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‘We’re talking about character education’

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Photo by Lexi Coon.

A big part of what makes the Homewood community so special is the relationships that are built within the city, Homewood City Schools Superintendent Bill Cleveland said, and that carries over to the school system. He said the strong relationships and support are what help Homewood students be successful.

At the 33rd annual Excellence in Education luncheon on April 16, Cleveland brought up Homewood Middle School teacher and football coach Steve Sills, who, Cleveland said, makes sure the connections with faculty members, and more importantly, with students, aren’t forgotten.

“Five minutes in the room with Steve Sills, there’s just something special about this human being,” Cleveland said.

Sills talked about a club he started a few years back at HMS called the Trendsetters. It started with about 35 students, all boys, and soon grew to 75 and then 115 members over the years. HMS student resource officer Ashley Poellnitz asked if girls could be a part of the club, and now the Trendsetters are up to 300 members, or about one-third of the school, Sills said.

The goal of the club is “To develop young men and ladies to become leaders through community services as we instill honesty, integrity, loyalty, commitment and hard work.”

“We’re talking about character education,” Sill said.

One of the mainstays of the club is to instill hope and encouragement in the students, which Sills called “making deposits.” He and the club’s sponsors, Andrea McCormack and Grey Adams, along with Poellnitz, work with the students to build relationships and confidence in one another.

He also works with kids to instill hope and to not “be so quick to judge people.”

Everyone comes from different living situations, he said, and not all students go home to a household with similar lifestyles. If students and teachers can share hope with one another, it can make all the difference in their outlook and experiences.

“We’ve got to continue to give people hope. We’ve got to continue to give kids hope,” he said.

The Trendsetters also do a great deal of work in the community. Sills said of the 300 members, about 90 percent of them are “very active.” Excursions have included working a shift at the annual Rise Against Hunger meal packing event, holding a senior prom at Regency Retirement and cheering for basketball games at The Exceptional Foundation.

“We make their basketball games look like the NBA finals,” Sills said.

Throughout the school year, the Trendsetters have dress up days, too. Sills said they weren’t too popular when the club first started, but now the boys and girls look forward to looking their best. It fits with Sills’ motto of “Look good, feel good, do good.”

But the part of the club Sills is most proud of, he said, is the diversity. Kids who are athletes, mathletes, in band, take special education classes, of different races and ethnicities and of different home lives all come together and form a family, Sills said.

And all this works to instill confidence and encouragement in the students, regardless of their lifestyle or whether or not they’re the smartest student or the best athlete.

“We have a lot of kids that feel like they don’t amount to much on the outside,” he said. “… We encourage them to give us what’s on the inside.”

The Chamber of Commerce also recognized the annual Achievement Award Winners from each school. The winners this year are:

Brabston, a senior who will be attending the University of Alabama in the fall, was also awarded the chamber’s scholarship.

The next Chamber of Commerce luncheon will be May 21.

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