After two decades, two school buildings and countless numbers of students, long-standing Clanton Middle School principal Donny Finlayson will bring his career to a close.

Finlayson will end his 20-year tenure as CMS principal when the final bell rings on April 30, and while he still has more than a month to go, he said he was taking time to reflect on his career.

“I’m finishing up 38 years (in education),” he said. “I’ve enjoyed my career. Last year, a mother asked me, ‘Have you done what you’re supposed to in life?’ I said ‘Yes.’ Dealing with the kids, that’s what I was supposed to do.”

Finlayson graduated from Chilton County High School in 1973 and attended Huntingdon College in Montgomery.

Upon graduating from Huntingdon in 1977, Finlayson returned home to Chilton County, serving as a teacher and coach at Jemison elementary and high schools, and eight years at Chilton County High in the same role.

From there, Finlayson took over as the assistant principal at Adair School for eight years before taking over the reins of the school as principal.

Finlayson said he’s seen a lot in his 38 years, but said the role and importance of parents in a child’s education has remained the same.

“There’s been a lot of change,” he said. “The government is getting more involved. We’ve still got a lot of good mamas and daddies taking care of kids, but I think we have more not taking care than we used to.”

Finlayson said his decision to retire before finishing the year was based on his enrollment in the Deferred Retirement Option Program five years ago, as the program determined that in order for Finlayson to withdraw funds from retirement placed in an escrow account, he must retire by that date.

Finlayson also said that he wanted to make sure he retired while he still had a passion for the students and the job.

“I didn’t want to look forward to retirement because I hated it,” he said. “I still love the kids and parents, but I didn’t want to stay too long.”

There have been more than a few changes for CMS under Finlayson’s tenure—namely the move from the former Adair location to the newer CMS building on Temple Road—but through it all, Finlayson said he tried to maintain a sense of familiarity with students throughout his career.

“I’ve had a lot of people say ‘You taught my mom,'” he said. “I think that helped (with) consistency. They know what to expect. I think people know the rules we have. You try to do what’s best for the kids in the situation. You try to treat them the same, but there are little differences in there.”

Finlayson said one of the things he was looking forward to in retirement was to pick back up an old hobby: Painting.

His work can be found in the library of CMS, and Finlayson said he hoped his passion for painting might lead students who had never given art much thought a chance to explore a new field.

“I wanted people to know that you could enjoy sports but still enjoy the arts,” he said.

While painting figures to take up some of his time, as does umpiring college softball games, Finlayson said he wasn’t sure what he planned to do with the abundance of spare time retirement brings.

“I have been such a detailed, organized person, controlled by bells and time schedules for 38 years,” he said with a laugh. “My plan is to not have any plans at the moment. We’ll see how long that lasts.”