The city of Birmingham has committed $1 million to expanding Birmingham Talks, a citywide program promoting early childhood literacy. With the funding, the organization is expected to more than triple its reach from 1,000 to 3,500 students across all 99 neighborhoods over the next three years. Read more.
Since the pandemic began, the aviation industry is down 2 million workers and those who remain are overwhelmingly white. One new charter school in Bessemer hopes to address both issues by preparing diverse students for jobs in aviation. Read more.
As natural disasters and extreme weather become more frequent in the Gulf South, a new report hopes to be a road map to providing more climate-adapted housing. Read more.
UAB has received the single largest gift from an alumnus in its history. J. Frank Barefield Jr., president of Abbey Residential and chairman of Crime Stoppers of Metro Alabama, has given the school $10 million. Of that amount, he committed $5 million to name the UAB J. Frank Barefield Jr. Department of Criminal Justice in the College of Arts and Sciences; and the other $5 million was committed to name the UAB J. Frank Barefield Jr. Entrepreneurship Program in the Collat School of Business, according to a statement from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Read more.
The Birmingham Board of Education on Tuesday approved a $506,988,421 budget that includes pay increases for all employees and establishes a $15 minimum hourly pay rate. The 2023 budget also includes additional pre-kindergarten classes, six new school psychologists and adjustments in the teacher salary schedule to make pay more competitive with surrounding school districts, according to a news release from the board. Read more.
Auburn University has been ranked as the best university in Alabama and tied for 97th best in the National Universities category in U.S. News and World Report’s latest Best Colleges rankings. The magazine's annual rankings were released Monday. Other universities that landed at the top of the list for Alabama included Samford, University of Alabama, UAB, UAH and Birmingham-Southern College. Read more.
Parents’ school safety concerns carry more weight this year after the mass shooting in May at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. School resource officers in Hoover are adjusting by placing a greater emphasis on mental health. Read more.
At the Alabama Aerospace and Aviation High School, students, parents and teachers are excited as they prepare for the school’s take off on Monday. Read more.
More than one-fifth of Alabama’s third graders last spring failed to pass a standardized reading test. In more than 50 schools across the state, 50% or more of the students ended third grade without necessary reading skills needed by that age, according to the test results released recently by the state. Seven of those schools are in the Birmingham City School system. The Tarrant School System as a whole also fell below the halfway mark, and the Fairfield system barely topped 50%. Read more and find schools’ scores.
When the kids are away, the custodial and maintenance staff in schools work all summer long. One custodian told WBHM about what it takes to keep the kids happy and healthy as they trade sunshine for fluorescent lights. Read more.
