Schooled by nature

Immersive outdoor program at Pell City’s Hidden Lake Farms

Story by Roxann Edsall
Photos by Kelsey Bain

The day is cool and crisp. One by one, the cars arrive, children emerge, laughing and greeting each other. This is a group of homeschoolers, and they’ve come to the farm for a field trip.

But, this isn’t a trip to just any farm. This farm is the site of a new nature immersion school, and today, they’ve come to learn from nature at Pell City’s Hidden Lake Farms.

In their half-day visit, they’ve met Ham Solo and Princess Luau, a pair of eight-month-old Kunekune pigs. They’ve learned that while they are yet quite small, they will eventually tip the scales at around 200 pounds each. The students have learned that because of their shorter upturned snouts, this particular breed is not able to root as much as most pigs.

Students hold a delicate egg.

Meeting and learning about the pigs was the best part of the day for five-year-old Vivienne, daughter of Deanna and Jonathan Stanton. “I loved the pigs,” she beamed. “They are cute!” 11-year-old Miller agreed. The son of Frances Gauntt, he was fascinated by the pigs, but also enjoyed learning about the farm’s covey of quail.

“That was pretty cool about the quails,” says Miller.

As farm owner and nature educator, Bethany Milstead, described typical quail behaviors, daughter Allie entered the enclosure to collect eggs. She emerged with a handful of tiny eggs. The miniscule hatchlings, Milstead explained, will only weigh as much as a quarter.

A homeschool mom herself, Milstead knows the value of hands-on experiences in keeping the attention of a mixed-age group of students. She hands out quarters for the children to experience a weight similar to the quail hatchlings. Even the parents are hanging on every word. “I never thought about the babies being so tiny,” comments one adult.

Another child’s voice is heard asking to hold the eggs. The tiny eggs are handed out for the children to hold and observe. “Can you eat them?” asks one student. “Yes, you can,” answers Milstead, “but you have to eat a lot of them because they’re so small.”

The students also learn about beta-casein proteins that relate to the farm’s cows and the milk they produce. They work on a gene distribution and expression exercise called Punnett squares to figure out what types of cows would need to be bred to produce particular proteins in milk.

“Look deep into nature and then you will understand everything better.”

~Albert Einstein

Milstead is a firm believer in the strength of learning through experiences in nature. She believes in its value strongly enough that she is opening her nature immersion school in January. The school will be patterned after so-called “forest schools,” which originated in Scandinavia and gained popularity mostly in Germany and the U.K.. Fueled by the COVID-19 pandemic, forest schools in the U.S. have seen a moderate gain in popularity.

Hidden Lake Farm Nature Immersion School will have space for up to three classes of five- to 10-year-olds. The program runs September through June, with a break in July and August. Classes are three days a week from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and will be held outside each day beginning and ending at the 54-feet-by-45-feet pavilion.

A recreational vehicle is parked there for kitchen and toilet facilities. Administrators will monitor the weather and shuttle students to Milstead’s nearby home if storms are imminent.

Students will have opportunities to interact with and learn from the activities and animals on the farm. In addition to the pigs and quail, Hidden Lake Farms has horses, donkeys, dairy cows, chickens and turkeys – even a tortoise.

Milstead plans to incorporate the animals and land in her cross-curricular approach to education. Instead of concentrating on math or English at a particular time, she will integrate activities that support learning in multiple disciplines.

“There’s so much research on how important it is to be outside, yet children spend most of their time indoors,” explains Milstead. “There are so many benefits to being outside, including the development of large muscles, heightened immunity and learning opportunities that take advantage of natural curiosity. A nature immersion curriculum empowers children and fosters imagination and confidence.”

Research from Child Mind Institute, a nonprofit which studies childrens’ mental health and education, shows that being outside also supports creative thinking, encourages responsibility, reduces stress and promotes learning by fostering children’s natural sense of wonder.

