2005 august/september alabama school boards magazine

Official Publication of the Alabama Association of School Boards

AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2005

Mobile County PartnersWork to Prevent Crime,

Help Families

To Have or To Have Not: What Really Belongs in Personnel Files?

MAC Program ExpansionIncreases Medicaid

Reimbursements

Mobile County PartnersWork to Prevent Crime,

Help Families

To Have or To Have Not: What Really Belongs in Personnel Files?

MAC Program ExpansionIncreases Medicaid

Reimbursements

U.S. Secretary of Education Lauds Alabama Reading Initiative

When it Comes to Education, Mediocrity is Not Acceptable

U.S. Secretary of Education Lauds Alabama Reading Initiative

When it Comes to Education, Mediocrity is Not Acceptable

Alabama School Boards • August/September 2005 3

IN THIS ISSUECOVER STORY

Slow & Steady: Southside Primary Changes Net Huge Improvement . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Sometimes change comes in one of those “eureka!” moments, a flash of insight thatmakes clear the path you should take. And sometimes it doesn’t. Take DallasCounty’s Southside Primary School. Once home to hundreds of students from mili-tary families stationed at the nearby air force base, its population underwent a dra-matic shift after the federal government closed the base in 1977.

Southside’s Secret: Teamwork, Tears and Focus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Could This Happen to You? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

U.S. Secretary of Education Lauds Alabama Reading Initiative . . . 20

When it Comes to Education, Mediocrity is Not Acceptable . . . . . 22

FEATURES

Mobile County Partners Work to Prevent Crime, Help Families . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

MAC Program Expansion to Increase Medicaid Reimbursements . 11

To Have or To Have Not: What Really Belongs in Personnel Files? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

New Staffers Join AASB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

DEPARTMENTS

Alabama Education News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Education & the Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

At the Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Potpourri . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

PUBLICATION POLICYAlabama School Boards is published by the Alabama Association of School Boards as aservice to its member school boards. The articles published in each issue represent the ideasor beliefs of the writers and are not necessarily the views of the Alabama Association ofSchool Boards. Subscriptions sent to members of school boards are included in member-ship dues, and complimentary copies are sent to public school principals throughout thestate. Additional subscriptions can be obtained by contacting AASB. Entered as third-classmail at Montgomery, AL. Permit No. 34.

Alabama School Boards is designed by J. Durham Design, L.L.C., Montgomery, AL.

Address all editorial and advertising inquiries to: Alabama School Boards, Editor, P.O. Drawer 230488, Montgomery, AL 36123-0488. Phone: 334/277-9700.

OFFICERSTommy McDaniel . . . . . . . . PresidentCherokee CountyJim Methvin . . . . . . . . .President-ElectAlabama School of Fine ArtsSue Helms . . . . . . . . . . . Vice PresidentMadison CityLinda Steed . . . . . . . . . . Past PresidentPike County

STAFFSandra Sims-deGraffenried, Ed.D.Executive DirectorSally Brewer Howell, J.D.Assistant Executive DirectorDenise L. BerkhalterDirector of Public RelationsEditor, Alabama School BoardsSusan Rountree SalterDirector of Membership ServicesLissa Astilla TuckerDirector of Governmental RelationsDebora HendricksAdministrative AssistantDonna NorrisAdministrative AssistantKay ShawBookkeeperLashana SummerlinReceptionistTammy WrightExecutive AssistantJanelle ZeiglerClerical Assistant

BOARD OF DIRECTORSPatsy Black . . . . . . . . . . . . . . District 1Monroe CountyJames Ware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . District 2SelmaJeff Bailey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . District 3Covington CountyFlorence Bellamy . . . . . . . . . District 4Phenix CityJennifer Parsons . . . . . . . . . . District 5Jefferson CountyLeon Garrett . . . . . . . . . . . . . District 6PiedmontSusan Harris . . . . . . . . . . . . . District 7Winfield Dr. Charles Elliott . . . . . . . . . District 8DecaturLaura Casey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . District 9AlbertvilleSandra Ray . . . . . . . . . . . . State BoardTuscaloosaRobert A. Lane.. NSBA Board of DirectorsLowndes County

August-September

2005Vol. 26, No. 4

4 Alabama School Boards • August/September 2005

Teacher-to-Teacher CorpsRecruits Trainers

The U.S. Department of Education isforming a cadre of Teacher-to-TeacherTraining Corps teachers and practitionersto provide on-site technical assistance andregional workshops for teachers and schoolsystems over the next 12 months.

Teachers and school leaders who areusing scientifically based research strategiesand have data to demonstrate effectivenessare being recruited as trainers. Selectedteacher trainers are expected to share theirexperience with implementing research-based practices in classrooms and schools.

The corps connects other educators withexpert teachers and administrators whodemonstrate ways to improve academic per-

formance through increased content knowl-edge and improved teaching skill.

The goal of these sessions is to enhanceschool level professional developmentefforts by giving trainees ready-to-usestrategies and an understanding of why andwhen those strategies are effective.

The U.S. Department of Education willprovide travel and accommodations andwill give selected trainers a $1,000 hono-rarium for planning, preparation and par-ticipation for each training event. Trainersdetermine their level of participation inworkshops scheduled around the countryduring 2005 and 2006. In addition, corpsmembers will be eligible to participate inthe sessions and will be eligible to makepresentations at the department’s summerworkshops in 2006.

Educators can apply for the Teacher-to-Teacher Training Corps by submitting acomplete proposal, which includes a Pow-erPoint presentation and handouts by Oct.10. For more information, visit www.ed.gov/teachers/how/tools/initiative/about/information.html online, send e-mail [email protected] or call 888/831-1338.

Spirit of CommunityAwards Seeks Alabama’sTop Youth Volunteers

The search is underway for Alabama’stop student volunteers of 2006. The 11thannual Prudential Spirit of CommunityAwards honor middle and high school stu-

AlabamaEducationNews

The first Alabama school to win the National SchoolChange Award was recognized in an Alabama Reading Ini-tiative promotional video during the 2005 Governor’s Read-ing Summit Sept. 15 in Birmingham.

A model of schools making exemplary achievement, WestJasper Elementary School is the first school in Alabama towin the 2005 National School Change Award, an honor co-sponsored by the American Association of School Adminis-trators, Pearson Education, and Fordham University.

Nominated by the state Department of Education, WestJasper received the award in May for boosting its “C-minus”earned in 1999-2000 on the state report card to an “A” forthe past two years. The award, which included a $5,000grant, also provided National Principals Leadership Institutetraining for Smith at Fordham University.

State Superintendent of Education Dr. Joe Morton visitedthe school shortly after the award was presented to con-gratulate the teachers, students and the principal, EricSmith, Jasper City Schools Superintendent Philip Woods andJean Lollar, director of elementary and federal programs forthe school system.

West Jasper Elementary also saw an impressive jump inits fourth-grade reading test scores. In 2003-04, 73 per-cent of students in fourth-grade at West Jasper read ongrade level, while only 49 percent did so in 1999-2000.

The school serves a low-income area, and 86 percent of itsstudents eat free or pay a reduced price for schoollunches. It also earned the national “Dispelling the Myth”award last fall.

Also recognized at the Governor’s Reading Summit wasCalcedeaver Elementary School, the only school on theDIBELS honor roll with a majority of its students receivingfree or reduced price lunches. Calcedeaver was also recog-nized by the national Reading First Conference.

On Sept. 9, Alabama State Superintendent of Education Dr. Joe Mor-ton (right), visited Sherry Williams’ class at West Jasper ElementarySchool, which has garnered national attention for improved studentachievement.

West Jasper Elementary Wins National School Change Award


dents in grades 5-12 who exemplify com-munity spirit for outstanding acts of vol-unteerism.

Since its inception, the Prudential Spiritof Community Awards, sponsored nation-wide by Prudential Financial in partnershipwith the National Association of Sec-ondary School Principals, has honorednearly 1,000 young Alabamians who havemade the greatest commitment and impactin their communities.

In 2005, Huntsville’s Samuel Robinson,Alabama’s top middle school volunteer,was also named one of 10 National Hon-orees. His project “Pocket Change forPeds” was a fund-raising drive to benefitpediatric patients at Huntsville Hospital.Alabama’s top high school volunteer in2005, Phenix City’s Victor Cross, con-ducted research into the effects of alcoholon spiders and used his findings in a cam-paign to warn teens about the dangers ofdrinking and driving.

In February 2006, Alabama’s top two vol-unteer candidates — one middle school andone high school student — will be namedstate honorees and will receive a $1,000award, an engraved silver medallion and anall-expenses-paid trip to Washington, D.C.,with a parent or guardian for four days ofrecognition events, May 6-9, 2006. Staterunners-up receive bronze medallions. Fromthe state honorees, 10 will be namednational honorees and will receive addi-

tional awards of $5,000, gold medallions,crystal trophies for their schools or organi-zations, and $5,000 grants from the Pruden-tial Foundation for nonprofit charitableorganizations of their choice.

Students must submit completed appli-cations by Oct. 31. The application is avail-able online at www.prudential.com/spiritor www.principals.org/prudential or bycalling 888/50-9961.

Decatur Project AssistsFamilies Through Community Partnerships

The Decatur school board is focusing onfamilies with the Family Assistance ThroughCommunity Ties (FACT) pilot programapproved for the 2005-06 school year anddesigned to assist West Decatur Elementarystudents whose families face crises.

