“Jefferson County Schools (Alabama)”的意思、由来-开放百科全书

The Jefferson County School System is the second-largest public school system in Alabama. It is the third oldest school system in Jefferson County preceded only by the Birmingham and Bessemer School Systems. The Jefferson County School System was created in 1896, and initially served all unincorporated communities and cities in the county other than Birmingham and Bessemer. Beginning in the late 1960's and early 1970's various other cities began to establish their own separate systems (i.e., Homewood, Midfield, Vestavia Hills, Hoover, etc.). Today the County system serves students in those unincorporated areas of Jefferson County, Alabama such as Alliance, Bagley, Concord, Corner, Forestdale, McCalla, Minor, Mt. Olive, and Oak Grove. It also includes students who reside in the cities of Adamsville, Clay, Fultondale, Gardendale, Graysville, Hueytown, Irondale, Kimberly, Morris, Pinson, Pleasant Grove, and Warrior among others. Those cities listed below each have a city-based school system, therefore, their students do not attend schools in the Jefferson County School System:

Current Board Members, Responsibilities, and Election

The system is presided over by the elected Jefferson County Board of Education which is responsible for setting school policy, adoption of an annual operating budget, and broad issues usually dealt with by most school boards, such as construction of new schools, etc. The Board also relies on the guidance of the Superintendent in the making of many of those decisions. the work of the Board is financed by appropriations from the Alabama Legislature and a series of property taxes some of which are "district wide" and some of which are "county wide" in nature, plus the proceeds of a 1 cent sales tax.

The Board consists of five members elected by Place Number in partisan elections for six year terms. While these races are usually decided in the respective party primaries almost none of the work or decisions of the Board are of a partisan nature. There is no limitation on the number of terms to which a member can be elected. Four of the five members (Places 1-4) are elected only by the voters of the areas actually served by the school board. The fifth member (Place 5) is elected collectively only by the voters of the 11 cities that have their own school systems. This configuration was mandated by the U.S. Federal Courts.^[2] When vacancies occur during a term the remaining members of the Board have the power to appoint someone to the post for the remainder of the unexpired term. Two of the current members came to office in this manner when Ronnie Dixon was appointed to replace Dean Taylor, Jr. who died in office and Carita Venable replaced Jacqueline Smith who resigned. The current President of the Board is Oscar Mann and the Vice President is Ronnie Dixon who were both elected to the positions by their fellow board members.

The current Board members, their party affiliation, and the designated Place Number when they appear on the ballot are as follows:

Past Board Members (Partial List)

Many different men and women have served on the Board over the years. For most of the Board's history all its members were Democrats until the election of Republican Jim Hicks in 1980. After Mr. Hicks election the Board transitioned to a Republican majority over the next few election cycles. It has remained with a Republican majority ever since. Three African-Americans have served on the Board including the present Board member, Carita Venable. Previously, Martha Bouyer, and Jacqueline Smith served with Mrs. Smith being the first African-American to be elected as Board President^[3]. Below is a partial listing of past members:

Superintendents

Day-to-day operations of the system are run by the superintendent. That post is filled by appointment by a majority vote of the County Board of Education and serves at the pleasure of the Board. The current superintendent is Dr. Craig Pouncey,^[4] who took over in June 2014, following the ouster of Dr. Stephen Nowlin after 16 months in office.^[5]

The first Superintendent of Jefferson County was Isaac Wellington McAdory from 1896-1913. In 1868, shortly after The Civil War and long before the County System existed, he and his wife, Alice (Sadler) McAdory, established and ran the Pleasant Hill Academy in McCalla^[6]. It was arguably the first education institution in Jefferson County (preceding even the Birmingham and Bessemer systems). The Pleasant Hill Academy is the forerunner of present day McAdory High School.

List of current schools

High schools

The Jefferson County School District includes the following fourteen high schools. Data on enrollment, student-teacher ratio, and graduation rate are all drawn from the 2013–14 academic year.

Middle schools

Elementary schools

Community schools

Former schools (Partial List)

With the passage of years many former schools in the Jefferson County School System completely ceased to exist. This is to be expected in a system that is over 100 years old. Most were established by the County Board of Education, yet some were established by a local community or were built as "company schools" and ceded to the County System at a later date. Other schools have seen their names changed or been sold or ceded to some of the other municipal systems. This occurs for a variety of reasons some of which are demographic changes, de-segregation orders, obsolete facilities, etc. Many of these campuses are gone without a trace and a few have been re-purposed to other uses. This list does not include former school buildings at different sites for institutions that still exist under the same name such as Shades Valley High School (2 different campuses); Hueytown High School (3 different campuses); Minor High School (2 campuses), etc. The list does include schools whose names and/or locations have changed such as Berry High School (now Hoover High School) or New Castle High School (now Fultondale High School).

High Schools (Partial List)

Other Schools (Partial List)

Failing schools

Statewide testing ranks the schools in Alabama. Those in the bottom six percent are listed as "failing." As of early 2018, both Center Point and Minor High Schools were included in this category.^[13]

References

1. ^National Center for Education Statistics. CCD Public school district data for the 2012–2013, 2013–2014 school years
2. ^The North Jefferson News, Robert Carter, 11-19-2015
3. ^The North Jefferson News, article by Robert Carter, Nov. 19, 2015
4. ^{{cite news|url=http://www.njeffersonnews.com/news/local_news/craig-pouncey-selected-as-new-jefferson-county-schools-superintendent/article_fb4f6a7a-cce9-546a-a0e1-8abc279dbe26.html|first=Robert|last=Carter|date=June 14, 2014|title=Craig Pouncey selected as new Jefferson County Schools superintendent|publisher=The North Jefferson News}}
5. ^{{cite news|url=http://www.njeffersonnews.com/local/x493492046/Jefferson-County-Schools-moves-Nowlin-to-consultants-job-ending-term-as-superintendent |archive-url=https://archive.is/20140507184245/http://www.njeffersonnews.com/local/x493492046/Jefferson-County-Schools-moves-Nowlin-to-consultants-job-ending-term-as-superintendent |dead-url=yes |archive-date=May 7, 2014 |publisher=The North Jefferson News |date=May 6, 2014 |first=Robert |last=Carter |title=Jefferson County Schools moves Nowlin to consultant's job, ending term as superintendent }}
6. ^Robert Walker, McAdory School Reunion Committee (1988)
7. ^Robert Walker, McAdory School Reunion Committee (1988)
8. ^¹National Center for Education Statistics. Common Core of Data, Public school data 2012–2013, 2013–2014 school years.
9. ^{{Cite web|title = 2014 Graduation Rates by School and District|url = http://alabamaschoolconnection.org/2015/02/03/2014-graduation-rates-by-school-and-district/|website = Alabama School Connection|accessdate = October 29, 2015}}
10. ^{{Cite web|title = Jefferson County Schools – Alabama – Niche|url = https://k12.niche.com/d/jefferson-county-schools-al/|website = K-12 School Rankings and Reviews at Niche.com|accessdate = September 29, 2015}}
11. ^{{Cite web|url = http://www.ahsaa.com/Portals/0/PDF's/AHSAA/AHSAA/2014-16%20Classification.pdf|title = AHSAA School Classification 2014–16|date = |accessdate = |website = |publisher = |last = |first = }}
12. ^Ester Caine Towers article on website of Hueytown Historical Society
13. ^{{cite news|title=Failing Alabama public schools: 75 on newest list, most are high schools|url=http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2018/01/failing_public_schools_75_on_t.html|accessdate=26 January 2018|publisher=AL.COM|date=25 January 2018}}