In a special called meeting Friday afternoon, the Russellville City Schools Board of Education voted in favor of hiring Dr. Tim Guinn as the next RCS superintendent. Board member Kim Clonts, District 1, made the motion, and Howard Hillman, Jr., District 4, seconded the motion. Board member Radford Hester, District 4, was not present. 

The board voted in favor of Dr. Jason Goodwin assuming the duties of superintendent during the transition. Ike Rogers, District 3, made the motion, and Clonts seconded. Goodwin currently holds the title of administrative assistant at the central office (referred to as assistant superintendent).  

Guinn worked for RCS previously, serving as assistant superintendent for six years, departing that position in January 2022 to take on the role of superintendent of Satsuma City Schools, effective Feb. 1. The school system is located in Mobile County.

He first came to Russellville in 2022 where he served as assistant principal at RHS from 2002-2009 before moving to the position of principal at RHS. In 2016, Guinn accepted a position at the RCS central office as an administrative assistant, which is the position of assistant superintendent. He served in this capacity until accepting the superintendent’s job at Satsuma.  

Guinn said he’s “excited and ready” to come back home to a city and system he “loves and believes in.”

“I’m looking forward to being back to Russellville City,” Guinn added, “a place I’ve spent two thirds of my entire 33-year career – more than 20 years spent in that one school system, and I’m very proud of its rich tradition and history going back to the 1920s. I look forward to working with the faculty, staff and administration – all wonderful people – and the community, to continue the wonderful things they have done for the past hundred years or so.”  

Guinn was born in Russellville, and he graduated from Vina High School, where his mother was a teacher.  

“Most of the people know me, and I know them. They do an outstanding job, and I look forward to working for them and helping to make our school system even better. It’s a great school system and always has been, but we’re always looking for improvement and, hopefully, I can be a part of that.” 

Guinn said upon his return to RCS, he will be taking some time to get a feel for things. 

“It’s been two years since I’ve been there. This system, much like other large organizations, changes pretty quickly. I’ll spend the first couple of weeks making assessments of the current operating environment and then work with the seasoned administrators and teachers that are there toward what is the best avenue going forward with respect to educational programs and all the varied aspects of that in all four schools.” 

He explained his planned approach to the role of RCS superintendent.  

“I’ll approach it much like I did in Satsuma. I’ll meet with knowledgeable people, discuss what they perceive to be the top three issues of concern and priority and maybe the top three strengths they see, and priorities, and then look for the common threads in those and bring groups of people together, be it central office staff or school staff or principalships across the system, depending upon what asset we’re looking at as far as changes that might take place, and we all become part of the decision making for that.” 

Guinn said he plans to consult others in deciding how to proceed.  

“I’m not a person that makes unilateral decisions. I like involving others. My philosophy is very simple – there’s no one person in a room that’s smarter than all of us. It takes a group, and so that’s the philosophy I used in Satsuma, that’s the philosophy I used when I was principal at Russellville High. I just kept it all these years. It works.”  

He explained his approach to contributing to the RCS “Tradition of Excellence,” noting what that means to him.  

“It is a tradition by which our children, our teachers, our faculty, our staff, our community, when we set out to do anything, we do it to the very best of our ability, ending in an excellent product, be it academic, athletic, service-oriented goals, whatever it might be – we don’t do things halfway. We try to do them to the best of our ability.” 

Guinn is married to his wife of 36 years, Sandy Guinn, who works in the Franklin County Schools system as the technology coordinator/director. His sons, Andrew and Avery, are 25 and 21, respectively.  

“I am genuinely honored and humbled to have the opportunity to lead a school system as great as Russellville City Schools,” Guinn added. “Russellville is a special place, and I am thankful to be coming back to work with people I respect, both personally and professionally. Dr. Grimes has done an excellent job, and I appreciate all of the hard work and dedication he gave to this system during his time here. I am looking forward to picking up the torch and moving our system forward.”  

Trapp, board president, shared similar thoughts.  

“I would like to thank Dr. Grimes for his contribution to the tradition of excellence established at RCS. I wish him well in the future. I am looking forward to working with Dr. Guinn and to the future of RCS.”  

He said the board is looking forward to Guinn returning to the school system, noting “he will do an excellent job upholding our traditions and the excellence we’re known for.”  

“Having someone who is already familiar with our system and how things work is going to be a plus for us and hopefully make this transition a smooth one,” he added. “We look forward to working with him.” 

Trapp said there is currently no timeline for completing Guinn’s transition to superintendent.