Ms. Blackwood has been in education for 32 years, 26 of those years with Gadsden City School System. She holds a B.S. in Elementary Education/Emotional Conflict from Jacksonville State University, M.A. in Learning Disabilities, A. in Administration and an Ed.S in Educational Administration from the University of Alabama.
Ms. Blackwood has served seven years as a special education teacher at Oscar Adams Elementary School. She served nine years as an Elementary principal, one year at Jessie Dean Smith Elementary and eight years at Oscar Adams Elementary. During her tenure at Oscar Adams Elementary several exciting honors and achievements were recognized: Adams became a Magnet School for Math and Science 1994-1997, 1996-1997 Adams received the honor of becoming a Title I Distinguished School, and in 2000-2001 Adams became a Light Span Model School.
From 2003-2009 she served as the Title I Coordinator, 2009-2012 she served as the Title I/ Elementary Coordinator. Currently she is the Director of Title I where she oversees all federal and state funding for Title I, Title III- EL, Title X- McKinney-Vento Homeless, state EL, nurses, private school, and parent involvement. She also oversees the following pre-k-4 grant sites: Office of School Readiness (OSR) at Donehoo Elementary, and a new OSR Pre-K4 class at Gadsden Family Literacy Center 2013-2014, and five Headstart Pre-K4 classes housed in Title I Elementary schools.
