Information Network (HSCIN)
Contact HSCIN@HSCIN.org
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This page is devoted to the Yes We Can! Alabama Movement
Yes We Can! Birmingham Initiative - posted 10/02/08
Yes We Can! Birmingham is a grassroots movement dedicated to improving the City of Birmingham's public schools. They are listening to the citizens of Birmingham, working to create a unified vision for the public schools, and making sure the community's vision becomes a reality.
Yes We Can! Birmingham was formed with the full knowledge and support of Birmingham school officials. Their intention is to partner with the Birmingham schools - the schools are the 'system'; the group has put together the voices of the residents. Together, they believe we can improve the schools and the communities we live in.
Yes We Can! Birmingham has three primary goals:
1. To invite all citizens of Birmingham to participate in improving our public schools
2. To use citizen input to create a Community Agreement which will document the community's vision for its public school system
3. To establish a new foundation to partner with the Birmingham City Schools and make the community's vision a reality.
Over the past year, the group has held 117 Community Conversations, with more than 1800 residents. From those Community Conversations, a Community Agreement was compiled using the community's input.
Click here to download the Agreement.
The HSCIN conducted a web-based survey in March of 2007, asking community members what their concerns were about our Hoover school system. Click here to view those results. It is disconcerting to read some of the same concerns in our Hoover school community's words that can be read in the Yes We Can! Birmingham Community Agreement.
The HSCIN strongly believes and supports the idea that the public schools' mandate must come from the community. Kudos to Yes We Can! Birmingham for working to raise the voices of the Birmingham community.
The Birmingham School Board and Birmingham Interim Superintendent Barbara Allen accepted the Community Agreement at a celebration on Saturday, September 27, and have pledged to incorporate the community's voice into their upcoming strategic planning.
It is worth noting that administrators within Hoover City Schools have made no concerted effort to formally incorporate the Hoover school community's voice into their ongoing strategic planning, outside of the 51 parents chosen for the Committees related to the development of the Balanced Scorecard.
Superintendent Andy Craig has stated that he is working with a local market research firm that has worked with Mountain Brook City Schools to develop a survey that will be administered every 3 years to a random sampling of families with children in Hoover City Schools.
It is unfortunate that in doing so, the majority of our Hoover school community is left out of our public school system's voice.
Stay tuned for your opportunity to Raise Your Voice and let our school leaders know what your concerns are.
Worth reading: David Mathews' Rebuilding Public Education by Rebuilding Our Democracy
