Superintendent Phillips gives final State of the Schools address at Chamber luncheon

At the July Vestavia Hills Chamber of Commerce luncheon Tuesday, Superintendent Sheila Phillips gave her final State of the Schools address.

Phillips will retire on Sept. 1, and in her speech, the 29-year veteran of education looked at the current status of the school district as well as at the accomplishments over her tenure at the helm.

From 2014 to 2017, the district went through multiple high-level initiatives, from a strategic planning process and continuous improvement program to overhauling facilities and aligning the middle schools. The district also engaged in enhancing technology across all schools, creating more professional development opportunities for teachers and creating equitable learning experiences for all students.

"There is always room to grow, always work to be done as education is constantly evolving and changing," Phillips said.

In all things, Phillips said, she and her staff along with the Board of Education worked to ensure fiscal responsibility.

To that point, Phillips walked guests at the luncheon through several statistics about the school district, including that there will be 7,083 students enrolled when school starts on Thursday, an increase of about 300 over the last two years.

"We cannot add classrooms quickly enough to serve all of the needs we have in our community," she said.

Between the eight schools, the district has 928 total employees, accounting for roughly 80 percent of the district's $89.4 million budget. Nearly half that budget, 48.9 percent, comes from local revenue sources. As the fiscal year wraps up, she said, the district is actually ahead of projected revenue by about $850,000.

"When you're talking about economic growth, and you're talking about your schools–those things have to go together," she said, adding that while there will be growing pains–those growing pains are "a good thing."

And while economic growth allows for such a strong budget, Phillips said the schools would be nothing like they are if it weren't for the additional stakeholders, and thanked the VHCS Foundation for its 15 grants totaling $58,000, and the PTO for its more than $500,000 total investment in technology, arts, classroom enhancement, STEM programming and facilities.

Phillips then walked through several of the projects completed over the last year, including the renovation of the parking lot and baseball stadium at Vestavia Hills High School, as well as some of the ongoing projects at the elementary school level.

She also spoke to the teaching and learning initiatives the various staffs have undertaken–what she said was "why we're really here is to make certain that our children receive the very best education that they can receive."

Examples of things done over the last year included adding new courses at the high school, district professional development, addressing the world language program, arts achievement, employee evaluation and more.

Phillips also explained how over the last year, the district went through a complete technology overhaul, as well as how this year's senior cohort shown bright through AP testing, scholarship achievement and college acceptance.

Phillips thanked her team and the community for the opportunity to serve as superintendent, and said she is looking forward to the next chapter in her life.

"We've done it, and we've done it together," she said.

Also at the luncheon, Shawn Arterburn of Liberty Park Joint Venture–sponsors of the July meeting–ran through a presentation about upcoming projects at Liberty Park. Some, like the gas station, are expected to get started as early as September.

Chamber President Karen Odle and Membership and Marketing Consultant Lisa Christopher reminded members and guests of Back 2 School in the Hills, happening this Friday, weather permitting.