Madison County public school chiefs cover smorgasbord of topics at breakfast

HUNTSVILLE – Educators, politicians and civic leaders gathered last week for the State of the Schools breakfast, a two-hour presentation featuring speakers that included public school administrators.

The focus was on Superintendents Dr. Clarence Sutton (Huntsville City Schools), Dr. Ed Nichols (Madison City Schools), and Kenneth Kubik (Madison County Schools); and Matt Massey, president of the Alabama School of Cyber Technology and Engineering. 

The hot-button issue – one that is taking place across the nation – was the “school choice’’ initiatives. Specifically, the CHOOSE (Creating Hope and Opportunity for Our Students’ Education) Act that Gov. Kay Ivey backed and is being considered during the current legislative session.

Related story: Superintendents tell lawmakers to CHOOSE wisely when weighing Ivey’s school tax act

Public school educators fear this type of school choice legislation will take already-stressed funds away and place them with private schools. The superintendents claimed public schools – ASCTE is an exception since it’s funded by the state – are operating at a disadvantage in areas such as teacher retention because their systems have separate requirements in regards to private schools.

“I lost one (teacher) last year,” Nichols said. “And what they said was, ‘I’m going to teach somewhere else where I’m not at a public school so I don’t have to do all of this paperwork.'”

But there were other topics discussed, among them funding shortages for transportation, special education, classroom and administrative staff, nurses, counselors, and business and industry engagement with the systems.

Each system has many of the same programs as well as problems, though the rural county system has different hurdles such as transportation over hundreds miles each school day. All of the systems face money shortages.

Huntsville City Schools
Superintendent Dr. Clarence Sutton
Enrollment as of October 2023: 23,649 (22,941 K-12; 708 Pre-K)

Sutton has 30 years in education and took over HSC prior to the current school year

• Priorities include implementing a new strategic plan and new capital plan for the district; and prioritizing system culture, climate and safety
• Awaiting citywide new technical center
• Skills, computer science programs K-12 
• Sutton quotes:
  – “I have never been to a region that has this many resources in one place.’’
  – “We are moving forward in the city – our motto is a hundred miles per hour. We are one, we have one vision. We are moving forward.’’
  – “Passion. I’m an educator. One thing I feel that we’ve been missing is passion in the schools, and we’re working hard to bring that back.’’
  – “I’m proud of our work based learning. Last semester our students earned over $600,000 just doing work-based learning (internships) in one semester.’’

Madison City Schools
Superintendent Dr. Ed Nichols
Enrollment as of October 2023: 12,736 (12,437 K-12; 299 Pre-K)
Nichols has over 30 years in education and took over Madison City Schools in June 2020

• Madison partners with 45 businesses/industries
• Internships are available to students and guest speakers visit the campus
• Nichols quotes:
  – “I’m blessed every day that I get to work with the best staff anywhere. They are so dedicated to empowering all of our students to be what they can be.’’
  – “I don’t think there’s anybody in north Alabama that would not say that the growth that we have seen in Madison, Alabama is not directly connected to the school district. And it is because of leadership. And that’s not just the superintendent, although Dr. Henry Clark, Dr. Dee Fowler and Robbie Parker who preceded me did it.’’
  – “We appreciate the fact that you acknowledge that without these three school districts you would not be experiencing (record growth).’’
  – “Our job as administrators is to continue to put (student) rock stars in the classroom.’’
  – “The number one reason statistically that studies show why teachers leave the profession – lack of respect. They need to hear from you, they need to hear thank you.’’
  

Madison County Schools
Superintendent Kenneth Kubik
Enrollment as of October 2023: 20,639 (20,051 K-12; 588 Pre-K)
Kubik has over 25 years experience in education and has been in charge of Madison County since November 2022

• Developing the Madison County School System Workforce Innovation Center
• 15,000 students completed programs at Madison County Career Technical Center last five years
• Adding fire science and first response to its diverse list of programs that includes law enforcement along with aerospace, technology, cybersecurity, engineering and robotics
• Kubik quotes:
  – “We are truly blessed in our area. We have three excellent systems as has been stated before. We have one of the top county rural systems. We have one of the top city systems or suburban systems and one of the top city urban systems. So we have all these in this area, and not just our districts.
  – “North Alabama as a whole has excellent schools for public education. We are top notch across this county and all over north Alabama. And that has a lot to do with the fact that we have huge community support.’’
  – “For public education, (students) are so blessed to have the quality that is here.’’
  – “(The Innovation Center) is going to be designed as a hub of excellence, state-of-the-art center. It’s gonna train students during the day and there’s gonna be extended resources to industry partners at night in an evening education with skill building being a priority and workforce development being a priority.’’
  

Alabama School of Cyber Technology and Engineering (ASCTE)
President Matt Massey
Enrollment (330 9-12)

• Magnet school focused on STEM
• Tuition free (commute, residential, all Alabama students eligible)
• Funded by the state
• Only school in the nation integrating cybersecurity into engineering and implemented through all four of its core areas
• Massey quotes:
  “We’re reaching and attracting students from underserved areas in Alabama, but also from all four corners.’’
  “We are partnering with schools across the state and we’re sending our (staff members) to those schools who are doing cyber labs and engineering labs. That includes counties that are close like Jackson County, but also we’ve brought in Tuscaloosa City. We went down to Opp, Alabama last week.’’
  “We’re not just a center here. We’re also helping replicate cyber studies throughout the state, and that has the capability of going national as well.’’