Retired Gulf Shores principal continues work at Alabama Institute for the Deaf and Blind

BY RUTH MAYO
Reporter
ruth@gulfcoastmedia.com
Posted 12/24/24

Kyle McCartney has worked in education across the state of Alabama, including Gulf Shores Middle School, and has now returned to work the first years of his retirement at the Alabama Institute for …

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Retired Gulf Shores principal continues work at Alabama Institute for the Deaf and Blind

Posted

Kyle McCartney has worked in education across the state of Alabama, including Gulf Shores Middle School, and has now returned to work the first years of his retirement at the Alabama Institute for the Deaf and Blind (AIDB), the same company where he started his career.

McCartney worked as the principal of Gulf Shores Middle until he completed his 25 years needed in education for retirement. He is now working his second year as the director of the AIDB Mobile Regional Center and spends his retirement driving from Foley to Mobile for work.

"It's a little bit of a drive, but it fulfills my need of wanting to go back to the beginnings where I started," McCartney said, "so I really have enjoyed working at AIDB."

McCartney said this center was not like the AIDB schools in Talladega, which he worked at in the beginning of his career, but the Mobile Regional Center can provide resources or assistance to schools such as in training or IEP (Individualized Education Program) meetings.

"A lot of times, people think that there's actually a school in here (at Mobile's AIDB center)," McCartney said, "they think I'm still a principal because I've always been a principal, but I'm actually not. I work with adults here and we provide services to the community."

McCartney compared his role as a principal with his role as a director, stating that he likes both jobs because they let him see the successes experienced by the individuals he works with. He said that, because of this, he prefers to work at AIDB because he gets to "stick with" those who come through the center "in every single stage of their life," and they are not known "just as kids."

McCartney said he can build "a lot of friendships" with the individuals who come by the Mobile Regional Center. Because of this, he finds his work at the AIDB extra rewarding.

"Ever since I started education, that's sort of what I've wanted to do. Our motto at AIDB is "Deaf. Blind. Limitless." So, I like people to know that there aren't any limits," McCartney said. "I love to see when there's somebody who can break through any type of barrier and be a success and do what they want to do. It makes you feel good when you can help somebody a little bit just to get to that point of success."

PHOTO PROVIDED
PHOTO PROVIDED

A CAREER IN EDUCATION

McCartney started his career in education as a teacher at the Helen Keller School, the AIDB school for "kids that have multi-disabilities," in Talladega, specifically working with students who were blind or visually impaired.

He then worked at the Helen Keller School as the academic director before working as the special education supervisor and later the assistant principal at Hoover High School. After working for several years in northern Alabama, McCartney moved down to Gulf Shores because "everybody wants to live at the beach."

"I was definitely (working) at Gulf Shores the longest," McCartney said. "That's where I raised my kids, that's where I've lived and that's where my family is, so I definitely have a special place for Gulf Shores."

McCartney said he always knew he wanted to "go back to the adults and children at AIDB." He grew up around the Institute schools in north Alabama and decided early on in college that he wanted to earn his degree in special education.

McCartney earned his bachelor's in special education at Troy University and his master's in education leadership from the University of Alabama. He has also earned an education specialist degree and Teacher of the Visually Impaired certification from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

After entering his retirement, McCartney didn't want to quit working so soon "because I'm still under 50!" He wanted to do something different even though he "loved" his job as a principal.

He had wanted to stay in the coastal Alabama area, and he kept his sights on the AIDB Mobile Regional Center. After 25 years of work in education were fulfilled in 2023 for McCartney, he applied for the job of AIDB director and landed the position.

McCartney said on his job at AIDM, "It was very fulfilling even when I was in my young career, and now that I'm at the end of my career I still love being able to see good progress in individuals. That's why I was always a principal and a teacher as well because I just liked to work with anyone to try to help them find a way to be successful."

As the director of Mobile's AIDB center, McCartney said his job includes staffing people and approving the most "capable people" to work for him.

"It is a niche field because there's not a lot of people who work in this field," McCartney said. "There's not a lot of teachers of the visually impaired or interpreters (for American Sign Language) around."

He said he currently has a staff of three interpreters, two case managers, one assistant technology specialist, five early intervention specialists who work with young children and two job developer specialists who work with local vocational sites to help AIDB clients with job placement.

McCartney said the AIDB Mobile Regional Center mostly provides services for very young children and those who have graduated from school systems as school-aged children have their own specialists and programs at their schools. However, AIDB can help students find their schools' programs or provide additional after-school resources if needed.

The AIDB Mobile Regional Center website states that it serves Baldwin, Clarke, Conecuh, Escambia, Mobile, Monroe and Washington counties or "basically, the southwest corner of Alabama" according to McCartney, who had named off the counties by heart.

"When you go all the way up and you get a great hotdog in Conecuh County," McCartney said in his description of the region's range, "that's how far up we go."

McCartney said that one of his goals as director for AIDB is to "expand out our partnerships with local organizations within our community. We are very well known in the Mobile area and even in north Baldwin County we're very well known."

One way McCartney mentioned the center is seeing that "everybody knows that we're here" is by offering ASL classes in-person and online across the region.

"We love that people want to take ASL. We want them to at least be able to communicate at a small level with our consumers and the people in our community that are deaf or hard of hearing," McCartney said.

McCartney said he is better at writing and understanding Braille as he mostly works with students who have visual impairments, but, as some of his employees are deaf, he has learned some ASL like what is taught at these classes. He said spring registration is open for classes ranging from beginner to intermediate that consist of eight once-a-week conversational lessons.

He said that the ASL classes are "well known and very well attended especially for the Mobile area, the Daphne, Spanish Fort and Fairhope area because they know about the classes. We want people to know in Foley, Gulf Shores, Escambia, Conecuh, Atmore, all of them. We want them to know about the classes, too."

Another step for growth in AIDB McCartney said is to make sure he keeps up with technological advances that could offer aid to some with disabilities. McCartney also said he will continue to encourage those who could benefit from the AIDB Mobile Regional Center's resources to call or visit.

"We want to help everybody that needs us," McCartney said.

The AIDB Mobile Regional Center is located at 1050 Government St. in Mobile and is open from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. AIDB in Mobile can be reached on the phone at (251) 432-7777 or can be reached from their website at www.aidb.org/Mobile.