2 new principals named for Vestavia Hills elementary schools
The Vestavia Hills Board of Education on Monday approved two new principals for the 2024-25 school year.
Cindy Echols, who has been serving as an assistant principal at Vestavia Hills Elementary East since 2012, was named the next principal there and will replace Mark Richardson when he retires July 1.
Susan McCall, who has been an assistant principal at Vestavia Hills Elementary West since 2016, will replace Kim Hauser as principal there when Hauser retires July 1.
Echols previously served as an assistant principal and principal of Edgewood Elementary School in Homewood, as an assistant principal at Hewitt-Trussville Middle School and as a teacher at the former Cahaba Heights Community School. She holds a bachelor’s degree in education from the University of Alabama as well as master’s and educational specialist’s degrees from Samford University.
“I can’t say enough about Cynthia,” Richardson said. “ She’s done everything I’ve done and then some. It’s been like having two principals honestly, and she probably knows a lot more about running a school than I do, so the transition will be seamless. I’m so happy.”
McCall previously served as a reading coach at Cherokee Bend Elementary in Mountain Brook, as an instructional coach and teacher at Deer Valley Elementary in Hoover, and as an instructional coach and teacher in Gwinnett County, Georgia. She earned a bachelor’s degree in education from Mississippi State University, a master’s degree and administrative certification from the University of Georgia and an educational specialist’s degree from Brenau University in northeast Georgia. She also worked on the collegiate level as an adjunct professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham from 2015 to 2018.
Hauser said McCall has walked beside her for eight years and knows the job as well as she does. “My school would have been devastated if you had named anyone else,” Hauser said.Superintendent Todd Freeman said he anticipates both schools’ assistant principal roles will be filled later this spring.
In other business Monday, the Vestavia Hills school board:
- Agreed to pay Duncan & Thompson Construction Services $275,689 to renovate the girls locker room at Vestavia Hills High School to provide additional showers. The girls athletics program has been growing and doesn’t have enough showers, so a temporary shower trailer currently is in place to supplement the existing shower stalls, Freeman said. They hope to have the shower renovations done by this summer, he said.
- Amended the fiscal 2024 budget to account for about $562,000 in additional expenditures, including $387,948 in safety and security measures, $86,527 for the High Hopes program, $56,000 for extra counseling services, $30,000 for supplies for the gifted program, $1,000 extra for communications for the Vestavia Hills City Schools Hall of Fame and $500 more for bullying prevention services
- Approved a revised salary schedule for registered behavior technicians that ranges from $29,648 to $38,689 a year
- Honored Pat Boone for 47 years of service as the attorney for the Vestavia Hills Board of Education and city of Vestavia Hills
- Honored the Vestavia Hills High School varsity and junior varsity cheerleaders and Liberty Park Middle School cheerleaders for being named state champions this year and the high school’s junior varsity squad for winning a national championship in the junior varsity division