The Saraland City Schools Board of Education approved the hiring of Stan Stokley as its new elementary school principal at a meeting on Monday, choosing an experienced administrator to replace Chris Tangle at Saraland Elementary School.
An experienced hire
Stokley came to Saraland after serving 12 years as principal at Sweet Water High School, Superintendent Aaron Milner told the board. He had spent 17 years with the Marengo County School District before making the move to the young Saraland system.
At the same meeting, the board hired Amy Pippins as a new special education coordinator. Pippins joined Saraland from Enterprise City Schools.
Stokley used his introduction to reassure families and staff that he did not intend to overhaul the elementary school. He said his primary goals were to maintain a safe, orderly environment, to teach students good citizenship and respect for adults, and to expand the use of technology as a learning tool.
“We want to use technology to enhance instruction, and we want to teach our kids to use it responsibly,” Stokley said.
He thanked Milner for bringing him aboard and said the superintendent had “really sold me on the mission of what you’re trying to do here.”
A growing campus
The board also took up construction business, approving payments on a building project that had been under way for about four months. The work added a new wing with nine classrooms and a connecting corridor linking the elementary school to the middle school.
The project carried a cost of about $1.6 million and, according to Milner, was on schedule and on budget. When completed before the start of school on Aug. 13, the new wing was expected to give the elementary school a capacity of 1,100 students.
The expansion reflected the pressures of a district that had grown quickly since Saraland broke away to form its own city school system. Adding classrooms and tying the elementary and middle schools together physically pointed to a system planning for continued enrollment growth rather than simply keeping pace with the current year.
Leadership for a young district
Bringing in a principal with more than a decade of experience leading a school, and pairing that hire with a new special education coordinator, gave the elementary school steady leadership heading into the new year. Stokley’s message of continuity — a safe environment, an emphasis on citizenship and a measured expansion of classroom technology — suggested a focus on building on what was already in place rather than making sweeping changes.
For families preparing to send their children back to class, the timing mattered. With the new leadership set and construction on track to finish before the Aug. 13 start of classes, the district moved into the school year with both a new principal at the elementary school and additional classroom space nearly ready to open.
The decisions, taken together at a single Monday meeting, captured the practical work of running a growing suburban school system: hiring the people who would lead its schools, adding the space to hold its students, and signaling to parents that the system was managing its expansion carefully.