Layne Halbrooks Dillard

There is one constant belief across everyone I have ever met, no matter where they are from, we all want what is best for our children.

Growing up in my parents’ Hardware Store in Falkville, I learned the importance of hard work and honesty and that it is our responsibility to take care of others. It was alongside my daddy, beside those railroad tracks, that I discovered time is the best investment I can ever make in the lives of other people – and through listening to their stories and watching the sacrifices that they made – I learned that nothing matters more to anyone than their child.

I took these lessons and I applied them to everything that I have accomplished in my career.

From my start twenty-five years ago at Danville Middle School as an instructional aide, I worked my way to a teacher and then, at 29 years old, became the youngest female principal ever hired in our school district. I know I was young, but there was never a doubt that leading schools was what I was called to do with my life.

Over the past 17 years of leading schools and district programs, I have had the opportunity to lead from pre-k all the way to our Seniors. I have been the principal in elementary schools, a middle school, a Private Christian School, the Alternative School and I also spent time as a district level administrator where I led all of our high schools, directed Safety for the district, led our Counseling programs, and I also partnered with legislators to secure grants that brought the first 10 pre-k classes into our schools.

I left the district level to be the principal at Sparkman, where we transformed a failing school into the 3rd most improved school in Alabama. In 6 short years, we went from an F on the state report card to winning the prestigious CLAS Banner School award, and we were just named a Blue Ribbon School of Excellence. And I will do the exact same thing for our school district. There is absolutely no goal, no achievement, no dream that is too large to reach when we have the right people in the right places and we keep the focus where it has to be – on doing what is right for every child in our buildings.

You deserve a leader that doesn’t just say that your child matters more than anything else – it’s time to elect a leader that has spent 25 years proving that she means those words. A leader who has three children who will all be graduates of Morgan County schools.

I am Layne Dillard, and I want to invite you to join my team. A team of people who want to see a focus back on what matters. Join me as we take back the classrooms and the board room and we listen to parents and our communities and make sure every single school and every child has what they need to be successful.

Because nothing matters more than your child’s future.

Nothing matters more than your child’s safety.

Nothing matters more than your child’s educational opportunities.

Nothing matters more than your child’s needs.

Because Nothing matters more than your child.