Emily Featherston
Liberty Park Middle School and Pizitz Middle School are separated by only 15 driving miles, but some parents are concerned that more than Highway 280 and I-459 divide the schools.
On Tuesday, Vestavia Hills City Schools superintendent Sheila Phillips held the first of two public forums to discuss academic alignment between the two middle schools and discuss what the school might do going forward.
Phillips said the urgency for the meetings became apparent after recent forums to discuss facility use within the school system. At those meetings, Phillips said it became clear that some parents and others in the community were operating under assumptions about differences between the schools that weren't necessarily true.
"It became clear we needed to have some more conversation," she said.
She said parents have expressed concern that the learning environments at LPMS and Pizitz are noticeably different, and that students at LPMS might be missing out.
Phillips prefaced her presentation by saying that over the last three years there have been significant changes to the school system from top to bottom, and that in making those changes and shifts, some alignment issues have already begun to work themselves out.
In 2014, when the system went through its accreditation process, she said the board and administrators were able to more accurately understand where the school system stood and what areas they needed to address.
“What I do hope to clarify for you is that we have put alignment pieces into place,” she said, adding that the things that have been done aren't necessarily "tangible," and therefore parents might not be aware of them.
The major areas Phillips described included a focus to align the school system from kindergarten through 12th grade, including streamlining assessment models and curriculum content in core subjects such as math, English, science and social studies.
She said the school system has also tried to streamline evaluation processes for teachers and allow teachers from the same grade level to collaborate across discipline and even geographical barriers.
Phillips stressed near the end of the presentation that going forward, no decisions have been made. She said she has heard the "conspiracy theories" that the Board of Education has already decided how to align the schools, but she said that is untrue, and that they wouldn't go through the process of having public forums if that was the case.
When the floor was opened for questions, several parents asked Phillips if she could specifically say what measures will be put in place for the 2017-2018 academic year, such as adding advanced English and advanced social studies classes to the LPMS schedule. Others were concerned with the disparity between the two schools' schedules, LPMS operating on a five-block schedule while Pizitz has an eight-period schedule.
Others said they were concerned that LPMS was not receiving equal resources for things such as band and the library, and wanted to know how the board planned to address resources.
Phillips said that Tuesday's meeting was the first step in a long line of future steps, including the meeting on Thursday. After hearing from the public forums, she said she will meet with administrators, teachers and the board, and that curriculum planning will officially commence in October.
"I can't fix it all tonight," she said, but added that she wants to continue to bring people to the table to discuss possible solutions and move forward in a direction that makes sense for both schools.
On Thursday, the second forum was presented with a proposal that would make the course offerings at LPMS more similar to those at Pizitz. The proposal included adding gifted science to 6th grade, gifted and advanced English to 7th and 8th grades, respectively, and adding French and German to the foreign language program.
Formal curriculum decisions are scheduled to continue through the month of October.
Updated on Sept. 22 to include information about the second forum.