Fostering that same sense of wonder that enthralled both Vivienne and Miller on that homeschool field trip will be a foundational tenet for teachers and administrators of this new school at Hidden Lake Farms. “We will be right here with the children making note of where their interests are,” adds Milstead. “We will then focus our studies there. We will all carry journals so we can document interests that emerge, and they can journal about what they’ve learned.”

The students will have plenty to journal about as they explore and learn about the animals and plants on the 60-plus acres of land that includes the school and Milstead’s home and farm.

A native of Talladega, she returned to the area to settle down with her husband, Rusty, and her three daughters and one son. From the time they purchased the farm, Milstead has had a vision of one day sharing it with others to help build their love of nature and learning. Ultimately, she hopes, that love of nature will extend to both students and parents. l

Editor’s Note: If you are interested in learning more about getting involved with Hidden Lake Farms Nature Immersion School or in field trips to Hidden Lake Farms, contact Bethany Milstead at hiddenlakefarmpellcity@yahoo.com.

The stories of St. Clair

Joy found in old county newspapers

Story by Joe Whitten
Submitted Photos

Our digital age gives access to newspapers without holding a copy in hand or sporting the ink smudges they leave behind. Although they can be read online, St. Clair County still has two newspapers one can hold, read and have ink-stained fingers if you want them.

Ashville published the first newspapers in the county, and the earliest was the Democratic Farmer, started by John Hambright in 1848, according to Mattie Lou Teague Crow in her History of St. Clair County. Mrs. Crow also documents The St. Clair Diamond, published by Thomas and W. J. Managham from 1859 until 1861, and then the Ashville Vidette published in the mid-1860s before and during part of the Civil War. After the war, in November 1868, S.J. Fowler published the St. Clair County Eagle for a while.

St. Clair’s first newspaper that continued publication began in 1873 as The Southern Aegis under the direction of George R. Cather, who moved from Maryland to Ashville with the expressed purpose to establish a newspaper. The Cather family owned the paper until 1944 when they sold it to Edmond Blair of Pell City. That paper is still published under the name of The St. Clair News-Aegis. Our other county paper is The St. Clair Times, published by The Anniston Star.

Since 1872, quite a number of newspapers were published in St. Clair County towns – Ragland, Odenville, Springville and Pell City. From 1873 when The Southern Aegis began, until the early 1920s, those towns published 12 different newspapers.

There is reference to one published in Cropwell in the 1890s, The Cropwell Enterprise, but there seems to be no copy existing today. However, a one-page photocopy from this paper dated Oct. 31, 1895, records some early history of Cropwell.

One paragraph tells of the difficulty of getting supplies to merchants in Cropwell and Coosa Valley in the first half of the 19th Century. It reads, “In this day of railways, it is hard for us to realize the inconveniences incident to business in Coosa Valley during the 1850’s and early 1860’s. Prior to 1866, all the merchandise for Coosa Valley was shipped to Greensport and carted thence to the points of distribution. When the river above Greensport was too low for navigation, the merchants were forced to haul their goods on wagons from Rome, Georgia.”

It further states that before the Civil War, the goods for Coosa Valley “… were purchased in Charleston, S. C., and no item was sold by the retailer for less than 100 per cent profit.”

Every newspaper had news from all communities, some of which no longer exist, such as Round Pond which was below Bethel Baptist Church on U.S. 411.

Interesting events caused by interesting people occurred in every community. The local news columns reported on who was visiting whom or who was “stepping out” (courting) someone. Church events and school events took first place many times. Sometimes feuds made the news and even murder. However, tidbits are often more interesting.

Liquor and religion combined in one brief report in the Springville Item’s, “Odenville News” on June 11, 1903: “Two fights Saturday at the church house. The Grand Jury should look after the boys. Young men, please leave your bottles at home when you start to church.” One wonders how the Grand Jury could “look after” the miscreants on a Sunday morning.

During the years of laying the railroad through Odenville, The Springville Item gave almost weekly updates of the construction progress. However, two reports had nothing to do with work.

