South News

• City looks to residents to fill parks, library board spots
The Vestavia Hills City Council is looking for residents to fill upcoming vacancies on the city's parks and recreation and library boards.

• Classroom Clips for South News, Nov. 19 with 12 photos
Homewood City Schools:

• FOR YOUR INFORMATION

• Vestavia Hills High School to get new dugouts for ball diamond
When baseball teams play at Vestavia Hills High School in March, they'll run onto the diamond from new dugouts.

• Just a chat with Missy Brooks
Biography: A native of Helena, Missy Brooks, 39, is the assistant principal for curriculum at Mountain Brook High School. She has previously worked at Homewood High School and Thompson in Shelby County. She is married and the mother of one child. How did you get into this line of work? I always wanted to be a teacher. Even as a child, I would play school at home. But people have always told me I could be a really good administrator. I had a friend going back to school in 2003, so I decided to do the same and get certified as an administrator. It was very invigorating, learning new things. I became very interested in the curriculum aspect. What's the difference between a teacher and an administrator? Your contact with students is very, very different. It's harder to be as personal with kids. And your viewpoint changes, your vision of how the school appears is different because there are things you don't see in the classroom. How do you mean? As a teacher, you're mainly focused on the kids. But in administration, you're focused on the kids, on the teachers, on the building. One of the things I do is work with the schedule, which means I work a lot with teachers. We have meetings on how to take the Alabama course of study and how to teach it in our school. You can be focused on that, and at the same time working with an individual student who wants to take a lot of AP courses, and you're trying to find a way to make it work for them. Why do you have a quotation from Beowulf on your office wall? My master's degree is in early British literature, so I had to learn to speak, read and write in Old English. So that is the opening page of Beowulf. Do you have any hobbies? I like to scuba dive, and I love to hunt. I'm looking forward to some deer hunting over Christmas holidays. And I'm working on my doctorate in educational leadership, so I don't have a lot of time outside the school. William Thornton --

• Irondale police improve call response with computer mapping system
When a woman driving a curvy section of Grants Mill Road left the road recently in a wooded area, she called 911.

• Mountain Brook school system ends year with more money
Mountain Brook School Superintendent Charles Mason said the school system finished the budget year with the "most desirable combination" - higher than expected revenue and lower than projected expenses.

• Vestavia Hills city hall besieged with termites
Vestavia Hills will have to spend more money to rid its City Hall of termites.

• Volunteers build Glen Iris Elementary a playground
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• WILKERSON GIVEN, MOUNTAIN BROOK HIGH SCHOOL SCHOLAR-ATHLETE OF THE WEEK
Year: senior; sports: cross country and track Academic highlights: Wilkerson has a 3.7 GPA. He is a member of the Latin Club, Key Club, FBLA and Latin Honor Society. Athletic highlights: Wilkerson has been a member of the Spartans cross country and track teams since 2006 and was a member of the 2006 cross country and indoor track state championship teams. The cross country team won the 2008 state championship and Wilkerson was an all-state runner. Where do you see your academic future? I plan to go to college and would like to study pre-med. Where do you see your athletic future? I would like to run both cross country and track in college, as well as play a couple of intramural sports for fun. Favorite subject: Science, because I enjoy learning about the world we live in. Who has been a major positive influence on you? My lord and savior, Jesus Christ, has been the number one positive influence on my life. Also, teachers like Mrs. Plosser and my coach, George Echols, have influenced me through believing in me and pushing me to do my best. What is your favorite sports memory? Winning the 2006 cross country state championship by one point, as well as watching one of my teammates take down a whole habanero pepper in one single bite. What's on your iPod? Christian, country, jams and some classic rock. Other interests: Wilkerson is an Eagle Scout and enjoys skiing, pickup football, hunting, fishing and naps. Leah Ingram Eagle --

• Mountain Brook council hears complaint on leaf blowers
Dee King has made a second attempt to get the Mountain Brook City Council to consider a ban on gas-powered leaf blowers.

• New Vestavia Hills mayor outlines plans for city
Vestavia Hills Mayor Alberto "Butch" Zaragoza wants to focus on economic development, eliminate unenforceable city ordinances and adopt a citywide purchasing procedure during his first term.

• Rosedale street named for one of its tireless leaders
Morris Benson spent two years building a house on 17th Street South in Homewood's Rosedale community after moving there in 1921.

• Mountain Brook school board picks search firm for superintendent
The Mountain Brook Board of Education has picked the search firm of Hazard, Young, Attea and Associates, from Glenview, Ill., to help it find a candidate to replace outgoing Superintendent Charles Mason.