Birmingham City Schools

Birmingham Board of Education Approves $313 Million School Budget

The Birmingham Board of Education has approved a $313 million budget that will fund salary increases, security enhancements and maintenance projects. The board voted 8-1 Tuesday in favor of the budget for the fiscal year that beings Oct. 1. Daagye Hendricks, who represents District 4, cast the lone vote against the spending plan. She said she felt there were too many unanswered questions and not enough information. The budget includes several salary increases: a state-mandated 4 percent raise to all BCS staff, including teachers, that the Alabama Legislature approvedin May; step salary increases; a 5% raise for custodians, bus drivers, child-nutrition workers and managers; and a raise from $8.25 an hour to $9 an hour for substitute teachers. Read more.

Woodfin Discusses Plan for Free College Tuition to City Graduates

Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin on Wednesday discussed his plan to offer Birmingham City Schools graduates the chance to go to a public two-year or four-year school in Alabama tuition-free. He tweeted a reminder Tuesday of the program announced in May. Even Presidential hopeful U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders Bernie Sanders took notice. Read more.

Harvard Training Leads to Action Plans for BCS

Birmingham City Schools administrators who participated in Harvard University’s Public Leadership Project presented the school board with actions they’ve implemented as a result of attending the program. In the Aug. 13 board meeting, the team cited the district’s troubled history of superintendent turnover, inconsistent instructional guidelines and poorly defined roles for principals as instructional leaders as the reason 72% of the schools currently score “D” and “F” on the state Educational Report Card. The team identified five strategies for improving schools to a “C” grade or higher by 2023. Read more.

Birmingham School Board Approves Hiring 60 New Teachers Despite Teacher Shortage

With just 15 days before students arrive for their first day of school, the Birmingham Board of Education approved hiring more than 60 teachers. As a result of the approvals, Birmingham City Schools has filled all but 11 of the 150 teacher vacancies that were identified at the end of the 2018-19 school year, school Superintendent Lisa Herring announced during a special called board meeting July 23. Herring said that, in the face of a teacher shortage, successfully filling almost all of the teaching positions was an important moment to acknowledge. “That is extremely significant,” Herring said. “There are teacher shortages across the entire state.” Read more. Read more BirminghamWatch reporting on the teacher shortage: Alabama’s Teacher Shortages Reach ‘Crisis’ Level Behind Teacher Shortage: Fewer New Educators Graduating From Alabama Schools

Birmingham School Officials Say Schools Can Work Around Woodfin’s Proposed Budget Cut

Birmingham City School Superintendent Lisa Herring said Tuesday that, although she’s not sure where BCS will go to make up the $2 million that Mayor Randall Woodfin is proposing to cut from the school’s budget, she’s confident “it doesn’t put the district in a state of distress." Woodfin’s budget proposal would cut the city’s funding for schools from $3.2 million to $1 million, shifting $2 million into a fund for the Birmingham Promise Education Initiative, a public-private apprenticeship and scholarship program. In previous years, BCS has spent the $3 million allocation from the city on community-based and outreach programs through the schools; one-time purchases to meet security needs, such as metal detectors; and on personnel, athletics and academics, Herring said. The city board of education in a letter to the mayor and council expressed support for the Birmingham Promise program but asked that the $2 million cut be reconsidered in the future. Herring echoed that idea in an interview with BirminghamWatch, saying she understood the Birmingham Promise initiative would have a direct impact on students. “We are aware that we are talking about an amount in which, given the overall budget of our organization, there is space for us to have recovery,” Herring said. Several school board members also said they can deal with the cut, though some said they wish they didn’t have to. Read more.

Also Tuesday:

Woodfin Defends Proposed Cut to Education Budget

Woodfin Defends Proposed Cut to Education Budget

Mayor Randall Woodfin defended his plan for Birmingham’s education budget at Tuesday’s City Council meeting, arguing that shifting millions of dollars from city schools to his proposed Birmingham Promise Initiative would allow the city to invest directly in students. Woodfin’s proposed FY 2020 operating budget would cut the city’s funding for Birmingham City Schools from $3.2 million to $1 million. It would place that $2 million into a fund for the Birmingham Promise Education Initiative, a public-private partnership that would provide juniors and seniors in Birmingham city schools with paid apprenticeships as well as dual enrollment opportunities with Lawson State and Jefferson State community colleges. The program also would offer scholarships for city school graduates to attend public colleges and universities in Alabama. Woodfin’s proposed cut to the schools’ budget has gotten mixed reviews. The city board of education in a letter to the mayor and council expressed support for the program but asked that the $2 million cut be reconsidered in the future. Some council members today expressed support for the program and said it would be a benefit to Birmingham’s students; others were wary and said they needed details about the plan before being asked to vote on it. Read more.