On March 26, 1903, “Odenville News” in the Springville Item included with the railroad report, this comment, “Preaching was a failure in the [railroad workers’] camps Sunday.” Then three weeks later, April 16, the Item printed this: “Several of our railroad men joined the Odd Fellows Saturday night. Hope they felt like working Monday.” Preaching was a failure was followed by what must have been “A good time was had by all” weekend for the men later.

A reported suicide in Beaver Valley causes one to reread and speculate. As written Feb. 9, 1899, in The Southern Alliance, “Mr. Richmond Steed, of Beaver Valley, aged 70, killed himself at the residence of his son-in-law, Mr. Crow Harden, on last Monday morning. He used an old pistol which he brought home with him from the army in 1865. He fired three shots into his head.”

This was reported in several county newspapers with more information in each. The Southern Aegis of Feb. 9, 1899, gave specifics of the pistol. “During the war he had been a soldier in the federal army, and the weapon used in his own death was an army revolver he brought home at the close of the war and had preserved ever since as a relic of the war.”

Shooting himself in the head three times causes the inquiring mind to desire to question further.

The big news in April 1891 was electricity lighting the county seat of St. Clair. “Ashville Illuminated,” heralded The Southern Aegis, of Thursday, April 23, 1891.

‘Scott, Wells, and Lindsey’ [no surnames or company given] who installed the system, encountered several problems along the way, but finally they set the time and date, Saturday night at 7 p.m., April 18, 1891. The local steam whistle blasted on the hour, and 8-year-old Marcia Ney Cather quickly reached and pulled the switch.

The townspeople roared approval, guns were fired, and the band played as “Instantly … all Ashville was wrapt in a glorious brilliancy, magical, as it were, and wonderful to the expectant crowd watching the display. Ashville, for the first time in its history, could be seen in the light of one of the greatest inventions of the age.”

The invention of the automobile fascinated the citizens of St. Clair County, and when county folk began buying them, the excitement increased.

No one was more excited than Delia Smith, who wrote of day-to-day Ashville events in a diary she kept from June to November 1907. The Southern Aegis published the diary in 1932.

Delia expressed uncertainty about automobiles at first, writing, “Dr. J.B. Bass is having an automobile stable built to put his motor buggy in when it gets here. Give me old Dobbin. He may kick, (one kicked Andrew Cooley last Sunday), but at least they don’t sputter so.” June 26, 1907 [Southern Aegis, June 24, 1932]

Her attitude had changed by July when she wrote, “Ashville is getting bigger and better every day. We have three automobiles now. One for every 125 people. That’s more per population than any other town in the state. And folks thinking about buying more. I’m going automobile riding next week. I’m going to borrow Aunt Emma’s riding veil.” July 10, 1907 [Southern Aegis, July 15, 1932]

Then she went to the Alabama State Fair in October 1907 and wrote, that at the fair “… Walter Christie the great automobile racer was there. And you never saw such driving and heard such popping. I’ll bet he went every bit of 35 miles an hour. He simply flew, burning the wind as he went.” October 9, 1907 [Southern Aegis, October 8, 1932]

Delia Smith was not hopeful about hot air balloons and “air ships.” In the same diary entry as above, she wrote, “All Birmingham [at the fair] is talking of nothing else but Baldwin’s daring flight. [Thomas Scott Baldwin, 1853-1923] There were just heaps and heaps of balloons going up and down. I don’t believe that I’d feel particularly safe in that little basket swinging at the bottom of the balloon. I believe I feel safer riding a broom handle like the woman who sweeps the cobwebs out of the sky.”

And of air flight she observed, “I’ve been reading about these Wright brothers trying to invent a flying machine. One that will be run by a motor just like an automobile. The picture that they had in the paper looked to me like a couple of orange crates put together with a flutter wheel in front.”

One can hope that Delia flew in an airplane sometime during her life.

