Coalition unites central Alabama school superintendents, community partners

State schools Superintendent Tommy Bice was in Birmingham today to meet with superintendents from across central Alabama and to discuss ways they can work together and with other community partners to improve education in the region.

At least 15 school superintendents from Jefferson, Shelby, Blount, St. Clair and Walker counties were present, including Mountain Brook Superintendent Dickey Barlow.

The meeting was organized by the Bold Goals Coalition for Central Alabama, a group of business, nonprofit, government and education leaders who have joined together to address disparities in education, financial stability and health in the region.

With regard to education, the group aims to increase the overall graduation rate in the five-county area from 89 to 90 percent by 2020.

The group is focusing on three primary areas: making pre-kindergarten services available to more children, boosting third-grade reading test scores and improving the percentage of students who are ready for college and careers when they graduate high school.

Less than one-third of all high school students in Alabama are deemed ready for college or a career, and in some school systems, less than 60 percent of the students graduate on time, according to the Alabama Department of Education. Of those who do go on to two-year and four-year colleges, one-third of them require remediation in reading and math, state department stats show.

The Bold Goals Coalition realizes that there are a lot of businesses, groups and government agencies that want to help improve education, but too many times, they are working independently instead of in a coordinated way for maximum effect, said Drew Langloh, president and CEO of United Way of Central Alabama.

The Bold Goals Coalition wants to change that and has brought together 211 partners under one umbrella to help seek solutions collaboratively and work toward common goals, Langloh said.

The idea is not to start a new program but to better align existing resources with the areas of greatest need, said Bill Jones, a retired executive from O’Neal Industries, who is co-chairman of the coalition’s education committee along with retired Jefferson County Superintendent Phil Hammonds.

The education committee wants to bring education leaders and community partners together to think boldly and creatively to provide better instructional opportunities for children, Hammonds said.

Bice said this is a great model he hopes to see duplicated in other parts of the state. There are many services out there to help children, but sometimes the dots just have to be connected to get the help where it is most needed, he said.

Walter Gonsoulin, superintendent for Fairfield City Schools, said that through help from the Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama, his school district was able to partner with the Bessemer and Midfield districts and get a $100,000 grant to help provide pre-kindergarten services for children in their areas. Today, 112 children are getting a pre-K education they didn’t have before, and that number continues to grow, he said.

More collaboration between the three school districts enabled Fairfield to expand its number of career tech academies from five to nine for this school year, Gonsoulin said.

Hoover schools Superintendent Kathy Murphy said she wonders if her district might be able to collaborate with nearby districts to make better use of the former Berry High School property on Columbiana Road.

The building now houses Hoover’s Crossroads alternative school. The city of Hoover has offered to buy the 35-acre campus from the school system for $9 million, in hopes of building an athletic complex, but Murphy said she and other school system leaders want to first make sure the school district doesn’t need it for educational uses.

Hoover might be able to combine efforts with nearby school districts on alternative school programs, or maybe work jointly with other systems on career tech academies, combining resources and equipment, Murphy said.

Other options include a fine arts center that could serve more than one school district, or additional classes that could be offered by colleges, she said. The University of Alabama at Birmingham already offers some classes at the former Berry High property, she said.

“Obviously, the pleasure of the (school) board will determine what happens with that facility,” but she feels it in incumbent upon her to at least explore various alternatives before making a recommendation to the board.

“Once it’s sold, it’s sold,” she said. “But have we thought about every viable option for utilizing that property? I want to be sure of that … We’ve got to get our homework done.”

In 2007, the city of Vestavia Hills made a joint offer with Shades Mountain Christian School to buy the Berry property for $10 million, but Hoover officials were not sure whether they wanted to sell the property or hold onto it for use by either the school system or city of Hoover. The joint offer expired without action by the Hoover school board.

Efforts to reach the Mountain Brook and Vestavia Hills superintendents for comment about any potential interest in the Berry property were unsuccessful.

Homewood Superintendent Bill Cleveland said he doesn’t know today of any specific interest that Homewood City Schools might have in the old Berry property, but today’s discussion was a good impetus to get school officials thinking creatively.

Cleveland said Homewood is very fortunate to have the Homewood City Schools Foundation that is very active and supportive of his district’s teachers and students. However, he and other superintendents are very appreciative of the support exhibited by the leaders in the Bold Goals Coalition, he said.

“In this time of limited and dwindling state funding, I’m not sure there is any system in this state that doesn’t appreciate an organization like this bringing folks together to help our kids,” Cleveland said. “It’s refreshing. It’s appreciated, and at the same time, it’s inspiring.

“With the way that funding for education is trending, it is going to cause many systems to think creatively in the best interests of our students,” Cleveland said.

For more information about the Bold Goals Coalition for Central Alabama and its education initiative, go to www.boldgoals.org/education.