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

School name: FAME Academy at Brookhill Elementary School

Principal: Jeff Mattheus

Amount of time as principal: Three years

Grades: K–3

Total number of students: 275

Total number of teachers: 23

Total number of support staff: 11

New programs: “We are going to launch a STAR Skills Lab that will focus on 21st Century learning skills: creativity, collaboration, critical thinking and communication with all of our students. We will be partnering with Arts Huntsville this fall to give our teachers an opportunity to learn strategies of implementing Fine Arts into reading and math.”

What makes your school special: “What makes FAME Academy special is our family — our students, staff and parents. We have awesome kids that are eager to learn every day. Our staff goes above and beyond for our students and one another. We are blessed to have an active parental group in our school, volunteering to read to our students, organizing memorable events for our students and teachers and assisting with anything that our students or staff need.”

Primary objectives for 2019-2020: “Our primary objectives are to continue growing our fine arts academy through project-based learning to impact our community and expanding our extracurricular opportunities to spark student interest.”

What the principal is looking forward to: “I’m looking forward to working and learning from our amazing students and staff every day. They are the heartbeat of our school!”