This headline from The Pell City News spurs curiosity, “Moving Van from St. Clair Raided Near Leeds” The Aug. 30, 1922, article begins, “Riley Jones is in the Hillman hospital with a bullet wound in his hip. Jas. Summerville and Mrs.BettisMary BettisMaryBettisMaryMary Bettis are in the county jail charged with violating the prohibition law, and Lee Bettis is a fugitive from justice, according to officers, as the result of an encounter with Deputy Sheriff J.E. Taylor and his assistant, BollingO. E.O.E. Bolling of Leeds, which occurred Thursday night … just outside the city limits of Leeds.”

Having been informed by long-distance telephone about erratic movements of the truck, Deputy Sheriff Taylor had secured search warrants and was ready when he stopped the truck. Riley foolishly made a grab at Taylor’s pistol, and Taylor shot him. Lee Bettis made a run for it and was still at large the next day.

When authorities searched it, “The truck contained a complete copper still, five hound dogs, two shotguns, one pistol, two kegs, one containing three gallons of whiskey and another two gallons; a jug and a quart bottle of whiskey, and a large cardboard box with many holes in it containing a “pet coon … The truck, dogs, coon and other articles are being held at the county jail.”

Elopements often made the news. Sometime the report used the old British phrase, “They went to Gretna Green,” a location in Scotland for secret marriages, like Rising Fawn, Ga., used to be for Alabama eloping couples.

The Aug. 4, 1897, issue of The Springville News in its “Brompton Paragraphs” column, reported an elopement intermingled with watermelon stealing.

“It is reported that a few nights since, somebody went over to Mr. Riley Moody’s to steal his daughter, but through carelessness … they got his watermelons. But foul play always comes when night is chosen rather than day. Mr. Moody himself chose day rather than night (to steal), so he came out all right with one of Mr. Taylor’s girls…. He chose for himself a Miss Mecie, one that he can call his own. Happy may you be, old friend, with your young bride.”

According to Rubye Sisson’s transcribed St. Clair County Marriage Records 1818-189, Riley Moody married Mercy Taylor July 29, 1897.

Wedding announcements should be standard – describing the bride’s dress, bridesmaids, flowers and music. However, one could ponder a while on this May 21, 1937, announcement in The Southern Aegis (names omitted to avoid embarrassment). “The many friends of Mrs. ___ ___ will read with interest the marriage of her daughter Miss ___ ___. The wedding was consummated in Houston, Texas, last week.”

Wrong choice of word or too much information? No matter, it just adds to the joy of reading old St. Clair County newspapers.

Museum of Pell City

Years of effort pay off with early 2023 opening

When the doors open to the new Museum of Pell City in early 2023, the journey to that pivotal point cannot be measured in steps or miles but in a vision and outright determination.

“It represents a group of people whose love of history and preservation never wavered along the way despite the twists and turns of the road to get here, and it will be an historic day for our community because of their perseverance,” said Museum President Carol Pappas.

When the ribbon is officially cut, the community will welcome a museum that exceeds the expectations of cities of comparable size. It features the local exhibit from mill town to global marketplace and so many people, places and events in history in between.

Local exhibits from the Smithsonian tour are being adapted for the museum.

The Making of Alabama, the state’s bicentennial exhibit awarded to Museum of Pell City by Alabama Humanities Alliance, showcases Alabama’s 200 years of statehood and beyond. Within that exhibit are artifacts and little-known nuggets of Pell City history weaved into the story that unfolds.

 Just like the whistle that sounded the beginning of shifts at Avondale Mills, formerly Pell City Manufacturing, at the turn of the 20th century, the museum will have its own replica of that whistle at the entrance to the exhibit, signifying the start of a new day.

Museum cases, made possible through gifts from citizens, are full of artifacts that bring the stories and photos of Pell City history to life. Hundreds of old photos are accessed on computer tablets for each period of history. A simple swipe across the screen reveals photo after photo of the days that were.

An interior room has been built to house music history, art and sports, and the national impact of Pell Citians on all three.

Another section tells the story of service with organizations and individuals dedicating themselves in public service, military and civic arenas.