Avondale Elementary Climate Frustrates Parents and Teachers

The Birmingham Board of Education has some hiring to do, particularly at one elementary school. Thirty percent of the educators at Avondale Elementary from last year will not be returning. Teachers and parents say the environment at the school was chaotic last year, and they worry about safety and communication. It’s also leading some parents to consider other education options for their children. Morgan Richardson was president of the Avondale PTA, but this year, she says her children will attend private school. She says she is an advocate for public education, but she has concerns about Avondale. Read more.

A Conversation With the Superintendent: Birmingham Schools’ Herring Talks About Facing Competition for Students, Being Accountable and Building Relationships

Birmingham City Schools have a lot of competition for students, as reflected in enrollment decline and in the private, parochial, charter and other alternative schools that serve the Birmingham community. Students in the city have many options, depending on religious affiliation, or ability to pay, or talent, or simply availability and choice. That competition does not go unnoticed and it does have an impact, Dr. Lisa Herring, superintendent of the Birmingham City Schools, said in a recent interview. But she did not grant competition from alternative schools an outsized share of responsibility for enrollment declines in the city schools. She said talking about competition for Birmingham students also means considering other factors important to student success. “We always want to strive to be the very best,” she said. “We know that there’s accountability in that. And I believe that’s important, not just for our students but for our teachers, principals, parents and all. But we just want what’s best for our children. … So, if we talk about competition, we have to talk about care. If we say competition, we have to talk about competency.” Having looked at BCS enrollment over the past 10 years, she said, “There has been slight decline, not extreme, but certainly slight in that there’s some decline each year with one exception … . There was one year when we had an increase.” The increase was in the 2015-2016 school year, when BCS had 24,010 students in K-12, according to the Alabama State Department of Education website, up from 23,963 the year before. Otherwise Birmingham schools have had gradual declines most of the past decade, with the end result of a nearly 5,000 student decrease. In 2008-2009, the school system had 27,218 enrolled in K-12, according to the state department information. In the 2018-2019 school year, it had 22,246. The ALSDE website includes enrollment back to 1995-1996, when BCS had 39,545 students in K-12. Pre-K numbers dropped over the decade, from 2,109 in 2008-2009 to 1,938 in 2018-2019. Pre-K enrollment peaked in 2013-2014 with 2,331 students. Going back to ‘95-‘96, there were 3,192 students in pre-K. Declining enrollment, Herring said, is not all about students leaving for alternatives. “That’s tied to not just having school opportunities and school choice, but also a highly transient community. But to answer your question specifically, it makes us want to stay focused on making our schools a first choice based on offerings, and it’s based on performance.” Read more.

Community Development Group Donates $50K to Washington K-8

Navigate Affordable Housing Partners, a housing and community development nonprofit organization, has donated $50,000 to Washington K-8 School as part of its work in the North Titusville neighborhood. “Any development community effort is only successful it you have schools. Strong schools make for strong communities and strong communities have healthy families,” Lisa McCarroll, CEO of the group, said while presenting the donation during a Birmingham Board of Education board meeting June 11. Read more.

Shooting for the A — Birmingham Schools principal succeeded at one school. Now he’s aiming to redirect another that is facing significant challenges.

As 2020 rolls in, BirminghamWatch looks back at its biggest stories of 2019, highlighting a different one each day. When Dr. Terrell Brown took over as principal at Birmingham City’s Minor Elementary School, the school had a failing “F” grade. By the time he left three years later, Minor had improved to a “C.” Over at W.E. Putnam Middle School, where Brown is now, the goal is to do a repeat. Brown is taking his best practices from Minor and his time at Midfield City Schools and is applying them to his efforts to turn Putnam around from its “F” report card grade and five-time appearance on the AAA failing schools list. Read more. Read the rest of BirminghamWatch’s special report on Birmingham schools:

Making the Grade? How Birmingham City Schools Are Doing Depends on Which Measure You Choose.

An Introduction to Birmingham Schools, From A to F

The Numbers

The History of the Birmingham City Schools

Many Questions About Birmingham City Schools Remain After Three Months of Trying to Understand the State of Education

Questions submitted to the Birmingham City Schools

The History of the Birmingham City Schools

Birmingham Schools’ Superintendent Talks About Facing Competition for Students, Being Accountable and Building Relationships.

Alabama Site for Detained Immigrants Has History of Abuse Charges, Efforts to Close It

First Class in More Than Name Only: Why Alabama’s Preschool Program Is Best in the Country on National Standards