Holtville’s Futral Alabama principal of the year

the school culture from that of a school struggling with low morale, achievement and attendance to a school that strives for excellence. By collaborating with staff, many of the school’s issues were identified and addressed. Futral’s leadership style of listening, encouraging, supporting, organizing and challenging the staff and students, caused the school culture to shift in a positive direction. The school experienced a 62 percent decrease in discipline referrals, 50 percent decrease in chronic absenteeism, 7 percent increase in the graduation rate, 33 percent increase in CCR rate and a 20 percent increase in ACT proficiency in the last five years. See PRINCIPAL, Page A3

At Stanhope Elmore, students will get meals made elsewhere as kitchen construction is completed.

“For the first month, we will [be bringing] in food from outside sources for the main entree,” Dennis said.

Other schools such as Holtville Elementary School will move classes around as necessary to allow the installation of new HVAC systems.

“Two of the last three schools without security entrances are going in right now,” Dennis said. “There is also a perimeter fence around the back of our schools.”

The single point of entry and limited access on the perimeter of campuses is not the only changes in security to the campuses of Elmore County Schools.

“We also now have a resource officer on each campus,” Dennis said.

“Last year we had seven resource officers. This year we are going to have 14. That is significant.”