The county exhibit that Miss Mays pioneered is featured as well as the places where memories were made – hangouts like the Rexall Drugs, Skad’s, Jill’s and Dairy Queen.

Alabama Power Foundation partnered with the museum on a project to build a working dam model to take visitors behind the scenes of Logan Martin Dam and the impact it had on the region. A $45,000 grant from the Foundation made the stunning exhibit possible as well as other aspects of the museum.

Pell City is no longer a mill town, and the Global Marketplace reflects exactly that – the evolution of Pell City as a player on the world stage in business.

The centerpiece of the museum is a Living History Studio, which will be used to record and produce oral history videos designed to capture recollections of events, people and places in history of the community.

A mobile video team will be dispatched on location for those who cannot travel, and a special project involving veterans of three wars – World War II, Korean and Vietnam – will make use of a partnership between the museum and the Col. Robert L. Howard State Veterans Home in Pell City.

A control room adjacent to the studio is planned as a working classroom for students to not only develop an appreciation for history through work with these oral histories but to hone skills in video production, audio, lighting, interviewing and research.

Lawley is spearheading the ongoing program.  “Since 1968, when my husband, Barnett, brought me to Pell City, I have been enriched by tales of an agricultural area with a Mayberry-paced town where everyone set their watch by the mill whistle. How quickly it began to transform with the damming of a river,” she said.  “We are losing the voices that make you smile, laugh, cry or reflect with their wonderful stories. Our goal is to have a living museum; the oral histories will provide that feeling before more are silenced.”

From ‘what if?’ to ‘where and when?’

Museum of Pell City was a vision long before this 4,000-square-foot suite became its home. That vision took many forms. The late Mary Mays, long known as an advocate for historic preservation, spearheaded a movement to place museum cases full of artifacts in the county courthouse in Pell City.

Others worked toward restoring the Mays House in Cropwell. Still others created April Walking Tours of historic downtown Pell City.

Another group brought the Smithsonian and Alabama Humanities Alliance exhibit, The Way We Worked, to Pell City in 2014 at the Center for Education and Performing Arts, CEPA, and created an impressive local history exhibit. That display, melded with the Smithsonian’s exhibition saw more than 7,000 people tour during its three-week stay.

It is widely viewed as the spark, a tipping point that caught fire and convinced a grassroots group that Pell City could indeed have its own museum. “So many people who toured that exhibition approached us about establishing a museum,” said Pam Foote, who served as project director of The Way We Worked. “It was gratifying, yes, but it also represented a huge hill to climb.”

There was no place to house it. How could a single exhibit grow into a museum?

So, Foote and Deanna Lawley, co-chairmen of the 2014 event, along with Pappas asked the city to store it, realizing it could be the nucleus of a museum. For seven years, it remained intact in the basement of the municipal complex while they pushed for a home.

They enlisted Jeremy Gossett, a local businessman with a deep love for history and an extensive background in set and museum design, to bring the vision to life. He had assisted on the design of the 2014 Pell City Works exhibit. “We are so fortunate to have someone of Jeremy’s caliber, talent and creativity working with us,” Pappas said. “His work is truly amazing.”

There was talk of locating it in the long vacant administrative building, the single structure still standing on the Avondale Mills property, and that course was pursued for a few years. After the Pell City Library moved into its new quarters in the municipal complex, that vacant building was seen as a temporary solution on location. The group pursued its prospects as well.

Then, Councilman Jay Jenkins had an idea in 2021, and his ‘what if’ turned into the museum’s home – two floors up from its storage in the municipal complex. The museum occupies a massive suite on the second floor.

“The city has been a terrific supporter of this museum,” Pappas said. “We couldn’t ask for better partners than the mayor, city manager and council. They provided us the space, infrastructure support and best of all, moral support for this project. Without them, we never would have made it this far.”

After the public ceremony officially cutting the ribbon Museum of Pell City, plans call for the museum to be open Thursdays and Fridays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and by special appointment for groups.

