New Hoover school board President Kermit Kendrick outlines challenges

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Kermit Kendrick this week completed his first full Hoover school board meeting as president of the board.

The board in May elected Kendrick as its new leader for the coming year and chose Alan Paquette as vice president.

Kendrick said he is very proud of the success Hoover schools have achieved in recent years in recovering from the learning losses that occurred with the COVID-19 pandemic, noting that Hoover’s recovery has surpassed state and national averages, including with African American students, students who speak English as a second language and students from low-income families.

One of the challenges the district faces is maintaining consistent improvement and continuing to see year-over-year progress, Kendrick said. School officials must continue to make academic progress the No. 1 goal in everything they do, he said.

The other biggest challenges he sees facing the district right now are finding school bus drivers, keeping up with the city’s growth and changing demographics and accommodating for those changes, he said.

Kendrick said Hoover schools are working as hard as they can to make progress to get released from a federal desegregation court case that originated in 1965, in which Black families claimed numerous school districts in Jefferson County were showing disparate treatment to Black and white students.

A court order has been in effect for decades, and Hoover in recent years has been trying to prove it does not treat Black and white students differently, but thus far, the district has not been successful. Kendrick said progress has been slow, but the effort remains a priority.

Another challenge will be replacing Superintendent Dee Fowler, who has just a year left on his contract and has indicated the board needs to start thinking about his replacement.

Kendrick said Fowler has earned every right to stay around longer than a year if he so chooses, but the board must be prepared to respond to whatever his decision is.

Kendrick also said he is pleased with the continued cooperation between the school board, the Hoover City Council and Mayor Frank Brocato. The council and mayor have been tremendous supporters of the district, he said.