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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Susan Castleberry
Susan Castleberry, a retired special education teacher, at her home Jan. 15. She recently retired after 23 years of service for students with special needs.
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Photo Courtesy of Susan Castleberry.
Susan Castleberry, bottom left, smiles along with other Pizitz Middle School faculty members. Castleberry recently retired after 23 years at the school.
For the past 23 years, Susan Castleberry has ensured that students with special needs and students who qualify for gifted classes receive the help and education they need.
Her decades of service to Vestavia Hills City Schools came to an end Jan. 1 when she retired from her position at Pizitz Middle School.
Castleberry said she will miss the family at Pizitz, as well as all of her students, whom she said she hopes she impacted for the better.
“I hear so many people say, ‘I hated middle school,’” Castleberry said. “I hope those who came into contact with me didn’t hate middle school.”
Throughout her time at Pizitz, Castleberry taught both special needs students and students who were in gifted classes, making sure they were challenged to learn and grow at their level. She also led the school’s dance team for more than 20 years. For many years, Castleberry and the dance teams sold Chick-Fil-A chicken biscuits to students on Friday mornings as a fundraiser, a popular treat for many students.
A few years ago, the school’s yearbook was dedicated to Castleberry.
“I felt very honored,” Castleberry said.
David Miles was the principal at Pizitz from 1991 until his retirement in 2014 and worked with Castleberry throughout his career.
“She was terrific,” Miles said. “She was full of energy. … She was always somebody I could look to for honest advice. I always appreciated that.”
Castleberry helped contribute to the family atmosphere and always brought common sense and a positive attitude to the school, Miles said.
“Wherever you put her, you never worried about it,” Miles said. “It was going to be great.”
Castleberry’s history with Vestavia schools reaches back to the early days of the school system. She attended what is now Vestavia Hills Elementary East, back when it was just called Vestavia Hills Elementary. Her first-grade class was held in a metal building, and they had just four teachers with room dividers.
“When it rained, it was awful,” Castleberry said.
In fifth grade, Castleberry and her classmates moved to Pizitz but were kept mostly separate from other middle school students.
Before she ever taught a class at Pizitz, Castleberry had an impact on the school’s long-term future. In seventh grade, her class was tasked with deciding what the school’s colors and mascot would be. At the time, the colors were orange and royal blue, but Castleberry’s class decided to adopt the colors of Vestavia Hills High School, red and blue. However, the pirate mascot stayed and remains the school’s mascot to this day.
Some other aspects of Pizitz have also remained from Castleberry’s days as a student: the talent show, Pirate Day (where students enjoy a plethora of activities), pep rallies, dress-up days, and Big Bertha, the hill leading up to the school paved with a walking trail that is “enjoyed” by physical education students almost daily.
Her time in Vestavia schools encouraged her to pursue teaching as a career. While she thought about law, she realized she wanted to spend her life helping students.
When she started teaching special education in 1996, Castleberry was, at 30 years old, the youngest teacher in the seventh grade.
“I felt like those veteran teachers took care of us,” Castleberry said. “I hope I’ve been able to transfer that.”
Her biggest goal was to make connections with the students, their parents and the community, she said.
In 2001, she began teaching gifted students, who sometimes have special needs but also are usually not challenged enough academically in the classroom.
“I learned a lot from them,” Castleberry said. “It’s OK to say, ‘I don’t know. Let’s go find out.’”
Castleberry said she also learned how to spot anxiety and a perfectionism she strove to counteract by telling her students that it’s OK to not get a perfect score every time.
Aside from teaching, Castleberry said she enjoyed traveling with the choir and her good friend, choir teacher Brent Coleman. She also enjoyed, and will continue, hosting teachers at her home before the start of the year to help create the family atmosphere she came to appreciate during her time at the school.
During her teaching career, Castleberry taught her own classmates’ children.
“It’s like a full circle,” she said.
Castleberry said she hopes to stay connected with students and teachers and plans to work as a substitute teacher as she can. She said she might also do some Disney trip planning.
She has seen the school grow and is stepping away as Pizitz prepares to move to the old Berry High School campus ahead of the 2019-20 school year.
“I hope it’s successful,” she said.
Stealing a quote often used by Miles, Castleberry said while the school might be moving, Pizitz will still be “the best middle school in America” because of the faculty and students.
“It doesn’t really matter the building,” Castleberry said. “It matters the people that are there.”