Community walking trail opens at Lakeside Hospice

Story by Carol Pappas
Photos by David Smith
and Carol Pappas

Dr. Alex and Janis Miller were never strangers to giving back to their community. They still aren’t.

In 1991, they founded Lakeside Hospice, a not-for-profit organization to care for the terminally ill, and they dedicated themselves to it financially and physically for the first years of its existence.

Dr. Miller has since passed away, but his legacy of giving back has taken the form of a community walking trail that bears his name. The winding trail outside the hospice headquarters on Alabama 34 in Pell City is “open to everyone. Everybody is welcome,” said Paul Garing, executive director of Lakeside Hospice, moments before cutting the ribbon on it.

It truly is a community gift to share, he said, noting that the entire community is welcome to not only walk there but “to hold events and fundraisers and further spread the word of Lakeside Hospice.” It was built from a vision to promote healthy living.

Miller served as the nurse on call 24/7 in those early days of hospice, and husband Alex served as medical director. It was the first not-for-profit hospice in Alabama, and that meant personal sacrifices of time and money to keep it going. “It was about Alex’s dream and what he wanted for his people – good, decent care to terminally ill patients,” she said.

And three decades later – “as long as we’ve been in business, it’s the same quality,” she said. “I’m so proud of our hospital, staff, volunteers and board.”

The trail, built by FlowMotion Trail Builders of Alabama, features a meandering path around the property as well as a fire pit to be dedicated to Dr. James Tuck, the current medical director. Mrs. Miller along with the Daniel Foundation financed the project.

A monument and sign honoring Dr. Miller welcomes one and all at the trellis entry to the trail.

The things we lose and long for

Life is fickle and unpredictable. It is forever changing.

Sometimes it’s quiet, subtle shifts we barely notice. Sometimes our whole world changes in a heartbeat  of a second. Either way, life changes every day, and we lose a lot along the way. We lose belongings, people and places. We lose love, memories and time. We lose ideas, dreams and our perspective.

Some losses are slight, while others are so big they become a personal measure of time – marking beginnings and endings of certain chapters in our life.

Some losses slip by unnoticed, while others we never fully recover from. We carry some voids with us forever.

The Portuguese people have a word for this that tenderly ties of these feelings – “Saudade.” It’s a rather elusive word that helps give a voice to that melancholic yearning for something that once was but never will be again.

I believe it’s these losses – the ones we grieve and still long for despite the passage of time – that define us. If we look closely at the things we miss the most – the things our heart longs for – I think we will find a part of ourselves in the void. To paraphrase Russian playwright, Anton Chekhov: Tell me what you miss, and I’ll tell you who you are.

(* The featured photograph is of the charred remains of the home of Phillip Hyatt and Tim Bennett of Steele. They lost their beloved hilltop home and all their belongings to a house fire on July 4, 2022.

I asked them to share with me what they found they longed for most:

Phillip, whose parents originally built the home, said his thoughts returned most often to a photograph of his parents (both now deceased) that hung outside the master bedroom since the house was first built.

“It was the heart of the home,” Phillip said.

Tim, practice pianist and music collector, lost instruments and decades of treasured memorabilia. “It was a lifetime of music I lost,” Tim said. “I miss that the most.”)

– Mackenzie Free –

Wife, mother, photographer & current resident of the unassumingly magical town of Steele, Alabama

Setting the standard

St. Clair schools training for the future

Story by Elaine Hobson Miller
Photos by Mackenzie Free

It’s difficult not to notice the white letters E-C-T-C on the giant Adirondack chairs at the corner of U.S. 231 and U.S. 411 in Ashville. Perched on a hill overlooking the county’s only traffic roundabout, the chairs were built by carpentry students at Eden Career Technical Center to bring attention to their school.

Despite such high visibility, the school has been called “a hidden jewel” by its principal, and “the best-kept secret in St. Clair County” by one of its teachers. Neither knows why that’s true, but it’s something they both want to see changed.

