Alabama’s former state superintendent Tommy Bice led the groundbreaking ceremony today for what will be the state’s largest charter school to open, located in the Woodlawn area in eastern Birmingham.
Bice chairs the board of i3 Academy, a public charter school set to open at the start of the 2020-21 school year with 420 students in Kindergarten through fifth grade.
Charter schools are tuition-free public schools that are allowed flexibility from some state requirements in exchange for more accountability. Charter schools that do not meet their academic and other goals can be closed. Four public charter schools, one in each of the cities of Mobile, Livingston, Montgomery and Birmingham, are currently operating in Alabama.
“So often schools are focused on the needs and the ideas of the adults,” Bice told the crowd of 100 people gathered in the heat on Tuesday afternoon. “We want to ensure that our school is focused on the voices of the children, which are often forgotten.” The gathering was held inside the shell of the former First Baptist Church on 48th Street North, which will now house the school’s campus.
Charter board member and parent Shun Boler said the school was formed after talking with members of the community about the need for better educational opportunities. "Our solution was a public charter," Boler said.
“We wanted a school where the community could take true ownership,” Boler said, “and we could avoid all the politics and the bureaucracy that comes with education that keeps our scholars from learning at their potential.”
“The people of Woodlawn told us they want to learn in an environment where imagination is embraced and encouraged,” Bice said, “where investigation is the method through which learning occurs and the school promotes a culture of innovation not only among its students, but its faculty, staff and community.”
Gus Smith, a Woodlawn resident who lives in a house across the street from the school, spoke during the groundbreaking ceremony. "This is the greatest day I've ever seen," Smith said.
Smith said the new school will revitalize the neighborhood. "This is something Woodlawn has needed for a long time." Smith said his grandchildren are looking forward to attending school at i3 Academy.
In opening remarks, Bice thanked Alabama Senate President Pro Tem Del Marsh, R-Anniston, who attended the groundbreaking and championed the passage of the law allowing charter schools to operate in Alabama in 2015.
That law, Bice said, “made it possible for organizations like ours and others across the state of Alabama to provide high-quality educational opportunities for children in areas where they may not have those opportunities.”
Bice is no stranger to Birmingham schools, having overseen a contentious intervention into Birmingham City Schools from 2012 until 2015.
Bice retired from the state superintendent’s office in March 2016 and became education director for the MG Goodrich Foundation, a charitable organization that has invested heavily in education and other philanthropic ventures in the Woodlawn area, including i3 Academy.
The Birmingham Board of Education rejected i3 Academy's initial application in January, but the charter school appealed to the Alabama Public Charter School Commission, who reversed the Birmingham school board's decision in March 2019.
Bice said he doesn't agree with those who pit public charter schools against non-charter public schools.
"We're going to be a public school in the city of Birmingham," Bice said, "which will just add to their offerings." Bice said he hopes the charter school will keep students from leaving Birmingham schools, which has had about 700 fewer students from year to year.
“I had no idea I would find myself here,” Bice said to AL.com after the ceremony, “but it fits perfectly into what I always said as state superintendent: if you truly want to provide the best possible services for children, you want on your table every possible solution to provide quality education, charter being one of them.”
The academy’s head of school, Dr. Martin Nalls, told attendees how the school will differ from other public schools.
“First,” Nalls said, “we will have the best teachers in the world." To help make that happen, he said, the school will pay the highest salaries in the metropolitan Birmingham area.
The school will have low student-teacher ratios, Nalls said, and each classroom will have both a lead teacher and an assistant teacher.
Nalls said the school will have a culturally responsive curriculum, meaning books and materials will reflect the students experiences in their daily lives. “When our students read a story,” he said, “it’s going to sound like the stories of their families.”
Students will have access to health, dental, and mental health services, Nalls said, through the school. “It’s not only about [students] achieving academically,” he said, “but it’s about them being a whole person.”
The school will offer an extended school day and summer learning opportunities, too, he said.
Families with children going into Kindergarten through fifth grade next fall who want their children to enroll can complete an application beginning Oct. 1. The first tier of enrollment will be opened only to Birmingham residents, he said. Though there is a process, Nalls said, there are no academic or other requirements for students to enroll.
If more students enroll than the schools has space for them, Nalls said, they will hold a lottery.
Legacy Prep, Birmingham’s first charter school, opened Aug. 5 with 130 students in Kindergarten through second grade on the city’s west side in the Daniel Payne Community Plaza.
Correction 8/23/2019 2:00 p.m. - corrected the name of the church site on which i3 Academy is being built to the former First Baptist Church.