Alabama voters to decide on abolishing elected school board
If the measure passes, Kay Ivey will appoint all nine members of the new Alabama Commission on Elementary and Secondary Education.
Alabama republican party opposes appointed school board
The Alabama Republican Party is against a proposal to replace the state’s elected school board with one appointed by the governor. The state party’s executive committee voted Saturday to oppose the constitutional amendment before state voters in March. The decision breaks with Republican Gov. Kay Ivey and Republican Senate Pro Tem Del Marsh who have endorsed an appointed board. The proposed new education commission would be appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Alabama Senate. The amendment also includes a directive to replace Common Core curriculum standards with new standards. The GOP resolution said they urge people to vote no and “retain our right to elect” school board members. The resolution said they also fear the new standards will lock in Common Core “by a different name.” Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
Understanding Shelby County local amendment 1: school board voting rights
When Alabamians get to the polls on Tuesday, Nov. 6, voters in some counties will see local amendments on the ballot. Here’s a look at what residents of Shelby County need to know about a local amendment they’ll see on the ballot. On the ballot: PROPOSED LOCAL AMENDMENT NUMBER ONE (1) Relating to Shelby County, proposing an amendment to the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, to require that the members of the county board of education and the county superintendent of education be elected by the qualified electors of the county residing outside of the corporate limits of any city with a separate board of education. (Proposed by Act 2017-151) Vote: Yes/No What it means: If passed, the amendment would remove residents of cities with their own school systems (i.e.: Hoover, Pelham and Alabaster) from voting on the Shelby County Board of Education superintendent and School Board members. Sample ballot Click out the Shelby County sample ballot: Front side | Back side Don’t live in Shelby County? Find your county’s sample ballot here.
Birmingham Board of Education election results 2017
District 1 Bennie M. Holmes: 277 votes | 6.86 percent Douglas Lee Ragland: 1,027 votes | 25.45 percent Keith Rice: 418 votes | 10.36 percent Cedric Small: 1,497 votes | 37.10 percent Jerry Tate: 816 votes | 20.22 percent District 2 Terri Michal: 1,717 votes | 50.18 percent Brandon McCray: 1,705 votes | 49.82 percent District 3 Larry J. Contri: 1,129 votes | 29.01 percent Mary Drennen Boehm: 2,763 votes | 70.99 percent District 4 Daagye Hendricks: 1,308 votes | 34.29 percent (incumbent) Amber Courtney: 717 votes | 18.79 percent Edward Maddox: 1,790 votes | 46.92 percent District 5 Buford L. Burks: 148 votes | 3.62 percent Eloise M. Crenshaw: 329 votes | 8.05 percent Martha McDowell: 565 votes | 13.82 percent David T. McKinney: 628 votes | 15.36 percent Mickey Millsap: 1,236 votes | 30.23 percent Andrea Mitchell: 332 votes | 8.12 percent Aaisha Muhammad: 476 votes | 11.64 percent Angela Scoggins-Watson: 375 votes | 9.17 percent District 6 Cheri Gardner: 2,946 votes | 79.24 percent (incumbent) Ervin Philemon Hill Sr: 772 votes | 20.76 percent District 7 Wardine Alexander: 1,197 votes | 26.23 percent (incumbent) Patricia S. McAdory: 1,836 votes | 40.24 percent Walter Wilson: 1,530 votes | 33.53 percent District 8 P.B. Henderson: 1,178 votes | 29.58 percent Tyrone Silmon: 1,093 votes | 27.45 percent Sonja Q. Smith: 1,252 votes | 31.44 percent Antwon Womack: 459 votes | 11.53 percent District 9 Sandra Kelley Brown: 3,136 votes | 68.10 percent (incumbent) Lawrence Jackson: 1,469 votes | 31.90 percent *Fully bolded row denotes winner
Judge dismisses Tuscaloosa school board election lawsuit
A judge has dismissed a lawsuit in a three-year-old dispute involving a school board election in Tuscaloosa. Media outlets report that Tuscaloosa County Circuit Court Judge Jim Robert’s decision came Tuesday afternoon. The case stems from the 2013 Tuscaloosa City Board of Education election, when then-incumbent school board member Kelly Horwitz was defeated by challenger Cason Kirby. Horwitz says illegal votes, which violated the 30-day residency requirement for municipal elections, were cast for Kirby. She also says Kirby was unfairly elected by members of the University of Alabama’s Greek organization that practice bloc voting. To win the election contest, Horwitz needed 88 people who cast invalid votes to admit they voted for Kirby. Roberts dismissed the case, saying it was clear Horwitz didn’t have enough people’s testimony to alter the results. Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
Jim Zeigler files suit in Baldwin County school tax campaign case
State auditor Jim Zeigler said late Monday morning that he has filed suit to prevent taxpayer dollars from paying for public campaigns to increase local tax receipts. The move is a legal remedy to a legal opinion offered by Attorney General Luther Strange, who permitted local officials with the Baldwin County School Board to leverage public money in order to fund their “Build Baldwin Now” campaign, which sought to increase three local tax rates to build new schools, which the group said was inadequate, and on boarding new teachers. Zeigler said in Loxley Monday morning at the Windscape Hotel that the campaign, reported on widely by state media, represented a violation of a state prohibition against the “improper use of state property, time, etc., for political activities,” under the Code of Alabama 17-17-5(a). “No person in the employment of the State of Alabama, a county, a city, a local school board, or any other governmental agency, whether classified or unclassified, shall use any state, county, city, local school board, or other governmental agency funds, property, or time, for any political activities,” the section mentioned in Zeigler’s complaint reads. The auditor’s case will go before the Circuit Court of Montgomery and seeks “declaratory and injunctive relief” on behalf of Alabama taxpayers, meaning that Zeigler and the other plaintiffs — including Charles L. McMinn and David Peterson — want a judgment that says using public coffers to induce taxpayers into giving more is wrong and that orders any public official doing so to cease and desist. The full text of the complaint can be found here. Zeigler insists his lawsuit serves a purely utilitarian public purpose and is not meant to capitalize on the still-raw feelings many carried away from the March 31 election, which saw a shocking defeat for the school system and a big win for anti-tax groups. “We’re not trying to flame up opinions in Baldwin County where 68 percent of ‘no’ votes were pretty strong,” Zeigler told AL.com last week, responding to such criticism. Alabama Today previously reported that Zeigler would file the lawsuit this week on Friday, but after his announcement the auditor’s office apparently decided to expedite the process.
