Heads of School

Founder and DirectorDr. Barbara Rountree

Dr. Barbara Starnes Rountree is a native Alabamian from Guntersville, Alabama. She has been a certified teacher in Alabama and Tennessee since 1969 and has taught grades K-8 in public schools. She earned her doctorate from Vanderbilt University/Peabody College in Nashville, Tennessee. Dr. Rountree taught in the College of Education at The University of Alabama for 22 years, where she served as co-chair of the Multiple Ability Program. She worked with children in Tuscaloosa County to help found CHOM, the Children's Hands-On Museum, and served as the first Director for 2 years. Dr. Rountree worked as a Consultant with many international schools in Europe and Central and South America. She received the Outstanding Commitment to Teaching Award in 1992 from the University of Alabama Alumni. In 1993, she founded The Capitol School with Margaret Brown Hill and other outstanding faculty who were former public school teachers. It was the culmination of a dream to create a world-class PK-12 school based on educational research and best practices. Dr. Rountree was inducted into the University of Alabama’s Education Hall of Fame in 2018 in recognition of her many contributions and devotion to education in Alabama.

Elementary Director, Founding TeacherMrs. Margaret Hill

Mrs. Margaret L. Hill is the Lead Teacher of the five-seven year old cluster at The Capitol School. She was one of the founding teachers of the school in 1993. She has taught preschool, kindergarten, first-grade, and second-grade age children as well as college courses since beginning her teaching career in 1982. Mrs. Hill has also been the director of a preschool at The University of Alabama and a kindergarten teacher at Brookwood Elementary School in the Tuscaloosa County School System. She was Tuscaloosa County Schools Elementary Teacher of the Year, Phi Delta Kappa Elementary Teacher of the Year, and an AFLA Teacher of the Month. Mrs. Hill served as a mentor in Science Education, working with graduate education students at The University of Alabama. She studied at Bishop Grosseteste College in Lincoln, England and High Wych JMI School in Sawbridgeworth, England. She strives to provide the best possible educational environment while addressing each child's individual needs. Mrs. Hill earned a B.S., M.S. and Educational Specialist degrees in Early Childhood Education and holds a AA level Alabama teaching certificate.

Upper School DirectorDr. Elizabeth McKnight

Dr. McKnight is the director of the Upper School, which includes students in the 6th through 12th grades. She started teaching English classes at Capitol in 2005 and moved into her administrative role in 2018.

Dr. McKnight completed her undergraduate degree in English Literature at Wheaton College (1996), after which she completed a master’s program in Secondary Education-Language Arts at The University of Montevallo (1998). She subsequently pursued and completed a master’s degree in English, with a concentration in Applied Linguistics (2000) and a doctorate in English, with a concentration in Rhetoric and Composition (2009), at The University of Alabama. While completing graduate work at UA, she taught writing and literature courses in the English department there and taught middle school English at Brookwood Middle School (becoming tenured in the Tuscaloosa County system) and at The Capitol School. Since then, Dr. McKnight has taught English, Women’s Studies, and African American Studies courses at the University, as well as middle and high school English at Capitol. She currently has three children enrolled in the Upper School.