Glennis Black in her studio.

In high school, students walk down hallways chatting with friends about Friday night football and trying to figure out the next four years of their life. They are carefree in many ways with so much time ahead yet the pressure builds early to figure out a career path. Limestone County students are luckier than most. They have what some might say is a hidden treasure.

“I’ve heard people say that we are the best kept secret in Limestone County but we’ve been here 50 years,” said cosmetology teacher Glennis Black. “We’re a gem for the education system.”

This Fall will be her 27th year with the school, so if anyone knows what it’s worth, it’s her. and she has the students to prove it. Earlier in the year her student, Dilyn Barron, brought home the gold medal for cosmetology at this year’s national Skills USA competition. Glennis has had three bronze medalists and a silver but said this is a once in a career type of win for her as a teacher.

Glennis joked with her students that now she could retire. But, she made clear that she was only teasing and not ready to do that just yet.

“I still love coming to work. I’m still effective as a teacher. I still feel like I’m doing a good job … why leave something I love?” Glennis said.

And it’s not the end of the road for Barron either, she’s only a junior with one more year to get ready to get certified by the state board of cosmetology. Getting students their state certification is not something that’s required by the curriculum that Glennis must teach, but she knows how important it is for her students to reach that level.

“That opportunity was afforded to me. So I want to help these kids over here have that,” she said. “And a lot of them have taken that opportunity and saw it to fruition, are successful, contribute to the society, have families that they can provide for, and have a profession that they are proud of and that basically defines why I’m here.”

Growing up, Glennis went to a tech school in Madison County. A high school teacher told her she would make a great teacher someday and at the time – she did not agree with them. “Shows how much I knew,” she said.

Vince Green, the director of the Technical Career Center knows it now too.

“She’s one of the best. There may be somebody out there as good as she is but there isn’t one any better,” he said. “She’s just got one thing on her mind and that’s getting those kids ready to get that state board cosmetology license and challenging them to be not only the best that they can be at their skillset, but how to carry themselves and how to open and run businesses and how to interact in the public. She tries to build a lot of self confidence in those students and she’s really successful at it.”

And he’s right. For Glennis, it’s all about the students.

“If the kid has a good work ethic, if you give them the ammunition to be successful, if they have that drive and that work ethic they will take it and run with it,” she said. “Once the kids know that you genuinely care for them and that you love them and you are there with a set of ears that’s going to listen to them you really kind of bond with them.”

It’s clear the teachers at the Technical Center have respect for their students. Agriculture teacher Lauren Graham said their connection with the students is important to the work they do, a few even refer to her as ‘Mama G’.

“I just feel like the relationships that you build, not only with the students, but then industry too … it’s definitely more than just teaching in the classroom,” she said. “I feel like it’s made a big difference because it gives kids more of an opportunity to see what’s out there and get a feel for it.”

Vince knows the students see Lauren’s dedication to agriculture industry.

“They have confidence in Lauren and the good students just flock to her and that’s how she’s successful. She’s just passionate about what she does. She works hard. She wants to help kids,” he said.

While originally Lauren is a fifth generation beef cattle farmer, her parents tried to talk her and her siblings out of it.

“It’s kind of funny, when we were all younger they tried to get us to get out of the Ag industry to do something else like a 9 to 5 job and we all ended up back,” she said.

And it almost worked – she never saw herself as a teacher but ended up getting degrees in Ag-Business and Ag-Education. Now, she is always learning something new. She talks about how the program has partnered with Aviagen to do things like build a chicken coop for them. They study hydro and aquaponics and manage tilapia. They’ve raised piglets. And, they grow plenty of plants in the greenhouse. She said since she grew up in the industry everything has evolved, namely the technology.

“It’s crazy how much Ag relies on technology now. and that’s one of the things that I try to tell the kids… A lot of people when they think agriculture they think cows, plows and sows,” she said. “Less than 2 percent is production agriculture, there’s so many jobs out there. and it’s amazing to see when the kids realize that it’s so much more.”

Glennis said she has to stay on top of a changing industry too.

“The one thing in this business — we are evolving, you are never finished learning, trends come and go … Study and be multi-faceted, that’s how you can add to your success. Learn it all and be hungry for knowledge,” Glennis said.

