Core Notes

Dear TCS Families,

I hope you had a safe and happy Thanksgiving. There are only two weeks left in the fall semester, which means this is an incredibly busy time of year in our schools for both teachers and students. We are doing everything we can to finish out the semester strong.

Below you will find news about recent happenings in the Tuscaloosa City Schools. Please take note about our scores on the state report card. TCS received an 84, which is the highest we've received and an increase of four points from last year. While this is not where we want to be, we are on our way to becoming an "A" district. Our schools made profound progress, as much as 19 points in one year at Southview Elementary! We are committed to doing everything we can, even in financially difficult times, to ensure that progress continues at every school and in every part of the city. We want to recognize and thank our school leaders, teachers, students and parents for their work that made this student success possible.

Thank you, as always, for choosing the Tuscaloosa City Schools for your child(ren).

Mike Daria

TCS Superintendent

The majority of schools in the Tuscaloosa City School District not only made positive progress on a state report card recently released by the Alabama Department of Education, but some schools improved by 15 or more points in just one year.

On the state report card, the Tuscaloosa City Schools had an overall score of 84, which is an increase of four points from 80 in 2023. It is also the highest score the system has had since ALSDE started issuing the report in 2018.

"Our focus has been making profound progress and moving the needle toward becoming an "A" district," said Superintendent Mike Daria. "The majority of our schools have made significant growth, which is the result of the hard work of our students, staff and parents to ensure students' success.”

The Alabama Department of Education releases its report card scores for every K-12 public school in the state. The scores capture academic growth, college and career readiness and chronic absenteeism, among other factors as measures of school performance during the 2023-24 school year. Overall, Alabama schools earned an 85, or a “B” grade, in 2023-24, which is up from an 83 last year.

Of TCS's 19 schools that received a grade, 13 increased their scores, several significantly. Southview Elementary, which had a score of 62 on the state report card in 2023, received an 81 in 2024 - an increase of 19 points. This steep increase tied Southview with three other elementary schools statewide to have the largest improvement among Alabama elementary schools. Martin Luther King, Jr. Elementary also saw significant progress, with an increase from 72 to 81 in just one year. Woodland Forrest Elementary also saw a similar increase, going from a 68 in 2023 to an 83 in 2024. This year is the first time that any of those schools - Southview, Martin Luther King Jr. or Woodland Forrest elementaries had scored a "B" on the report card.

"When I learned about the 19-point growth at Southview Elementary School, I felt an overwhelming sense of pride, joy, and gratitude for our incredible team," said Ronika Amerson, Southview principal. "We took full ownership of our 62/D performance in 2022-2023, with no excuses. We recognized the need to develop a plan to shift our trajectory, knowing we were capable of much more than that number. We will continue to get stronger."

Key factors that contributed to Southview's significant growth included dynamic intervention groups, diligent monitoring of attendance, processing data monthly, and a six-week after-school ACAP (test assessment) bootcamp. She said that her school will continue to push their progress forward.

Westlawn Middle School has also seen a large amount of academic growth, increasing its report card grade 10 points in one school year, from a 60 in 2023 to 70 in 2024-- the first time the school has ever received a "C" from the state.

While many schools showed significant progress, other TCS schools neared the top score possible on the report card. Tuscaloosa Magnet Schools Elementary received a 99 for the second year in a row. Rock Quarry Elementary also received a 99, up from a 98 last year. And Tuscaloosa Magnet Schools middle received a 98, which was an improvement of three points.

"It took a lot of hard work and commitment to get to this point," said Dr. James Pope, TCS deputy superintendent. "We knew what areas we had to focus on, and our system leadership, principals and teachers put the plans in place to truly make progress happen, especially in area of reading before third grade. You can see the impact that is having, and we plan to continue the progress until we are an "A" district."

The Tuscaloosa City Schools celebrated 21 of its top teachers and 23 of its top support employees during its annual TCS Apple Awards luncheon today at the Tuscaloosa Rivermarket.

At the event, TCS announced the TCS Teacher of the Year for both elementary and secondary categories, the TCS Support Employee for both elementary and secondary categories, and the transportation and Central Office category.

District level support employee winners included:

Kacey Robertson-Central Support Team Support Employee of the Year

Cris Smith - Transportation Support Employee of the Year

Mable Sharp - Elementary Support Employee of the Year

Mike Cain - Secondary Support Employee of the Year

District level teacher of the year winners were:

LaDarien-Rancher from Southview Elementary : Elementary Teacher of the Year

Ashley Farmer from Northridge Middle School, Secondary Teacher of the Year

Winners of the TCS teacher of the year categories will go on to the statewide competition. Support employees of the year also won a check for $500 and teacher of the year winners for the district won $750.

Also as part of the celebration, TCS recognized Phifer Incorporated and Reading Allies as the first-time recipients of the Shelley E. Jones Community Spirit Award. The award, which recognizes extraordinary support of TCS schools by an outside entity, is has been recently named in memory of the late Shelley E. Jones, a former chair of the Tuscaloosa City School Board, former principal of Woodland Forrest Elementary and a longtime community leader who tirelessly supported the Tuscaloosa City Schools throughout her life.

