TCS Parent and Caregivers,

 

We continue to make great gains in the TCS thanks to our incredible educators, our hard working students, and supportive parents. As you will see in this newsletter and in our regular communications, we have students excelling in academics, athletics, and the arts. We have the most incredible educators from teachers, administrators, bus drivers, and meal services who are focused on our students' success and well-being. We want to again thank you for your support as we value you as a partner in your child's education.

 

Next week is spring break, and we hope you enjoy the week with your family. When we return, we have a limited time to until our end-of-year assessments are upon us. We will return on March 20 with a continued focus on making sure all of our students are growing on the standards so they can be successful in the end-of-year assessment of their learning.

 

Enjoy spring break and we look forward to seeing our students back in our schools on March 20.

The Tuscaloosa City Schools, along with the City of Tuscaloosa, the Alabama State Superintendent Dr. Eric Mackey and Nick and Terri Saban, celebrated Wednesday the announcement of $25.5 million in state capital funding that will be dedicated to an innovative STEM HUB at the future Saban Discovery Center.

 

The HUB will focus on Science, Technology, Engineering and Math and will be part of the children's IGNITE museum at the site, which will be located where the current Tuscaloosa News building stands. It will also offer professional development for educators, and a hands-on learning experience for all children.

 

“From the beginning, when we started this project, we said we had to involve our teachers,” said Audrey Buck, Director of the Saban Center. “Our team visited science and discovery museums across the country, and over and over again, we heard that they only involved their local schools after the fact, after they opened. And we are not going to make that mistake.”

 

The Saban Center, working in conjunction with IGNITE and the Tuscaloosa Children’s Theater, got with a group of Tuscaloosa City School teachers early to help drive the focus on the discovery center’s offerings, to ensure the IGNITE exhibits directly correlated with the Alabama curriculum, Buck said.

 

“We set out for the Saban Center to be a true extension of the classroom,” Buck added. “Dr. Daria put together a team of his brightest STEM minds and we challenged them to think outside of the box, and what they could do for our children. They came back with an amazing proposal, and blew us all away. We are not just going to be a field trip. We are going to be an integrated STEM HUB for the state of Alabama.”

 

The center will also offer professional development, workforce education, and immersive STEM programming.

 

“I believe we will look back and realize this is something that really kicked off and something that changed things for the students of our state and certainly our community here,” said Tuscaloosa City School Superintendent Dr. Mike Daria, who descripted the STEM HUB at the Saban Discovery Center as an integrative, hands on experience where students can immerse themselves in their learning. “Under the direction of Dr. Mackey, our public education, is headed in the right direction. We have the right plan, the right leadership, and I'm so excited to be part of that. The Saban Discovery Center, for us, is an accelerator of that change. We are so excited for the potential that this can have for our students and our future students to become a true change maker for Alabama and its future.”

 

In addition to the $25.5 million in capital funds, the state funding also includes $2.6 million over 10 years to be used for operations. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey announced the funding during her State of the State address Tuesday night.

 

 

The center entering into the final design phase currently, said Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox. The goal is for the final design done by the end of the 2023, and then for the project to get bids in 2024 and for it to be open in 2026.

Congrats to the TCS students who completed in the Central Alabama Science and Engineering Fair at UAB March 4!

 

Northridge Junior Yiwen Wang won the Energy and Transportation Division, and the overall top honor at the fair, which had more than 450 participants. She qualifies to compete at the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) in Dallas against a thousand students from more than 70 countries. Two other Northridge students, Mustafa Alperen Gurbuz and Adonay Mahatsente-Tewelde, won 2nd Place in the Engineering category with their project entitled, "Cleaning Up the World's Oceans with ROV-Mounted DNN-Based Underwater Laser Image Recognition."

 

Way to go, students!

TCS is sponsoring a friendly competition between schools March 1-April 7 to help raise donations for Neighborhood Bridges and we need your help! This will benefit TCS students and help stock "The Lift" at New Heights with items frequently requested through Neighborhood Bridges. All donations will directly benefit TCS students.