According to a Decatur Daily newsreport, school board President Dr. CharlesElliott said social workers assess students’emotional, physical and social needs withservices offered through partnering commu-nity and nonprofit agencies. The projectpartners are Parents and Children Togetherand the Mental Health Center of NorthAlabama.

While the FACT program, whichincludes the work of a project coordinatorand a therapist, addresses social and family

issues, teachers and school leaders cankeep the spotlight on academics, Elliottsaid. Since the program’s inception inAugust 2005, it has assisted 15 familiesand has handled 44 referrals.

Linda Batts, program coordinator, saidthe program is “working great and is off toa better start than we imagined.” Batts hadjust wrapped up a Hispanic ResourceWorkshop for parents when she describedthe most common need the FACT programhas tackled thus far.

“These parents just need support,” Battssaid. “They want somebody to talk to andguide them and to give them informationabout where to go and how to handle situ-ations. Just knowing they can come hereand get information about almost anythingthey have concerns and problems with hasbeen a great help.”

West Decatur Elementary was selectedas the pilot site for the $60,000 grant-funded project because of the poverty levelamong its student body. About 94 percentof the school’s students qualify for free orreduced-price meals. s

Birmingham Area Commuters‘SchoolPool’ to Save Money

Snarled traffic, congested roadways and costly gas threaten to make the morn-ing commute to school a nightmare. While Birmingham principals encourageparents to put their children on school buses as a safer option, busing may notalways be a feasible or available choice for parents.

The Regional Planning Commission of Greater Birmingham has developed aprogram, which attempts to address that problem. SchoolPool, managedthrough the CommuteSmart Web site, uses home and school locations to matchcommuting schoolchildren whose parents are interested in carpooling withpotential rides near their neighborhoods.

The commission expects the formal ride-matching program to be particularly use-ful for school systems without buses, such as the Vestavia Hills and Mountain Brooksystems in Jefferson County. There is no charge for the voluntary program whichrequires online registration before a list of potential ride-matches can be accessed.

To learn more, call Commuter Services at 800/826-Ride or visit www.commutesmarter.org.

Q Does the board needthe superintendent’s

recommendation to namea school?

ANo. Because state lawdoes not require the super-

intendent’s recommendation innaming a school, the schoolboard may do so without such arecommendation, according toAlabama’s Attorney General. Inan opinion released in 2004, theAttorney General reasoned thatthe broad authority given toschool boards under state lawand the fact that the board is thegoverning body for the schoolsystem are sufficient authority forthe board to name a schoolwithout a recommendation bythe superintendent.

— Susan Rountree Salter

HELP!


E very school boardmember by nowknows that Ala-

bama’s new Open Meet-ings Act (OMA) takeseffect on Oct. 1. This arti-cle suggests steps schoolboards may want to con-

sider in order to comply with the OMA anddocument that compliance.

The OMA is a complete revision ofAlabama’s outdated Sunshine Act, whichallowed executive sessions only to discussthe good name and character of a personor for a board to meet with its attorneyabout a matter in litigation or likely to bein litigation. The OMA responds to thewell-recognized need to have executivesessions in other circumstances andallows them for nine specific reasons, aswell as those “otherwise expressly pro-vided by other federal or state statutes.”However, the OMA also imposes manynew procedures intended to safeguard thestate’s fundamental policy that “the delib-erative process of governmental bodiesshall be open to the public during meet-ings.”

Here is a summary of the new provi-sions:

s Notice must be given for all meetings“as soon as practicable,” but at leastseven days, 24 hours, or 1 hour inadvance, depending on the circum-stances.

s Members of the public are entitled toreceive direct notice of meetings, uponrequest. Notice also must be posted ona bulletin board in the central adminis-trative office.

s If a preliminary agenda exists, it mustbe made available in the same mannerthat notice is given.

s Meetings of board committees andsubcommittees are covered by theOMA, in addition to board meetings.

s Under some circumstances, a quorumcan include persons who are appointedor elected to the board but have not yettaken office.

s Meetings may be “openly” recorded orvideotaped by the public.

s Meetings generally must be conductedaccording to the board’s “adopted rulesof parliamentary procedure.”

s Minutes must be maintained and madepublic “as soon as practicable afterapproval.”

s Board members cannot use electroniccommunications to avoid having ameeting, or otherwise to circumventthe OMA.

s Voting by secret ballots is not allowed.

s Board members must vote on a motionto go into executive session, and eachmember’s vote must be recorded in theminutes.

s Four exceptions require a complianceopinion before a board votes to go intoexecutive session. For example, beforethe board can meet in executive sessionwith its attorney, the attorney mustgive an opinion that the purpose of theexecutive session is consistent with theattorney-client exception.

s Board members who act consistent withthe OMA are immune from liability forstatements made during the meeting.

s Board members could be assessedfinancial penalty for voting to conductand participating in an illegal executivesession.

As noted above, the OMA provides anew immunity for board members — butonly if they meet in compliance with theOMA, after giving proper notice, etc. Inaddition, if a civil action to enforce theOMA is brought against board members,their ability to defend themselves maydepend on how thoroughly the board doc-umented, at the time it met, its full com-pliance with the OMA.

So, what should boards do? Let’s startwith notice. Boards must post notice ofevery meeting on a bulletin board in thecentral administrative office and mustprovide notice of meetings (and prelimi-

&Education theLaw

New Sunshine Law Changes Rules for Meetings

By Dorman Walker, Attorney, Balch & Bingham

Walker

Of the nine enumeratedreasons for executive session in the OMA, four explicitly require thata compliance opinion(certification) be enteredin the minutes. Boardsalso should documentcompliance with theother exceptions, eventhough not required bythe OMA.


nary agenda, if available) directly to peo-ple who have registered to receive directnotice. Boards must determine how theywill provide direct notice — e-mail seemsthe most logical choice — and make rulestelling members of the public how to reg-ister, how frequently they must re-registeror reconfirm their e-mail address (forexample), and assess a cost, if any, forproviding direct notice. Assuming theboard provides direct notice by e-mail, itshould maintain a copy of the e-mail,showing all people to whom it was sentand the time and date it was sent, andattach the e-mail to the minutes of themeeting. The minutes also should recordwhen the notice was posted on the bulletinboard, and, if a preliminary agenda isavailable, the message sending it, and thetime of its posting also should be madepart of the minutes.

Boards also must adopt rules of parlia-mentary procedure and must act in accor-dance with those rules, unless a federal orstate law requires a different procedure.Boards should identify in their minutesand policy manual the rules they haveadopted.

Members of the public — and thisincludes media — may openly photo-graph, record or videotape board meet-ings, but only so long as they do not dis-rupt the meeting. Boards may want toadopt rules to prevent disruptions such asestablishing a certain area of the boardroom where people making recordings areout of the way and still can see and hearwhat is going on.

Minutes must be “made available to thepublic as soon as practicable afterapproval.” This seemingly innocuous pro-vision could, if violated, result in anOMA violation.

Because voting by secret ballots is notallowed, boards should consider record-ing how each board member votes byname, rather than stating the vote totals(e.g., “the vote was 3 to 2 in favor”), as away of documenting that no secret ballotwas used.

Of the nine enumerated reasons forexecutive session in the OMA, fourexplicitly require that a compliance opin-ion (certification) be entered in the min-

utes. Boards also should document com-pliance with the other exceptions, eventhough not required by the OMA. Forexample, one exception allows a board togo into executive session for disciplinaryreasons when expressly allowed by fed-eral or state law, and the OMA generallyprovides that boards can go into executivesession “as otherwise expressly providedby other federal or state statutes.” Anytime a board goes into executive sessionbased on one of these provisions, it shouldindicate in the minutes the exact federalor state law that it is relying on and shouldconsider having its attorney give an opin-ion that the executive session will complywith that law.

Although unlikely, the board — if itused the security exception for an execu-tive session to discuss plans that involvedcritical infrastructure now owned by theboard — the board should attach a copyof the notice regarding the executive ses-sion to the owner of the critical infrastruc-ture to its minutes and document when and how it was delivered to the owner/operator (usually a utility) of the criticalinfrastructure.

Particularly important is the exceptionthat allows an executive session to discussreal estate transactions. This exceptiondoes not apply if a board member who hasa personal interest in the transaction par-ticipates in the executive session or if acondemnation action has been filed.

Before voting on a motion to go into exec-utive session, board members should beindividually asked if they have a personalinterest in the transaction, and theirresponses should be included in the min-utes. Similarly, the board’s attorney oragent in the transaction should disclosefor the minutes that no condemnationaction has been filed.

Mentioned earlier was the possibility ofa civil action against board members forviolation of the OMA. Board membersmay be sued for:

s Disregarding notice requirements;

s Violating the act in open meetings(such as voting by secret ballot, failingto follow adopted procedural rules andnot allowing someone to record ameeting);

s Discussing in executive session mat-ters beyond the scope of the excep-tion(s) for which the executive sessionwas convened; or

s Otherwise violating the act.

