Tuscaloosa City Schools
Tuscaloosa City Schools | |
---|---|
![]() | |
Address | |
1210 21st Avenue Alabama
Public | |
Grades | Pre K-12 |
Superintendent | Dr. Michael J. Daria |
Schools | 23[1] |
Students and staff | |
Students | 10,500 |
Staff | 1,300 |
Other information | |
Website | tuscaloosacityschools.com |
Tuscaloosa City Schools is a public school district headquartered in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States. The district's boundaries include almost all of the city limits of Tuscaloosa.[2]
There are approximately 10,000 students enrolled in Tuscaloosa City Schools.[3] The Tuscaloosa City Schools provides instruction to more than 10,000 Pre-Kindergarten through 12th grade students throughout metropolitan Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Twenty-three schools comprise the district, including 12 elementary schools, 5 middle schools, 3 high schools, and 3 campuses dedicated to specialty education: one for students with special needs and those receiving alternative education, a school for students studying performing arts, and a career technical facility for grades 9 – 12.
History
![]() | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (January 2019) |
In 1884 the municipal government established the district, which had 247 white students and 173 black students in its first year. The schools remained segregated racially after
White students made up the majority of the district's students around 1979.
The district proposed establishing a new elementary school in the majority-white Rock Quarry area in 1993, and the court granted this action in 1995; the district did this to check if the federal court system, which was becoming increasingly conservative, would be pliable to lifting the court order. With the new school established, the district then asked for the entire desegregation order to be removed. To convince black leaders to appear at the federal hearings so they could give support to ending the desegregation order, white leaders suggested a quid pro quo of building new schools in black areas.[4]
Judge
In 2007 district officials felt alarmed as 22% of the total number of students were white, and a hotly-debated proposal to require more students to return to attendance zones was raised. After the association of the University of Alabama-area historic district asked the board members to consider assigning its area to majority-white schools, even though majority-black schools were closer, the board granted their request one day later, on May 3, 2007, when it voted 5–3 to establish the plan, with the three no votes being two black board members and Virginia Powell, a white board member who held the seat of the district including the university area.[4]
Paul McKendrick became superintendent in 2011.[4]
Schools
High schools
Former:
- Druid High School (for black students)
- Tuscaloosa High School(for white students)
Middle schools
- Eastwood Middle School
- Northridge Middle School
- The Alberta School of Performing Arts (PreK-8)
- Tuscaloosa Magnet Schools—Middle
- Westlawn Middle School
Elementary schools
- Arcadia Elementary School
- Central Elementary School
- Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School
- Oakdale Elementary School
- Rock Quarry Elementary School
- Tuscaloosa district officials proposed establishing the school and asking federal officials to allow them to do so, in 1993, as a way of seeing if the federal courts were pliable to lifting the whole desegregation order. Judge Blackburn accepted the formation of the school in 1995. Tuscaloosa officials at the time stated about half of the students would be white and the other half would be black. Initially, its student body was 24% black, and by 2014 it was 9% black. It was one of the schools in the district with the highest student performance metrics.[4]
- Skyland Elementary School
- Southview Elementary School
- Tuscaloosa Magnet Schools—Elementary
- University Place Elementary School
- Verner Elementary School
- Woodland Forrest Elementary School
Other campuses
- New Heights Community Resource Center
- The Alberta School of Performing Arts
- Tuscaloosa Career & Technology Academy
Failing schools
Statewide testing ranks the schools in Alabama. Those in the bottom six percent are listed as "failing." As of early 2018, both Paul W. Bryant High School and Central High School were included in this category. But, in the 2018–2019 school year, Central High School was removed from the failing school list.[5]
See also
References
- ^ "Tuscaloosa City Schools Homepage". tuscaloosacityschools.com. Retrieved July 11, 2017.
- U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved June 18, 2022.
- ^ Home Page – Tuscaloosa City Schools. Retrieved June 25, 2009.
- ^ a b c d e f g Hanna-Jones, Nikole (April 16, 2014). "Resegregation in the American South". The Atlantic. Retrieved January 14, 2019.
- ^ "Failing Alabama public schools: 75 on newest list, most are high schools". AL.COM. January 25, 2018. Retrieved January 26, 2018.