 

This is a wonderful opportunity for our students to learn about kindness and helping their friends and neighbors!

 

The “Slam Dunk for Students” campaign will run through April 7. Students may bring in new items for donation (ranging from $20 gift cards to a pack of socks or other new clothing) to their school, OR, if you would prefer to make a monetary donation on the Neighborhood Bridges website, be sure to list your child's school so that it gets credit for the donation. Also, be sure to subscribe to the Neighborhood Bridges website so that you know what the most up-to-date needs are of TCS students/schools at any given time.

 

Companies are welcome to donate in honor of a school to count toward the competition.

The elementary, middle and high schools with the highest number of donations from this "Slam Dunk for Students" campaign will get a trophy during a celebration in April!

Thanks to all of our incredible counselors and social workers who use Neighborhood Bridges to remove learning barriers for our students! Thank you for your support and let's Slam Dunk for Students!

 

Click here to donate online and/or subscribe: Neighborhood Bridges Tuscaloosa

Four Tuscaloosa City Schools and the Tuscaloosa City School District have been selected as model programs by the International Center for Leadership in Education (ICLE). Martin Luther King, Jr. Elementary, Eastwood Middle School, Tuscaloosa Magnet Schools Elementary, Tuscaloosa Magnet Schools Middle were named 2023 Model Schools, and the Tuscaloosa City School District has been named a Model District.

 

The four schools are part of a group of 30 Model Schools from across the United States that will share best practices at ICLE’s 31st Annual Model Schools Conference this summer.

 

"We have worked extremely hard for the past 3 years to transform the school culture at Martin Luther King, Jr. Elementary," said MLK Principal Dr. LaTanya Williams Collins. "Building healthy and positive relationships, providing social-emotional learning to all students, and providing continuous professional learning for teachers have helped us become a school that has a culture with high expectations and accountability for the entire school community that we serve. The recognition as a Model Elementary School has affirmed for us that we are moving in the right direction. We have seen proficient growth over the years that have had an impact on student learning and the culture."

 

Being selected as a model school is an honor, said TMS-E principal Preeti Nichani.

 

"We at TMS-E are so proud to be selected as a presenter at the 2023 Model Schools Conference," Nichani said. "We are looking forward to sharing our journey, energy, and passion with other K12 educators who are also inspiring greatness."

 

The International Center for Leadership in Education (ICLE), whose mission is to celebrate, inspire, and support today’s K-12 educators.

Congrats to Amber Whitcomb, a teacher at Woodland Forrest Elementary, who became a recipient of the Kathy Perkins Award for Accomplished Teaching this month. The award carries with it a scholarship that will be used to complete part of the application fee for Whitcomb to become a National Board Certified Teacher. Whitcomb, who teaches ??, also received the Teacher of the Year Award for the Tuscaloosa City Schools, elementary category, in December.

Each year, the Tuscaloosa City Schools offer a School Quality Survey, which is taken by parents, students and staff. This survey is vital in determining where we are doing well as a school system in the eyes of our constituents, but also, just as importantly, areas where we must improve and what the priorities are of our parents, students and staff. The survey will run for a period of two weeks. The survey is administered externally, by K12 Insight.

 

Keep an eye out for a link to the survey, which you will get via email on March 21.

Congrats to the winners of the Exchange Club of Tuscaloosa's Essay Contest. Each of these fourth graders wrote and presented an essay on "what American means to me."

These five winners were selected from a larger pool of fourth graders from various Tuscaloosa City Schools and were presented with a gift card and a certificate for their accomplishment.

