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The Greater Shelby County Chamber of Commerce recently held a panel discussing the state of Shelby County Schools at its luncheon in July.
Superintendents Dr. Wayne Vickers of Alabaster City Schools, Dr. Scott Coefield of Pelham City Schools and Randy Fuller of Shelby County Schools were selected as panelists with local comedienne Cassandra Porter acting as moderator.
Questions were submitted by chamber members at its luncheon in June and selected by the chamber’s Education Work Group. Vickers, Coefield and Fuller focused on the importance of implementing new technology in the classrooms as well as continuing to provide career and college preparation to its students.
When asked about the biggest challenges in providing an equal education for students of different backgrounds, Fuller cited lack of funding. Although Shelby County School System has not continued to have restrictions as large as the recession in 2008, Fuller said gaps still prevent some fulfillment of student needs.
“We have seven different communities and we have a wide socioeconomic background in those communities, but we look at the need of every one of those communities,” Fuller said. “Every student in every school has the same opportunity to be able to fulfill their needs there.”
Each superintendent also pointed out the positive affects of career programs and options to take dual enrollment or advanced placement courses.
“In curriculum, we really looked at partnerships related to the area of being prepared for the workforce of college, so we’re really excited about some of the development of our career academies,” Coefield said. “With each one of those academies, we are going to have an advisory board made up of partners from the business community, so we want them heavily involved in discussing the content of those courses.”
AP and dual enrollment classes have helped students at Pelham City Schools prepare for college courses and allow them to get some coursework out of the way before attending college, Coefield said when asked about the significance of offering both types of courses. AP courses allow students who are high-scoring test-takers to save money and achieve college credit before the end of high school, while dual enrollment is more beneficial for students who score average to lower on tests.
“I think it’s very important for people to understand, you have to really know your child,” Coefield said. “We’re trying to be flexible and offer dual enrollment and AP.”
After member-submitted questions were asked, audience members had the opportunity to address the panelists with additional questions. Audience members expressed concerns on math and science preparedness as well as the affect of social media on students’ interpersonal communication skills. Each school system explained current plans to implement stronger math and science programs in order to catch up with the national level.
“We are very pleased with the direction of our schools that we’ve seen in mathematics,” Vickers said. “But, I also know that there is sometimes a disconnect with the scores and some of the things that we’re assessing and the actual real world. I think that’s were the [career] academies come in.”
Each superintendent also said that programs for building students’ soft skill conversation have been implemented into college and career preparedness curricula, but Coefield added a concern that the change in communication throughout society will be difficult to avoid.
“The truth of it is that learning in the future is going to be personalized, it’s going to be independent, it’s going to be virtual,” Coefield said. “We have to figure out a way to get kids to collaborate in groups because that’s the way they have to function to solve problems in the real world.”
The chamber’s annual healthcare awards will be presented at its August luncheon. Visit shelbychamber.org for more information.
