Photo by Erin Nelson.
Blair Inabinet begins the 2020-2021 school year as the principal at Vestavia Hills Elementary Liberty Park.
Growing up with her family in a small town in Georgia, where her mother was her principal and her older sister became a teacher at the school she attended, Blair Inabinet got an early start on her career in education.
“I don’t know that my heart would allow me to do anything else,” Inabinet said.
In July, Inabinet began a new role as principal of Vestavia Hills Elementary Liberty Park, with the 2020-21 school year being her 16th year in education.
Inabinet said she began “teaching” when she was 2 years old, making sure her stuffed animals got a good education. She even had her mom do observations of her “class” when she was 7.
“It was part of the air that I was breathing,” Inabinet said. “It is truly my comfort zone.”
Inabinet taught for 11 years, beginning in her home state of Georgia, before moving into an administrative role, and taught several different grade levels before becoming an assistant principal at Cherokee Bend Elementary School in Mountain Brook. She is also currently pursuing her doctorate in leadership.
A resident of Liberty Park with two children in the city school system, Inabinet said everything she believed to be true about the schools has shown itself to be true since she became principal.
“It has been a perfect fit for our family,” she said.
Inabinet said she and her family are eager to be able to do everything in Liberty Park: work, school, play and more. That connection to a city goes back to her Georgia upbringing and is something she has always desired.
In her role as an educator and administrator, Inabinet is passionate about developing the whole child and focusing on the whole educational experience.
She isn’t alone in that passion. In meeting with some of the staff at her new school, she said she came away seeing their “incredible level of professionalism and expertise,” along with a “total and all-consuming heart for children and families.”
As she prepares for her first year as the school’s principal, Inabinet said she is hoping to develop relationships with both students and adults in the school. Inabinet said she plans to listen and learn from her staff and the community, and then use that feedback to plan her goals.
It has not been a typical summer for Inabinet, or for anyone in education. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to rage, the school system has been developing plans to offer both traditional and virtual learning options, working to prepare teachers, students and parents for what is sure to be an uncommon year.
But the craziness of dealing with the pandemic hasn’t fazed Inabinet.
“It’s exciting to me because what an opportunity we have right now,” Inabinet said. “We have a newfound appreciation for sharing space with our children and colleagues.”
This year, teachers will have to be flexible and innovative, something Inabinet said she is sure they can do, given how quickly they adapted to the spring semester’s curveballs.
Inabinet has followed in the footsteps of her sister and her mother, and while she may have come a long way from teaching her stuffed animals, she said she is always looking outside of herself, being intentional about seeing things from different perspectives and constantly pushing herself to get better.
She will look to do that as she begins to grow roots and relationships with her new school family in Liberty Park.
