About PAACT

Schools where teachers can teach and every child can learn.

PAACT is an independent coalition of parents, taxpayers and community members who want Birmingham Public Schools to be strong, safe and well run.

We want to be part of the solution.

Who we are

We are parents who showed up, asked questions, and decided to stay.

PAACT stands for Parents Allied for Accountability, Conduct, and Transparency. We started in April 2026 with a simple concern: teachers need to be able to teach, and students need to be able to learn.

Today our families come from all 13 schools in the district. We read the board packets, request the public records and sit in the meetings. Then we put what we find in one place, in plain language, so any family can follow along.

The district's own strategic plan calls for partnership with families and the community. We take that at its word.

Where we start

It starts with behavior.

Behavior is where PAACT began, and it is still where we start. When a classroom has clear expectations and a consistent response behind them, a teacher can teach. When it does not, the cost shows up everywhere else.

We see behavior as both a cause and an effect of how a school is doing. Each step below leans on the one before it.

  1. BehaviorClear expectations, applied the same way in every building.
  2. Teaching timeFewer disruptions, and more of the day spent on learning.
  3. TeachersStaff who feel backed up are more likely to stay.
  4. ResultsSteady classrooms and steady staff show up in what students learn.
  5. TrustFamilies who can see how things work trust their schools.

Birmingham is not alone in this.
That is the reason to act.

Schools across Michigan and across the country are working through the same thing. We would like Birmingham to be one of the districts that faces it openly and gets back on track.

What we look at

One concern led to the next.

The more we looked at behavior, the more it connected to everything around it. These turned out to be parts of the same picture.

  1. Behavior and discipline

    What the Code of Conduct says, how it is applied from building to building, and what the district's own records show.Discipline dataCode of Conduct

  2. Academics

    State test results and district diagnostics, school by school and year by year.M-STEPi-Ready

  3. Teachers and staff

    What staff say about support and school climate, and whether the people who teach our kids are staying.Climate surveyIn the classroom

  4. Student wellbeing

    What students themselves report about safety, belonging and health.MiPHY survey

  5. Decisions and spending

    How the board makes decisions, what it votes on and where the money goes.Board recapsGovernance

  6. Communication with families

    Whether families can find out what is happening in their schools without having to file a records request.Family resources

What we believe

Three things we keep coming back to.

Learning time comes first.

Every student is in school to learn. Protecting instructional time protects all of them, including the student who is struggling.

Clear rules, applied the same way.

When discipline policies are well defined, applied consistently across all 13 schools and explained openly, teachers are supported, students know what to expect and families can trust the process.

Families are partners.

Schools cannot do this alone. Parents have a part too, starting with our own children's behavior and with showing up informed.

How we work

The way we go about it matters as much as what we find.

We are not here as adversaries. Our focus is on policies, systems and patterns, and never on individual students, teachers or families.

  • Partnership over confrontation.We ask before we assume, and we go to the district and the board first.
  • Data over grievance.We publish the district's and the state's own numbers and show where each one came from. If we cannot source it, we do not post it.
  • Solutions over blame.We would rather help fix something than be right about it.

A message from the founder

Why I started PAACT

As a mother of three boys, I know our children's future depends on the environment where they spend their days. We are fortunate to have dedicated teachers and staff. Too often they are asked to do the impossible: provide a high-level education in classrooms that keep getting disrupted, without a consistent response behind them.

I started PAACT because I don't think we can sit back and watch our schools drift. This isn't coming from frustration. It's coming from wanting these schools to be excellent. What began as a question about behavior turned into a bigger one about how we support teachers, how decisions get made and how much families are told.

Birmingham is not the only district facing this. I would like us to be one that faces it openly and gets back on track. I'd love to see a real partnership between families, teachers and district leadership that puts learning first.

Betsy McDanielFounder, PAACT Birmingham

Get involved

You don't have to do much to matter here.

Read what we have posted. Come to a board meeting. Tell us what you are seeing at your school. The more families who are paying attention, the better these schools get.

Join PAACTContact Us

PAACT · PO Box 626, Birmingham, MI 48012 · paact.birmingham@gmail.com