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Photo courtesy of Whit McGhee.
Sheila Phillips served as Vestavia Hills superintendent from 2014-17. Phillips plans to return to her roots as an educator and work with children at the Sunshine School, a program that provides continuing education to hospitalized children.
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Photos by Sarah Finnegan.
Sheila Phillips, middle right, stands with BOE president Nancy Corona, former mayor Butch Zaragoza, Mayor Ashley Curry and former BOE president Mark Hogewood at the Vestavia Chamber luncheon on Aug. 8 at Vestavia Hills Country Club.
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Photos by Sarah Finnegan.
Sheila Phillips speaks about her time as Vestavia City Schools Superintendent and future plans for the school system at the Vestavia Chamber luncheon on Aug. 8 at Vestavia Hills Country Club.
Superintendent Sheila Phillips never aspired to be superintendent.
Rather, she said, she aspired to be a special education teacher — which she was for a number of years before making her way to Vestavia Hills.
“That is where my heart is,” she said. “My heart is with children.”
Phillips announced her retirement from the position of superintendent for Vestavia Hills City Schools on July 31, effective Sept. 1, and after leaving will take a position with Children’s of Alabama.
In her seven years with Vestavia, Phillips served as assistant principal at the high school, moving to assistant superintendent in 2012 and superintendent beginning the summer of 2014.
And a lot has happened in the three years she has been at the helm.
Strategic planning and continuous improvement
When she first took the role, Phillips said she wanted to take a hard look at the system’s long-term planning and improvement goals, which led to the launch of the system’s first strategic-planning process in a few years.
Phillips said it’s opportune that her departure is giving the district a chance to reflect.
“It is time for an evaluation of that strategic plan and where the school district is in meeting the goals and the action steps that were identified as being important,” she said, “so it’s the perfect time to come in and re-evaluate where have we been and what has been accomplished.”
Phillips said another major goal was to evaluate the district’s continuous improvement processes, particularly related to personnel.
Over the last three years, Phillips said the district has done a variety of things to provide tools for development and growth for current and future faculty and staff.
“The way we go about hiring is a big part of that,” she said, adding, “You hire well, you grow well then you retain well, and that was important to us as a school district as well.”
Specific steps included creating a teacher-leader program, rolling out a new personnel handbook — which hadn’t been updated in some time — and creating meaningful professional development opportunities for faculty and staff.
“Those are key pieces to making certain that the people who are working in our schools and in our school district every day with our kids are the very best quality that we can have,” she said.
Phillips said it’s the continuous improvement piece she considers herself the most proud o, “because you push the envelope with people, and they’ve risen to the occasion and they’ve done incredible work knowing that there’s always additional work to be done.”
Out of both the strategic planning process and continuous improvement efforts came additional projects that Phillips said she and her staff didn’t originally anticipate, such as taking a look at how the district utilizes technology, and how equitable experiences are from school to school.
The need to align experiences and efforts both within grades and across grade levels became apparent as early as 2013 and came to a head last year when parents expresseda more immediate concern about class offerings, she said.
Additionally, Phillips said it became clear there was a need to find a solution for the continued growth of the system through both organization and capital investment.
“People call the school system the ‘crown jewel;’ people do come here for the education, and now we have a foundation that wasn’t necessarily here before, as far as how to deal with the growth,” Phillips said.
Hard Decisions
Phillips said it’s no secret that in the three years she has served as superintendent, there have been difficult conversations to be had and painful decisions to be made.
“We’ve made decisions, tough decisions,” she said. “Anytime you compromise, you’ve not made everybody happy.”
Whether it’s regarding economic development and growth or changing the alignment of the middle schools, she said, the community is passionate and involved.
“Like any family, it can get heated. It can get loud, those that need to share a voice may choose not to publicly,” she said. “But there’s enough leadership — and strong leadership — in the school district by the board and within the community, that when intent for good for children aligns itself for people, they do the right thing.”
And she said she fully believes that Vestavia rises above even its most volatile issues — including the 2015 VHHS mascot rebranding effort.
“What I know about this community is that it is able to talk about the work of educating our children beyond a mascot. That the silent majority — as they have coined themselves — believe in the work that is being done. And has it gone from just the work of the school district to impacting the community — of course it has. But this community knows how to rally around doing what is right,” she said.
Phillips said she recognizes that some of the decisions she was tasked with have been unpopular, but that’s just the kind of leader she feels she needs to be.
It’s also one of the reasons she said she knows the timing is right for her to leave.
“Even when you do things for the right reasons, and when you know your organization best, even an organization itself can only handle so much disruption,” she said. “And I have recognized I’m the kind of leader who, if there’s an issue, we’re going to deal with it. Whether the outcome is popular or whether it isn’t, we’re still going to deal with it.”
Communities have their limits, especially when it comes to that disruption.
And controversial decisions aside, she said, from the strategic plan to the facilities reorganization — the last three years have put the school community through a lot.
“Even when things are done for the right reasons and progress is being made, disruption is just that — and people associate leadership with that,” she said. “I just believe in the work. And the work and the ability to do the work as a community, long term, means more to me than who’s leading it.”
Moving On
After 29 years in public education, Phillips said she realized that she still had more to give to her original passion — educating and impacting children with unique circumstances and needs.
She will be taking a position with the Sunshine School at Children’s of Alabama, which serves children undergoing long-term care at the hospital by providing education as well as a liaison with the child’s school.
“I have always been in awe of the work that is done there,” she said. “Once I recognized there’s still a lot of passion in me for education, with the way that this has kind of rolled out organizationally, it’s just something that has always been of interest to me.”
For the board of education, facultyand staff she is leaving, Phillips had one central message:
Stay the course.
“They’ve got a lot of work ahead of them,” she said.
Thoughts from school administrators
VHHS Principal Tyler Burgess
“Dr. Phillips has been a true leader for Vestavia Hills. She has brought many voices to the table in discussion and planning for how to move our great system forward. Dr. Phillips has done the hard work needed to make positive change for our students, keeping students as the focus through the process. She has not let the politics of the job interfere with the work of the system in providing a vision for our eight schools. This vision encourages our faculty and staff daily in providing the best public educational experience for our students. I will miss working with Dr. Phillips, as she has been a good mentor to me and helped me to be a better educator and school leader. I wish her the very best in the next chapter for her and her family.”
VHECH Principal Alicia Hunsberger
“Dr. Phillips has been an exceptional superintendent for Vestavia Hills. She is a visionary with a heart for students. She has encouraged everyone’s voice to be heard and valued through difficult conversations and decision making. As an administrator, I appreciate her laser focus on learning and meeting the needs of every student that walks into our school. Personally, I have been encouraged by her willingness to accept feedback and encourage open, honest conversations. Dr. Phillips will be missedin Vestavia Hills, but her impactwill continue.”
VHEE Principal Mark Richardson
“One thing that I always noticed about Sheila Phillips was her con-tinual effort to communicate openlywith the community. I’ve always known that she would answer the phone or promptly return my calls. This openness was very helpfuland appreciated.”