If the claim is based on a violationalleged to have occurred in an executivesession, the burden of proof at the finalhearing is on the defendant board mem-bers, who must show that “the discussionsduring the executive session were limitedto matters related to the subjects includedin the motion to convene the executivesession.” Thus, it seems boards must keepsome record of what they discussed inexecutive session, including documentsthat were reviewed, if any. Otherwise,defendant board members risk trying toremember and prove what was discussedin an executive session that occurred asmuch as two years earlier. If notes arekept, they should be treated as confiden-tial and should be maintained separatefrom the minutes in a secure, locked filecabinet to which access is limited. Copiesof any documents reviewed at the execu-tive session should be maintained with thenotes. Boards should discuss with theirattorney having these notes and docu-ments maintained by the attorney.

These proposals are fairly simple. Fol-lowing them could help a board bothcomply with the OMA and prevail if it issued for violating the act. s

If a civil action to enforcethe OMA is broughtagainst board members,their ability to defendthemselves may dependon how thoroughly theboard documented, at the time it met, its full compliance with the OMA.


Mobile County District Attorney Partners with Schools to

Prevent Crime, Help FamiliesBy Martha Simmons

In Mobile County, Tyson’s office part-ners with the community’s education,law enforcement, health, mental

health, social services and other organiza-tions and agencies to identify children introuble and to develop appropriate inter-ventions for them and their families. TheHelping Families Initiative is cutting redtape and knocking down barriers in aneffort to maximize existing communityresources.

“Alabama law requires parents to makesure that their children attend school andthat they behave themselves appropriatelyin class. I am mandated to vigorouslyenforce these laws,” said Tyson, a formervice president of the state Board of Educa-tion. “However, I also realize that misbe-havior in school is sometimes a symptomof problems that need something otherthan a law enforcement solution. Catchingthese problems early enough — and givingfamilies the targeted assistance they need— can help divert an at-risk child fromtrouble.”

During the 2004-2005 school year, theHelping Families Initiative made 3,269referrals for 198 different services pro-

vided by 150 different agencies andorganizations. (See Chart 1 below for abreakdown of those referrals.)

These interventions clearly are makinga difference: 67 percent of the familiescompleting the program showed improve-ment in family functioning, especially inthe category of child well-being. (SeeChart 2 on page 9.) HFI measures theseimprovements through pre- and post-administration of the North CarolinaFamily Assessment Scale, which was cho-sen because it indicates strengths as wellas weaknesses.

Key StepsHFI offers early intervention for an at-

risk student whose own behavior triggersthe process. It is a multi-disciplinary,team approach to intervening with at-riskstudents suspended for committing “C,”

Research clearly indicates that truancy and serious misconduct at schoolforecast juvenile delinquency and, eventually, adult crime. MobileCounty's high crime rate and social risk factors play key roles in schooldiscipline problems. Studies indicate many public school students fear fortheir safety at school, and at-risk youth suffer serious problems at home.

“Educators cannot be expected to correct such problems without signifi-cant assistance from families and the community as a whole," said MobileCounty District Attorney John Tyson Jr. "That's why our office has joinedforces with the Mobile County Public Schools to implement the Make theRight Choice, Helping Families Initiative (HFI). This initiative is proving tobe a cost-effective way of both fighting crime and preventing it.”

Chart 1: Helping Families Initiative 2004-2005 School Year Referral SummaryMobile County District Attorney & other law enforcement . . . . . . . . . . .143

Mobile County Public School System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .549

Mobile County Department of Human Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .124

Strickland Youth Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .122

Health services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .240

Children’s services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .278

Mental health services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .569

Faith community . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .201

Emergency assistance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .76

Housing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .78

Recovery groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .123

Drug and alcohol treatment services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .215

Other social services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .74

Parenting and mentoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .321

Vocational support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .120

Summer youth programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27

Youth volunteer programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9


“D” or “E” violations of the MobileCounty Public School System’s StudentCode of Conduct. These violations areserious acts that include a wide range ofoffenses such as bomb threats, assault,robbery, possessing or selling drugs oralcohol, and bringing a gun or switch-blade to school. The program providesearly intervention when the violationresults in suspension, but not an arrest.Arrested students will continue to beprocessed through the juvenile court andprobation systems.

Here are the key steps:• IDENTIFY youth most at-risk• ENGAGE youth and family with need

for change• REFER and DELIVER services• MEASURE and REPORT progress

“Participation in the Helping FamiliesInitiative is not optional,” Tyson said.“Disruptive students interfere with theeducation of law-abiding classmates anderode school safety, and they must be heldaccountable for their actions.”

Because Alabama public schools mustshare suspension and truancy data withthe district attorney, the Mobile Countypublic school system uploads the infor-mation directly to the Mobile County Dis-trict Attorney’s Office. DA staff membersthen examine the records to determinewhether a suspended youth — or his orher parent — has an active court case thatis relevant to the school discipline prob-

lems. How the Program Works• Any student committing his or her first

“C” violation receives a warning letterfrom the Mobile County District Attor-ney’s Office. The student’s principaland the central office will be notified ofthe letter.

• On the second “C” or the first “D” or“E” violation, the suspended studentand his or her parent(s) may be requiredto undergo a family assessment andparticipate in an intervention prescribedby the HFI Team.

• Failure by the student or parent to fullycooperate in the prescribed interven-tions, or subsequent “C,” “D,” or “E”

violations, may result in legal conse-quences as called for in Alabama lawsgoverning student and parental actionsand responsibilities.

Parents and school faculty also areencouraged to make direct referrals toHFI by calling 251/574-4921 if they knowof a student or family needing assistance.

Community ChallengesThe delinquency prevention efforts of

the Helping Families Initiative are essen-tial to improving quality of life in thecommunity at large. Mobile County suf-fers from a chronically high crime ratethat affects all its citizens. And, like muchof Alabama, Mobile County has some ofthe highest child risk factors — teen preg-nancy, poverty, child death rates, etc. —in the nation, according to Alabama KidsCount’s annual report.

“These crime statistics and risk factorsshow up in Alabama classrooms everyday,” Tyson said. “Through our HelpingFamilies Initiative work, we know that 40percent of Mobile County students sus-pended for serious violations already havean active record in juvenile court. Thegood news is that by reaching the other 60percent with early and effective interven-tions, we have a tremendous opportunityto help an at-risk child before he or shegets into serious trouble with the law.”

(Continued on page 11)

Chart 2: Net Change in Family Functioning Scores

Mobile County District Attorney John Tyson Jr., center, leads a case review meeting of the HelpingFamilies Initiative Team. Sixteen agencies and organizations participate in the weekly meetings dur-ing the school year, reviewing case files and recommending interventions for some of MobileCounty’s most at-risk youth and families.


Crime, victims of crime, hunger, addiction, mental illness,homelessness — these are just a few of the desperate circum-stances the Helping Families Initiative (HFI) team encounterswhen participating in weekly case review meetings at theMobile County District Attorney’s Office throughout the schoolyear. The interventions prescribed by this team are saving livesand futures for at-risk kids.

s A teenage girl - a “throwaway kid” on the verge of a life ofdrug abuse and sexual exploitation - finds refuge in a grouphome.

s Four abused and neglected children are rescued from acrack house and get a taste of normal life with foster parents.

s A fourth-grader overturns school furniture in a rage, threat-ens to kill faculty and students, stands on top of his desk andscreams at the teacher. At home, he blackens his frail grand-mother’s eye and is suspected of setting fires and torturinganimals. HFI case officers learn that the grandmother can’tread well enough to administer his antipsychotic drugs cor-rectly. The boy’s medications are corrected, and an uncleagrees to take the boy in and give him a positive role model.

s Parents “at wit’s end” with their teenaged daughter get helpwith the child’s addiction — a problem they were unawareof until Helping Families Initiative intervention.

s A high school student begins cutting classes and his mother,who works nights at a local hospital, is unaware of it until hegets suspended for being high on marijuana at school. Theboy is only one credit short of graduation, and the suspen-sion will cause him to not graduate on time. An HFI case offi-cer works with the school faculty and the boy to return himto school, and he graduates with an advanced diploma. Heis now studying at a local community college.

s An ex-felon trying to make a new life for her family has trou-ble with her defiant, resentful 16-year-old daughter, whokeeps running away and skipping school. HFI interventionsincluded family counseling and parenting classes. Thedaughter is back on the Honor Roll and intends to becomea doctor; the mom is attending college classes.

s A middle school student was suspended at the end of theschool year for possession of marijuana seeds. The family ison the edge of survival. The mother is sick, and there is nomoney to buy new school uniforms for the boy, who out-grew everything over the summer break. There was nothingbig enough for him in the school’s “uniform closet,” and itlooked like the boy would miss more school because hecouldn’t even find shoes to fit. The HFI team found agenciesthat clothed the boy, and he’s back in school and doing well.

s A 14-year-old racked up excessive absences taking care ofher 2-year-old sibling when her single mother needed toride the bus to doctors’ appointments. HFI obtained bus

vouchers and free daycare for the toddler, so the 14-year-oldcould go to school when her mom goes to the doctor.

s A high school student with a severe case of eczema is sus-pended for bringing penicillin to school. HFI discovers a fam-ily living on the brink, with a severely disabled father and amother earning only $150 a week to support the family ofseven in a two-bedroom home. There is no gasoline for thecar and no air conditioning because the power had beenshut off. HFI referred the family to all emergency social serv-ices, got uniforms and health care for the student and founda church to provide the family with food, gasoline and cloth-ing.

s A violent fifth-grader, who is constantly in trouble, is sus-pended for prescription drugs after participating in an on-campus “pharming party.” He and his brother, who has sim-ilar discipline problems, live with great-grandparents; thereare10 people in a four-bedroom home. Their mother, who isin drug treatment, has no car. A wide-ranging interventionorchestrated through HFI included a mentoring program forfatherless boys, mental health services, assistance with hous-ing and transportation and summer activities.

s A high school girl living with a crack-addicted mom beginsrunning away and missing school before she is suspendedfor possession of a weapon. Foster care brings safety, butshe can no longer afford her cherished music lessons. A localchurch offers her free organ lessons, and her life begins tofeel more normal.

