Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

By Carey Reeder | Managing Editor

After decades of dedication to education in Chilton County, Verbena High School principal Tammy Hand is retiring, ending a long career of leaving things better than she found them.

Hand was born and raised in Chilton County, and when college came around she knew she wanted to pursue a career in education, but was not sure in what capacity. She chose special education, and she got her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in the field before starting her teaching career in Autauga County.

In 1993, Hand got the opportunity to return home as former Chilton County High School principal Troy Mims hired her on staff to teach special education, and she stayed in the position for eight years. While a special education teacher at CCHS, Hand was also the inclusion teacher for the program in the school, and she fell in love with mathematics.

“I fell in love with mathematics because I was the inclusion teacher for special education, and when I was going into the math classrooms I really enjoyed doing that and helping the kids,” Hand said.

She got her teaching certification for secondary mathematics, and she transitioned to teaching math at CCHS to ninth through 12th grade students in classes like AP Calculus, algebra, geometry and more. Hand enjoyed her newfound passion, and she stayed to teach math at CCHS for 23 years. She was also the cheerleading coach for the school, and got the opportunity to coach her daughter while she was a student there.

In 2016, Hand was on the move again, but this time trying her hand in the administrative field being hired as the assistant principal at Verbena. At that time when Hand arrived, VHS was on its fifth administrative team in the last seven years. Verbena was a school desperately in need of some consistency, and Hand delivered that. Two years later, she was named principal of Verbena High School.

“I never really had any aspirations to be at Verbena, and I was not familiar with Verbena,” Hand said. “I got placed there, and it was one of those things where I was not happy about it. Looking back, God does not always answer the prayers you ask for, and he gives you the ones you need. I left (Verbena) a better place, and they made me a better person. I am very happy I ended my career there.”

The move for Hand did not come without its struggles. Going from a high school math teacher to a principal of an entire kindergarten through 12th grade school was a challenge working with kids so young after only teaching high school students in her past.

“I did not have experience with elementary or middle school (students), so coming into that was very difficult (to adjust to),” Hand said. “The staff was very welcoming, but I know they were very reserved in getting used to me coming in and doing some different things because they thought I was going to leave soon. There was no consistency there for a while.”

Hand knew that Verbena’s school report card could use some improvement, and she started those by cutting down the tardiness in the school and raising the attendance rate. She implemented a detention program for students that were late or missed an excessive amount of school without proper documentation. In the first year with the program in effect, the tardiness at VHS decreased by 66%.

Verbena’s state test scores increased the first year with Hand in charge as well. In that first year, the school’s test scores increased by seven points from a 72 to a 79. Hand said raising the test scores was her proudest accomplishment while principal there.

Hand worked hard during her time as principal to dispel the notion that VHS was the forgotten school when it comes to Chilton County. With the help of Chilton County Schools Superintendent Corey Clements, she was able to make extensive improvements to the school grounds during her tenure.

Improvements across the Verbena campus included the incoming baseball field lights that will be installed before the next baseball season, raising $70,000 for a new playground for the school and new bleachers for the football field on both the home and away sides. Hand is also leaving the new auditorium seat project in the next administration’s hands that is raising money to replace seats inside the VHS auditorium.

Hand described the administration, staff and community at Verbena as a tight-knit group that cared dearly about the school and the students in it, which made retiring hard to do.

“I recruited good people, and there are still people (at Verbena) that have been there since I came, and people there that teach who graduated from there,” Hand said. “I am from Chilton County, and I do not have the heart I should have for my home school like the people from Verbena have for their school. They always say ‘Once a Red Devil, always a Red Devil,’ and they mean it. They love their community, they really do. I will truly miss the people.”

Hand kept her plans to retire following the 2023-2024 school year quiet until a few days before the school year ended because she did not want the whole year to be focused around her retiring. She wanted everyone to stay on the task at hand, something that was on par for the way she led Verbena as principal, and taught in Chilton County for decades.

As Hand moves on, former assistant principal Jacob Garnett will move up to assume the role of principal at VHS. Garnett was described as calmer by Hand, a trait that meshed well with her personality that was not afraid to hand out stern feedback while principal. With a great work ethic, Hand said Garnett will move into the principal role flawlessly, especially having the background of being inside the school already.

Rachel Fisher was hired as the new assistant principal at VHS. Originally from Wetumpka, Fisher received her master’s degree from Auburn University-Montgomery in elementary education, and later her instructional leadership certification from Troy University. The 2024-2025 school year will be her 11th year in education.

“I think everyone is pleased that he is moving into the position. When I announced my retirement, people were so nervous about who was going to come in. I thought it had to be Garnett, hands down,” Hand said. “The biggest thing that helped me recruit people and retain people (at Verbena) is that I truly feel like happy teachers are better teachers. It always feels good when people are sad when you are leaving, of course I do not want them to be sad, but it would have really broken my heart when I left that no one cared. I know they did, and I definitely felt loved when I left.”

Now in retirement, Hand can now focus full time on her other passion outside of education — dog grooming. For the past two years, Hand knew she would be retiring in the near future. Every weekend Hand would groom dogs, and her business has grown to 47 dogs on her schedule. She plans on devoting more time to taking care of her four-legged friends, and taking as many beach trips as she can as well.