Jefferson County (Alabama) School System: "Jim Crow" not dead

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Citizens for Better Schools in Jefferson County, Alabama

From the Jefferson County Board of Education: Policies and Other Related Information

We are pleased to offer the minutes of the Jefferson County Board of Education Meetings, along with its current Financial Statement for your viewing. Follow the links below to the information you wish to view.

 An informed public is essential to good government and citizens for better schools.
 Meeting Times and Places Financial Reports MinutesContact Board members
 2005-2006 SIR Report
Table of Contents In an effort to organize information for quick retrieval we offer these guides. The information in this document is ordered by sections and numbers. The following will help you get to the section you need. Use you internet browser "find" feature to jump directly to your chosen document. (The find feature is usually found under the "Edit" menu.) Jefcoed Bord Policies: Section 100  ----  Board of Education Section 200  ----  School Administration Section 300  ----  Instruction Section 400  ----  Student Services Department Section 500  ----  Certificated and Other Professional Personnel Section 600  ----  Classified and Other Non-Certified Personnel Section 700  ----  Business and Other Noninstructional Operations Section 800  ----  Community Relations These pages were scanned from another document. The scanning process is good but not perfect. If you find spelling errors or other problems please mail Jefferson County Schools' webmaster with the document number and mistake so it can be corrected. Thanks!  Gresham Middle School/Citizens for Better Schools'  "Break the Silence" Campaign  GOALS and MISSION
To eliminate discrimination in the schools by restoring and expanding support for educational programs serving disadvantaged students, recognizing that it is a false economy to cut programs which work for the poor.
  • To broaden curriculum and teaching practices so that they better meet the needs of diverse student populations based upon the proposition that individual children have differing needs and abilities.  In acquiring common learning, students require varied strategies, attention to different rates of learning, books and material s adapted to their needs.
  • To ensure equity and equality in funding for schools and school districts, linking spending with academic achievement, for the student demographics served.
  • To reaffirm commitments to non-discrimination by race by vigorously pursuing efforts to eliminate education programs and altering harmful school practices which result in students dropping out, becoming “push outs” or staying in the education system but failing to learn.
  • To renew commitment to the ideas embodied in Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Title IX to ensure nondiscriminatory use of public funds in educational programs.
  • To promote changes in special education that will improve services for children with moderate and severe handicaps while developing more regular options.
  • To recognize the usefulness and cost-effectiveness of high quality early childhood education and child care programs as a means of preventing school failure.
  • To respond to the needs of an increasing number of young people whose chances of reaming in school would be increased if they had help with serious personal and social problems. 

To move vocational education programs away from the current narrow focus upon job skills and toward the broader goals of preparing young people for a changing world of work.

SEPERATE and UNEQUAL STUDENT DISCIPLINE and HIRING PRACTICES EXIST IN JEFFERSON COUNTY SCHOOLS - "JIM CROW" NOT DEAD

SEPERATE and UNEQUAL STUDENT DISCIPLINE and HIRING PRACTICES in JEFFERSON COUNTY SCHOOLS -”JIM CROW" NOT DEAD 

Cl ick here for Jefcoed discipline reports by race: http://www.jefcoed.com/
Go to "Board Policies and click on "2005-2006 SIR Report"

To Protect Your Rights - Know Your Rights

Student Issues Regulations:  Transfer Module 56a - Student Issues: Attendance & Instructional Issues 

Break the Silence Gresham:   Over two dozen African American parents from Gresham Middle School attended the March 20 board of education meeting of Jefferson County Schools, staging a “Break the Silence” sit-in protest against racial discrimination at Gresham. In February, Gresham parents engaged assistance from Citizens for Better Schools regarding, among other matters, racially discriminatory treatment of African American students at Gresham.  Parent’s grievances ranged from disparate disciplinary treatment of African American students, especially males, disparate grading and student placement practices, and a racially hostile administrative leadership at the upper-middle class school.  Citizens for Better Schools organized Gresham’s “Break the Silence” protest.   For many Gresham parents, it was their first school board meeting.  But it will not be their last, as they press school officials to change Gresham’s school leadership and rid the school, and the Jefferson County school system, of active racial discrimination, including the vestiges of its dual “Jim Crow” system of schools.   Gresham’s African American parents, with technical support from Citizens from Better Schools, are moving methodically to correct problems at Gresham, which will move into a brand new multi-million dollar complex in August.   

Parents are researching the racial history and efforts to desegregate Jefferson County schools, beginning with the ongoing Jefferson County school desegregation case of Linda Stout v. Jefferson County Board of Education.   We will share the Stout desegregation court order with you next week.  Here is a snippet of civil rights school desegregation history: http://clearinghouse.wustl.edu/chDocs/public/SD-AL-0001-0009.pdf  Teacher Section:  Here is a Yale University lesson plan school administrators, principals, and teachers can use in educating other educators, parents, students, and general public about school desegregation and diversity in public education.  http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1988/1/88.01.03.x.html  

Black and White, Side by side in Jefferson County Schools

   

http://www.jefcoed.comFor Jefco ED student disciplinary reports by race and gender, click on the link provided here, go to Board Policies, and then click on SIR Reports: http://www.jefcoed.com/· Approved 2006-2007 School Calendar http://www.jefcoed.com/ Want a school transfer?  Here's how - Act Now! 2007-2008 Transfer Application here: http://www.jefcoed.com/