“Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance,” second-grader Jade Crisler said into the intercom on a Monday morning, leading Satsuma Elementary School’s first announcement of the 2014-15 school year. With that, the young Satsuma City Schools system opened its third year.
A calm first morning
It was a smooth start at the Baker Road school, with a steady carpool line and a large number of families walking their children to class. Guiding the traffic was Satsuma traffic officer Alecia Franklin, who greeted many parents by name and joked with them about getting a brief parenting break.
“You’ve got that happy expression,” she told one couple as they returned to their car. “You’ve got your house back now!” Franklin, who said she loves the parents and the children she sees each day, was beginning her 13th year.
Principal Dana Price said the staff had not run into many problems with late registrants, and she joked about how unusually quiet the halls and classrooms felt as the year got under way. “I think the older kids are just as nervous as the youngest, if not more,” she said.
On the sixth-grade hall, teacher Alison Massey’s 25 students were settling in. “We’ll go through our supplies, sort through the books and go through our class procedures,” she said, “and we’ll have a get-to-know-you game.”
A district still finding its footing
The calm morning marked the start of the third year for the Satsuma City Schools system, which split off from the Mobile County school system in 2012. In a short time, the district had grown into an operation with an enrollment of about 1,300 and a 2014 budget of $12.4 million.
The system was also thinking big about its facilities. Officials had just launched a $6 million capital campaign for a new stadium, field house and eight-lane track — an ambitious goal for a district only two years removed from forming its own system.
Raising the academic bar
Alongside the building plans, Satsuma was working to strengthen its academics. The schools were selected to take part in the Alabama State Department of Education and A-Plus College Ready Advanced Placement Initiative for the 2014-2015 school year, a grant designed to expand advanced courses so students could earn college credit while still in high school.
The district was also broadening its Advanced Placement offerings. During the summer, Satsuma High School teachers received training to teach Pre-AP courses for students in grades 7 through 12. AP course offerings at the high school for the year included biology, English, U.S. History and government. The previous May, nine Satsuma High students had scored a 3 or above on their Advanced Placement exams.
The system’s reach extended beyond the city limits as well. About 260 nonresident students attended Satsuma schools and paid tuition to do so, a sign of the district’s appeal to families outside its boundaries.
Building on a young foundation
Taken together, the details of that first Monday captured a district in a hurry to grow up. A student-led pledge, a well-managed carpool line and quiet, expectant classrooms spoke to the ordinary rhythms of a school year’s opening day. The capital campaign, the expanding AP program and the steady enrollment pointed to bigger ambitions.
For Satsuma, still establishing its identity apart from the county system it left in 2012, the third year offered a chance to show that a small city could run its own schools and reach for more — better facilities, more college-level coursework and a reputation that drew families from beyond its borders.