Birmingham City Schools

Birmingham City School District
Birmingham, Alabama Alabama United States
District information
Type	Public
Motto	Believe. Create. Succeed.
Grades	PK-12
Established	1883
Superintendent	Larry Contri- Interim
Schools	42
Budget	$378 million
Students and staff
Students	25,104
Teachers	1,579
Other information
Website	http://www.bhamcityschools.org/

Birmingham City Schools is a public school district that serves the US city of Birmingham, Alabama. It is the fourth-largest school system in Alabama behind Mobile County Public School System, Jefferson County School System, and Montgomery Public Schools. It currently enrolls approximately 25,000 students across 42 schools.

Birmingham City Schools serve a student population that is approximately 95% African-American, 4% Hispanic, and 1% White. Eighty-eight percent of its students qualify for free or reduced price lunch. The district-wide graduation rate is 65%.

There are seven high schools in the Birmingham City School District: three magnet high schools and four traditional high schools.

Ratio

Rate

As of 2014 the school board is composed of nine members elected from nine geographical districts within the city of Birmingham. Currently, the President is Randall Woodfin (District 5) and the Vice President is Sherman Collins, Jr. (District 1). Five of the nine members are female and eight are African American.

2014 Birmingham Board of Education Trustees:

District 1: Mr. Sherman Collins, Jr.
District 2: Mr. Lyord Watson
District 3: Mr. Brian Giattina
District 4: Ms. Daagye Hendricks
District 5: Mr. Randall Woodfin
District 6: Ms. Cheri Gardner
District 7: Ms. Wardine T. Alexander
District 8: Mrs. April M. Williams
District 9: Ms. Sandra Brown

Birmingham's first public school was the Free School established in 1874 under the leadership of John T. Terry and James Powell. Despite its name, the trustees found it necessary to charge a nominal fee to students for a number of years in order to meet their budgets. That school, renamed "Powell School" became a high school when the next school were constructed in 1883. John H. Phillips became superintendent of schools that year and, two years later, oversaw the formation of the first Birmingham Board of Education, taking responsibility for schools out of the direct purview of the mayor and Board of Aldermen.

Numerous surrounding suburbs and unincorporated areas, most poorly-served with public schools, were annexed into Greater Birmingham in 1910. The city issued $200,000 in bonds in 1915, and an additional $100,000 after Central High School was lost to fire in 1918. Those funds fueled a major campaign to construct new schools, which was interrupted by U.S. involvement in World War I. Once the program resumed in the early 1920s, the need for new schools was dire.

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