Will you tell me about W.E.Putnam Middle? How would you describe the students/teachers/parents? What is the student/teacher ratio at Putnam Middle? Is that where you/BCS want it to be? What have the successes and challenges been for Putnam Middle? How do those compare to challenges at other BCS middle schools? What
The state report card assigns a letter grade to each school, each school system and the state itself. In the report card for the BCS, five schools have grades of “F,” meaning their average score is 59 or less on the assessments done by ALSDE. By that same criteria, 26 score “D” (60-69), 7 score “C” (70-79), 4 score “B” (80-89), and 1 scores “A” (90 and above).
Security in Birmingham City Schools will be getting a boost this fall, after the Birmingham City Council voted Tuesday to allocate $3,665,000 in funding to the city Board of Education. According to the agreement, which was passed unanimously, that funding will be divided among school security, academic and athletic support, and after-school care and summer enrichment programs. Of that $3,665,000 — which comes from the city’s general fund — $1,362,000 will go toward the purchase of 14 walk-through metal detectors, 20 handheld scanners, door alarms, security officers, and crossing guards and substitutes. Read more.
High schoolers from five Birmingham City Schools arrived at Temple Emanu-el on Thursday to present artwork that interpreted their studies of the Holocaust. The event, the culmination of a six-week program of art and social studies launched by Violins of Hope, included a day of seminars, guest speakers and a musical concert played on violins once played by Jewish musicians during the Holocaust. Violins of Hope is a national organization founded by Amnon Weinstein. Weinstein, a renowned violin maker, began restoring violins that Jewish musicians were forced to play while captive in the Nazi concentration camps. Amid death and despair, the song of those violins was often the last thing Jewish victims heard before they were killed in the gas chambers. Weinstein, decided to seek out and restore those instruments as a way to honor those who died. The violins were in Birmingham for a series of events last week, including the session with the Birmingham students at Temple Emanu-el. “This is such a deep topic for me, being African American, and for other groups going through struggles every day, so I knew there was a lot that I could work with,” one Huffman High School student said. Read more.
