Meet your candidates: District 6 board of education

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 1 includes Hemphill Elementary School and Booker T. Washington K-8 School.

Cheri Gardner

Cheri Gardner, the current District 6 representative on the Birmingham City School’s Board of Education, has served as a member of the board for the past four years.

She said she is most proud of restoring full accreditation to the schools, attaining financial stability and decreasing the number of failing schools. Gardner is also proud of increasing the number of programs available to students, including Pre-K, band, arts, foreign language, early college and dual enrollment programs.

If re-elected, she hopes to continue the work that must be done for the school system.

For more information, contact Gardner at cgard775322@aol.com or find her on Facebook.

Ervin Hill, Sr. 

Ervin Hill, Sr., a retired Birmingham teacher, said his involvement in the Birmingham City School system dates back decades. “I’ve been working and dealing with the Board of Education ever since I’ve been a part of the school system,” he said. “I would venture to say I’ve been around well over 40 years.”

After attending what Hill said is “just about every [board of education] meeting,” he believes his experience in different meetings and proposals will help him in the future and helps him stay aware of what the board is and is not doing.

“I think I’m in a position to be able to give advice, give direction and help facilitate a positive role in growth in our school system,” he said.

He chose to run for election this year because of his love of education and for children, and because he is “hurt from the direction that [the system is] going in.”

Hill ran in the last election against Cheri Gardner, who is running for re-election, and he said she stated she had previously not been to a board meeting. “Since then, she’s served four years, and not one time has she come back to the community … to tell us what’s happening,” Hill said. “I just feel she’s not equipped to do the job.”

If elected, Hill said he would like to have a clear “direction of the board in relation to charter schools,” and figure out what the board needs to do in order to help the public understand their position. He would also like to help the school system regroup both overall and financially.

“You can’t run two programs out of one pay pot when the pay pot [isn’t] receiving what it needs to do an individual job,” he said.

To learn more about Hill and his campaign for the Board of Education, call 276-2864.

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