Mabowitz to serve as interim Sweet Water principal

Phyllis Mabowitz is the new interim principal of Sweet Water High School following a Thursday meeting of the Marengo County Board of Education.

“She is a very, very strong instructional leader and she has had some administrative experience in the past,” Marengo County Schools Superintendent Luke Hallmark said. “She understands the school and how the school works. She has a son still in school there. Everyone feels very confident in what she can do.”

“She has a tremendous work ethic, a real love for children and just a real deep knowledge and understanding of curriculum,” outgoing Sweet Water principal Stan Stokley said of Mabowitz. “My prediction is Sweet Water will be a better school in the coming year.”

Mabowitz spent two years as a third grade teacher at Sweet Water before serving as the school’s instructional coach for the last four years.

“I think leading a school is a huge responsibility both in safety and security, but also in instruction. This is a great school. The strength of this school definitely is the community. Within this school there is quite a community feeling, quite a family feeling. I’m excited, I’m also humbled to be given the responsibility,” Mabowitz said. “I have big shoes to fill in what Stan Stokley has done here in the last 12 years.”

In addition to filling the role of principal, Mabowitz is also well versed in being a parent of a Sweet Water student as her son is a sophomore at SWHS.

“I’m proud to be a faculty member, staff member at Sweet Water, but I am proud to be a parent of a Sweet Water High School student,” she said.

Mabowitz steps into the shoes of long-time principal Stokley, whose resignation from the job he held for 12 years went into effect Friday.

“He worked in our system 17 years. He’s been an outstanding community person, principal and just a good leader,” Hallmark said of Stokley, who left Sweet Water to take the reins of Saraland Elementary School. “He had a vested interest in the school because he had four daughters attend there. Two have graduated and two are still in school. He was very well respected and worked hard. He has put together a great staff. Of course you can tell by the test scores and the personnel that he has put in place, that he has worked hard at improving that school.”

“I’ve been living in Sweet Water for 17 years. I came here as an assistant principal. I’d say it has been 17 of the best years of my life. I’ve raised my family here. The decision to leave was a very difficult one. It is a very emotional time for me and my family,” Stokley said. “Sweet Water has been great. To me the strength of Sweet Water is the faculty, staff, the students and the parents. Certainly this is the best faculty and staff I’ve had in my 12 years. My hope is that it will be even better after I leave. What I’ll remember will be the people and the relationships. This is a special community. They love their school here and they support it. I’ll only be two hours down the road and I can come back and visit hopefully.”

While his tenure at the school has been highlighted largely by five football state championships and numerous semi-final appearances, Stokley made it clear that Sweet Water is about more than just its athletic accomplishments.

“Around the state, when people hear Sweet Water, they think football,” Stokley said. “But if they’ll dig a little deeper, they’ll see our academic programs are strong. Our test scores have been great year after year. I’m very proud of our academic programs.”

Stokley replaces Chris Tangle at Saraland Elementary after the former Demopolis Middle School principal left SES earlier this summer to accept the head job at Thompson High School in Alabaster.