“People don’t realize the opportunities we provide to learn skills that turn into jobs that they can make careers out of,” says Trisha Turner, career tech director for St. Clair County Schools and principal at ECTC since 2018.

Part of the county school system, ECTC is celebrating its 50th anniversary during this entire school year. It was named after its first principal, John Pope Eden, who lobbied for a vocational school for five years. Pope died in November of 1972, nine months before the school opened at the Ashville Armory in August of 1973 and 14 months before it moved to its permanent campus in January 1974. The school was officially dedicated to his honor in February 1975.

Getting ready to weld.

The tech school started with 360 students and four programs — cosmetology, masonry, plumbing and electricity — which are no longer offered. Courses have evolved through the years due to demand in the world of trades and technology. Today, enrollment is at 315.

“When school started in August of 1973, we went to the Armory in Ashville,” says Dorothy “Sis” Wilson, 80, who retired this past May after driving St. Clair County school buses for 55 years, including 50 for ECTC. “That’s where we started the vocational and trade school. Then we hauled kids to help build the new school, and that’s the reason the office, horticulture and air conditioner (HVAC) programs are in brick buildings. (The others are made of metal.) When we got out for Christmas holidays, Mr. Griffin (Thomas L.), principal, said when y’all come back in January come to the (new) vocational school. There are no brick masons there now, but they had one (study program) there for a while.”

Those first three brick buildings were completed and furnished for $500,000, with 70% of that amount coming from Appalachian Funds, 30% from local monies, including a $20,000 grant from the St. Clair County Commission, according to a Birmingham News article from the early 1970s. When Eden began dreaming about a trade and technical school, only 12% of the county’s high school graduates attended college, the article states. Only vocational agriculture (vo-ag) and home economics were offered to the other 88% at the high schools.

County schools now offer 14 different technical programs, according to Trisha Turner, career technical director for St. Clair County Schools and principal of ECTC. “Eleven are located here,” she says. “Agricultural Science and Family & Consumer Science programs are offered at each of the five high schools. JROTC is offered at St. Clair County High, Culinary is located on the Moody High School campus, and there is a business program at Moody, too.”

Programs on the ECTC campus include HVAC (heating and air), welding, carpentry, drafting, business information technology, information technology (IT), collision repair, automotive service, health science, plant & animal science, and emergency and fire management services. JROTC is located at St Clair County High School. The latter is not a military preparation course, but a program that promotes ethics, leadership and respect for business and industry, according to Turner, who calls business and industry “the driving force behind careers in tech programs.”

To attend ECTC, a student must be in the 10th-12th grades and enrolled in a high school in the St. Clair County School System. Students are on campus at ECTC for half a school day and at their high school the other half. They are bused back and forth by drivers employed by the county school system. The courses are considered elective high school classes, but they earn credentials and certifications that enable students to get paying jobs in their fields.

“Virtual or online high school students enrolled in the county’s Virtual Preparation Academy can choose to come here for a program or two with their own transportation or take a bus from their school, if they can get to their school,” Turner says.

Career Coach Christina Puckett says the goal at ECTC is for the students to be career-ready when they graduate. “We also offer dual enrollment in two areas,” she says. “We are paired with Gadsden State for automotive and drafting and with Jefferson State for welding and for child development. In other words, the students can get college credits here for these courses.”

The automotive service program includes everything about car maintenance and repairs, from engines to tires. The collision repair program trains students to repair damage and to refinish vehicles. “The need for automotive service technicians is growing rapidly as people continue to keep their vehicles in operation longer than ever before,” a brochure about the school states.

The ECTC campus now has six buildings, with two classes held in most of them. A seventh may be forthcoming if tentative plans to build a culinary building come to fruition. “Right now, the old Moody High School’s lunchroom, which was converted to accommodate the program, is being used,” Turner says. “Chef Melissa Allphin is in charge and her kids always win in state competitions.”