— Martha Simmons

Helping Families Initiative Case Stories

John Tyson Jr. is shown with an HFI success story. Reenie Kidd, left, isdelighted that her daughter, Rachel Foster, received a Helping Families Ini-tiative intervention. As a result, Rachel dramatically improved her behav-ior at school and at home and earned academic honors. She thankedTyson and a Helping Families case officer for helping her turn her lifearound and is now planning to become a doctor.

A ASB now offers expanded servicesdesigned to collect additional fed-eral funds to recover money school

boards spend serving special needs chil-dren. Known as Direct Bill Service (andalso as Fee-For-Service) this component ofthe Medicaid reimbursement programcould mean increased payments of $10 to$20 per student annually based on the sys-tem’s total average daily membership.AASB is partnering with Fairbanks LLC toeasily submit Medicaid Direct Bill Claimson participating school systems’ behalf byusing the existing state-mandatedSETSWeb system. Participants wouldreceive Fee-for-Service reimbursementsmonthly.

“We are very pleasedwith how the MAC pro-gram has performed anddelighted to have broughtsuch a large amount ofmuch-needed moneyback to participatingschool boards, particu-

larly in the very lean years of proration andreduced budgets,” said AASB PresidentTommy McDaniel. “Collection of Fee-for-Service reimbursements, which returnseven more money back to our schoolboards, is just another added benefit of par-ticipation in this practical AASB program.”

Under federal law, schools must identify,screen, evaluate, monitor and provide otherout-of-pocket outreach activities to helplow-income and disabled children accessMedicaid services. The Centers of

Medicare and Medicaid Services at theU.S. Department of Health and Human Ser-vices repay schools for eligible expenses.AASB has helped school boards collectreimbursements of up-front costs for serv-ices to disabled and other Medicaid-eligiblestudents. Direct Bill Service assists partici-pating school boards with collecting reim-bursements for directly providing these stu-dents with therapy, treatment, and relatedmedical services and costs.

Already AASB hasnegotiated a contractwith Fairbanks that sig-nificantly reduces the feefor the MAC program’sadministration, said Dr.Sandra Sims-deGraffen-ried, AASB’s executivedirector. The Direct Bill

Service program navigates the complexguidelines governing reimbursement forMedicaid eligible services and support forMedicaid eligible students for a minimaltransaction fee of $3 per successful claim.

“The MAC program has proven to be astrong financial asset to our members,”Sims-deGraffenried said. “Now the MACprogram and the Direct Bill option willwork as companion programs to maximizeour members’ reimbursement.”

For contract information or to find outmore about the MAC Program or the Med-icaid Direct Billing Program, call theAlabama Association of School Boards at334/277-9700 or call Lisa Carnes at Fair-banks at 888/321-1225. s


AASB's Expansion of MAC Program Will Mean Increased Medicaid ReimbursementsUntil the Alabama Association of School Boards launched its Medicaid

Administrative Claiming (MAC) Program in January 1999, many school

systems simply weren’t collecting the reimbursements. Through the

MAC program, however, AASB has helped 119 school systems recoup

more than $46 million — money received quarterly and used at the

discretion of participating school boards.

McDaniel

Sims-deGraffenreid

Groundbreaking WorkSixteen agencies and organizations

comprise the HFI Team: Mobile CountyDistrict Attorney’s Office; MobileCounty public schools; Mobile PoliceDepartment; Mobile Mental HealthCenter; Mobile County Department ofHuman Resources; Mobile CountyHealth Department; Early ChildhoodDirections; Drug Education Council;Exchange Club Family Center; JubileeYouth Sanctuary; Strickland Youth Cen-ter; Boys and Girls Clubs; University ofSouth Alabama; Strengthening Neigh-borhood Investment Program; MobileCounty Sheriff’s Office; and AlabamaCooperative Extension Service. Theircoordinated, collaborative partnership isunprecedented in Mobile County, asagencies that once had very little inter-action now routinely share informationand problem-solve together.

The Helping Families Initiativereceived national attention last yearwhen representatives from the MobileCounty District Attorney’s Office andthe school system presented a workshopon the program at the 2004 NationalConference on School and CommunityViolence in Washington, D.C.

In August of this year, a contingentfrom Louisiana met with school systemand district attorney officials to studyMobile County’s Helping Families Ini-tiative for replication in New Orleans.

“The Helping Families Initiative isdoing important, groundbreakingwork,” Tyson said. “Our children’s edu-cation is too important to the future ofthe community to leave problemsuntreated and families without criticalresources,” Tyson said. “Through thispartnership, we are helping at-risk chil-dren get back on track and making ourschools safer for all students.” s

Martha Simmons is community proj-ects director for the Mobile County Dis-trict Attorney’s Office.

Helping Families...

Continued from page 9


Calhoun County school board attorneyRobin Andrews agrees. “It’s an areaI have always seen as potentially

loaded. Personnel records tend to be acatchall (and) a lot of different people haveto touch them — people involved in evalua-tions, people involved in payroll, peoplerecording sick leave.... It’s difficult to havejust one person responsible for maintainingthem,” Andrews said.

Specifically, the state law requires eachAlabama school board to create and maintaina personnel file on each employee, and itassigns the superintendent responsibility formaintaining “updated, complete and accu-rate records.” The law also defines thoserecords: “all records, information, data ormaterials pertaining to an employee kept bythe executive officer of the school board orother employees of the school board in anyform or retrieval system whatsoever.”

But for Johnson, that language raises amyriad of questions, including whether allthat information must be kept in a personnelfile or even whether routine items like news-paper clippings congratulating a teacher of

On the surface, the Alabama statute gov-erning the keeping of personnel files onemployees seems straight forward. But, likea great many of the state’s education laws,the devil is in the details, or, more specifi-cally, what’s not in the details.

“Alabama Code 16-22-14 purports to becomprehensive, but it raises as many ques-tions as it answers,” said veteran schoolboard attorney Carl Johnson of BishopColvin Johnson and Kent in Birmingham,noting that school boards may be bestserved by adopting a less-is-more attitudewhen it comes to personnel files.

“In the world of discrimination law, whatseems like a perfectly reasonable thing toinclude can bite you in unexpected ways,”Johnson said.

By Susan Rountree Salter


the year must be kept there. “I wouldn’tthink so, but the definition is broadenough,” he said.

While the law doesn’t address it specifi-cally, Johnson and Andrews also do notbelieve boards must keep things like thenotes taken by committee members whointerview job candidates or notes taken dur-ing an investigation. “You need to maintainseparate work files for that. If somethingreaches the point where you reduce it to acorrective letter following an interview withan employee, that (the letter) should be inthe file but not the notes that led up to it,”Andrews said.

Also troubling for superintendents is thelaw’s placement of the full maintenanceburden on the school board’s chief execu-tive. “I think the employee has someresponsibility too,” Johnson said. For exam-ple, employees should have to notify theboard when they receive an advanceddegree, which results in a pay increase, hesaid. “Surely the employee has someresponsibility for checking the rate of payand verifying that it’s correct,” he said.

But Johnson cautions school boardsagainst purging the files overzealously.“The danger is, if you exclude materialfrom the file and you attempt to rely on it ina subsequent legal proceeding, there is arisk it could be excluded (from the evi-dence) altogether,” he said.

Even harder than deciding what goes in,is choosing what if anything should comeout, he said. “The presumption is that thereason it was put in the folder in the firstplace is because it belongs in the folder. Ifyou’re removing it, particularly in the faceof a lawsuit, the inference is that there’ssomething you’re trying to hide or destroy.And, if you’re doing it with one or two files,what are you doing with everything else?”Johnson said. “A lawyer can parlay that sortof decision into a fairly strong insinuationthat the whole personnel process is corruptand the records are being manipulated andpurged.”

The moral of the story, Johnson said, isthat education leaders should invest thetime on the front end — in consultationwith their school board attorney — todecide what should and shouldn’t go in the file. s

The Personnel File Do’s...School board attorneys Robin Andrews and Carl Johnson offer this gen-eral advice for building solid personnel files, but they caution boardsshould work closely with their attorneys before making changes in theirexisting system.

Include:

4 All documents related to the person’s hiring. This includes hisapplication, resume, all documents he was required to submit uponapplication and the results of his background check.

4 Documents showing the employee legally qualifies for theposition. For certified employees, this means documentation of theemployee’s certificate, as well as documentation of his status as “highlyqualified” under No Child Left Behind. For a bus driver, it would includedocumentation that he has a commercial driver’s license. It also caninclude records on the various professional development activities theemployee has participated in.

4 Signed copies of all documents employees are required tosign. Whether certified or not, this would cover items such as drug-free workplace documents and those the board requires employees tosign to verify they have seen key information, such as the sexual harass-ment policy or employee handbook.

4 Wage and hour documentation. This would include such infor-mation as whether the employee is classified as exempt from overtimerequirements.

