BIRMINGHAM SCHOOL CLOSING WATCH: MORE SECRET MEETINGS

Welcome to Citizens for Better Schools WHAT'S NEW: Ala Ed Budget Crisis - State Takes Fed Stimulus Funds Then Cuts State Funding REGISTRATION NOW OPEN: Brown Past 50 SympoSIUM and Education Workshops SCHOOL TAKEOVER CORNER: BIRMINGHAM * DETROIT * SAINT LOUIS School Size and Grade Structure Contact Citizens for Better Schools Education Statistics & Thumbnail Facts: School size not saving Detroit schools form chopping blocks - Economies of scale B'ham Superintendent Search: Edgecombe County - Birmingham City Schools NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND REAUTHORIZATION UPDATE PAGE - NOW OPEN BIRMINGHAM SCHOOL CLOSING WATCH: MORE SECRET MEETINGS 2007-2008 BIRMINGHAM SCHOOL CLOSINGS (HERE WE GO AGAIN - "DOWN SIZING, RIGHT SIZING, or CAPSIZING" ) Alabama School Districts Without One Month Reserve Fund More Busing in Birmingham With School Consolidations ALA'S #1 PROBLEM: TEACHER SEXUAL MISCONDUCT Blog Ala's Biggest Problem - Teacher Sexual Misconduct BIG SPENDERS - MOST COSTLY SCHOOLS NOT SMALL SCHOOLS The late Henry Sparks made Birmingham the financial envy of the state's education system Education Finance, Economics, & Budget Monitoring Despite Free Space in SomeSchools, Many Packed Classrooms(How are Birmingham Classrooms?) Class Size Comparison Changes For Parents - The Classroom Effects of Closing & Consolidating Schools COMING SOON: ** THE CHOICE: SCHOOL ZONING, BIG SCHOOLS - SMALL SCHOOLS (WHICH EDUCATES THE POOR BEST?) CLASS SIZE REDUCTION Education Research on School Size: School Climate and Academic Achievement Evidence Based Consequences of Increased School Size Curriculum and Instruction BIRMINGHAM CITY SCHOOLS DECLINE: THEFT IN SCHOLS - INTERNAL CONTROLS LACKING Worhtless BOE Guidelines and Frame Work For Superintendent Stan Mims, Lay Citizen Advisory Task Force (BOE Policy 6170) Sabotaged In Education: Big Is Not Better - Research Finds Small Schools Better for Poor and Black Students Links About Birmingham City Schools The Good Common School Journal Thumbnail Facts: Birmingham Enrollment/ Teacher Loss Not Cause of $22 Million Bham BOE Losses Anniston Citizens for Better Schools FAIRFIELD CITIZENS FOR BETTER SCHOOLS Jefferson County (Alabama) School System: Sylacauga Citizens for Better Schools Citizens For Better Schools: Education Management and Leadership Special, Exceptional, and Gifted and Talented Education GOLD FACULTY - BROWN PAST 50 WORKSHOP: BEYOND NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND - FULFILLING THE PROMISE OF BROWN Contact Your School, State, and Federal Representation Here! Favorite Links: Legal Resources - College Funding Opportunity ALL SPORTS Birmingham - ALL THE TIME GENDER EQUITY: Public Schools, Segregated Schools? Phillips Academy - Crisis in Student School Bus Transportation WE ARE "HOKIES" TOO! Topic Index: BREAKING SCHOOL CLOSING NEWS ** Citizens for Better Schools Guest Book

NEW SCHOOL BOARD CONTEMPLATE SCHOOL CLOSINGS

2010 Birmingham School Closings:

Another round of Birmingham school closings gears up this evening as the "new" Birmingham school board discuss closing more Birmingham schools. Past school closings have claimed to "save money."

Since 2003 Birmingham has closed more than a dozen schools but remain in financial distress. Decline in student enrollment does not account for the annual deficits Birmingham schools continue to roll up. Even state budget cuts do not explain Birmingham's budget deficits. State cuts in "teacher units" do not equal the budget deficits City schools now run up - While not firmly decided, historic Tuggle Middle school, located in a neglected neighborhood, may be saved from the wrecking ball and become a new K-8 elementary school. Plans to scrap Tuggle and merge it with Hill Elementary School on a new site seems ended, as of last night.

Birmingham has rushed head over heals the past two years to abolish middle schools for K-8 grade configurations, creating mega-sized elementary schools, thinking eroniously that the district will save money - Birmingham construction contractors love big schools. Simply, they make more money and leave us with huge operating costs in a money scrapped school district, never thinking a bout academic achievement?