Phifer Incorporated won the award for being an exemplary Adopt-A-School partner for Westlawn Middle School, where they have gone above and beyond to inspire teachers, which has produced higher test scores. Reading Allies, which supports reading before third grade initiatives in eight of our elementary schools, also won the community award for its work in tutoring struggling readers in our schools.

In October, approximately 1,400 parents, staff and students participated in a cell phone survey, which will help the Tuscaloosa City Schools as it considers possible changes to its cell phone policy in the future.

According to the parent/staff survey, approximately 43% of survey takers said they would support a cell phone band, while 45% said they would not. Approximately 13% were undecided.

The parent/staff survey respondents found that if cell phones were banned, 35% supported having cell phones "locked" in pouches, 43% supported having cell phones put away in "lockers" in the classroom, and 33% said that students should be able to keep their phone on them, as long as it is not used.

The top reason parents/staff said that school safety was a major reason why students should have access to their cell phones during the day.

TCS students took a separate cell phone survey, in which 94% of the students said they do not support banning cell phones in schools.

TCS students raised more than $41,900 for the United Way of West Alabama this fall. There were snack sales, hat days and school dances that resulted in a more than $6000 increase from last year. Arcadia Elementary raised the most out of any school, with $7,054.75 in donations!

Watch the video below to watch students talk about how important it is to give.

On Tuesday, the Tuscaloosa City Board of Ed was presented the first reading on the 2025-26 school year calendar, which they will vote on Dec. 17. The calendar, which is very similar to the current school year calendar, features students starting back to school on Aug. 7, 2025 and the last day for students on May 21, 2026. The calendar also includes educators coming back for the new school year on Aug. 1, 2025, and finishing the school year on May 22, 2026.

The proposed calendar also features a one week fall break at Thanksgiving, two weeks off at Christmas, and one week off March 16-20, 2026 for spring break. These breaks were all reflected as priorities in a calendar survey that was taken by parents, staff and students recently.

To see the proposed 2025-26 calendar, click here: Attachment.aspx

In the K-5 category, Scarlett Woodroof of Tuscaloosa Magnet Schools - Elementary claimed first place in the Alabama Association of School Board's Diamond Legacy Student Art Contest with her piece titled "Guiding Education."

AASB will honor the winners during the closing session of its Annual Convention at the Renaissance Montgomery Hotel & Spa Saturday, December 7, at 8:30 a.m. Roughly 500 education leaders are expected to attend the event.

Thousands of former students, parents, relatives and friends braved the cold on Nov. 21 to support the 17th Annual Turkey Bowl game as Verner Elementary School took on Rock Quarry Elementary School. An exciting game ended 23-22 as Rock Quarry won for the second year in a row. Money raised at the gate is split between the two school for enhancements for their PE programs.

Watch the video below for highlights from the game.

Congrats to the Jr. ROTC cadets at Paul W. Bryant High School who promoted during a special ceremony at the school in November. The ROTC performed the promotion ceremony while also and observing the 249th Birthday of the United States Marine Corps.

Congratulations are in order for 6 Central High School students who graduated Nov. 20 from Skills for Success with their certification in bulldozer operation. These kids are still in high school and are earning real world credentials!

If you see a threat on social media, especially coming from a student or relating to a school, report it. Let law enforcement, school resource officer, a teacher or school administrator know as soon as possible. Reposting doesn't help, but reporting it can. Remember if you see something, SAY SOMETHING! Parents, please speak with your child(ren) about how important it is to report.

BSN Sports has set up online "swag stores" for our schools where any student, faculty or parent can buy school branded gear. This was a desire that was expressed by students during the Superintendent's student advisory meetings at the high schools last school year.

The "swag" on these sites include a variety of price points, brands, and are in men's, women's and children's sizes, plus they have cups and other items as well. On the main page, they also have gear per sport.

There is also branded gear for the elementary and middle schools, too! To see the middle school and elementary options, on the desktop website, once you have clicked on the type of item to browse, you can go to the sidebar where it says "campus" and then select feeder school, where the items will pop up with other school names. Select the school that you want.

Each feeder zone will receive 10% back of all purchases in the form of a store credit/rebate that can be used for future branded purchases by the school(s). So, support your school and show school pride!

Northridge feeder zone store: NORTHRIDGE HIGH SCHOOL JAGUARS - TUSCALOOSA, Alabama - Sideline Store - BSN Sports

Central feeder zone store: CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL FALCONS - TUSCALOOSA, Alabama - Sideline Store - BSN Sports

Bryant feeder zone store: PAUL W BRYANT HIGH SCHOOL STAMPEDE - COTTONDALE, Alabama - Sideline Store - BSN Sports

It is important to remember that if you or your child see or hear something concerning, please report it to your school's principal. It can be the first step to saving a situation from becoming dangerous. Again, "See Something, Say Something!"