... and the Don’tsExclude:

6 Grievances filed by the employee. Keeping information about thegrievance in the employee’s own file could create the impression that theemployee’s action is somehow affecting his employment and could giverise to — or be used to lend credence to — a retaliation claim later.

6 Unofficial notes on thoughts or interviews. The record of any disciplinaryaction taken against the employee should be included, but not docu-ments of the thought processes and interviews leading to the decision.

6 Evaluations that characterize generally instead of describ-ing specifically. Evaluations are most easily defended in court whenthe evaluator has described — without embellishment or opinion — thebehavior the employee exhibits. But evaluations that skip the detail anduse words like “uncooperative” or “lazy” give rise to more questions aboutthe evaluator than the employee when they must be relied on in court.

6 Correspondence related to lawsuits. Consider having separatelitigation files to house documents related to litigation involving theemployee, including correspondence between the board/superin-tendents and the attorney. Again, this helps head off allegations ofretaliation.


By Susan Rountree Salter

Sometimes change comes in one of those“eureka!” moments, a flash of insight thatmakes clear the path you should take.

And sometimes it doesn’t.Take Dallas County’s Southside Primary School. Located just

east of Selma, Southside is separated from U.S. Highway 80 bywell-used railroad tracks. Once home to hundreds of studentsfrom military families stationed at the nearby air force base, its population underwent a dramatic shift after the federal government closed the base in 1977. Since then, it has drawn

the bulk of its students, 97 percent of whom live at or below the poverty level, from a

housing project and small homes in the immediate area as well as from

rural east Dallas County.



Southside Primary second-graders D'Angelo Martin, left, and Shuntera Posey practiceidentifying homonyms, words that are spelled identically, but have different meanings.

About the Series: This is the third article in a series of articlesdevoted to the challenges of helping high poverty schools becomehigh achieving schools. In this series, we highlight what is happeningwith the state's slowly but steadily rising student poverty rate and someof the things school boards and administrators need to know as theyprepare to tackle this daunting issue. In subsequent articles, ASB willinclude reports on what school boards must know and do to help lowincome students get a quality education and profiles of a variety ofhigh poverty/high performing schools to offer insights on how theyare succeeding.

B y 1999, the school was, for all intents and purposes, just another high poverty, low achieving school where

instructional programs weren’t working. Despite a stable, wellqualified and aggressive faculty, too many students were failingto learn to read, too many were repeating grades, and too manywere performing below grade level long after leaving Southside.

But after six years of what one faculty member calls “babysteps” and an all-consuming focus on reading, Southside nowranks third among Alabama’s K-2 schools in reading, and virtu-ally all its kindergartners and first-graders are performing ongrade level.

“I knew in November of 2000 that we were on the right trackto teaching our children to read. That’s when I saw the childrenin kindergarten beginning to pick up books and trying to read,”said Patricia Redd, who shepherded Southside through thechanges as principal and now works as a regional principal coachfor the Alabama Reading Initiative (ARI). “(But) we went aboutit in very small steps.”

In the BeginningThe school’s first small step was made with Allison Kelley,

then a first-grade teacher at Southside, and Kim Porter, her teamteacher. Both had what Kelley calls a “burning desire” to helpchildren learn to read, and they couldn’t understand why that wasn’t happening. They and their peers were working hardand had embraced new teaching techniques, including smallgroup instruction and team teaching. But achievement was still lackluster.

Today, Kelley and Redd lay much of the blame for that on theschool’s old basal reader. Used at Southside for more than 15

years, it lacked systematic phonics instruction and was ineffec-tive in a school where most students start kindergarten with thevocabulary of a 3-year-old.

“Sometimes I think these children are spoken to (at home) andnot spoken with necessarily,” Kelley said of students’ home lives.“So their oral communication skills aren’t as developed maybe asa child who comes from a home where they are spoken with andconversation is occurring. All that affects vocabulary and eventu-ally comprehension.”

But in the late 1990s, Kelley connected with a college profes-sor who was working with the school, and the professor launchedher and the faculty on a quest to better understand the mechanicsreading instruction. “We started reading professional materialsand realized that there were other ways maybe to meet these chil-dren’s needs,” said Kelley, now Southside’s reading coach.

That change also moved the faculty to work together more as ateam. “We had the same goal in mind: to make sure every childlearned to read and read on grade level,” Redd said.

Thus, when the Dallas County superintendent and school boarddecided to make all their schools Alabama Reading Initiativesites, Southside’s faculty was ready. The requisite 100 percentfaculty buy-in wasn’t even an issue, Kelley said.

But the new things they learned and their implications for theinstructional program were daunting. So, instead of trying toimplement everything the following fall, Redd asked facultymembers to identify one thing they were going to implement andone they wanted to know more about.

“That was a way I saw to narrow down what they had beenexposed to. I was just as overwhelmed as my teachers were. So,we just took it one step at a time,” Redd said.

Over time, the school received a federal Reading Excellence

Southside second-graders like JavarisMcGuire spend part of their reading timeworking independently,while teachers workone-on-one with others.


grant to purchase a phonics program, fully implemented ARI andthen the Alabama Reading First Initiative and purchased thetightly scripted Voyager reading program for K-1 and a separatereading program for second-graders.

Targeted HelpWith the new programs, reading instruction clearly is Job 1;

other subjects and activities take a backseat. In the school office,for example, a large pink sign proclaims the “protected readingtime” for each grade level (8:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. for kinder-garten; 8:15 a.m. to 10:15 a.m. for first-grade; and 10 a.m. tonoon for second-grade) and notes, “No interruptions can be madeto classes at these times.”

Throughout the school year, struggling readers and those atrisk of becoming strugglers are identified and targeted for specialassistance. Depending on their needs, they receive interventionanywhere from twice to four times a day, said Principal MelanieWright, now in her second year at Southside. Those classified asneeding “intensive” help receive reading instruction a minimumof three times a day.

“When I first came here, I had not a clue. I found the whole setup is different. They’re getting hit double, triple, quadruple times.So it’s basically reading all day long,” she said.

Among the interventions: Any of the school’s four lab teachersread and tutor students before school; two intervention teachers

work with them during the day; and in kindergarten and first-grade, the classroom teachers and intervention teachers also provide targeted assistance beyond the regular program,Wright said.

Teaching the TeachersJust as important as what the students are learning is what —

and how — Southside’s teachers have learned over the last five years. Gone, said Kelley, are the days when professionaldevelopment was unfocused and loaded with cute ideas teachersmight or might not implement. Through ARI, the Reading FirstInitiative and even the Voyager program, training is program-and/or data-driven.

W ant to move a high poverty school from the aca-demic basement to the penthouse? State principal

coach Patricia Redd has two words for you: team effort.Actually, she has two more: frustration and crying.

In the latter half of her 13 years as principal of DallasCounty’s Southside Primary School, Redd oversaw an academic transformation that involved all those things. In six years, her school moved from struggling with toomany student failures and too few grade-level readers, to a No. 3 ranking among K-2 schools in Alabama in reading performance. But it wasn’t easy, and it wasn’talways pretty.

“There was a lot of frustration and a lot of crying, but theyare a really hard-working faculty that has always reachedhigher and higher,” said Redd, who — despite the almostreverential way she is regarded by those inside and outsidethe school — remains aware that she ruffled feathers duringSouthside’s climb to the top.

“This was a challenge for (the faculty), and we did haveto go through people thinking nothing was ever goodenough,” she said.

Redd even got a taste of that herself when, a year or soafter Southside became an Alabama Reading Initiative

school, system administrators required her to apply for theAlabama Reading First Initiative (ARFI). “I was not happy. Ifelt like it was an insult. I felt like we had worked so hard,our scores were going up and our children were learningto read. Then they tell me we’re going to write this grantand, if we get it, we’ll be an ARFI school.”

But Redd is quick to say now that the decision was theright one for her students. The school netted thousands ofadditional dollars, which were used to purchase the highlyeffective Voyager reading program. The grant also fundedmore faculty training and access to other resources.

“ARFI helped us grow even more,” Redd said. That willingness to try something new, learn from it and

grow is as much a hallmark of the Southside staff as is team-work, said Redd and Southside reading coach Allison Kelley.

“It has to be a team effort. The reading coach, everybodyat that school had to be on the same page, working towardthe same goal,” Redd said.

Kelley, who has spent her 16-year career at Southside,agreed. “We all carry each other’s burden. We’re not com-peting with each other. We are in the process of buildingreaders — as a team,” she said.



Southside’s Secret: Teamwork, Tears and Focus

"To have played a part in

someone's life that could

have been written off.

We don't do that. We can't." — Allison Kelley, reading coach


W hile Southside Primary has had the substantial benefitof special funding through both the Alabama Reading

Initiative and the Alabama Reading First Initiative, its successescan be duplicated when school boards and superintendentstake certain key steps:

u Choose your principal wisely. Above all, it takes aninstructional leader at the helm to transform a low achievingschool. Such principals will understand that they must knowthe instructional program as thoroughly as their teachers,both to be equipped to help teachers and to monitor teach-ers’ performance, said Dallas County Reading CoordinatorGwen Carrington. “You must know what’s going on in theclassrooms, know what to look for, see those red flags andknow how to target and work with those teachers in gettingthe job done,” she said.

For example, one of Southside Principal Melanie Wright’sstrongest traits is that she is always learning, Carringtonsaid. “She is the lead learner. When teachers see that,they’re more giving of themselves.”

