Metro Roundup: The Altamont School opens year with new leadership, record enrollment

The Almont School opened its new academic year Aug. 19 with 389 students, the school’s largest enrollment in 16 years. The historic surge includes 83 new students from 20 zip codes and 40 schools, and puts grades seven, eight and nine at capacity, according to Director of Admissions Thomas Goldsmith.

The school also welcomed new staff and nine new teachers, including new Head of School Cecil F. Stodghill, Jr. Stodghill, a Chattanooga, Tennessee, native who came to Altamont in July after leading New York’s Doane Stuart School, is excited about the growth of the school and the opportunities he sees for community partnerships. 

“We’re sitting on a goldmine, in terms of global education and practical experiences, right here in Birmingham,” he said. Taking full advantage of those opportunities would be good for the school’s families as well as the city, he observed. “My goal is to create a cultural shift by which we become not just the independent school in Birmingham, but the school in Birmingham, not just because of our college matriculations or our AP scores, but because of the impact we truly have in this community.”

In addition to new faces, students found a new look in some school spaces as they arrived at Altamont’s wooded 28 acre campus on the first day of class. The extensive renovations of student spaces in recent years continued this summer with the installation of new furniture and the revitalization of the school’s tennis facilities.

For all of the newness celebrated on this first day, a senior class tradition had the spotlight at the school’s opening event. Stodghill introduced the Class of 2023 as the leaders of the school, and those 56 students charged into the auditorium with the energy and optimism that pervades the community. They and their school are on the move.