By Ariel Worthy
The Birmingham Times
Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin was back to knocking on doors Monday, much as he did when campaigning for mayor last year.
But this time Woodfin, joined by Birmingham City Schools superintendent Dr. Lisa Herring and other education advocates, knocked on doors in Tuxedo Junction in Ensley as part of a yearlong initiative that will gather input from families and students who attend Birmingham City Schools.
The All In Campaign for Change is a partnership between the City of Birmingham, Birmingham City Schools and the Birmingham Education Foundation.
“For our school system to be successful it’s important that we have parental buy-in and parental input,” said Woodfin, a former school board president. “It can’t be left to our superintendent and our school employees alone. In order for that to happen we need to acknowledge that all parents can’t come to us, it’s important that we come to the parents.”
The campaign launched on the first day of school for BCS students and covered some of the same territory Woodfin traversed when he campaigned for mayor. “One of the things on repeat [from the voters last year] was their children’s education,” Woodfin said.
Eunice Patterson, whose grandchildren – ages 7 and 15 – started school on Monday, said she was happy to see the mayor and other education proponents.
“I’ve been looking forward to seeing a lot of the changes that he’s been talking about,” she said. “And anything I can do to support him, or help him, I’m all for it. Our kids need somebody.”
Herring said the school system has a responsibility to provide high-quality education for families. “Listening and speaking directly to parents and families helps us keep an accurate pulse on their experiences, needs and desires,” she said.
J.W. Carpenter, executive director of the Birmingham Education Foundation, said the partnership will benefit students, educators and families.
“We are excited to expand that effort this year in partnership with the mayor’s office and Birmingham City Schools,” he said. “It makes more sense for those of us at the Birmingham Ed Foundation to go where the community is and talk to them where they are, at their homes in their libraries, in their community centers.”
As part of the All In Campaign for Change, members of the Ed Foundation will distribute surveys and conduct phone interviews and face-to-face conversations to gain feedback from families about education concerns and more.
Meryem Tunagur, community engagement manager with the Ed Foundation who helped coordinate Monday’s event, said she knew the campaign had to be a grassroots effort, but must grow from there.
“We will have a volunteer base where people are welcome to go online to sign up to volunteer,” she said.
There are four phases of the campaign, Tunagur said.
“The first phase is surveying,” she said. “We’re gathering data so we’re sending surveys out to parents, to alumni, to students to fill out. The main purpose of that survey is ‘what do you see are problems affecting our students?’”
The second phase is phone conversations.
“We’re asking further questions,” she said.
The third phase is face-to-face conversations.
“It’s the mayor and superintendent going into people’s homes and having conversations and further listening to them,” she said.
The fourth phase is focus groups.
“We’re getting people together to strategize and make a plan for how we can make solutions,” she said. “The community will identify problems and come up with solutions for them.”
Click here to read more about Mayor Woodfin and Dr. Herring.
