W.S. Neal High School graduate says she would be honored to lead school system
Collier
The Escambia County Board of Education recently named Brewton native Michele Collier Interim Superintendent following the departure of Michele McClung, whom Collier has served as assistant superintendent under for the last couple of years.
Growing up in Brewton, Collier attended Pollard-McCall Junior High School her elementary school years through the seventh grade. She went to W.S. Neal Middle School from eighth grade thru 12 grade, after begging her mom to let her go for her eighth grade year so she could play in flute, piccolo and eventually teaching herself to play bass clarinet through her senior year in the band.
Collier tells the story of her parents, Linda Gleaton and William "Bill" Whitman, who were 17 and 19 when they got married in 1965, when her mom was a senior at T.R. Miller High School, and her father had just graduated from W.S. Neal High School.
"At the game that year between T.R. Miller and W.S. Neal, he sat on the Neal side and she sat on the Miller side," said Collier. "They said whichever school won that game is where their children would attend. The rest is history."
Collier's mother drove a school bus and had been a teacher. Her father worked as a supervisor at the Brewton Post Office for more than 30 years. Collier said the family wound up in Brewton after her grandfather left Brilliant, Ala. headed to Mobile to get a job as barber so he could move his family to Mobile. She said he could not find the barber shop where he planned to get a job, so he got back on the bus, which eventually stopped in Brewton. Her grandfather got off the bus in Brewton and found a job as a barber. That's how she wound up in Brewton, where she stayed until high school graduation.
After she graduated from W.S. Neal High School, Collier married a classmate who joined the U.S. Navy, and the couple moved to Charleston, S.C., then to Portsmorth, Va. She said the last couple of years he was in the Navy, they were stationed in Pascagoula, Miss., which put her in Mobile. She went to the University of South Alabama, where she finished her education degree and became a teacher.
Collier began her teaching career in 1997, teaching middle school. She was in Mobile until 2004, then in January 2005, she moved into the central office as a technology resource teacher and trainer and coach for teachers. She then became the coordinator of instructional technology, where she was responsible for professional development for the Mobile school system until 2010.
Collier left Mobile in August of 2022 and that September joined the Escambia County School System.
"Coming back home to where I grew up and to the community that I lived in and went to school in, I took that as challenge to come and make a contribution to the place that gave me all these opportunities," said Collier.
Collier resides in Mobile currently, where her parents live also.
"After Hurricane Ivan, my parents moved to Mobile, relocating from Brewton to be close to me because I had young children," said Collier. "I do commute daily and weekends as needed. It's not a bad drive."
When asked if she will consider being superintendent for Escambia County Schools, Collier was said she would consider it an honor.
"I will certainly apply to that position," said Collier. "It is an honor for me, honestly. It's not why I came here, I came here to do what I could to be part of the team and help Escambia be the best it can be as a school system. I am honored to take that position as interim. I know that we have a lot of challenges but I think they're totally exciting and the possibility of rebuilding trust in the community and getting our community and our partners involved in helping us achieve the goals that we have for our students is one of my big focuses."
Collier said if she is selected as superintendent, she will be honored to take the position.
"We have a great team here and we are doing wonderful things and we just need to continue that," she said.