It also takes a leader skilled at juggling tasks as varied asbalancing the budget, making sure the building is clean,dealing with the cafeteria and monitoring teacher effective-ness. “Reading is just a small part of the day (for the princi-pal),” Alabama Reading Initiative reading coach PatriciaRedd said.

Plus, the principal must be skilled at balancing the per-formance monitoring with cheering the staff on. “You cango overboard either way or be lax either way,” Carringtonsaid. “I have seen principals completely turn the majority ofthe faculty off. Instead of buying in, they shut down.”

u Provide a reading (or other subject) coach.Coaches allow struggling teachers to seek out help withoutfear that doing so will make them look weak or incompe-tent in the eyes of the people evaluating them (i.e., the prin-

cipals). That clear separation of responsibilities does won-ders for making staff members feel comfortable about ask-ing for help, said Tonya Chestnut, also an ARI principalcoach and Dallas County’s former Title I coordinator.

u Honestly assess your current commitment level.Determine whether your system is putting its resources —money and staff — into the areas the test data show stu-dents need to improve, Chestnut said. “Every decisionneeds to be data driven. You have to ask, ‘Are we doing thisbecause it’s something we want to do or because the datashow this is something we need to do?’ A lot of times,they’re not making that connection,” she said.

u Revamp teachers’ on-the-job training. As part ofassessing your commitment level, determine whether (orhow much of) the professional development teachersreceive is truly tied to shoring up specific skills that the datashow are weak, Chestnut said.

u Recognize effort. A key part of keeping a reform effortalive is building enthusiasm at the school level and recog-nizing both effort and results, said Assistant State Superin-tendent for Reading Dr. Katherine Mitchell, one of thearchitects of ARI. For example, when the Brewton schools’faculties attended ARI training several summers ago, theywere shipped off for three weeks in three different loca-tions. But the school board sent all of its trainees a carepackage and later honored their successes, Mitchell said.“They just stand out. It really is a systemic kind of effort ifyou want to sustain change.”

u Expect hard work every day. The board and superin-tendent should set the standard that teachers will put in afull day’s work five days a week, said Southside readingcoach Allison Kelley. “That’s Monday through Friday, notMonday through Thursday. Reading goes on every singleday,” she said.

Could This Happen to You?

Second-grade teacherPatricia Calhoun helpsKayla Hunter withcomputer-based lessons designed tohelp her understandwords in the contextof a story.


“Our professional development is more focused on what wesee as a weakness that we need to change within ourselves inorder to change students,” Kelley said.

The training from the various programs has taught the staffhow to do the work, how to adjust their teaching for small groupinstruction, how to modify their teaching plans when needed andhow to meet individual students’ needs, she said. With Voyager,teachers also have learned the “whys” behind the instructionalmethods, including why it is critical to teach students followingthe highly detailed script, Kelley said.

The training also continues in monthly “pod” meetings, gradelevel meetings focused entirely on reading performance, duringwhich Kelley addresses whatever topics the data indicate teach-ers need to work on. During the meetings, teachers review eachstudent’s performance, which is monitored weekly, biweekly ormonthly depending on the student’s skill level.

“We go around the table and each teacher shares. The glory andthe beauty of this has been that, five years ago, they would havesaid, ‘Yes, this student’s behind; so-and-so’s not going to makeit.’ Now it’s, ‘Jack isn’t going to make it, Ms. Kelley, because hestill doesn’t have his vowel sounds.’ They’re much more diag-nostic now than they’ve ever been before,” Kelley said.

In short, the meetings are designed to ensure teachers reflect on

their teaching strategies, consider what is working and what isn’t,and decide how to proceed, she said.

In addition, the school has “walk throughs” where Kelley andthe principal observe teacher performance and provide feedback.Struggling teachers then are invited to watch one of their South-side peers, whose skills are strong in that particular area, teach amodel lesson.

“You just have to take baby steps, and you move slowly. Youpick out what’s important, and you work on that,” Kelley said.

Another key component is the school’s commitment to doingmost of the professional development during the work day, evenif that means hiring a substitute to cover a teacher’s class, shesaid.

“I want them to leave here each day leaving here. Sure, thereare times you need to stay, but they’re giving their hardest for thefirst seven hours,” she said.

Sustaining the PushBut even with most of the training built into the workday,

working at Southside or any of Alabama’s other high poverty,high achieving schools can take a toll on teachers, who are underthe gun daily to move students forward. “They’re dead tired whenthey leave. We all are,” Wright said. “But that’s part of it.”

And some of the most intense pressure comes not from Wright,but from each other. “You need to be here for the right reasons,and if you’re not, then you need to think about going somewhereelse,” Kelley said. “You won’t survive here, I don’t think. Yourpeers will push you to improve - that’s just the atmosphere here.”

To ward off burnout and lower stress levels, Wright said shemakes recognition and motivation priorities. Last year, her first atSouthside, Wright made goody bags for each teacher, completewith notepads, folders, mouse pads, pens and markers. She also

“The glory and the beauty of

this has been that, five years

ago, they would have said,

‘Yes, this student’s behind;

so-and-so’s not going to

make it’ .... They’re much more

diagnostic now than they’ve

ever been before.”

— Allison Kelley, reading coach


Southside students like Alexus Turner have a lot to smile aboutthese days. Reading scores across the board are through theroof.

Southside’s First Grade DIBELS Results

Percentageof studentson graden Year End

2003n Year End

2005

Phoneme Segmentation Fluency

Oral Reading FluencyNonsense Word Fluency

READING SKILLLS

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

T he sanctuary was filled with morethan 600 Governors’ Reading Sum-mit participants Sept. 15. Among

them were U.S. Secretary of EducationMargaret Spellings, Gov. Bob Riley andstate Superintendent of Education Dr. JoeMorton. On display was the success of theAlabama Reading Initiative (ARI). Millswas to be the case in point.

Griggs gave custody of Mills to Dr.Katherine A. Mitchell, the state’s firstassistant superintendent of education forreading, who escorted the girl to a stool.Mills sat down, opened her book and readfluently, ending the story with a confidentsmile.

Her big day was a success, much like thestate’s reading initiative has been.

“You all have some of the best readers inthe South,” said Spellings at the second

annual summit. “You are a model. You allknow a child who can read is a child whocan succeed. The Alabama Reading Initia-tive is all about making sure every singlechild has that opportunity to stride in life.”

Spellings reiterated the commitmentAmerica made “through No Child LeftBehind: every child must read on gradelevel by age 13. We’re not going to restuntil we do so.”

In Alabama, Spellings said, studentgains in reading are impressive. The per-centage of fourth- and eighth-graders whotested “reading proficient or greater,” sheexplained, have increased 6 percent and11 percent respectively. Overall, from1998 to 2003, the percentage of Alabamastudents scoring “proficient” was greaterat Alabama Reading Initiative schools fora total of 8.8 percent of ARI students

compared to 3.1 percent, and 11.6 percentof black or Hispanic students at ARIschools versus 4.3 percent.

When the initiative started in 1998 with16 schools, it launched with $1.5 millionin private funding. Today, the state spends$56 million to fund it in 750 schools, andMorton said by summer 2006 all elemen-tary schools in the state will be involvedin the initiative.

Federal education dollars in Alabamaare up to $1.8 billion, with $329.8 millionset aside for implementation of the NoChild Left Behind reforms in the state.The total U.S. Department of Educationbudget for fiscal year 2006 is $56 billion.Alabama, according to the U.S. Depart-ment of Education Budget Service, hasaccess to $18.6 million in Reading Firstfunds meant to ensure all children inAlabama learn to read by third grade.

With the understanding that the abilityto read impacts student success in all sub-ject areas, implementers of the AlabamaReading Initiative use a research-based,intensive teacher training approach toachieving high levels of literacy.

“This state,” Morton told Spellings andthe audience of reading coaches, princi-pals, educators, administrators and others,“is committed to 100 percent literacy of

U.S. Secretaryof Education Lauds theAlabama Reading InitiativeBy Denise L. Berkhalter

Central Park Elementary School principal Bettie Griggs

held 7-year-old Aja Mills’ hand as they climbed the dais

steps of Birmingham’s Shades Mountain Baptist Church.

Tucked underneath the Birmingham first-grader’s arm

was a book.

It was her big day.

Gov. Bob Riley and U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellingsdiscuss the success of the Alabama Reading Initiative at the 2ndAnnual Governor’s Reading Summit. Ph

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Confused about when you can — andcannot — hold an executive sessionunder Alabama’s new Open MeetingsAct? Baffled by the new processes fordisciplining or dismissing employees?AASB’s revised Boardmanship Seriesbooklets offer detailed guidance.

R ecent revisions in three majorAlabama education laws haveprompted AASB to update three of

its most popular booklets. In early October,the association will mail school boardmembers, superintendents and schoolboard attorneys new editions of PersonnelHearings Under Alabama’s TeacherTenure Laws, The Fair Dismissal Laws:Step by Step and Public Meetings and Pub-lic Records.

With the demise of the state TenureCommission and implementation of thenew arbitration process, the Tenure andFair Dismissal booklets are designed to

provide practical, step-by-stepadvice for handling long- andshort-short term suspensions,inoluntary and emergencytransfers and terminations. Therevised booklets also includenumerous sample forms and let-ters and even a sample script forholding due process hearings.

