September 2026 Newsletter
I hope the start of the school year has been amazing for your family. This month I want to share a few things I am watching in the district, and a note on what is coming next.
Something caught my eye at Greenfield's curriculum night, thanks to a parent who sent along a few photos. Greenfield presented a set of schoolwide behavior expectations to families: a short list of what students commit to every day, a description of what happens when a student is having trouble meeting those expectations, and a page of options for what to do when there is a problem. The sheet has signature lines for the student, parent, teacher, and principal.
I was not able to attend our own curriculum night because it fell on the same evening as a board meeting. Clear, written expectations that families see up front is something I have asked for in every conversation I have had with the district this year, and I am glad to see it in a building. It gives parents something concrete to point to when they have a question.
If your school has rolled out anything similar, or anything new at all this fall, I would like to hear about it. Reply to this email or send it to paact.birmingham@gmail.com.
In July the board adopted a bell-to-bell wireless device policy for every grade, JK through 12. Students are not to use their devices at any point in the school day, including lunch and passing time. From what I am hearing, high school staff are enforcing the policy to the best of their ability. I am also hearing from parents that middle schoolers at Berkshire are still using their phones during the day. That is secondhand, so I am asking. If you have a middle schooler at Berkshire, Derby, or BCS, I would like to know what you are seeing. The policy the board adopted applies the same way in every building, and PAACT's interest is in whether it is being carried out consistently. I have since heard that the board may be revoting on this policy in the near future.
The board has had a busy few months. The phone policy went from a restriction during instructional time to bell-to-bell for all grades and was adopted in July. The World History and U.S. History textbooks were held over the summer and passed 4-1 in August. The facility utilization study was presented in May, and its numbers were corrected at the August 25 meeting. And on September 8 the district gave its first full presentation on the proposed Community House early childhood program, without cost figures, with the lease going to closed session. Every one of these is in the recaps below.
As a parent following along, it is hard to see the path from discussion to decision. When a policy changes shape between meetings, when a vote is held past the review period, when numbers are presented and then corrected, families are left to fill in the gaps on their own. I have shared that with board members directly, and I will keep doing that. A board that shows its work is easier to trust, and easier to support.
Three seats on our board are on the November ballot, and three people are running for them, one of whom already holds a seat. Across town, 34 people are running for five seats on the Detroit school board. When a race is contested, candidates have to explain what they believe and how they will govern, and families get to compare. It concerns me that in a district with as many resources and as many engaged families as ours, we will not have that opportunity this year. We will not get to choose our board based on what each candidate believes governance should look like, because there is no choice to make.
On the Community House topic, here is where things stand. In June, the Birmingham City Commission appointed Dr. Roberson to the board of directors of the Community House Foundation. In August, the district was selected to operate the foundation's early childhood center and began negotiating a lease with it. PAACT wrote to the full Board on August 12 asking how a superintendent who serves on the landlord's board can be kept out of a lease negotiation with that landlord, and asking for the lease, the projections, and the legal review to be made public before any vote. The Board answered in writing. It committed that the CFO would negotiate, that Dr. Roberson would not participate, that a legal opinion would be sought, and that the lease and financials would be posted with the meeting materials. The CFO is now on a leave of absence, and PAACT has asked the Board who is handling the negotiation in his place. That question has not been answered. On September 8 the posted materials contained no lease and no financial figures, and the lease discussion moved to closed session, which the law allows. The district's existing early childhood fund has needed General Fund support three years running.
PAACT is not opposed to early childhood expansion. But before the district expands into a new location for children it is not yet responsible for, it should be able to show that the students it is already responsible for are not the ones absorbing the cuts. Families have watched programs, staff, and services trimmed year after year in the name of right-sizing and saving money. A district that is still cutting for its K-12 students should not be growing somewhere else without real numbers, in public, before it commits.
If you are following any of this closely, I would like to hear what you are seeing and what questions you have. It helps me know where to focus.
The August 25 and September 8 board recaps are attached
If you missed our August back-to-school meeting with April Imperio, the presentation is posted here: August Presentation.
The board meets again tonight at 7 at the Education and Administration Center. I will have the recap from that meeting, along with details on the next PAACT meeting, in an email within the next two weeks. I apologize for sending two emails this month. The September meetings landed only a week apart, which is not the normal cadence.
The more closely I have paid attention this year, the more convinced I am that this district needs transparency, and needs it more than ever.
If you have questions about any of this, or if there is something you think I am missing, reach out.
Betsy McDaniel
PAACT