Continuous learning seems to be a common thread among the Technical Center’s teachers. They are all constantly teaching themselves new skills so that they can better prepare their students for real world jobs. Mike Rainey has been the collision repair teacher at the center since 1995. Originally, he says they mostly taught paint and repair. But overtime, as the industry changed he started to teach things like custom airbrushing work, and now he does wrapping and vinyl lettering.

“As I was being self-taught, I was teaching them. and we actually work together … So that put them in a thinking atmosphere so I think that really helps,” he said. “I’m 62 years old and I’m learning everyday and I say ‘I hope you do too. and I hope you continue to learn.’ When you think you know it all then you’re at the end of your rope. You got to learn everyday.”

He encourages the students to figure out the most effective methods to get things done the right way.

Mike gave the example of a dent in a fender. He would teach his students to hammer the dent out to the point they could put plastic filler on to fill the dent and fix it. But other instructors may teach their students to hammer the dent fully out, which he says is a great skill, but ultimately in a body shop there wouldn’t be time for that.

“To me, that takes away from them learning the trade to go to work,” he explains it would likely take hours when the owner of a shop would want you to finish in 30 minutes.

But still, half the years he’s been at the school he’s had Skills USA state winners and been to nationals 3 times with students earning 6th, 9th, 11th place.

Vince said Mazda-Toyota recognized the school for it’s importance and originally asked to see the Technical Center when they came to visit North Alabama. Now they work closely with the school and asked for some help.

“They wanted us to formulate a color,” Mike said. “So I took it upon myself to give my students the opportunity to formulate a color.”

He said they wanted the Mazda Soul Red, the Toyota Barcelona Red, and the red from the Alabama state flag. Now, the student’s color that got chosen is going to be on their car line. She graduated in May 2022 and has a guaranteed job with Mazda-Toyota, he says. Mike suspects she will eventually work in their paint formulation labs.

“She’s one of my success stories — and being a female in a non-traditional classroom setting,” he said he’s actually never had a class without a woman, even one time having as many as 12 in one class.

The same goes for Lauren’s agriculture classes, despite also teaching in a typically male-dominated industry. She said she’s always had a pretty good mixture of male and female students.

“I don’t know if being a female it’s maybe brought a few more females in,” she said. “When I actually started teaching, I was the first female to be hired as an Ag teacher in Limestone County.”

And, she says the program has had a lot of support. They recently visited the school farm and other agriculture teaching facilities in Effingham County, Georgia where Limestone County’s superintendent, Randy Shearouse, formerly presided over. She said to have those kind of facilities here would be a dream.

Growth of their programs is a focus for all of the teachers. Glennis says for cosmetology, expanding into barbering is something that will give her program more diversity. For male students taking the cosmetology class now, because of the typically female-dominated industry, there are challenges that Glennis recognizes for those young men.

“I’ve filled the community full of quality stylists and I would love to get some barbers. I think the barbering is coming up,” she says. “Men’s hair design is off the charts. It’s trending major right now.”

She has her own certification in both cosmetology and barbering, so she is able to teach students both skills and has graduated a few barbers in the community. As her program has grown, she knows there are students who she has taught who may one day be ready to take the reins from her.

“I’ve got some students that have gone on and got their instructors (certification) so I’m hoping that they’re going to be ready to step in,” Glennis said. “I want someone who is going to continue the program that I’ve built.”

And, that’s exactly how Mike got his job. He went to the Limestone Career Technical Center as a student in collision repair under Erskin Higginbotham.

“When I graduated May 18, 1978 I looked him right in the eye and I said ‘One day I’m going to have your job.’”

Erskin was the whole reason Mike became interested in the industry. At 12 years old, he was riding in the back of a pickup truck when someone coming the other direction hit them. He and his cousin were thrown from the bed and it was torn apart from the cab. Thankfully, none of them were seriously injured, the truck had the worst damage. Mike thought the truck wouldn’t be able to be fixed, and who would end up repairing it but Erskin Higginbotham himself.

“That encouraged me to do this and then when I got into it, it was such a passion that I said ‘I want to do this. I want to teach people to get a job doing this.”

“You can only fake something for so long, and in the educational world, the kids will see right through you. But, if they see somebody that wants to help them and teach them and bring them up the ladder they buy in on it,” Vince said about the teachers at the Technical Center.

“There’s people out there that draw a check that sit in front of a teacher’s desk and then there’s educators,” Vince said. “And those three that we’re talking about are educators. They’re true teachers. It’s a calling. It’s not just something somebody can do.”