The Public Meetings bookletalso has been extensively rewrittento reflect the state’s much more com-plex “sunshine” law. Previously,school boards were allowed to meet inexecutive session only to discuss a per-son’s good name and character, hold for-mal hearings related to students andemployees, and confer with their attorneyon pending litigation. However, the newlaw greatly expands the acceptable reasonsfor holding executive sessions and also cre-ates specific documentation and publicnotice requirements that were not part

of the old law.Complicating mat-

ters even more, thenew law treats different categories

of employees differently when it comes todiscussing them or their work in executivesessions. AASB’s Public Meetings bookletexplains these changes and includes twodetailed charts showing how school boards might handle executive sessionsinvolving specific categories of employeesand/or situations. s

its students.”Riley said the Alabama Reading Initia-

tive is “changing lives” and wants theonce bottom-ranked Alabama to take itsplace among the nation’s top five statesbased on “proficient” readers in itsschools.

“The future of Alabama is dependent onwhether or not we teach our students toread. Now we have taken that great leap,”Riley said. “We’ve watched the AlabamaReading Initiative grow into a programthat has national promise. Not only havewe changed the opportunities of all thesechildren, but we’ve changed the wholeperception of the state of Alabama.”

Spellings, the first mother to serve assecretary of education, acknowledgedMitchell as the embodiment of the sum-mit’s theme, “A Celebration of Success.”

To improve reading in Alabama,Mitchell enlisted a plethora of partners

such as the Alabama Legislature,Alabama Regional Inservice Centers,state Board of Education, “Sweet Six-teen” Schools, churches, civic partners,directors of instruction and higher educa-tion partners.

The initiative also thanked initial contributors, leaders for student achieve-ment, media, the original reading panel,parents, reading coaches, school princi-pals, school superintendents, students,teachers and professional organizationssuch as the Alabama Association ofSchool Boards.

Spellings thanked the group for spark-ing “a revival, an epiphany of how toteach kids to read. You all are doing thisone kid at a time. We must not give up onthis striving readers initiative ... and musttake the same approach into our highschools and middle schools.” s

Aja Mills, a first-grader at Central Park Elemen-tary School in Birmingham, demonstrates herreading skills to Dr. Katherine A. Mitchell,Alabama’s assistant superintendent of educa-tion for reading.

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AASB Publishes Revised Booklets on Tenure, Fair Dismissal & Open Meetings


As Alabama’s Teacher of the Year, Iembrace the opportunity to speakto citizens, board members,

administrators, parents and teachers aboutthe effectiveness of inclusive practices. I tryto help my audiences understand that we areall in this together. We must stop pointingfingers in an effort to place blame. Instead,we must look for viable solutions that willincrease adequate yearly progress for allstudents across our state. The days of refer-ring to students as “yours” and “mine” mustcease, and we must accept mutual responsi-bility for “our” students.

With No Child Left Behind (NCLB)legislation and the reauthorization of theIndividuals with Disabilities EducationAct (IDEA), my concerns and passion aredirected toward best teaching practices forgeneral education and special educationstudents. The mandates of NCLB areindeed lofty, yet for the first time in his-tory we are beginning to see progress inchildren’s ability to read. To meet theNCLB goal — all children proficient inreading and math by 2014 — board mem-bers, superintendents and principals mustprovide effective policy and resources;parents and citizens in private enterprisemust support such policy; teachers mustteach using the best of their abilities; andchildren must learn.

NCLB has had a tremendous impact oneducation in both general education and spe-cial education arenas. Special education canno longer be considered a place; it must nowbe recognized as a delivery system. This is ahuge shift in perception. Throughout history,

special education has been synonymous withthe resource classroom where students withspecial needs received remediation. Studentswere separated from their peers in an effort toreceive small group and/or individualizedinstruction to meet the goals set in their Indi-vidualized Education Programs.

NCLB and the reauthorization of IDEAhave changed special education from aplace to a service. Now special educationteachers go to where students interact withtheir peers and deliver services in generaleducation classrooms. These teachers cannow deliver services to all students whoneed their help. Special education teachersare no longer restricted to special educationstudents alone. Students without specialeducation identification can receive helpfrom any teacher. This change allows allstudents to receive help when they need it.This requires all teachers to assume respon-sibility for the education of all students!

As I have begun serving as Alabama’sTeacher of the Year, I have had the opportu-nity to go to school systems and providetraining sessions addressing co-teaching,inclusion and collaboration. Teachers havebeen excited about using these delivery sys-tems to reach all students; however, they arediscouraged by the lack of support fromadministrators. Scheduling requires admin-istrative clout. Without such support, inclu-sive environments are set up for failure. Insome cases, classes with special educationstudents have developed into “dumpinggrounds.” These classes have been devel-oped with little thought concerning studentneeds. Consequently, teachers do not want

to teach these classes, and parents do notwant their children enrolled in them.

Administrators must use common senseand thoughtful consideration when forminginclusion classes, and they must take anactive role in securing schedules that workfor all students and teachers in a learningenvironment. Teachers cannot make a dif-ference without the support of board mem-bers, superintendents and principals. Policy,resources and visionary support fromadministration are vitally important in aneffort to promote student success andprogress in each classroom across our state.Collaboration must be supported on a stateand local level. Teachers must know thatspecial education is supported and acknowl-edged as a delivery system by educationalleaders in Alabama.

Teaching is a noble profession that hasrequired all teachers to become highlyqualified. Now, we must use our skills andjoin hands with our school boards andadministrations in an effort to meet thestandards our students rightfully deserve.We all must be in the business of educat-ing all students despite their economic cir-cumstances, disabilities or gender. Medi-ocrity is no longer acceptable or prof-itable. We are all in this together. Together,we can find a way — hand-in-hand — toensure that in Alabama, no child is leftbehind. s

Margaret Petty, a teacher at RainbowElementary School in the Madison CitySchool System, is Alabama’s 2005-2006Teacher of the Year.

When it Comes to Education, Mediocrity is Not AcceptableBy Margaret Petty

“When we do the best that we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our life or the life of another.” — Helen Keller Margaret Petty


A fter a decade of service as AASB’sdirector of public relations, SusanSalter takes on the director of

membership services position.As membership services director, Salter

works with AASB Executive Director Dr.Sandra Sims-deGraffenried in planningthe association’s conferences and semi-nars. Her duties include lining up speak-ers and sponsors, developing the market-ing materials and coordinating exhibi-tions. She also oversees on-site logisticsfor the meetings and coordinates theSchool Board Member Academy.

In the future, she also will serve as atrainer for the association, focusing onareas such as the National School BoardsAssociation’s Key Work of School Boardsand the Iowa School Boards Association’sLighthouse Project.

In addition, Salter continues to manageAASB’s member database, computer sys-tems and Web site. As part of those duties,she soon will begin revamping the AASBhome page to make it easier for web sitevisitors to find new and timely informa-tion and to provide more resources forboard members, the public and the media.

Prior to joining AASB in 1995, Salterserved for seven years as public informa-tion officer for the Montgomery Countypublic schools. A former newspaperreporter, she has a bachelor’s degree injournalism from Auburn University and is amember of the National School PublicRelations Association and the Council ofSchool Board Association Communicators.

Denise L. Berkhalter joins the associa-tion as director of public relations and aseditor of AASB’s flagship publication,Alabama School Boards. She also writesand coordinates publication of the twice-monthly newsletter, For Your Information.

Berkhalter is now AASB’s liaison to thestate Board of Education and reports onthe board’s activities for AASB publica-tions. All news media inquiries and addi-tional public relations activities are hersto handle. As a complement to AASB’slegislative program, Berkhalter will assistwith lobbying efforts.

Prior to joining AASB, she served asdirector of public and media affairs andcoordinator of marketing and communi-cations at Tuskegee University. Berkhal-ter has also worked as assistant managingeditor of the Montgomery Advertisernewspaper and as lifestyles editor of The

Dothan Eagle. Her editing and writingexperiences include work in either or bothof those capacities for the HattiesburgAmerican, Commercial Appeal, JacksonAdvocate, and the NAACP’s nationalmagazine, Crisis.

Berkhalter earned a master’s degree inmanagement at Troy University-Mont-gomery and a bachelor’s degree in masscommunications from Jackson State Uni-versity in her native Mississippi. She is amember of the Montgomery Area Associ-ation of Black Journalists, the NationalAssociation of Black Journalists and ZetaPhi Beta Sorority, Inc.

Newcomer Janelle Zeigler is earningvaluable experience as an AASB clericalassistant. Selected from Jefferson DavisHigh School’s Cooperative EducationProgram, the senior carries out adminis-trative and related duties. She beganworking at AASB in June 2005 and willcontinue until May.

Zeigler plans to attend either TuskegeeUniversity or the University of Alabamaat Birmingham to major in occupationaltherapy. She has earned several academicawards, is a former member of the Xinossocial group for girls and participates in ayouth choir. s

New Staffers Join AASBThe Alabama Association of School Boards recently welcomed two new staffers,

while one member of the senior staff transitioned into a new role.

Susan Salter

Denise L. Berkhalter

Janelle Zeigler


Alabama Gas CorporationBirmingham, Alabama205/326-8425

Action For Healthy KidsAtlanta, Georgia

Alabama Soft Drink AssociationMontgomery, Alabama 334/263-6621

Alabama Supercomputer AuthorityMontgomery, Alabama 334/832-2405

Barganier Davis Sims ArchitectsMontgomery, Alabama334/834-2038

BlueCross BlueShield of Alabama Birmingham, Alabama205/220-5771

Christian Testing LabsMontgomery, Alabama334/264-4422

Council of Alabama Coca-Cola Bottlers, Inc.

