Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin, while acknowledging there are good teachers and administrators working hard for students in difficult circumstances, said Tuesday that any teachers not committed to improving the city’s struggling schools should just quit.
“If you are a teacher in the Birmingham City Schools, and you are lazy, and you’re doing the bare minimum, and you don’t care anymore about the children that come to your class, please resign,” Woodfin said. “Please retire. Please leave. We don’t want you. That’s pretty direct. Some people may get mad at me for saying that, but it needs to be said.”
Woodfin made the comments after reviewing the latest report card for schools that assesses school performance.
While Birmingham improved overall from a D to a C, Woodfin said that’s not good enough.
“C’s, in my humble opinion, are not good enough,” Woodfin said.
Woodfin, who attended Birmingham City Schools through eighth grade, said he takes city school performance personally. His mother taught for 11 years and his stepmother taught for 33 years in the system, he said.
Before being elected mayor in 2017, Woodfin had been president of the Birmingham City School Board. He recalled starting a mentoring group for middle school and junior high boys in which he asked if they were satisfied getting C’s. If they were, it meant they were either lazy, doing the bare minimum or didn’t care, he told them.
The same goes for employees of the Birmingham City School system, he said.
It’s not about blaming or pointing fingers, but accountability, Woodfin said. “We should not accept F’s and we should not be comfortable with C’s because these are our children,” he said.
Woodfin repeated his challenge to parents in districts with high absenteeism to make sure their children attend school. In October, Woodfin warned parents they could be arrested for truancy. Later, Jefferson County District Attorney Danny Carr said he would not prosecute parents because it would just make the situation worse.
Woodfin’s remarks Tuesday were in response to disappointing scores, with some exceptions.
Woodfin praised the three elementary schools and one high school in Birmingham that received a letter grade A: EPIC Alternative School, Phillips Academy, W.J. Christian, and Ramsay High School.
“It’s important that we say the good, the okay and the bad out loud,” Woodfin said.
He praised those schools that improved, such as Central Park Elementary School, where new Principal Rafiq Vaughn oversaw improvement from an F to a C in just three semesters, in a situation where the demographics are similar to other city schools.
“In one school year, he moved that system from an F to a C,” Woodfin said. “That is hard.”
Vaughn made an effort to find out what teachers needed to succeed, and helped them do their jobs better, Woodfin said. “He invested more into his teachers,” he said, arriving early, staying late, even washing their cars, “figuring out their needs and wants so they can maximize their time in front of the children.”
Students from poor households may place an extra burden on teachers, such as when a child shows up embarrassed in dirty clothes because there’s no washer and dryer in the home, Woodfin said.
“Kudos to the teachers that are busting their butt every day and giving everything,” Woodfin said. “What they do goes way beyond 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.”
