Whoever wins the nine seats in the heavily contested race for the Birmingham Board of Education on Aug. 22, one thing is certain: the winners will find a big school system facing substantial challenges.

Some of the challenges are well publicized. For instance, 13 of the Birmingham City Schools 43 schools were listed by the Alabama State Department of Education as failing in 2017.  In a city where a third of the residents live below the poverty line, nearly 50 percent of the students do, according to recent Census data.

But as the new school year begins, the elephant in the room may be that the BCS will be working with its ninth superintendent in 21 years. Dr. Lisa Herring begins the school year almost a calendar year since previous Superintendent Dr. Kelley Castlin-Gacutan was fired amid dramatic contentions within the school board, allegations about the misuse of funds and a series of protests over the selection of finalists for the head administrative position.

With all that has gone before, all nine seats on the board are up for grabs, with 31 candidates in the running. The three incumbent board members on the losing side of the 6-3 vote that ousted Castlin-Gacutan – Lyord Watson, Brian Giattina and mayoral candidate Randall Woodfin – are among the five who did not seek reelection.

What the candidates think

BirminghamWatch contacted the candidates vying for the Birmingham Board of Education to ask them questions about the future of the schools. We asked each candidate we could reach the same questions. A few of the candidates could not be reached for comment. Eight of the 32 candidates responded in writing to our short questionnaire. None of the incumbents responded.

Those responding were:  Mary Boehm, from District 3; Amber Courtney from District 4; Buford L. Burks, Martha McDowell, Michael “Mickey” Millsap and Aaisha Muhammad from District 5, and Tyrone Silmon and Sonja Smith from District 8.  Here are their responses.

 

What would you say are the biggest issues facing Birmingham City Schools today?

If elected to the school board, what do you bring to the table that can help solve these issues?

Given the recent series of superintendent changes over a relatively short period of time, how important is it to give the newly appointed superintendent time to achieve her goals? How long a period would you consider long enough for her to prove herself and/or turn long-standing problems around at BCS?

What will board success look like from your perspective? What is the maximum benefit to students in the BCS if the next board succeeds? Or how will you know that the next board will have succeeded?