Stodghill named new Altamont head of school

Cecil F. Stodghill Jr. arrived in July to be the new head of school at the Altamont School.

For the past three years, the Chattanooga native has led the Doane Stuart School in New York through accreditation, growth and the COVID-19 pandemic, but his extensive previous experience in educational leadership was in the Southeast.

He said he feels like he has come home.

Stodghill said he is excited for his wife Kim, a principal of her own independent college counseling firm, and son Cameron, who is finishing his senior year of high school in New York, to become active with him in the life of the school.

“I’ve never felt as welcomed anywhere as I do here,” Stodghill said. “I feel like I’ve found my people again.”

Stodghill began his new role in July and said to best serve students, every school must adapt to generational values, new understandings about effective education and changing expectations of parents.

“We want to make sure that when a family chooses the Altamont School, they’re choosing that their children and family will have an experience, that they will be engaged as a family and that they will be in a partnership,” he said.

Stodghill believes Altamont should not only prepare graduates for higher education but also help them find their calling and sustain them in every part of their lives. Serving families in that way requires partnerships outside of the school community, and Stodghill sees that Altamont is ideally situated for building those relationships.

“We’re sitting on a goldmine, in terms of global education and practical experiences, right here in Birmingham,” he said. “Taking full advantage of those opportunities would be good for the school’s families as well as the city.”

Stodghill added that any student can walk across the stage and receive a diploma, but practical experience of anything that they want to pursue is going to make them more marketable and successful.

We’re sitting on a goldmine, in terms of global education and practical experiences, right here in Birmingham.

CECIL STODGHILL JR.

Refining interests in this way before college also can help students avoid higher education stops and starts that can be costly in terms of both tuition and time. Stodghill knows that, in a city of this size, there is not much limit to the ways students could explore their callings.

“I think that will serve not only the Altamont community, but also metro Birmingham,” he said. He noted that some of those opportunities can arise from an invigorated alumni network that links students with mentors in their fields of professional interest.

Beyond these enriching off-campus experiences, Stodghill said preparation for rapidly changing college and professional expectations also must include helping students develop the intellectual tools they need to thrive anywhere.

Digital fluency, understanding community needs and the ability to navigate in cultures ranging from rural Alabama to the world’s largest cities are only some of the tools that help education grow and serve students beyond the basics.

It has to be academic, social and emotional, and mental health needs to be addressed, he said.

“We need to be more mindful of learned and expected behaviors, including executive functioning. Those things are part of the experience, and I think we have to balance traditional school with progressive learning and living,” Stodghill said.

Specific programs can support all that, he said, but the commitment must be deeper. “It needs to be a cultural shift, and that will help us initiate the next 50 years of the Altamont legacy.”

– Submitted by Sean Flynt, M.S.Ed., APR, Director of Communications, The Altamont School and edited by Iron City Ink.