Filed November 15, 2017
Introduction
Defendant, Huntsville Board of Education (the “Board” or the “District”), files this day its third, annual Consent Order Report with the Court. As it has done in the past, the District files this Notice to help the Court, and the citizens of Huntsville, better understand the many Consent Order Reports. This Notice provides context and explains notable features of nearly every document in the Consent Order Report.
As the Court is well aware, the Consent Order (Doc. 450) requires many reports. Nearly all reports require data from the preceding school year. As such, the date range for the data in this year’s reports is July 1, 2016 and June 30, 2017, and the data in most of these reports is from year 2 of the District’s implementation of the Consent Order.
With this Notice, the District wants to discuss some of its present challenges. The District believes that this Notice can serve as a communication to the community and the Court. While it is appropriate to use the Notice to shed light on the information contained in the Court reports, the District also wants to use this Notice to clarify possible misconceptions about the District’s implementation of the Consent Order.
Second Year Struggles
The second year of implementation was affected by a significant number of changes that occurred during the 2016-17 school year. The major changes are included below:
- Dr. Casey Wardynski, who oversaw the negotiation of the Consent Order and early implementation of the Consent Order, announced his resignation early in the 2016-17 school year;
- The Board selected a former District administrator, Mr. Tom Drake, to serve as the Interim Superintendent;
- Two new Board Members joined the Board following their election in the fall of 2016;
- Edith Pickens, who served as the administrator responsible for Consent Order oversight, announced her retirement shortly after Dr. Wardynski announced his resignation;
- Dr. Barbara Cooper, under whose leadership the District began implementing most of the academic initiatives contained in the Consent Order, was selected to serve as a Deputy State Superintendent in the fall of 2016;
- The District ended its relationship with Pinnacle Schools – the contractor responsible for managing the District’s alternative school program – and the ending of this relationship resulted in litigation during the winter of 2016;
- Jason Taylor, who served as the Chief School Financial Officer under Dr. Wardynski during the negotiation and early implementation of the Consent Order, announced his resignation in the spring of 2017;
- The Board of Education interviewed five different candidates to fill the Superintendent position, and selected Dr. Matt Akin. He began serving as Superintendent in March of 2017; and
- Since Dr. Akin’s selection, the District has had many changes to its District-level administration based in large part on Dr. Akin’s realignment of central office positions.
Although there were many positives things accomplished by Dr. Wardynski as Superintendent, one issue that became apparent after his departure was the need to rebuild relationships with some groups in the community, including teachers. Dr. Akin has spent a considerable part of his first eight months as Superintendent rebuilding and repairing relationships that may have deteriorated during Dr. Wardynski’s final last years as Superintendent. The District believes that Dr. Akin’s efforts were apparent in the comments that many community members made during the court’s September 2017 public status conference. His efforts will be necessary both to unite the community and to address many of the misconceptions discussed below.
Clarifying Misconceptions
Since beginning implementation of the Consent Order, the District has taken the position that the student discipline provisions of the Consent Order will be the most challenging to implement. This is due to many different reasons, including:
- The District’s Behavioral Learning initiatives are considerably different from the District’s pre-Consent Order discipline policies in some critical ways. Namely, the new policies focus more on helping students change their behaviors rather than on removal from the school environment, which is a change not only for the schools but also the community.
- An incredible amount of professional development and repeated practice is required to implement the policies that will help students change their behavior.
- While trying to learn this system, the District’s teachers have also been working to implement the interventions necessary to close the achievement gap.
- This process requires the hard work of school personnel and the patience of the community.
- Many teachers have expressed a feeling of being overwhelmed by all of the new initiatives.
Over the last two school years, especially since the development of the Behavioral Learning Guides, when a school discipline issue – especially a social media video of a fight or a threat – is made public, a common community response has been to blame the Behavioral Learning Guide. This misplaced blame is one of the misconceptions many have about the District’s implementation of the student discipline provisions of the Consent Order. Those misconceptions include:
- Students cannot be disciplined.
- Teachers and principals have their hands tied by the Department of Justice.
- Teachers can be attacked without consequences.
- Students may disrespect all adults without consequences.
Board members, District-level administrators, and other District leaders have been asked questions about the above misconceptions over the last two years. Moreover, the local television news stations have even begun to champion these misconceptions: raising them and making them “news” stories. District-leaders, in an attempt to track these issues, regularly review student discipline data throughout the school year. That review has shown that, by and large, the District’s student discipline statistics are staying stable or increasing. In other words, the data does not support the above-listed allegations. This is apparent in Report VII.I.4.
It is important to acknowledge and emphasize the errors in these misconceptions. The Superintendent and the Board are committed to safe school environments for teachers, students, and everyone who finds themselves in a District school. There are serious consequences for threatening violence or committing violent acts at school. These consequences are a critical component of the District’s approach to Behavioral Learning and must be paired with the District’s efforts to change student behavior. The District wants its administrators, teachers, students, families, and the greater Huntsville community to understand that the District can and will work toward closing the discipline gap between Black and White students while maintaining safe schools.
