Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

By JOYANNA LOVE | Managing Editor

Clanton Middle School teacher Tony Byrd of Thorsby has been named the new assistant principal.

Byrd replaces Andre Davis of Montgomery who left CMS to take a position at Alabama State University as assessment coordinator in the college of education.

Byrd has been the seventh-grade civics and geography teacher at CMS for the past 7 years.

He is looking forward to encouraging and supporting teachers in his new role, part of which will involve handling disciplinary issues that may arise.

“It is a difficult field, especially for young teachers,” Byrd said. “There is a burnout rate, a lot of people leaving the field, and I hope to be able to encourage a lot of those teachers to stay.”

He commented that CMS is like a family.

“I am looking to have a lasting and positive impact,” Byrd said

He has been in education for 26 years.

“After that long, you feel like you have given so much to the classroom, but you still have years left, and I felt like I had good years left to play another role in education,” Byrd said.

A graduate of Verbena High School, Byrd eventually decided to get his master’s degree in education and become a teacher because “I have such a love of learning.”

Davis had been the assistant principal at Clanton Middle School since 2020.

“I absolutely enjoyed working (at CMS),” Davis said. “It was great.”

After more than 20 years in K-12 education holding just about every position available, he said moving to the collegiate level was a “natural progression to consider.”

In his new role at ASU, Davis will be ensuring that assessments education students take match what they need to prepare for certification. He will also be a part of ensuring the university’s accreditation requirements are maintained.