Pictured are the winners with their teachers. L-R Ms. Whitehead and student Aleigha Conner, Woodland Forrest Elementary, Anita Kyselova and Ms. Simmons, Verner Elementary School, William Gilmore and Ms. Natalie Thomas, Verner Elementary, Ali Al-Thuwair, Ms. Woods and Abigal Salter, Tuscaloosa Magnet School. Congratulations to all! The Tuscaloosa ThreadNational Exchange ClubThe Tuscaloosa NewsWVUA 23Tuscaloosa City SchoolsWoodland Forrest Elementary SchoolVerner Elementary SchoolTuscaloosa Magnet Schools - Middle

Tuscaloosa Magnet Schools Middle will host an event focusing on how parents and students can get started early on creating a competitive college application, from resume development, GPA and student engagement. The session is open to all TCS parents and students, especially 8th grade students and their parents. The session will be held Tuesday, March 21 from 6 -7 p.m. at TMSM.

The Paul W. Bryant MCJROTC Academic Team has qualified for the JROTC Leadership & Academic Bowl (JLAB) National Championship. The team-composed of students from both Bryant High School and Northridge High School--successfully navigated two intense elimination rounds of online competition to claim their spot, earning top scores out of the 110 Marine Corps JROTC academic teams that competed from around the world.

 

The team is one of only eight MCJROTC Academic Bowl teams in the nation to advance to the final competition, which includes an all-expense paid trip to Washington, DC., where the championship will be held on the campus of The Catholic University of America, June 23-27, 2023.

 

During the two fast-paced preliminary rounds, cadets were tested on their knowledge of core curriculum such as math, science, and language arts as well as current events, citizenship, leadership skills, and financial literacy. Financial literacy videos are sponsored by the USAA Educational Foundation and provided to all cadets. Questions from the videos were included in Levels I and II of the online competition.

 

Team members Estefhania Marquez-Zamora and Daijah Hellem from Bryant High School, and sisters Grace & Faith York from Northridge High School credited their success to ACT preparation work that they did as part of their JROTC classes, as well as their own self-study. Cadet Faith York stated “The math, science, and English portions of the competition were just like ACT questions you would see on a typical test, so our ACT prep work really helped us answer the questions quickly in the 30 second time limit for each question.”

 

The JROTC Leadership & Academic Bowl is a nationally recognized competition created exclusively for JROTC students.

Letters were sent earlier this week notifying families with students at Central Elementary, Westlawn Middle and Paul W. Bryant High School of their eligibility to transfer within the Tuscaloosa City Schools for the 2023-24 school year based on the Alabama Accountability Act.

 

There are limited spots available at the designated transfer schools and a lottery will take place if there are more applicants than available spots. In the letters that went out this week, there is a link to fill out the transfer form. That link will go live on Monday, February 27 and will close on March 31.

 

Again, this is only for students who are at Central Elementary, Westlawn Middle and Paul W. Bryant High School.

It’s been at least 10 years since Central High School had a girls’ soccer team—until now.

The first girls’ soccer team in a decade played their first game Feb. 28 against Holy Spirit High School. The Central girls won, 1-0.

 

“The girls were thrilled but exhausted,” said CHS soccer coach Daniel Morton. “We don’t have that many substitutes, so many had to play the whole game. Even though they are still learning the game and how to play together, they played extremely hard and I couldn’t be more proud of them for that.”

 

There are 14 girls on the team. For many of them, it’s their first year playing soccer for CHS. In the last few years, there have been girls who played soccer at Central, but they played on a co-ed team instead of an all-girls team.

 

“Many of the girls have played co-ed with us for years, and I was excited to see them have a girls’ team like they deserve,” Morton said. “It was a big priority for me as a coach going into this season. I believe that both the girls and the boys deserved to have their own teams to compete in our area.”

This year, Central has three teams – junior varsity and varsity boys’ teams, as well as the girls’ team.

 

The Central girls’ soccer lost their second game, which was against Northridge High School, 7-0 on March 7.

The Mayor's Cup is set for April 29, 2023. This important annual event increases awareness about the importance of PreK and raises funding for PreK in Tuscaloosa City Schools. We need your participation! TCS employees and students will get a discount for registering by either doing early registration through Feb. 28 or by using the code “TCS2023” between Feb. 29-March 31, 2023. Discounted registration will be $15. Starting April 1, registration will be $25. Click here to register: https://www.tuscaloosamayorscup.com/