"There's more development in the brain and body during ages 10 to 15 than at any time, except birth through age 3" From the Baltimore Sun 1/16/07

JOHNS HOPKINS STUDY RAISES DOUNTS ON K-8 SCHOOLS (ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE QUESTIONED)

JHU research finds no academic benefit over middle schools, undercuts city's push”

"Currently, there is no research that says what should be the most effective grade configuration" John Hopskins University Research Finds: http://www.kdp.org/teachingresources/pdf/McIver_K8research.pdf

Johns Hopkins research did not look just at test scores from one grade at a middle school compared with the same grade at a K-8 school, as most school systems do. The research went deeper, investigating how good a job middle schools did in educating the students over three years. The researchers looked at the growth students achieved in their three middle school-years. http://www.kdp.org/teachingresources/pdf/McIver_K8research.pdf

LESSONS FROM RURAL SCHOOLS - URBAN SCHOOLS CAN LEARN FROM: http://www.ericdigests.org/2003-2/rural.html

BOE MEET IN COMMITTEE LAST NIGHT, FEBRUARY 2, 2010 AT 5:30PM, Birmingham school board panel to discuss closing 4 schools and building 2 new ones By Marie Leech -- The Birmingham News February 02, 2010, 11:37AM

BACKGROUND: STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT, MIMS WITHOLDING PUBLIC DOCUMENTS ON SCHOOL CLOSING DATA ** CLOSED DOOR SERIAL MEETING OF SCHOOL BOARD MEMBERS WITH SUPEINTENDENT FORGES REDUCTION IN FORCE (RIF) PLAN ** Pouncey Nurses MIMS’ CLOSING LIST AT SCOOL BOARD MEETING : - Pouncey - Mims Strikes Deal On School Closings; Board Accepted Without Analysis, Public Hearing, Public Left in Dark, Authentic Public Engagement Shafted

Not Enough Public in Public Schools (Birmingham News Editorial)
http://www.al.com/birminghamnews/stories/index.ssf?/base/opinion/118336439722530.xml&coll In January, 2007 Alabama State Department of Education chief finance officer Craig Pouncey and Stan Mims sealed their “FAUSTIAN DEAL” to close Birmingham schools - in a closed door meeting in the office of the school district's attorneys to trim Birmingham City Schools by $18 million in expenses. In yet another closed door meeting, Birmingham school board members continued its pattern, practice, custom, and usage of meeting behind closed doors to conduct the public’s business. Over the years, Birmingham’s boards of education have lost Alabama Supreme Court cases involving withholding public information and violating Alabama’s old “Sun Shine Law” (replaced in 2005 by the “Open Meetings Act”). TO PROTECT YOUR RIGHTS - KNOW YOUR RIGHTS!Read Alabama's attorney general’s “Open Meetings Manual” http://www.ag.state.al.us/documents/open meeging.pdfAnd HERE'S A "HOW TO" power point presentation you can study to better understand Alabama's "Open Meetings" law: http://www.ago.state.al.us/seminar/sunshine_law_training.ppt. Remember, Alabama's State Motto is – “Audemus Jura Nostra Defendere”(We Dare Defend Our Rights!)Citizens for Better Schools has sent demand letters to both state school superintendent Joe Morton and Birmingham Superintendent Stan Mims further seeking disclosure of public information. We are doing everything reasonably possible to avoid costly litigation with the Alabama State Department of Education and the Birmingham Board of Education. On July 24, 2007 legal counsel for Mims (Birmingham superintendent) entered a legal settlement with CFBS in our public records lawsuit in Bessemer, Alabama Circuit Court (Jackson v. Mims). Mims will hand over all of the information originally requested of the district by Citizens for Better Schools last year. It is shameful that the public's school district has to pay legal fees and costs to produce public records due to be timely disclosed upon public request by public school officials such as Drs. Mims and Morton.

Is Birmingham's school district in a death spiral? Read the Birmingham New's report "Which way Forward" at http://blog.al.com/bn/2007/03/which_way_forward.html ** Does Mims have a plan to halt student exodus from city schools? Will the county's school system ultimately take over from Birmingham?

Pouncey - Mims Strikes Deal On Closings? The Alabama State Department of Education's (ALSDE) Craig Pouncey imposed a school closing plan on Stan Mims and Birmingham's school board. Authentic Public engagement was shafted. Where is the school Board's 6107 Policy Committee "recommendations," as required by the Birmingham Board of Education Policy Manual on school closings, mergers, consolidation, or other use of schools - Public Trust Was Abolished by these "secret deals?""Deal or No Deal?" Word out of Montgomery is Craig Pouncey and Stan Mims have struck a deal, an "agreement on a "plan" to trim Birmingham City Schools' rising $18 million budget deficit, by cutting $21-22 million in expenses. Citizens for Better Schools has been unable to report the details of the Pouncey-Mims deal due to their failure to disclose requested public documents. We continue our efforts to report details of this "deal, as soon as Citizens for Better Schools disgorges public documents from school officials (Documents such as personnel and operating costs data assumptions; reviews of past results of "fascicle recovery plans" for Birmingham City Schools."