The Birmingham City Council on Tuesday approved an additional $250,000 to a group providing early childhood education services to local children.

City officials say the agreement will allow Small Magic to expand the reach of its flagship program aimed at kindergarten readiness.

“This is really important to help our children be ready to succeed in the classroom because reading always starts at home,” Councilor Crystal Smitherman told reporters following the meeting. “This is another tool for parents to be able to get their children reading at grade level. They’ve been able to serve families in 70 of our 99 neighborhoods, which is really great to see.”

Small Magic, originally called Birmingham Talks, was founded in 2019 by the city of Birmingham, Bloomberg Philanthropies and The Overton Project. The group aims to promote brain development in young children by encouraging the adults around them to speak to them.

The city previously awarded Small Magic $1 million as well as $500,000 from the American Rescue Plan Act.

Since 2019, more than 400 children in Birmingham have taken part in this program, which uses smartwatch technology similar to a Fitbit. These devices count words and translate this data into user-friendly reports. A trained coach then works with the caregiver to increase interactive talk and early literacy.

According to city officials, 92% of children in this program were not hearing enough words daily to prepare them for kindergarten when they started the program.

Council OKs Applying for Grant to Install Cranes at Birminghamport

In other business, the council approved a grant application that would help modernize Birmingport’s capacity to move cargo.

The application is for the U.S. Department of Transportation Maritime Administration’s Port Infrastructure Development Program. If Birmingham is approved, the grant would provide $25 million to construct two cranes to move cargo at the inland port. Watco Alabama Port Services, owner and operator of the Port Birmingham Terminal, would be required to fulfill the grant match criteria under the application.

Recently, the port completed construction of a new 25,000-square-foot warehouse. This initiative was made possible through collaboration among the city of Birmingham, Jefferson County, state of Alabama, Birmingham Jefferson County Port Authority and Watco.

“I remember being briefed on this warehouse and the need for it when I was first elected to the council in 2017,” council President Darrell O’Quinn said. “This modernization also helps us maintain our roadways and other infrastructure assets. As it’s been said, one of these barges can carry dozens and dozens of these steel coils that are critical to automotive manufacturing. That keeps these incredibly heavy loads off our roadways and bridges. We have a crucial role in the secondary and tertiary supply chain in Alabama’s automotive manufacturing and we want to keep building on that.”

Officials applied for the grant in 2024 but the local project was not named as one of the six recipients.

Grant Would Synchronize Traffic Signals Across the City

The council on Tuesday also approved an agreement between the city and the Alabama Department of Transportation to pay for updates to better synchronize traffic signals.

According to O’Quinn, this is an issue that many residents have brought up in recent years. Over time, due to construction, weather incidents and accidents, many of the traffic signals across the city have been knocked offline, leading to out-of-sync intersections.

Tuesday’s vote authorized the city to complete the grant with ALDOT for funding through the Federal Carbon Reduction Program for $1.8 million with $450,000 in matching funds from the city.

“At some point we had connectivity to over 700 traffic signals in the city, so officials were able to adjust them remotely. But over the years, various issues have reduced that number. Today’s vote is an effort to restore that connectivity with federal grant funding,” O’Quinn said.