Board applauds recognitions, reviews task force findings
To kick off the first Mountain Brook Board of Education meeting for the new year, board members looked to the recognition portion of the meeting on Jan. 14, which included both students and staff.
The elementary schools and junior high recently hosted their spelling bee competition, which included vocabulary this year, and the winners were announced during the meeting. They included: Jack Sullivan, Brookwood Forest Elementary; Mary Jackson Darnall, Cherokee Bend Elementary; Lib Staples, Crestline Elementary; Sally Moore, Mountain Brook Elementary; and Cowan Moorer, Mountain Brook Junior High.
Moore was also named the school district winner, and she will go on to represent Mountain Brook Schools at the county level.
Two outstanding teachers were also named the Teachers of the Year. Tracy Cole, a sixth-grade English teacher at Brookwood Forest, was named the Mountain Brook Schools Elementary Teacher of the Year. Pam Pugh, an English teacher at MBJH, was named MBS Secondary Teacher of the Year.
The Board of Education then introduced the school resource officers, three of whom are new to MBS, and noted the school at which they will be working:
- Josh Glidewell, BWF
- Glen White, CES
- Tommy Tanner, MBE
- Bryan Kelley, CBE
- Scott Hall, MBJH
- Richard Knecht, MBHS
Officers Knecht, Hall and Kelley have previously worked with MBS, and officers Glidewell, White and Hall are new to the school system.
One of the main reports given to the board followed the recognitions and reviewed the findings from a financial task force that was formed in August 2018.
The task force was charged with recommending actions that will secure the financial capability of MBS while ensuring quality education is still provided, said task force representative Gary London. It was created in response to the financial stresses the state and education system have been under since the 2008 recession.
The task force was comprised of 28 individuals who represented a cross-section of Mountain Brook residents and were parents or grandparents of current or former Mountain Brook students. They were split into five committees that met both during and outside of regularly scheduled task force meetings: facilities, special education, secondary, elementary and technology.
London, along with representative Nancy Goedecke, said members of the task force unanimously accepted the findings of the group, which included “that the school board and the school system and the employees of the school system have done a remarkable job at keeping the quality of education high” and that the school board did try to cut costs “to live within new realities,” London said.
The Board of Education accepted the recommendations of the task force, which included that the board should seek additional revenues to sustain the current quality of education; that if revenues provided by the state are increased or decreased, the local revenue should be adjust accordingly; and that the board should establish a committee to study the longtime viability of each school and prioritize what should be repaired or replaced, depending on what makes sense for each school.
Also during the meeting, board members:
- Reviewed the All In Secondary Parenting Conference, which was held for parents of children in grades six through 12 on Jan. 10. Director of Student Services Amanda Hood said this conference had the highest registration, at 209 individuals. Hood said they recorded some of the talks from the conference and will be publishing them in a podcast format for parents who were unable to attend.
- Reviewed the most recent financial statements.
- Approved personnel recommendations.
- Approved the sale or disposal of surplus materials.
- Tabled the suggestion for new digital literacy and computer science curriculum for one month to allow for community input.
- Approved the course recommendations for new academic curriculum including seventh-grade math and accelerated math, calculus III and linear algebra.
The next meeting will be Feb. 11 at 3:30 p.m. at BWF, and Feb. 15 is scheduled as an eSchool Day.
The All In Mountain Brook Pre-Teen Parenting Conference will be Feb. 12 from 5:45 to 7:30 p.m. at CBE, followed by the All In Elementary Parenting Conference (grades k-3) on Feb. 26 from 5:45 to 7:30 p.m. at CBE.