August 11th 2026 study session
P A A C T B O A R D R E C A P
August 11, 2026 Study Session
BIRMINGHAM PUBLIC SCHOOLS BOARD OF EDUCATION · EDUCATION & ADMINISTRATION CENTER · 6:00 PM
A study session is where the board discusses items before taking formal action. No votes are taken. This session covered three things: how the bell to bell phone ban will operate at the high schools, a proposed early childhood partnership with the Community House, and the return of the World History and U.S. History materials, which are now headed for a vote at the August 25 regular meeting. Official figures come from the agenda packet. The district did not record this session; this recap is based on PAACT's in-person notes.
SUPERINTENDENT'S REPORT
Phone ban: how it will work at the high schools
Most of the session went to the bell to bell wireless device ban adopted July 7 and how it will operate at Seaholm and Groves. Administration said it has heard from many high school parents since the vote, mostly on the operational mechanics, and was candid that some answers will not be settled until the school year is lived.
What was answered
School stores and cafeterias still take cash, and families can preload student food service accounts, so no student needs a phone or a payment card to buy lunch. Students may use personal headphones when a teacher expressly permits it for an instructional purpose, such as language labs, and must put them away afterward. High school student email accounts can receive outside messages, so a parent who needs to reach a student during the day can email the student account, which students can check on district devices. Spaces outside the cafeteria, including the media center, the athletic hallway commons, and a counseling zen room, are open to students at lunch, addressing concerns about students who may be anxious or seek quieter spaces during lunch.
What is still being worked out
Individual schedule changes driven from home, such as pickup and sibling arrangements, do not have a clean answer yet. Administration acknowledged front offices of three or four staff cannot relay individual messages across a school of 1,100 students, and said the best plan is for families to settle the day's logistics before school. Buildings will lean on the PA system for schedule announcements, with Seaholm already using passing time for updates, and first week schedule changes will likely run through district devices rather than printed copies. Administration noted passing time counts as instructional time under the law, so lunch is the only window even potentially open, and that some neighboring districts are interpreting the law differently. When ideas like building a notification system into district devices came up, Trustee Hochkammer pushed back, noting that the board voted to remove this kind of access and that creating new technology workarounds cuts against the purpose of the ban. Trustee Zammit responded that the practical problems are real and still need solutions. The idea was set aside. Communication specific to each level is coming to families before the year starts.
PRESENTATION & DISCUSSION
A new early childhood partnership at the Community House
The Community House Foundation has selected BPS to run the early childhood center at the Community House in downtown Birmingham, a year round program serving children as young as six weeks. The center's prior program closed in May when the building changed hands, and its license was closed out, so the state treats this as a brand new childcare center. Every inspection starts over, a process the state estimates at four to eight weeks. The program would be play based using HighScope, similar to what families there were accustomed to, and the district has been in conversation with the former director about continuity, including whether prior staff and families would return.
One fact worth knowing as this moves forward: Dr. Roberson serves on the Community House Foundation board, appointed by the Birmingham City Commission in June 2026 as one of its seven at-large members. The foundation is the entity BPS would lease from.
The lease is not final. When it is, it comes back to the board for approval, along with the staffing and financial model. Administration framed the opportunity as a way to serve families the district cannot currently reach, noting BPS early childhood programming starts at eighteen months and does not run year round, and that the district enrolls far more kindergartners than it serves as four year olds. Trustees asked about insurance coverage for operating in a building the district does not own, which administration is looking into.
RETURNING AUGUST 25
The social studies textbooks come back for a vote
The World History and U.S. History materials, postponed in June, are returning to the voting agenda August 25. The discussion tonight was the longest of the evening and covered both the materials and what the June postponement meant, with trustees consulting the draft minutes to reconstruct the motion: the June resolution was amended to approve only the economics and government materials, postponing the two history texts without a date certain.
Since June, administration reviewed the original RFP process and found it fair, revisited the other publisher responses, including the committee's alternate choice, and confirmed in writing that the publisher has shelved its planned 2028 edition with no update coming, citing the difficulty of selling social studies texts nationally. One trustee described spending hours since June reviewing alternatives from other publishers and finding none that addressed the concerns raised.
The recommendation now on the table: purchase the McGraw-Hill texts, about $200,000 for both over six years, and pair them with a standing review process. Teacher teams would work quarterly with Oakland Schools social studies consultants, university experts, and members of communities underrepresented or omitted in the text, identifying passages not to use and selecting primary sources to supplement, with the results written into the curriculum guides used across both high schools. The texts would not be used first semester; whether they enter classrooms second semester or next fall would be up to the teachers, who will be brought together to set the timeline. Trustees asked how supplemental materials will be balanced and vetted.
Concerns raised in the discussion: the cost of purchasing books that may sit unused for months, the age of the 2023 edition, and whether a fresh RFP would surface anything better. The counterpoint that carried the room: the current materials are older still, no better text exists to find, and the review process is the solution rather than a delay of one.
ALSO FROM THE MEETING
Closed session
The board moved into closed session under Section 8(c) of the Open Meetings Act, which permits closed sessions for strategy and negotiation connected with collective bargaining. Study sessions take no formal action.
PAACT'S NOTE
What we noticed
This was a long, careful conversation. Trustees asked about balance, representation, cost, and process, and pushed until they understood what they were being asked to approve. That is what deliberation looks like, and it is worth naming when it happens.
Two things sit with us. First, the adoption process is long by design, and it includes a review window: board members, parents, and the public can all view proposed materials for a two week period during the curriculum process. Trustees had the same window families did, and the vote was already postponed once in June. Some of tonight's confusion about what that postponement meant is a process question the board may want to sit with.
Second, we would welcome this same level of care applied to student behavior, learning outcomes, and the support of teachers. Tonight showed the board knows how to deliberate when a subject has its full attention. Those subjects deserve it too.
ON THE CALENDAR
Coming up
The next regular meeting is Tuesday, August 25 at 7:00 PM at the Education Advisory Center, where the World History and U.S. History materials are expected on the voting agenda. The Community House lease returns to the board when finalized. The facilities bond is on the November 3 ballot. Every regular meeting and study session includes public comment.
