Edgewood assistant principal wins state recognition

Laura Tate is finishing her third year as Edgewood Elementary School’s assistant principal with a special honor: being named the Elementary Assistant Principal of the Year by the Council for Leaders in Alabama Schools (CLAS).

Tate has been in education for 17 years, including two years at Hall-Kent Elementary as a special education teacher. She was surprised with the award in early March, when she was called to the Edgewood lunchroom to find CLAS representatives, teachers, Homewood City Schools Central Office employees and her family — husband Duce and twin daughters Molly and Raylee — waiting to congratulate her.

“You never think that you’re going to be the one that’s chosen, when there’s so many other great assistant principals in the state,” she said. 

The Tates live in Homewood and their daughters attend second grade at Edgewood.

In her day-to-day role at Edgewood, Tate is responsible for meeting with teachers about their classroom curriculum and instructional planning or goals, as well as meeting with parents and students when they need particular help with something in the classroom. Tate said her favorite part of the job is getting out of her office to see what’s happening in the classrooms.

“I love being out and about in the classrooms, and going in and seeing kids learning and teachers teaching,” Tate said. 

Tate said she is proud of the continual efforts to improve the education that Edgewood offers, including new character education that was introduced this school year and asks students if they are being their “Best Me.” She said the teachers and students have “bought in” to the practice and take it seriously.

“We’ve grown a lot in meeting the needs of a diverse population in Homewood,” Tate said. “It’s about their character, it’s about their academics, it’s about the whole child.”

“It’s really about developing teachers and helping them become better and build their practice,” Tate added.

Tate said she knew she wanted to be a teacher even as a child, when she would play “school” with her toys. Her first career path was special education, after helping out with a special education class while she was in high school.

“From that point on, I knew that I wanted to be in special education,” Tate said.

After she entered her education career, Tate said she started to enjoy leadership roles and decided to pursue that path. She got her master’s degree in collaborative teaching from UAB in 2005, followed by an add-on certificate in educational administration in 2006 and an educational specialist degree in 2010. This past January, Tate began pursuing her doctorate in educational administration at Samford University.

Tate was nominated by Edgewood Principal Matt Kiser for CLAS’ Division 4 Assistant Principal of the Year, and then she was chosen by the CLAS board for the statewide honor. 

As part of her award, Tate is also now in the running for a national assistant principal award and will attend a summer conference in Orlando.