High School Banks On New Focus And Old Identity At Banks Academy In South East Lake
A new school with an old name on Birmingham’s east side opens Monday, with hopes of helping to revitalize South East Lake. Alumni and friends of Banks High School launched Banks Academy in a community that has seen its share of violence and boarded up homes. Founders of the new Christian School say they want to make a change in place that has meant so much in their lives.
The glory days of Banks High School brought lots of sports championships before the high school closed in 1989. Graduates became lawyers and doctors, preachers and politicians, and almost any other profession you can name. Alumni and supporters are returning to their East Lake home base to continue a legacy at Lakeview Baptist Church on 8th Avenue South.
“This is a community school. We’re not trying to go and get people from West End to come to school here,” says Rev. Randy Overstreet, a Louisville, Kentucky pastor and Banks alum. “ We thought that by being Banks Academy, that says we are going to impact this particular area of the city.”
Overstreet and some of his old friends became disturbed by what they saw happening at their old school and the community surrounding it.
“We began to pray about a vision, bringing the Banks name back alive with a different purpose,” Overstreet says.
The Banks name has benefits, says Board president Darryl White.
“It allowed us to have an identity that a lot of people would almost immediately recognize,” he says.
White is familiar with that identity because of his father — longtime Coach Shorty White. The younger White didn’t get a chance to attend Banks because the family moved to Tuscaloosa before he entered ninth grade.
Now White, Principal Dr. Kathy King, and the staff are welcoming 10 students in 9th grade. White wants to add a high school grade each year, with 30 students in each.
Renita Parker’s twins– Bryan and Bryanna– are attending Banks. They’re zoned for Huffman High School, but she chose Banks.
“I wanted my children to be involved in a Christian environment,” Parker says.
She’s also pleased with the tuition scholarships and the school’s mission of impacting the total community.
“They’re going to learn math, they’re going to learn English and they’re going to learn history,” Overstreet says. “But by loving them and teaching them Biblical principles, that’s going to lay a foundation for their life that is far greater than anything else they would ever learn.”
Bryan, 14, is banking on a solid education because he has big plans.
“I want to be an entrepreneur, a congressman and a professional NBA player,” he says.
And Banks Academy organizers say they want all of their students to be successful in school and in the community.
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