Editor’s note: The following is first in a series of articles previewing the upcoming school year at each public and private school in Athens and Limestone County.

School name: Piney Chapel Elementary School

Principal: Rebecca Dunnivant

Amount of time as principal: 3 1/2 years

Grades: Pre-K through fifth grade

Total number of students: 184

Total number of teachers: 21 certified staff, some shared with other schools

Total number of support staff: 15 classified staff, including bus drivers

New programs: “We’re trying to take what we’ve been using and honing our skills and doing the best practices we can. We’ve got some great programs in place.”

What makes Piney Chapel special: “We are small, but we are mighty. We know our students very, very well. We meet their needs to the best of our ability. We’re like a family here — teachers, students parents, everybody. We take care of each other. We have high expectations for our students, and we do everything we can to help them meet them.”

Primary objectives for 2019-2020: “We want to focus on, No. 1, the whole child and taking care of our children. But academically, we want to focus on reading and math. Reading is a big focus this year. That’s an area of growth this year. With the new mandates coming, every child is supposed to be on reading level by third grade, so we want to do everything we can to help our kids be successful with that.”

What the principal is looking forward to: “Seeing the children, interacting with them, just celebrating our kids for everything they do. They have many, many talents. It may be academics, it may be sports — we offer ballet during our after-school program, too — it may be drum line. Just celebrating everything that makes our kids special and giving them every opportunity that we can.”