Alabama Association of School Boards

Early education is the focus of a film festival in Alabama this month.  

The Invest Early Film Festival is featuring two documentaries about the importance of early education in the state. The project is being put on by the Alabama Association of School Boards, the Business Council of Alabama and the Alabama School Readiness Alliance. Allison Muhlendorf is the executive director of the Alliance. She said this is an opportunity to inform people about the needs of education before the next legislative session.  

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama school district is looking for a new leader.

The Madison County School Board has hired the Alabama Association of School Boards to help with the search for a new superintendent.

The board will receive resumes, vet candidates and then present a list of qualified applicants to the school board. Madison County Schools has used the board to help find new superintendents in the past.

The Alabama Association of School Boards is seeking public input, including parents and employees, on what they want to see in the Huntsville City Schools district's next superintendent.

WAAY-TV reports the association has held at least two sessions to gather the information and planed Thursday to hold at least two more. The association also has opened an online survey that can be taken anonymously through Friday.

Thousands of Alabama children are attending private schools thanks to Accountability Act scholarships, but very few of those students transferred out of a failing public school.

The state program provides private school scholarships to help low-income students attend private schools. When lawmakers started the program in 2013, it was touted as a way to help students escape schools with chronically low test scores.

The Decatur Daily reports that, according to state data over the past three years, only 39 students withdrew from failing schools to attend private schools.

Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange is criticizing the Obama administration's directive to let transgender students in public schools use bathrooms and locker rooms matching their gender identity.

The U.S. Departments of Education and Justice released a joint statement Friday saying both federal agencies plan to ensure all students, including transgender students, can enjoy a safe and discrimination-free environment. Both federal agencies plan to treat students' gender identity as the students' sex for purposes of enforcing Title IX regulations.

Tuscaloosa County school board members plan to interview five finalists for superintendent by next week.

Kendy Behrends, a consultant with the Alabama Association of School Boards, which conducted the search, identified the finalists at Monday's school board meeting.

The Tuscaloosa News reports (http://bit.ly/10unlZ1) that finalists include:

—Walter Davie, the deputy superintendent of the Tuscaloosa County School System.

—Valya Lee, an executive consultant for EducTrax who has been superintendent of Twiggs County Schools in Georgia.