The District remains committed to implementing all aspects of the Consent Order, including student discipline. However, in light of the recent media attention concerning student discipline, the District’s focus for the remainder of the 2017-18 school year is the good faith implementation of its Behavioral Learning initiatives via support of its school-based staff. As the District’s schools grow more comfortable with the realities of the Behavioral Learning initiatives, so too will the greater community.
More Information About Each Consent Order Report
As part of its Consent Order Report Filing, Huntsville City Schools also files a cover document that provides more details about the reports. This document is called a "Filing Notice," and it includes clarifications, pertinent background information, and any other information that HCS thinks will help the Court and the public better understand the work that it is doing to implement the Consent Order. Before clicking on the individual report category links below, it is recommended that you read the cover document. To access that document, please click the following link:
Third Consent Order Reports
- Student Assignment Reports
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All PDF documents on this page are those certified as filed by the U.S. District Court in Huntsville, AL, and may not be fully accessible per Section 508 standards.
M-TO-M Transfers
II.D.8.a: A report containing the following information for each application requesting a transfer effective for that school year: race; grade level; home/zoned school; school(s) to which transfer sought; each type of transfer requested; the outcome (including, for each transfer granted, identification of the school to which the transfer was approved); and the basis for the denial, if any. II.D.8.b.1: Transfer wait list information maintained pursuant to Section II.D.2.b.12., as of the expiration date of the wait list. The District may report this information separately or as part of the Excel spreadsheet described in Section II.D.8.a.
#543-1 II.D.8.a & II.D.8.b.1.pdf
II.D.8.b.2: Results of M-to-M surveys conducted pursuant to Section II.D.6.b.
II.D.8.b.3: District marketing efforts regarding the M-to-M program, including examples of marketing materials.
Magnet Schools/Programs
II. F. 1: For each magnet program, student applicant data for the previous school year that includes: the number of applicants, disaggregated by race; the number of students accepted, disaggregated by race; the number of students who are not accepted, disaggregated by race (including reason(s) for a student not being accepted); the number of students enrolled, disaggregated by race; and the number of students who withdrew or transferred out of the magnet program, disaggregated by race, (including the reason(s), to the extent available, for the withdrawal or transfer).
II.F.2: A report of magnet marketing and recruitment efforts taken for the previous school year, including samples of brochures and advertisements, and where appropriate, the date and location of the marketing and recruitment.
II.F.3: A report of the magnet courses offered at each magnet school/program for the current school year.
II.F.4: The District’s efforts to review and respond to duplication of magnet courses in the District since the District’s previous annual report.
II.F.5: A report that includes for each student enrolled in a dual enrollment course: school attended; the magnet program attended, if any; grade; the name of each dual enrollment course; and the institution of higher education affiliated with each dual enrollment course.
- Equitable Access to Course Offerings & Programs
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All PDF documents on this page are those certified as filed by the U.S. District Court in Huntsville, AL, and may not be fully accessible per Section 508 standards.
III.M.1.a: A list of all AP and IB diploma courses taught in each high school for the current school year and the enrollment in each AP or IB Diploma course in each high school for the current school year, disaggregated by race.
III.M.1.b: Academic proficiency of students in English and Math in the District and by school, as measured by the State assessments for the previous school year, disaggregated by race.
III.M.1.c: A list of teachers hired or assigned by each high school to teach an AP or IB Diploma course in the current school year, the course(s) taught by each teacher, the number of sections taught by each teacher, and the credentials of each teacher.
III.M.1.d: A report for each school that includes the employee number of each teacher, his or her race, professional degrees, certifications, years of experience (less than 3 years and more than 3 years) and course or courses taught.
III.M.1.e: A list of professional development activities required by Section III conducted in the previous year, including the date, duration, subject matter, presenter, and number of individuals in attendance by group (e.g., principals, teachers, etc.).
III.M.1.f: A list of parent/guardian outreach activities conducted in the previous school year, including the date, duration, and approximate number of individuals in attendance, and estimate of participation levels by race.
III.M.1.g: A list of student support services offered in the previous school year pursuant to Section III.H.
III.M.1.h: A report for the previous school year of the results of the survey required by Section III.I.7. and action steps taken based on the survey results.
III.M.2: The District will provide the data reviewed and the plans developed pursuant to Section III.M. to the United States. The District will provide a summary of the data reviewed and the plans developed pursuant to Section III.M. to the Court.
- Extracurricular Activities
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All PDF documents on this page are those certified as filed by the U.S. District Court in Huntsville, AL, and may not be fully accessible per Section 508 standards.
