Photograph courtesy Samford University
McKinley Johnston
The Vestavia Hills Board of Education recently approved two new principals for the 2024-25 school year. Cindy Echols, an assistant principal at Vestavia Hills Elementary East since 2012, was named the next principal there, set to replace Mark Richardson when he retires July 1. Susan McCall, an assistant principal at Vestavia Hills Elementary West since 2016, will replace Kim Hauser as principal when Hauser retires July 1. Echols previously served as an assistant principal and principal of Edgewood Elementary School in Homewood, as an assistant principal at Hewitt-Trussville Middle School, and as a teacher at the former Cahaba Heights Community School. She holds a bachelor’s degree in education from the University of Alabama, as well as master’s and educational specialist’s degrees from Samford University. “I can’t say enough about Cynthia,” Richardson says. “It’s been like having two principals honestly, and she probably knows a lot more about running a school than I do, so the transition will be seamless. I’m so happy.”
McCall previously served as a reading coach at Cherokee Bend Elementary in Mountain Brook, as an instructional coach and teacher at Deer Valley Elementary in Hoover, and as an instructional coach and teacher in Gwinnett County, Georgia. She earned a bachelor’s degree in education from Mississippi State University, a master’s degree and administrative certification from the University of Georgia, and an educational specialist’s degree from Brenau University. She also worked as an adjunct professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (2015-2018). “My school would have been devastated if you had named anyone else,” says retiring principal Hauser.