Purpose

The purpose of this task is to evaluate the capacity of each public school system in the primary study area to absorb increases of students and to address the concerns raised by parents whose jobs are being transferred because of BRAC. Education is one of the top concerns raised by potential BRAC transfers. The school systems where most of the BRAC-impacted personnel currently reside are highly ranked, and parents have questions about the quality of education, the capacity of the schools, and services for special needs students in the vicinity of Redstone Arsenal.

Research

Within two weeks of the notice to proceed the Consultant Team will assemble an Education Task Force (ETF). The ETF will include superintendents, the presidents of the school boards, and the state board rep(s) from the primary study area. It will also include representatives from existing education groups such as the Business-Education Coalition, the Schools Foundation, and the Huntsville/Madison County Workforce Coalition to provide information on initiatives related to education improvement, school funding and policy.

Dave Hargrove, Education Task Force Chair More Photos »

The purpose of the ETF will be to help the communities respond to the concerns and expectations of the incoming families. ETF members will be asked to provide needed information to the Consultant Team. In turn, we will provide them information to assist with their education planning efforts. The Consultant Team will send out invitations and follow-up as necessary to encourage participation. We will set up a kick-off meeting with the ETF to determine the agenda of this group as it relates to the impact from Redstone Arsenal. Integrated into this agenda will be the workforce development issues raised in the Department of Labor NEG studies and those being addressed by the Valley Innovation Alliance WIRED grant. In addition, a profile of the school systems from which the majority of the BRAC-impacted families will be coming will be developed and shared with the ETF as a basis of comparison.

The Consultant Team will meet with representatives of the U.S. Department of Education, the Department of Defense and other BRAC-impacted communities similar to the Redstone Arsenal vicinity to identify best practices and issues that the Huntsville/Madison County community may not yet be aware of. Based on these discussions and the subsequent research, we will prepare a questionnaire that will be distributed to the members of the ETF for review and comments. The intent of this questionnaire is to provide a common means for assessing the capacity of the local school districts and their schools to absorb additional students, to incur additional debt for capital improvements, and to increase the capabilities of the teachers to meet new and expanding educational requirements. In addition, this questionnaire will solicit information on K-12 programs as they relate to the following:

• Quantity of available classrooms;
• Need for additional classrooms;
• Number of advanced placement (AP) classes;
• Percentage of students who go on to college;
• Dollars awarded in scholarships;
• Drop-out rate and existing programs to reduce it;
• Number of schools with Alabama Math, Science, and Technology Initiative program (AMSTI); and
• Capacity to accommodate additional special needs students.

Once the common measures and questions are determined, members of the ETF will be asked to complete the questionnaire for each district. The Consultant Team will analyze the results of these questionnaires and prepare a summary document for distribution to the ETF for review and comments.

The Consultant Team will prepare a series of recommendations responding to the findings from the previous tasks. These recommendations will be designed to address key educational needs arising from Redstone Arsenal’s impact with the intent of using these recommendations as an initial point of discussion for a workshop with the ETF. We will include relevant information from such sources as the Southern Regional Education Board, National Governors Association, Alabama Department of Education, The National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, the BRAC Impact Aid program, and other regional educational adjustment programs.

The Consultant Team will meet with the ETF in a two-day retreat/workshop to develop a mutually-agreed upon approach to tackling the educational needs arising from the Arsenal’s impact. The product of this workshop will be a series of recommended strategies for the region’s school districts, potential sources of funding for these strategies, and an implementation plan for moving this process forward.

The Consultant Team will prepare an educational plan of action that incorporates the results from the ETF workshop and any additional research necessary to flesh out the action steps and to follow-up on possible funding sources. This will include reviewing the State of Alabama requirements regarding distribution of funds for local schools. This plan will include a spreadsheet that demonstrates for each school district its ability to absorb new students, its critical adjustment needs, and possible funding options for each identified issue such as the BRAC Impact Aid program.

The Consultant Team will meet with the ETF to discuss the plan and make modifications as deemed necessary. We will also discuss strategies to obtain the support of the State legislature to support these new or modified efforts. The plan will be submitted to the superintendents of the local school districts for their review and comments. The results of this plan will be incorporated and integrated into the overall plan of action for this project.

Work Products