Most people don’t realize they can have something built by the school’s carpentry students, like a shooting house or a tiny house, for a price. “Our xarpentry program also covers a little electrical, plumbing and masonry. HVAC covers a little bit of electrical work, too,” Turner says. “Kevin Self heads our HVAC program, and he just got some equipment that will allow them to cut ductwork. He’s passionate about getting skilled workers because he sees the need in the HVAC company he owns.”

Self is one of four teachers at the school who are graduates of ECTC, according to Sis Wilson. The others include Marcus Graves, carpentry; Jeff Parrish, emergency & fire management services; and Roger Peace, collision repair, who got the same job his father retired from several years ago.

Medical training is in high demand.

“We’re the best-kept secret in St. Clair County,” says Jeff Parrish, who started his career with ECTC night classes and began teaching there when he retired from 25 years with Pell City Fire and Rescue.

“I don’t know why” it should remain a secret, he says. Its merits are being discovered. Three state troopers visited his program recently looking for future recruits. “One trooper was from the State Bureau of Investigation, one from aviation (helicopter & fixed-wing division of state troopers) and the other was a trooper recruiter. They were pitching jobs. The Air Force visits our classes, too.”

The Health Science program, taught by Deanna Hartley, RN, and Amy Stephan, a nurse practitioner, trains students for their EKG (electrocardiogram) and CNA (certified nursing assistant) certifications and their BLS (Basic Life Support) instructor licenses.

“They can become monitor technicians for hospitals and can conduct stress tests, too,” says Turner. “They actually get practical experience that helps them decide what they really want to be. For example, some of them work in nursing homes and some decide that’s not for them. This saves the parents money on education, because kids sometimes change their minds about their careers after they’ve finished college or a trade school.”

Another feature that helps kids decide on a career is ECTC’s Summer Camp for students in sixth through eighth grades. Camp takes place from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m., for three days during Memorial Day week. Parents interested in enrolling their children may call the school at 205-594-2070.

The business information technology program is for students who want to pursue careers in business administration and management, whereas the Information Technology program is for those interested in careers involving information technology security, network analysis, planning and implementation, according to the ECTC brochure.

Noah Duke, a senior at St. Clair CountyHigh School who is enrolled in the IT program, was one of the guides explaining robotics to visitors at the school’s open house in the fall. “We participate in the BEST Robotics competition,” he says, noting that BEST stands for “Boosting Engineering Science and Technology.

Sponsored by Shelton State Community College, the multi-level competition has a different theme each year but always involves building a robot. “This year’s theme is Made2Order,” Duke says. His team built a long, wooden conveyor that the remote-controlled robot rolled on. As it moved, it picked up items and loaded them into a cart. Each team got one point for each item the robot successfully loaded, and the team with the most points won. ECTC’s team placed seventh out of 14 at the first level in Tuscaloosa in October.

“We are in the process of trying to begin a modern manufacturing program on campus, pending approval by the St. Clair County Board of Education,” Turner says. “If approved, it will be a partnership with the Alabama Region 4 Workforce, also known as the Central 6.”

The program will cater to the Honda plant in Lincoln and all the periphery manufacturing plants that supply it, and to the Mercedes plant near Tuscaloosa. “The state is divided into workforce regions, and we’re in Region 4, also known as Central 6 because it includes the six counties in the center of the state,” Turner says. “The goal is for every region to have a modern manufacturing program. We’re working with others in our region to develop this program. We hope to start it next school year.”

Career-oriented night classes for adults may be a part of the school’s future next year, too. Turner says they are applying for a grant that will provide for 12-week courses to train people to earn certificates and get jobs in welding, carpentry and HVAC systems. “The grant would enable us to provide courses for free, but some of my teachers want to start it and let people or their employers pay for it,” Turner says.

Joe Whitten, a local historian, was a friend of the school’s namesake. He says all who knew “Pope” were greatly saddened that he did not live to see his dream come true. “The reality of his dream has flourished through the years,” Whitten says. “I know if he could see it today, he would be joyful that he did not fight and labor in vain for a vocational school for the students of St Clair County.”