School board approves 2021-22 academic calendar, hires architecture firms
The Mountain Brook Board of Education on Monday approved the 2021-22 academic calendar.
School will begin Aug. 10, 2021, and end May 24, 2022. The release date is one day earlier than in the academic calendar proposed at the January school board meeting. Students will return from winter break in 2022 on Jan. 5 rather than Jan. 6. That tweak made the earlier summer release date possible.
The calendar, which can be viewed here, was subject to community review and input between the January and February board meetings.
Also on Monday, the school board approved the hiring of three architecture firms that will play key roles in the school system’s upcoming capital projects.
B Group Architecture, Inc. will provide its services for projects at Mountain Brook High School; TURNERBATSON will provide its services for projects at Mountain Brook Junior High School; and Goodwyn Mills Cawood will provide its services for projects at Mountain Brook’s four elementary schools.
Brasfield & Gorrie General Contractors worked with the school system to select the architecture firms. In December, the school board hired Brasfield & Gorrie to be the construction manager for the capital projects.
Brasfield & Gorrie's Stephen Franklin attended Monday's school board meeting and explained the selection process. He said firms that expressed interest in the projects were evaluated according to five criteria. They included the ability to understand and listen to the school system’s needs; level of creativity and innovation; personnel; history of stewardship with public funds; and compatibility with the team they’ll be working with.
Franklin said the selected architecture firms met those criteria.
The school board on Monday also:
- Recognized Mountain Brook’s spelling bee winners: Brookwood Forest’s Lucy Manary, Cherokee Bend’s Olivia Mahoney, Crestline Elementary’s Ellie Beasley, Mountain Brook Elementary’s Jackson Ramage and Mountain Brook Junior High’s Evie Frohsin, who also won the Jefferson County Spelling Bee.
- Recognized the MBJH eighth-grade girls basketball team, which won its second consecutive Metro title.
- Recognized MBHS senior Bebe Holloway, an honorable mention recipient of the 2020 National Center for Women & Information Technology Award for Aspirations in Computing.
- Recognized MBHS senior Grace Carr, the 2019-20 Gatorade Alabama Volleyball Player of the Year.
- Recognized the MBHS Dorians, who finished eighth in high kick at the National Dance Team Championship.
- Approved the minutes from its last board meeting.
- Approved past financial statements.
- Approved personnel recommendations.
- Approved items as surplus.
- Approved a budget amendment.
The school board will hold its next meeting March 9 at the Professional Learning Center.