School administrators, office personnel, central office directors, grounds and maintenance personnel and staff are commonly asked, "What do you do in the summer?". For us, summer is one of the busiest times of the year. Summer is when we finish out the previous year financially and start to plan new budgets for the upcoming year, when we wax floors and clean our facilities, when we correct issues and make repairs to facilities, when we meet with teachers for professional development and send groups to learn new strategies at workshops and much more! AND lets not even mention the grass and grounds! The school year is 180 days in length for our students, but for most of our faculty and staff the school year is 365 days. School may start of August 10th in HCS, but for most educators- it starts long before the first bell. In this blog post I wanted to highlight some of the groups who have worked part or all of the summer to ensure that the 2017-2018 school year is the best one yet! 

Research has found that a clean school not only is a health environment for its students and staff, but can have a positive impact on student achievement. We believe that our schools should be places are are proud of, and we rely heavily on the HCS custodial staff- who are are amazing! When you walk into our buildings the floors are pristine and shine! Almost every square inch of all 3 buildings is stripped down and given several fresh coats of wax every summer. This process takes HOURS and literally weeks of the summer to complete. Most if not all furniture is moved out and then back in of classrooms during this process. We have a lot of classrooms! Our buildings would not look nice or be ready for our students without the hard work and dedication of our custodial teams! Thank you Mr. Steve Berry and Mrs. Brenda Scogin (HHS). Mr. Barry Butler and Mr. Randy Jones (HMS), and Mr. Jerry Corsbie, Mr. Chris Webb and Mrs. Rita Butler (HES). You are a valuable part of our HCS team! 

Another essential part of our back to school preparation is making sure our grounds are not only beautiful, but that we have addressed any issues to ensure our students are safe inside and outside of our buildings. Mr. David Albright is the head of our grounds team with assistance from student workers Caleb Baker and Sergio Mederos. Mr. Scotty Jones is the head of our maintenance team. Together these teams work so hard in the summer heat to keep our school buildings in good repair and do the necessary improvements to ensure we have the nicest schools around. Many projects are not safe to do during the school year with students or cause substantial disruptions to the school day so these types of projects are worked on all summer. We have pressure washed, changed out the lights in the HCS cafeteria to more energy efficient lighting, mowed, fixed the lighting at the stadium, cut shrubbery, cleaned up areas around buildings, planted beautiful flowers and much more! This crew cannot wait for school to start and for cooler weather I am sure! We appreciate you! 

Speaking of hot days in the sun, we could not show the school spirit that we show without our HHS Varsity Cheerleaders! These young ladies and their sponsor, Mrs. Wendy Rushing, come to HHS at 5:00 am to start painting lion paws for a week and do not leave until dark- most days they can be found paining using the light from their vehicles many hours after dark. This is a wonderful HHS tradition and daily I see young Lions walking the street looking for their awesome paw and usually stopping to pose for a picture with their paw. HHS and HCS appreciates the cheer squad for all they do to continue strong traditions of school spirit at HCS! #LionPride

Another group that is amazing is our HCS Lunchroom team lead by Mrs. Emma Ann Hallman with assistance from our Lunchroom Managers- Linda Mize (HHS), Patricia Godsey (HMS), and Christy McCombs (HES). This group of ladies works tirelessly to serve foods under the guidelines of the Federal/State Foods and Nutrition Program that are tasty and appealing for our students. This is often not an easy task, but one that is important to HCS. Just last week our CNP team was visited by Chef Scott Lockey, Executive Chef of Alabaster City Schools. Chef Lockey gave our teams some pointers on how to increase the flavor of foods while staying within the dietary guidelines. We would like to thank our CNP team for going the extra mile to ensure our students are fed nutritious and delicious meals! 

Thank you Regina Burleson, Kim Shelnutt, Rita Brannon, Pam Wilson, Michelle Dempsey and Maribel Cofield who serve on the HES team. Thank you Tina Batchelor, Misty McNutt and Tina Baker who serve on the HMS team. Thank you Cozette Pickens, Beverly McClusky, DeWanda Rowland and  Myra Steele who serve on the HHS team. #YouMatter

I would also like to thank our teachers who spend many hours in the summer getting ready for the next school year. If you have ever been an educator, you know the time and money that you spend in order to welcome your kids back to your classrooms. I love walking around our buildings and seeing the wonderful door decorations and student work displays that will soon be filled with writing and illustrations our students have completed. No dollar amount can be placed on the love and dedication you show. Parents- every dime you spend in school supplies is worth it. Teachers are worth it and your students are worth it! Thank you teachers for all you do for HCS and for your students. You make a difference in the lives of students everyday and I appreciate you! #HCSSLI

I would also like to thank the HCS administrative team. We have participated in a retreat where we spent hours ensuring that are all on the same page and headed in the direction of students success for every student! We have traveled to data symposiums, worked out details of schedules to maximize instructional time, worked to learn new instructional strategies and have become even more dedicated to ensuring student success. This team has worked so hard this summer and I know that they have prepared each of our schools for an amazing school year. It is an awesome feeling as a leader to know that your team is competent, but even more exciting to know that they are committed, that they love their jobs and that they love the students that will enter their buildings on August 10th. 

We are going to have an amazing year! Thanks to each of these groups who have helped to get things ready for next week! I cannot believe school starts next week! I am so excited! I hope you can tell that I have missed your kids and look forward to them coming back to HCS! 

Serve with Pride, Lead with Confidence, Inspire to Impact Others~

Dr. Sutherland