IV.H.1: A list of extracurricular activities offered in the District, by school and core activity category where applicable.
IV.H.2: School participation rates and targets in the Elementary School Core Activity and the Middle/Junior High School Core Activities and any actions taken by the District to support schools in meeting participation targets.
IV.H.3: A description of measures taken by the District to make students aware of academic clubs and related extracurricular opportunities.
- Faculty
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All PDF documents on this page are those certified as filed by the U.S. District Court in Huntsville, AL, and may not be fully accessible per Section 508 standards.
V.D.1: A list of the members of each committee involved in the recruitment, hiring, assignment, retention, or promotion of administrators, faculty, and certified staff. The list will include: name of committee; each committee member's name; his or her race; position (title and location) and date(s) on which he or she served on the committee.
V.D.2: Documentation of any exigent circumstances pursuant to Section V.A.1.
V.D.3: The total number of certified administrators, by race and position, in the District’s central office.
V.D.4: The total number and percentage of teachers and administrators, by race and by position, in each school facility operated in the District. For reporting purposes, principals will be identified separately from assistant principals.
V.D.5: A list of each certified staff member, such as administrators and faculty, transferred, including: his or her name; race; position; self-reported years of experience; school to which he or she was previously assigned; school to which he or she was transferred; effective date of the transfer; indication of whether the transfer was requested by the certified staff member or initiated by the District or both; and the reason(s) for the transfer.
V.D.6: A description of the measures the District is taking to ensure the equitable selection of Black principals pursuant to Section V.A.2.
V.D.7: A list of all recruiting/job fairs in which the District participated, including the date and location of each such fair.
V.D.8: A list of each central office certified administrator hired, including the administrator’s name, race, position, date of hire, and starting salary (including step and grade).
V.D.9: A list of each central office certified administrator promoted, including the administrator’s name, race, prior position and salary, and new position and salary.
V.D.10: A list of each certified staff member, such as administrators and faculty, who received incentive pay, including his or her name, race, position (title and location), salary grade and step, and incentive amount.
V.D.11: A list of certified staff members, such as administrators and faculty, who were demoted, suspended, or dismissed/terminated, including each person’s name, race, position/title, and date of demotion, suspension, or dismissal/termination.
V.D.12: A list containing information about each candidate submitted to a school for consideration to fill a vacant position, including: candidate’s name; his or her race; an indication of whether he or she was screened at the District level; his or her certification(s), if any; his or her self-reported total years of experience; school and vacant certified position for which his or her name was submitted; date on which that submission occurred; candidate(s) selected by the principal to fill the vacant certified position; and candidate(s) placed in the position.
V.D.13: A list of all candidates nominated for the TOSA program, or any similar program, and for each eligible candidate: candidate’s name; his or her race; school to which he or she was assigned; grade level(s) and/or course(s) he or she taught; individual who nominated him or her; an indication whether he or she accepted any invitation to interview; members of his or her interview committee; and an indication whether he or she was selected to participate in the TOSA program or any similar program.
- Facilities
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All PDF documents on this page are those certified as filed by the U.S. District Court in Huntsville, AL, and may not be fully accessible per Section 508 standards.
VI.C: The District’s progress on the construction of Morris Pre-K-8 School, Jemison High School, McNair Junior High School, Grissom High School, Whitesburg Pre-K-8 School, Hereford Elementary School, and on the renovation of AAA and Martin Luther King, Jr. Elementary School.
The District’s progress towards removing remaining portable classrooms. Implementation of the District’s Playground plan. Implementation of the District's SMALLab Plans.
- Student Discipline, Positive School Climate, & Effective Classroom Management
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All PDF documents on this page are those certified as filed by the U.S. District Court in Huntsville, AL, and may not be fully accessible per Section 508 standards.
VII.I.1: The District’s Student Code of Conduct implemented after the effective date of this Consent Order or after the previous annual report.
VII.I.2: A list of professional development activities required by Section VII, including the date, duration, subject matter, presenter and number of individuals in attendance by group (e.g., principals, teachers).
VII.I.3: The information provided to parents/guardians pursuant to Section VII.
VII.I.4: For each school, the total number and percentage of students receiving a disciplinary referral, disaggregated by race, in-school suspension, out-of-school suspension, expulsion, school referrals to law enforcement and alternative school placement and plans/strategies developed and implemented as a result of the District’s review in Section VII.G.
- Monitoring, Reporting, & Oversight
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All PDF documents on this page are those certified as filed by the U.S. District Court in Huntsville, AL, and may not be fully accessible per Section 508 standards.
X.A: The District will provide the United States a copy of its student enrollment database electronically in Microsoft Excel or similar format and will file with the Court a report of its student enrollment, disaggregated by school and race.
X.G: The District will provide the United States and the Court with its annual budget and a list of District expenditures related to the implementation of the Consent Order for the previous school year.
