Perdido School is known by many around the county to be the “hidden gem” of the Baldwin County school system – especially by its principal Phillip Stewart.

“We’re truly a community school and we have been for generations now,” Stewart said. “It’s a source of pride for children in this community to get to go to a school where their parents and their grandparents went. It’s a legacy and tradition for many families up here.”

Stewart includes himself in that tradition, as he went to the Perdido School himself, “more years ago than I want to admit,” he quipped.

At the start of the day Friday, every student who rode up in a car got to see Stewart and Assistant Principal Mark Harbison waiting for them at the curb – opening doors, directing traffic, giving kind words and high-fives to the students as they walked in to start their days.

“That’s every single day,” Stewart said. “We have our coaches greet the buses and myself and the assistant principal greet all of our car riders in the morning. We’ve also got a group called the Peer Helpers that’s trained in conflict resolution that are voted by the teachers so they’re out there opening car doors as well.”

Stewart said morning greeting time is one of his favorite parts of the day at his school.

“You see people you grew up with and their children every morning,” Stewart said. “You want to have a bright, smiling face and wave at people to make them feel welcome. I think that’s the unique part of having a community school – a lot of people do know each other, so it’s good to see them every morning.”

Perdido School is somewhat of an anomaly in Baldwin County because the school houses pre-K through eighth grade students at its facility, which can present some challenges.

“While other principals can sometimes get to focus on one area, like being an elementary principal or a middle school principal, we have an elementary, an intermediate and a middle school all under one roof,” Stewart said. “Scheduling things like PE and lunch can seem difficult, but once you come up with a plan, it all seems to work pretty well.”

Stewart said granting students incentives for getting good grades and maintaining good attendance has been an effective tool with helping maintain morale.

Last Friday, students who donated two canned goods got to be out of uniform for the day.

After morning drop-off duty was over, Stewart drove over to Baldwin County High School with eighth graders who had been granted an incentive to attend the pep rally at the high school for meeting grade and attendance goals.

The Perdido School eighth graders were wide-eyed and nervous as they entered the BCHS gym, looking around in wonder at the loud banging and screams from the various grades of high schoolers competing to win spirit points.

During the pep rally, the Perdido kids were recognized for being in attendance, getting cheers from the BCHS kids.

As the eighth graders left to get back on the buses, several seemed slightly overwhelmed by what they had just witnessed.

“It was way too loud,” one girl said. “My ears still hurt.”

On the drive back to Perdido, Stewart said he was thankful that the school board had voted the night before to approve a $2.7 million, 16-classroom expansion to his school, addressing a need of overcrowding that seems to be a common problem across the county.

“This new addition helps us get rid of some portables and lets our community know the school system is paying attention to our needs,” Stewart said. “I don’t know that there’s really another need that I can think of. We’d like to have more teaching units, of course, but other than personnel, I can’t think of anything else.”

Arriving back at the school, Stewart started a tour of the school, showing various classrooms and what kids were learning around the school.

In veteran third grade teacher Laurie Myer’s class, students were literally jumping out of their chairs to answer questions about the multiplication tables Myer was showing them.

Students held their hands out on their desks with one finger down, helping them learn their nines times tables and the different mathematical properties.

“This is really easy,” one student was heard to remark.

Myer’s classroom is a part of the original school building, in a classroom that generations of North Baldwin students have used and enjoyed.

In the special education classroom, Tara Beauchamp worked with a group of students on a project involving their Chromebooks.

“We try to make sure we include our students with special needs in things as much as we can,” Stewart said. “They get the same amenities and opportunities as every student does. They just also get a little more individualized attention from our wonderful special education department here.”

Stewart said he feels Perdido School is one of the county’s most consistent schools and that they continue to do well in many areas.

“I think we excel at all the things that make a school successful,” Stewart said. “We meet a lot of our academic goals. Last year, we met our continuous improvement goals of attendance, we met our goal improvement in reading and math and we feel really good about the direction we’re heading in now with our early assessments we’ve taken. I think we pretty much achieve in all areas – we actually won the volleyball county championship this year, so athletically, we’re competitive, which helps bring a lot of school pride and community pride in.”

Toward the back of the school is a canteen area where students can have a short free period to buy drinks and snacks.

When talking to a group of eighth graders about moving up to Baldwin County High, they seem apprehensive.

“We really don’t want to leave,” one boy said. “This has been our school for as long as we’ve been in school. I wish there was a high school here because I don’t really want to leave.”

The middle school classes at Perdido offer both pre-AP classes and a career tech academy that Stewart had pushed for.

“By offering both pre-AP and career tech, we’re able to reach out to students on every track,” Stewart said. “While it’s still early, we’re able to target kids that might want to go to college or kids that want to go to the technical or trade schools and be able to start a good-paying job when they graduate.”

In Linda Mathias’ math class, students were teaching other students about how to map factors on a graph.

Students were engaged and were asking questions to their peer teachers about how to properly graph the equations.

In the career tech class, students were hunched over Chromebooks working on modeling programs for racecar and plane designs, talking about vectors and drag in an excited manner.

Stewart said he’s proud of what his school and community do every single day.

“We’ve got great kids and an amazing community that supports everything we need and what we’re trying to do,” Stewart said. “The community takes ownership of this school – this is their school and they help us do whatever it takes to make sure we’re giving these kids the best education they can get. We’re thankful for that. When you’re a Raider, you remain a Raider – always.”