Esslinger picked as new principal at Spain Park High School

The Hoover school board has approved Amanda Esslinger as the new principal at Spain Park High School.

Esslinger, who has spent the past year as an assistant principal at Hoover High School, is replacing Larry Giangrosso as he retires.

Esslinger has 16 years as a full-time educator and 10 years of experience as an administrator. She taught for six years at Homewood High School and then spent nine years as an assistant principal at Homewood before coming to Hoover High a year ago. She is to begin her new duties at Spain Park High School Friday, July 1.

Chris Robbins, the chief academic officer for Hoover City Schools, said the committee that interviewed candidates for the Spain Park principal job had a very difficult task because the slate of candidates was very strong.

“The committee took note, though, of the amazing leadership that Dr. Amanda Esslinger has shown over her years in a variety of roles,” Robbins said. “There’s not a whole lot that Dr. Esslinger hasn’t done. In addition to her extremely successful leadership in the area of curriculum and instruction at Hoover High School, she has a track record of schoolwide leadership experiences and natural leadership skills that make her the ideal candidate for the next leader for Spain Park High School.”

Esslinger said she has loved her time at Hoover High and during that time has had an opportunity to communicate with people throughout the district and knows there are some amazing leaders and support staff at Spain Park.

Given her background and experiences, Esslinger said when she learned of the opening at Spain Park, it just seemed like the right thing to do to throw her name in the hat for the job, and she’s so thankful it worked out.

She’s thrilled with the opportunity to lead Spain Park and looks forward to getting started as soon as possible, she said.

Esslinger noted her first teaching job after earning a bachelor’s degree in English and English language arts education from Troy University in 2006 was teaching summer school at Spain Park High School that summer.

She went on to get a master’s degree in education leadership in 2011, an education specialist degree in 2012 and doctorate in education leadership in 2016, all from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Giangrosso has been principal at Spain Park High School for seven years and has a total of 40 years in education.

In other business on June 27, the Hoover school board approved a revised organizational chart and new salary schedule for the central office staff.

The new organizational chart includes a deputy superintendent position that is to be filled at a later date and renames some positions that were “supervisor” positions to “director” positions.

Superintendent Dee Fowler said the new salary schedule was created in order to simplify it and make it easier to understand. Details about the new salary schedule were not yet available but are to be provided when some final adjustments are made.

The school board also extended Chief School Finance Officer Michele McCay’s contract by another three years, through July 1, 2025, and gave her a raise. Her salary would have risen to $143,700 on July 1 with the recent 4% increase passed by the state Legislature, but the school board increased her annual salary to $165,000, board member Craig Kelley said.

The board tabled a decision on a construction contract for a new fine arts center at Hoover High School after two bids came in with costs much higher than anticipated. The Hoover Sun will provide more information about the fine arts center bids in a separate story.