With both sharing a love for the Reeltown community, the new administration team at Reeltown High School has a few plans going into the new calendar year.
Principal Audrey Stockdale has recently moved up from assistant principal, and Alisha Fomby has stepped in as the new assistant principal beginning in October. While Stockdale was born and raised in Reeltown, Fomby is a new face to the Reeltown community.
Fomby said she already feels at home. Many may know her husband, Corey Fomby, who is a Reeltown graduate and next year her son will also be starting kindergarten at Reeltown Elementary.
Before coming to Reeltown, Fomby grew up in Sylacauga and went to Central Alabama Community College before going to Auburn University for a degree in communication disorders. She also has an instructional leadership degree from Auburn and a master’s in special education from Auburn University at Montgomery.
Fomby worked as a speech therapist, special education teacher and an assistant principal for three years before transferring to Reeltown. Working at Reeltown High School, Fomby said Stockdale’s passion for Reeltown naturally rubs off on you.
“It is a community in which we both live in; we are both invested in these children who are going through, and will be going through, this system,” she said of her and Stockdale as a team. “Our heart is there; our mind is there. We truly are all in. To be able to learn and serve and lead in the community, I feel like it’s a privilege for both of us.”
Stockdale added it truly is an honor and that is shown through how they all care for one another. As far as her and Fomby working together, Stockdale said they come from different educational backgrounds and because of that, they complement each other well.
Stockdale started her education at CACC and also has a bachelor’s in elementary education from Auburn as well as a master’s in elementary education from Troy University in Phenix City.
Stockdale started her teaching career at Reeltown Elementary. After working for Ray Porter and Dr. Tom Cochran, they inspired her to get an instructional leadership certificate, which she received from AUM. For the past couple of years, Stockdale has been assistant principal at RHS.
Not only did she graduate from Reeltown, but so did her parents and her three kids are also at Reeltown schools. It is home in every sense of the word, she said.
Stockdale said they have a solid foundation with teachers and staff members who put their all for these students. Now, as principal, she wants to see the students and the school excel.
“We are building a transformative culture here,” she said. “We are really building our relationships with our students and helping them see the accomplishments they can have after high school. Whether that’s a career tech field, whether that’s the workforce, whether that’s going to college.”
Going into the next year, they are looking at their testing data from preSAT, SAT to ACT WorkKeys. She and Fomby want to find ways to boost scores and give them greater opportunities for their future.
Soon RHS will be implementing new ACT training with the staff. This past fall, the school received a grant that allowed some of their students to go ahead and take the ACT. Some of those students have high enough scores where they could get a full ride.
The Alabama State Department of Education has new College and Career Readiness Indicators. For career tech, students need to have a credential and they want to continue to develop opportunities for that as well.
Stockdale said over the next few years, they hope to see RHS going “onward and upward.”