By DRUW GIAMALVA The Reporter
The Albertville Innovation Academy held its ribbon cutting on Thursday with Alabama Governor Kay Ivey in attendance. The Innovation Academy is the first of its kind and it will be used to teach students the skills they need for future success. The Academy will offer career and technical education programs, where kids will learn many different skills from welding to cybersecurity.
Bart Reeves, Albertville City Schools superintendent, opened the ribbon cutting presentation.
“An elderly man once told me that you can learn a lot about someone or people by their actions. They may say they will do this or that, but it is their actions that are very telling. By you being present today, we learned a lot about you. We learn that you care about education, the students, the community and our state. We also know that you care about the future. There are a lot of other places that you could be, but you chose to spend your day with the city of Albertville schools and community. For that, we are very grateful.
“On behalf of Albertville’s board of education, we want to thank you for coming out this morning to join us for the grand opening of the Albertville Innovation Academy. For us, this is an exciting day. This is a tremendous honor to stand before you today as we celebrate this exciting time for this community, our school and our students. We are honored to have Governor Kay Ivey with us today. She probably receives up to 1,000 requests per year and she chose to be a part of this today. We thank her for her presence here today.
“Today’s grand opening, it is not about this building. It is a remarkable building, but it is about the future that it represents for our students and our community. The Albertville Innovation Academy is designed to prepare our students for a changing world. Equipping them with the skills they need today to succeed in tomorrow's world workforce,” Bart Reeves said.
Assistant Superintendent and Career Tech Director Todd Watkins explained the different kinds of learning that will be taught at the Albertville Innovation School.
“Thank you, Dr. Reeves. I would personally like to start by recognizing you for your leadership, guidance and service to the students. Without your trust and vision, this wouldn’t have been possible. We have advanced manufacturing, precision machining, welding, cybersecurity, media design, education training and media production. We want our students to be prepared. We want to prepare our kids for three drop-off points to get them into the workforce. The first is for them to be prepared so when they graduate, they can go to work. The second mark is if they want to continue and go to our secondary system and get a two-year degree, we want them prepared for that. If they want to go to university, we want them prepared for those three exit points,” Watkins said.
Alabama State Superintendent of Education Dr. Eric Mackey is proud to provide more opportunities to the young students of Albertville.
“I won’t take too long, as my boss has to speak in a few minutes. I want to thank everyone out here. It is nice to see the whole community come out, but the best thing I have seen so far this morning is getting out of my car and seeing this great jazz band play. To all of these students and their smiling faces, this is why I tell myself all the time, I have the most incredible and awesome job in this state because of what we are able to do and provide opportunities to young people.”
State Senator Wes Kitchens was next to speak.
“I want to thank everyone who is here today. I think if you look around this room and you look around this facility, you see how important this truly is for Marshall County, our community and our businesses. This is going to be something that has a lasting impact for decades to come and we are very excited and thankful to be a part of this. You have heard a lot about partnerships, as no one person could have done all of this. It took everybody here and it took this whole leadership team to be able to put this together and to have the vision to be able to move this project forward,” Kitchens said.
Ivey closed out the ribbon cutting presentation.
“I am excited to be back here in Albertville with so many fellow supporters from Alabama education to break the mold in classroom instruction. Today, we are officially taking learning to a whole new direction. Albertville City Schools is helping to set a new standard in teaching that dispenses with the old, outdated notion that the students of tomorrow must choose between college and job training in order to plan their careers. The new path of learning starts right now,” Ivey said.
“The new Albertville Innovation Academy blurs the line of academic education and career tech instruction. To be best prepared to meet the demands of today and the future, one must have access to dual learning pathways. The students of Albertville will be afforded the unique opportunity to graduate with both core academic and career and technical educational achievements. Folks, this is big. Albertville students will be ahead of the game when it comes to landing the new cutting-edge jobs.
“I want to commend the vision of Albertville City Schools and the community for opening the door to brighter futures for the children. I am so proud of the work being done here. Thank you for inviting me and may God bless each of you in the great state of Alabama.”
