HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — We are gearing up for back to school! On Friday, FOX54's Keneisha Deas caught up with the superintendent of North Alabama's largest school district, Huntsville City Schools Superintendent Dr. Clarence Sutton with a one-on-one interview.
He gives us a look ahead as he enters year two in his role.
KENEISHA DEAS: Dr. Sutton, it's great to see you again.
SUPT. DR. SUTTON: Thank you for having me.
KENEISHA DEAS: Absolutely. Thank you for having us. One year in the books, right?
SUPT. DR. SUTTON: One year in the books. Ready for year two.
KENEISHA DEAS: Ready for year two! Last time, I think it was around this time last year, we welcomed you in to the new role as superintendent. How has that been for you?
SUPT. DR. SUTTON: The first year was very exciting. We accomplished a lot from starting our first virtual school to the $600 million capital plan and of course, student achievement is always the goal from getting an 'A' on the graduation rate and career college readiness rate, to 89% of our third graders pass the test the first time to summer programs to partnerships. A very effective and exciting first year.
KENEISHA DEAS: Speaking of which, I know shortly after our interview, you mentioned the career tech and there was a partnership with Toyota Alabama. So any- any updates on that? How's that going?
SUPT. DR. SUTTON: We're entering a second year with the partnership with Toyota's "driving possibilities" grant. Two parts. First, we're building a new Career Tech Center, as you can see it rising up now. We'll be in next summer where we have industrial maintenance there. They're helping us with the programing, the curriculum and even an instructor. But also we have mentoring programs for our teachers.
KENEISHA DEAS: My next question: One of our reporters spoke with Councilman Devyn Keith last week who shared seven schools within northwest Huntsville were on the failing list for 2023.
SUPT. DR. SUTTON: I think it's a miscommunication of the definition. We have no failing schools in Huntsville City Schools. Since 2015 they ruled failing schools based on a report card. We have no failing schools in Huntsville City Schools. Now what we do have is "priority schools," which is a new definition, just started last year.
So a lot of people have the definitions confused.
We have priority schools. Now, priority schools they included in a school to receive a 'D' or an 'F'. We have zero 'F's' in Huntsville City Schools.
The priority thing is like we put a focus in our schools so they get a math coach, they get a reading coach. So what it allows us to do is put more resources not only from us, from the state of Alabama, to those schools.
KENEISHA DEAS: When and how the 'Teacher Bill of Rights' would be implemented in the school district?
SUPT. DR. SUTTON: Actually, it starts this year. We actually worked on training last week, training administrators. We worked on training teachers this week as they welcomed back yesterday. Really it's empowering teachers, but it's our job to support teachers while supporting students. We want students in the classroom engaged, but there are some behaviors that we are addressing.
We have a plan to work on classroom management. We have a plan to communicate with parents. Again, we'll be going to [the] community to discuss the plan with parents. We're asking parents to talk to their students about cutting down behaviors in the classroom where they can really work on that, on their student achievement, where they can work on their assignments.
KENEISHA DEAS: Thank you so much. That's it for me. Did you have anything else you wanted to add?
SUPT. DR. SUTTON: No, I just thank you for the time. But we're very excited for the school year. We asked the community to support us as we support their students and let's move Huntsville forward.
KENEISHA DEAS: Excellent, thank you, Dr. Sutton.
{WEB EXTRA: FULL LENGTH INTERVIEW WITH SUPT. DR. SUTTON}
