Photo courtesy of Homewood City Schools.
Mindy McBride, the new Homewood Middle School principal.
Homewood Middle School’s new principal, Mindy McBride, is looking forward to settling into her role this summer as she prepares for the 2024-2025 school year.
“I have been an educator with Homewood City Schools for 20 years,” said McBride, who added that she is “so excited to be moving into the new role of principal” at Homewood Middle.
McBride is replacing Danny Steele, who is retiring after 31 years in education and administration.
For the last several years, McBride has served as an assistant principal for instruction at both Homewood Middle and Homewood High. Prior to that, she taught social studies and science at HHS and coached the varsity girls soccer team, including a state championship run in 2019.
As McBride prepares for her new role over the summer months she acknowledges that the new position is a “dream job.”
“HMS has such a collaborative and positive faculty and staff; the students are energetic and enthusiastic, and the building itself is beautiful and full of light,” McBride said. “Being able to lead such an excellent group of adults and students is truly a dream. My job is to support our teachers and staff, remove obstacles for them to do their best work and help create a positive learning environment for our students.”
McBride earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a master’s degree in secondary education from the University of Montevallo.
She and her husband, Sean, have raised their four children in Homewood.
“The city of Homewood is truly a unique place to live, work, and raise a family,” she said. “I love that we still have a homecoming parade and a Christmas parade through the middle of town each year. I am impressed with the level of support that our stores and businesses give to our school system, and I am awed at the way our community will come together to help any family in need. I appreciate all the people who work in our school district and commit so much time and effort to making our schools places of safety, excellence and support.”
McBride said her own middle school experience was something she recalls fondly, where she was able to participate in pep rallies, take elective classes for the first time and cheer on the players at football and basketball games, while having a bit more freedom at school.
“Middle school is such an exciting and important time of life,” McBride said. “I had a very positive middle school experience, and I want all of our students at HMS to enjoy their middle school years as well.”
Having the ability to positively impact students at critical points in their lives has been a favorite part of McBride’s time in education.
“Whether it is helping them navigate the awkward years of middle school adolescence or guiding them through their senior year of high school as they prepare for the next phase of life, I enjoy encouraging and assisting them to be their best selves,” McBride said. “In our community, I have had the privilege of working with many siblings from the same families, and now I even get to work with the children of students that I taught at the beginning of my career. We also have many teachers in our district who I was fortunate to teach when they were in school, and it speaks volumes that they enjoyed their educational experience so much that they now want to come back and invest in students the way that their teacher invested in them.”
Mindy and Sean McBride have both coached soccer at Homewood High School and at Homewood Soccer Club for many years.
Soccer was where the two met, when she was the girls varsity coach at Homewood High and they were looking for someone to take over the boys soccer program.
“I made some calls to various colleges, and coach Preston Goldfarb at Birmingham Southern College told me that he had a fantastic player who was then an assistant coach at BSC, and was ready to start teaching and coaching at the high school level. I met Sean when he was hired at HHS to teach social studies and coach soccer, and the rest is history,” Mindy McBride said.
As she looks to the new things she will experience as Homewood Middle principal, McBride is eager to continue the momentum of preparing students to leave Homewood Middle academically prepared for the next level, while also being confident in their ability to conquer any situation that arises.
“I will also continue the outstanding academic rigor and high expectations that are already in place at HMS,” she said. “We do a great job of providing a balance of challenge and support for our students while also emphasizing the importance of character development and community involvement. I want to help our students gain independence and confidence during their middle school years.”
McBride will officially begin her role July 1.
