The Jefferson County Board of Education has selected a winner of a major national award to fill the vacant principal’s position at Fultondale Elementary School.

Frances Finney is being transferred from Gresham Elementary. The appointment was made during the board’s last special called meeting before school staff members report for the new school year on Friday.

Finney has served for seven years as the principal at Gresham, which is in an unincorporated area surrounded by Hoover, Cahaba Heights and Vestavia Hills. It’s comprised mostly of apartments and town homes. “Frances has worked hard to build a community where there is none,” JefCoEd spokeswoman Nez Calhoun said.

Earlier this year, Finney was named as the state’s winner of the National Distinguished Principal award, given annually by the National Association of Elementary School Principals. She also has a history of aggressively seeking out various grants for her school, including more than $35,000 in community service grants from the Jefferson County Commission and the state legislature.

Board member Tommy Little was effusive in his praise of Finney.

“You are getting an outstanding principal in Mrs. Finney,” Little said. “You will be very happy to have her, and the parents at Grasham will be sad to lose her.”

Finney replaces Reta Hayes, who was transferred to Brighton Elementary two weeks ago. Finney will be replaced by Laura Kirkpatrick, whom the board transferred from the same position at Center Point Elementary. The board also moved Jay Gary, principal at Erwin Middle, to fill Kirkpatrick’s old job.

In addition, the board appointed Cortney Slaughter to fill the vacant assistant principal’s position at Fultondale Elementary. Slaughter, who previously was a physical education teacher at Concord Elementary, fills the position left open when Jerry Anne Jackson was moved to an assistant principal slot at Bryan Elementary.

The board also appointed Scott Mansell as the interim head football coach and athletic director at Hueytown High School, filling the position vacated suddenly when Mark Stephens took an assistant principal’s job in Cullman.

The meeting marks a very hectic eight-week period for the school system, during which it also welcomed new superintendent Dr. Craig Pouncey. The shorter-than-normal summer break has forced the system to scramble in filling vacancies, as classes begin next Wednesday.

Deputy Supt. Yancy Morris reported that 11 teaching positions remain open, and that they hope to have teachers filling those slots when classes begin, even if they have to be on the books as substitutes on opening day until the proper paperwork is filed. Another called board meeting on Thursday, August 7 will make most of those appointments official.