SPANISH FORT, Ala. — John Cummings spent years working as a painting contractor before deciding the time had come to stop asking “What if?”

“I’d thought about it for a while, but the day just came when I said to myself, ‘I need to go ahead and try teaching for a while,’” said Cummings, who joined Spanish Fort Middle School in August as a special-education teacher after holding a similar position on a long-term, substitute basis last year.

Cummings, who has been teaching for 11 years, earned his bachelor's degree in special education—with a focus on elementary education and learning disabilities—from the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh and a master’s degree in collaborative teaching from the University of South Alabama.

Editor’s Note: This is the seventh in an ongoing series designed to introduce readers to some new faces in the Spanish Fort feeder pattern.

See the rest of this story in the Sept. 22 Spanish Fort Sun—on stands through Sept. 23—and available at the Daphne Bulletin-Spanish Fort Sun office, 1805 Main St., Daphne.