B’ham Schools Submit State-Mandated Plan
State schools chief Tommy Bice (center right), Birmingham Mayor William Bell (lower left) and other area leaders look on with concern at a contentious April 2012 board meeting that helped trigger state intervention.
The Birmingham School system today submitted a detailed cost-cutting plan, fulfilling the first part of a
state-mandated deadline.
Though sources said compiling the latest plan, which includes significant administrative staff cuts, was
intensely difficult, an even bigger challenge may await. The local school board — which has been plagued
by infighting on issues far less complicated and emotional than discharging staff — must approve at least
part of the cost-cutting plan at its meeting on Tuesday. If not, the Alabama State Department of
Education will likely take control of the district’s finances.
Deputy State Superintendent Craig Pouncey said Birmingham Superintendent Craig Witherspoon has
been in direct communication with the local board in preparation for Tuesday’s vote. School officials
would not share names on the latest iteration of the cost-cutting plan, at least before Tuesday’s
meeting, which Dr. Ed Richardson will attend. Richardson is the leader of the team investigating
Birmingham schools since April.
Pouncey and other sources said the local board will likely receive a two-part proposal. The one to be
voted on Tuesday includes various cost-cutting measures; the one to be voted on the following week
will include the exact positions to be eliminated from the central office. Complicated contractual and
tenure requirements are one reason for the slower timeline for the second part of the plan.
A proposed Bessemer data center faces new hurdles: a ‘road to nowhere’ and the Birmingham darter
With the City Council in Bessemer scheduled to vote Tuesday on a “hyperscale” data center, challenges from an environmental group and the Alabama Department of Transportation present potential obstacles for the wildly unpopular project.
Birmingham Museum of Art’s silver exhibit tells a dazzling global story
Silver and Ceremony is made up of more than 150 suites of silver, sourced from India, and some of their designs.
Mentally ill people are stuck in jail because they can’t get treatment. Here’s what’s to know
Hundreds of people across Alabama await a spot in the state’s increasingly limited facilities, despite a consent decree requiring the state to address delays in providing care for people who are charged with crimes but deemed too mentally ill to stand trial. But seven years since the federal agreement, the problem has only worsened.
Ivey appoints Will Parker to Alabama Supreme Court
Parker fills the court seat vacated by Bill Lewis who was tapped by President Donald Trump for a federal judgeship. The U.S. Senate last month confirmed Lewis as a U.S. district judge.
How Alabama Power kept bills up and opposition out to become one of the most powerful utilities in the country
In one of the poorest states in America, the local utility earns massive profits producing dirty energy with almost no pushback from state regulators.
No more Elmo? APT could cut ties with PBS
The board that oversees Alabama Public Television is considering disaffiliating from PBS, ending a 55-year relationship.
