Americans Sung ‘God Bless America’ at Randolph School in Huntsville, Alabama
By Hank Richards
GCC/Staff
May12, 2010
It’s an extreme pleasure to dial a published telephone number and reach the person in charge of an organization on the first attempt.
This actually happened on grandparent’s day last Friday when I called Dr. Byron C. Hulsey, the Headmaster at the Randolph School, in Huntsville, Alabama.
Randolph School began its mission in 1959 with a handful of elementary classes in an antebellum home.
Within a few short years, the school relocated to a spacious 17-acre campus with a mission that complimented the Huntsville industries in U.S. missile defense, rockets and space age technology at the Redstone Arsenal, home of the Marshall Space Flight Center (NASA).
Numerous scientists and engineers, including the legendary space pioneer Dr. Wernher von Braun, sent their children to Randolph.
The school’s rigorous college preparatory curriculum and successful alumni rapidly attracted Huntsville’s business community.
In 1981, a local Fortune 500 company donated a computer lab, one of the first of its kind in a high school setting and in 1998, Randolph attracted national attention for successfully integrating laptop computers and a wireless network into their classroom structure.
Randolph School is listed as an IBM reference site for its outstanding technology program and has received national accolades as a Blue Ribbon School of Excellence.
The school is directed by Dr. Byron C. Hulsey, the man who answers his own telephone while managing a $12 million annual budget.
Hulsey has enjoyed an accomplished academic career. He is a graduate of the Woodberry Forest School in Virginia, having earned his B.A. degree from the University of Virginia in 1990, where he received the prestigious Jefferson Scholarship.
Being a Texas native, he went on to earn both, an M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Texas in Austin where he was a Patterson-Banister Fellow in American History.
In the summer of 2006, he moved to Huntsville, Alabama to begin work as Randolph’s Head of School. He and his wife, Jennifer, have two children.
When asked by Richards to explain the success of the Randolph education model, Hulsey replied, ‘we emphasize honor, integrity and character and demand discipline and diligence . . . I feel gratified that Randolph is a safe place; by a safe place I mean it’s safe to embrace opportunities and perhaps to be disappointed at times but safe enough to offer an academic environment where our children can achieve success in arts and athletics and engage in those opportunities that commit to overall excellence; safe enough to have the support of a hands-on community and proactive faculty who believe in the values at Randolph that contribute to unparalleled personal growth.’
One of Hulsey’s many tasks include setting aside a unique day in the spring each year for grandparents and special friends of the K-4 classes to visit the school.
The guests are treated to programs that feature musical selections presented with hand chimes, a variety of songs that include ‘God Bless America’, classroom visits with student demonstrations and a picnic lunch on the south lawn of the campus.
With this year’s exhibit, each classroom demonstrated its learning accomplishments using group projects such as a life-cycle by actually hatching baby chicks in school; presenting the world of computer photo graphics of a class in progress in real-time and so much more.
Approximately 600 people turned out for the celebration that concluded with a picnic lunch under the shade trees on the south lawn of the campus.
The guests found the students receptive when demonstrating the advantages of attending a school with a student/ teacher ratio of approximately 10 to 1.
Randolph’s faculty strives to help students become young men and women of character who are self-motivated, intellectually curious and articulate, characteristics necessary to become responsible decision-makers.
Randolph, the only independent college prep school in North Alabama, has been twice named a National School of Excellence by the U.S. Department of Education and is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS).
For more information view the school website at www.randolphschool.net. To schedule a campus tour or to learn more about Randolph, contact Glynn Below, Director of Admissions, at (256) 799-6103 or e-mail the Admissions Office .
Source: Examiner
Editor’s Note: Contact Hank Richards by email at editor@pronlinenews.com or call him at (256) 417-6084.
Richards is a prostate cancer survivor and a nationwide public speaker on the issue. If you would like to schedule him for your speaking venue, call the listed number above.
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