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Meet your candidates: District 5 board of education

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Along with Birmingham’s upcoming mayoral race and election for city council, Birmingham City Schools is also holding elections for new Board of Education members. This year, there are 32 candidates in the running for a total of nine seats.

Of the current nine board members, four are seeking re-election: District 4 representative Daagye Hendricks, District 6 representative Cheri Gardner, District 7 representative Wardine Alexander and District 9 representative Sandra Brown. District 5 representative Randall Woodfin is not seeking re-election but instead running for the mayor’s seat.

District 5 includes Barrett Elementary School, Henry J. Oliver Elementary School, Phillips Academy and Parker High School. Elections are on Aug. 22.

KaylaHill

David McKinney 

“I’m a reflection of the community that I want to serve,” said David McKinney, candidate for District 5 of the Birmingham Board of Education. “I stand with one purpose and focus, [and] that is the education needs of our children.”

Although he has not held an elected position before, McKinney has been an educator in the Birmingham area for over 10 years, teaching communications courses at UAB, Miles College and Jefferson State Community College. He is a member of the National Education Association and the Alabama Education Association, has completed courses in education assessment, school curriculum design, K-12 leadership and educational culture and administrative technology. In 2018, McKinney will earn his Ph.D. in educational leadership.

He believes his experiences and knowledge of the education system have prepared him to be a member of the school board. “My passion is to use my life, my education and my skills in service to others,” he said, and he aims to improve the school system and fight for education.

“I want to be the voice for the student that was told that they can’t learn, I want to be the voice for the student that was silenced by bullying, I want to be the voice for the student that has been written off as a problem child,” he said. “I decided to run for the Board of Education because I am invested in education.”

If elected to the board, McKinney wants to improve accountability with the community, to pass policies to keep students learning in safe environments and to support the teachers within the school system. He also aims to “address weak areas in our schools,” through programs and educational initiatives to place students in the top percentile.

To learn more about McKinney’s campaign, visit davidtmckinney.com or find his campaign on Facebook at “Elect David T. McKinney Birmingham Board of Education District 5.”

Michael Millsap

Michael Millsap began his career working in financial modeling and budgeting as a corporate bank analyst. He later left to serve on the staff of Senator Tom Daschle, where he learned about grassroots organizing and policy management. Later, he co-founded the technology startup uShip.com with two classmates while pursuing his MBA at the University of Texas at Austin.

“After building my company for seven years, I realized a gap in the workforce and decided to do something about it,” Millsap said. He noticed a need to find software engineers and learned that schools, in general, weren’t preparing students for the 21st century economy. So he joined Teach for America in 2011 and became a teacher at Sumter Central High School in Livingston, Alabama. There he developed an interest in statewide education.

Two years later, Millsap moved to Birmingham and became engaged with Birmingham City Schools through organizations like Birmingham Education Foundation, with whom he has served as a volunteer. He has also worked with educators both locally and nationally through K-12 Lean Labs who have ideas about how to solve problems in communities, classrooms and schools, and teaches entrepreneurship and innovation classes at UAB. 

“I felt called to do anything I could to close this education gap and have spent the past six years working to improve student outcomes in K-12 education,” he said. “Being on the Board of Education means you need to have knowledge and expertise in many different areas including finance, management and leadership, human resources, and of course knowledge of public education. There is not another candidate in the field that can match the experience and expertise I bring to this race.”

If elected, he would like to focus on five areas: seeking stability by supporting the current superintendent; investing in innovation by looking at what other schools throughout the country are doing and investing in teachers; developing school leadership, such as principals and assistant principals, by giving them access to 21st century management skills and training; focusing on the whole child by working with community organizations to invest in students’ health and providing services to help reduce the “challenges of raising a child in a complex time;” and planning effectively for the future by working with the superintendent to review all current operations, including facilities, staffing and vendor contracts and working with the board to create a smart budget.

Millsap believes that Birmingham’s students, teachers and families need leaders who have new ideas and who understand how to be innovative and manage effectively, and he finds that although the city’s students have unlimited potential, the current leadership has “failed to deliver on the promise of providing them with an excellent education.”

To learn more about Millsap and his campaign, visit votemillsap.com or facebook.com/votemillsap. You can also find him on Instagram and Twitter at @VoteMillsap, or contact him at info@votemillsap or 526-4646.

Courtesy of Angela Scoggins Watson

Angela Scoggins Watson

Angela Scoggins Watson has a long history with the Birmingham City School system, with her late father, Willie Scoggins, Jr., working in the system for 42 years. As a young girl, Watson would spend time at school with him and attended Center Street Elementary. Upon entering third grade, however, she transferred to St. Paul Parochial School, “because of some of the issues in the Birmingham Public School system,” she said.

Watson later continued to John Carroll High School and Birmingham Southern College majoring in psychology, before attending the Birmingham Police Academy and serving as a Birmingham City police officer for 10 years. She also has experience as crime prevention officer of College Hills, vice president of Smithfield Community, block captain of College Hills and president of the College Hills Neighborhood Association.

Although she has not held an elected position with the school system before, Watson still works within the schools by hosting a camp each summer at Ramsay High School in honor of her father and sponsors two $3,000 scholarship for graduating seniors who are planning to major in education. She is also involved in her daughter’s school, Briarwood Christian Academy, and hopes to bring a similar level of parent participation to the Birmingham City School system.

“I saw a different level of parent participation,” she said. “Which made a big difference in being involved in my child’s curriculum.”

Scoggins Watson also said that gaining perspective of a school outside of the Birmingham City School system has helped her see how the city’s schools can better deal with students’ behavioral issues.

“So now that I’ve seen the other side … I know that things can get better within the system. It’s my time to go back and teach what I have learned,” she said. “Because right now, as you know with the statistics, the formula isn’t working for Birmingham public schools.”

She wants to use her experiences to help prepare Birmingham City School students to be productive citizens through behavioral classes and encouraging competitiveness both in and out of the classroom.

“I believe some of the kids in the Birmingham public schools need to come home each day and reach that goal,” Watson said.

Through dealing with children in her summer camp to encountering all walks of life as a police officer, she believes she has the capabilities of working with all of the individuals that the Birmingham Board of Education interacts with.

And she hopes if she reaches the children, the children will be able to reach their parents.

“Some of them [the parents] have major questions about city ordinances … that tell you how to live as a productive citizen,” she said, referencing her time as College Hills Neighborhood Association president. “I can’t reach those adults anymore because it’s like teaching an old dog a new trick.”

If elected to the school board, Watson wants to initiate a 10 p.m. curfew for students. Under this idea, parents would pay a fine if the students are caught out after the curfew, “Because somebody’s got to take accountability for the actions of children,” she said.

She also wants to create more trade school opportunities as well so more students can contribute to their community and learn how to make “good, clean money.”

Finally, Watson would like to monitor the new superintendent and make sure certain classes, such as those with parental involvement and behavioral classes, are implemented for the students because she believes that current curriculum is not designed in favor of the students.

You can find her on Facebook for more information under “Angela Scoggins Watson.”

Other candidates who qualified in District 5 include:

Editor’s note: This is an ongoing article that will be updated as more information becomes available.

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