in Apison, Tennessee, near Chattanooga. She graduated from Ooltewah High School, earned a bachelor’s degree in elementary education and master’s degree in educational leadership from the University of West Georgia and a doctorate in educational leadership from Argosy University. She is currently pursuing a certificate in school management and leadership from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
She began her career as a teacher and student support specialist at Eastside Elementary in the Metro Atlanta school system from 1997 to 2002, then was an assistant principal at New Manchester Elementary, also in Metro Atlanta, from 2002 to 2005 before moving to the Hoover school system in 2005.
She started as an assistant principal at both Greystone and Riverchase elementaries but in January 2006 was dedicated as an assistant at just Riverchase.
Turney said she got into education because of her love for learning.
“I loved going to school and loved being in school and challenging myself to learn new things,” she said. “I wanted to pass that onto kids and afford them opportunities to have their own passions and get them excited about learning.”
It’s like the ripple effect of a pebble in a pond, she said.
“I may not be able to change the entire world, but I certainly want to do something about my little section of it and make it better,” Turney said.
As a principal, she loves having the opportunity to work with families and teachers to find ways to do things better, and she feels like it is a job where she is able to make a difference, she said.
She especially loves working at Riverchase Elementary, she said. When she moved from metro Atlanta when her husband got a job in the Birmingham area, she never thought she would find a place she loved as much as she loved Douglasville, Georgia, but “I was so wrong,” she said.
“I’m definitely very blessed to work here at Riverchase,” Turney said. “There’s just a lot of community support. There’s a lot of parental support, and the teachers are phenomenal.”
Everyone does everything they can to make learning exciting for the kids, she said.