Birmingham, Alabama205/841-2653

Davis Architects Inc.Birmingham, Alabama205/322-7482

Exford ArchitectsBirmingham, Alabama205/314-3411

Fuqua Osborn, Architects PCHuntsville, Alabama256/534-3516

Gallet & Associates Inc.Birmingham, Alabama205/942-1289

Goodwyn Mills and Cawood Inc.Montgomery, Alabama334/271-3200

Hoar ConstructionBirmingham, Alabama205/803-2121

Jenkins Munroe Jenkins Architecture

Anniston, Alabama256/820-6844

JH Partners Architecture/InteriorsHuntsville, Alabama256/539-0764

Johnson ControlsRoswell, Georgia770/664-9905

Kersey & Luttrell ArchitectsPhenix City, Alabama334/298-2361

KHAFRA Engineers, Architects and Construction Managers

Birmingham, Alabama205/252-8353

Paul B. Krebs & Associates, Inc.Birmingham, Alabama205/987-7411

Lathan Associates Architects PCBirmingham, Alabama205/879-9110

McCauley Associates Inc.Birmingham, Alabama205/969-0303

McKee & Associates Architecture and Design

Montgomery, Alabama334/834-9933

Payne & Associates ArchitectsMontgomery, Alabama334/272-2180

PH&J Architects Inc.Montgomery, Alabama

334/265-8781

Sain AssociatesBirmingham, Alabama205/940-6420

Select Medical Systems, Inc.Birmingham, Alabama205/967-3453

Sherlock Smith & Adams Inc.Montgomery, Alabama334/263-6481

Evan Terry Associates PCBirmingham, Alabama205/972-9100

Volkert & Associates Inc.Mobile, Alabama251/432-6735

AASB appreciates these professional members for supporting association activities and

you all year long.

Alabama Association of School Boards

Professional Sustaining Members


October3 District 9 Meeting

Albertville

6 District 8 MeetingSheffield

10 Columbus DayAASB Office Closed

23 Roles & Relationships:AASB Leaders II (A) Core WorkshopBirmingham

23-24 Face to Face For Students: Leadership for Community EngagementBirmingham

24 AASB School Board/ Superintendent Secretaries' WorkshopBirmingham

December8 Roles & Relationships:

Leadership I Core CourseBirmingham

8-10 AASB ConventionBirmingham

10 Roles & Relationships:Leadership II Birmingham

Editor Denise Berkhalter atpublicrelations@

theaasb.org


Books at BedsideMy Bible. There's a copy of the last Alabama School Boards magazine,too, by the way.

Motto as a Board MemberTo maintain my identity as a parent and to do unto others as I wouldhave them to do unto me.

Walter Mitty FantasyTo be rich and spend it on others. I would see to it that every child hasa quality education, despite not having the money, and that every indi-vidual has the best health care, even if they can't afford it.

Advice to New Board MembersLearn as quickly as you can. Read the schools' handbook. Understandhow the school system functions. Understand the chain of commandand the school system's policies. Know there are two sides to every storyand every complaint.

Greatest Accomplishment as a Board MemberMaintaining low pupil-teacher ratios and moving students out of portableclassrooms and into nice, quality facilities. Our new facilities are placeswhere our kids want to be, that parents and teachers are proud of andthat have earned Morgan County respect.

Pet Peeve as a Board MemberMandates without funding.

Reason I Like Being an AASB MemberAASB has been great for networking and education. I think AASB trainingshould be mandatory for all school board members to maintain their posi-tions. I don't care what level of experience and education you have, serv-ing as a school board member is hard work. AASB trains you to handlepublic concerns, to address diversity, to learn the laws pertaining to edu-cation and more.

My EpitaphShe was fair and honest and put God and family first.

At the TableAt the Table

School BoardMorgan County

HometownHartselle

A Board Member for16 years

InspirationMy mother, Ruth Wallace, is my inspiration.

Carolyn Wallace

tries to give her staff a duty-free lunch period-ically and has been known to order pizzas forthem. She also convinced the system’s Title Isupervisor to fund a new computer, scannerand tabletop copier for every teacher.

“I do whatever I have to do for them becausethey are the ones in the trenches,” Wright said.

Big PayoffThe benefits of Southside’s all-or-nothing

approach are hard to argue with:

• At the end of the 2003 school year, 62 per-cent of Southside’s kindergartners had mas-tered the skill of breaking down the soundsof words (a precursor to reading), accordingto the Dynamic Indicators of Basic EarlyLiteracy Skills (DIBELS). (See chart onpage 19.) By last spring, that had jumped to99 percent. Those same tests showed 16 per-cent were “deficit” at the skill in 2003, butby 2005, no student was deficient at it.

• At the end of 2003, DIBELS showed 84 per-cent of Southside’s first-graders were atgrade level on the ability to decode andblend words, also a precursor to reading. Bylate 2005, every first-grader was scoring atgrade level on that skill.

• Three years ago, only 49 percent of South-side’s second-graders could read 90 wordsper minute. By the end of the 2005 schoolyear, 77 percent could.

“We’re moving children,” Kelley said. “Dowe want this to be better? Yes. But we willtake going from 49 (percent) to 77 (percent),and we will work harder.”

But for Kelley, there is immediate gratifica-tion in seeing a student benchmark, especiallya special education student. “To have played apart in someone’s life that could have beenwritten off. We don’t do that. We can’t. Theyhave to make progress too. When they makebenchmark, that’s a celebration. It’s awe-some,” she said.

But Kelley acknowledges that some South-side students are benchmarking only afterincredible levels of intervention, and sustain-ing that performance after they leave theschool can be a challenge. “If you just treatthose children like benchmarked students,they may not make those gains for you.” s

Slow & Steady...

Continued from page 19


PEOPLE

s Kudos to AASB President Elect JimMethvin of the Alabama School of FineArts on his continuing committee workfor the Governor’s Conference onSchool Leadership.

s Congratulations to Eddie Lowe ofPhenix City on his appointment as atrustee for Alabama Risk Managementfor Schools. He replaces former Enterprise school board member DougVickers. Congratulations also to LindaSteed of Pike County on her appoint-ment to another three-year term as anARMS trustee.

s Welcome aboard these new AASBassociate members: Dr. Renee Culver-house, Gadsden State Community College; John Hackett, former Fair-field board member; John Holland,former Mobile County board member;and Wayne May, former Dallas Countysuperintendent.

s Kudos to the AASB members selectedfor this year’s class of LeadershipAlabama. They are: Dr. Jane Cobia,Sylacauga superintendent; Dr. JaneEllis, executive director of the AlabamaSchool of Math and Science; KristineHarding, president of JH Partners; Dr. Shelia Nash-Stevenson, MadisonCity Board of Education, and Dr. Doug Ragland, Greene County super-intendent.

s Congratulations to Dr. Jeff Goodwinon his appointment as superintendent ofthe Oxford City School System. Good-win, who most recently served as direc-tor of operations for the TalladegaCounty Board of Education, has servedas principal of Oxford High School. Hereplaces Louis Higgins, who retiredthis past summer.

s Congratulations to Dr. MichaelLooney on his appointment as superin-tendent of the Butler County Board ofEducation. Formerly the MontgomeryCounty Public Schools’ assistant super-intendent for curriculum, Looney suc-ceeds Dr. Mike Reed. Reed earlier was

named superintendent of the HartselleBoard of Education.

s Best wishes to Dothan Interim Superin-tendent Dr. Sam Nichols. Nichols, who is the school system’s assistantsuperintendent, will serve until theschool board names a replacement forDr. Leon Hobbs, who is serving as aconsultant for the school system.

s Thanks go to Scott Williams of Home-wood for representing AASB andAlabama as one of the National SchoolBoard Association’s representatives inthe national Back to School Rally inSeptember. Williams lobbied Alabama’scongressional delegation and partici-pated in a press conference designed topush Congress to fund public educationat adequate levels next year.

s Kudos to the Dothan and MobileCounty boards of education on theirselection to exhibit during the Share theSuccess session at NSBA’s annual con-ference next spring. Dothan will shareits work on cultural diversity andMobile County will discuss its success

at transforming poorly performingschools.

s A pat on the back to Meagan Rockettof Hoover High School in Hoover forearning a perfect score on the ACT.

s Congratulations to six high school pro-grams named the best in their field inthe state for 2004-05. They are:Huntsville Center for Technology,Huntsville, for technology education;Montevallo High, Shelby County, foragriscience education; SylacaugaHigh, Sylacauga, for business/market-ing education; Elmore County Techni-cal Center, Elmore County, for healthscience; Keith High, Dallas County, forJobs for Alabama Graduates; and BobJones High, Madison City, for familyand consumer science education.

s Welcome aboard to Mark Bain on hisappointment as executive director of theAlabama Soft Drink Association, whichis a sustaining member of AASB. Bainsucceeds the retiring Oakley Melton,who led the soft drink association for 44years. s

Potpourri

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PAIDMontgomery, ALPermit No. 34

Alabama Association of School BoardsPost Office Drawer 230488Montgomery, Alabama 36123-0488

2005 august/september alabama school boards magazine

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