Alabama State Board of Education

The Alabama State Board of Education is a nine-member body which authorizes the education policy for the state of Alabama. The governor is the ex officio president of the board. As Governor he has voting privileges, although they are seldom exercised. The remaining eight members are elected to four-year terms in partisan elections from single-member districts of approximately equal population. However, most issues before the board are not necessarily considered as partisan in nature. There is no limit on the number of terms to which members may be elected. Members in Districts 1, 3, 5, and 7 are elected in the same cycle as the President of the United States, with their most recent election occurring in 2016. Members in Districts 2, 4, 6, and 8 are elected in the same cycle as the Governor of Alabama, with their next election occurring in 2018. The districts from which members are elected are re-apportioned by the Alabama Legislature following each di-cennial U.S. Census.

Officers of the Board

A President Pro Tem and a Vice President are chosen among the eight Board members each year to lead Board meetings in the absence of the Governor. Out of the current eight members, six are Republicans and two are Democrats, seven are female (two of which are African-American) and one (Mr. Newman) is male. A state Superintendent of Education is appointed by the board to serve as its secretary and executive officer, although he has no vote on issues before the Board.

Notable Board History

The first African-American to serve on the Alabama State Board of Education was Peyton Findley (1871-1873), he was from Lafayette in Chambers County and at his birth in 1824 was "free-born." Active in the Republican Party after the Civil War, during the Reconstruction Period, he served a single term on the State School Board. Among his contributions was the introduction of a measure to the Board to create Alabama's first institution of higher-learning for blacks. It was first located in Marion in Perry County and initially called the Lincoln Normal School. In 1887, it was re-located to Montgomery and renamed. Today, it is the nation's third oldest "historically-black" college, Alabama State University. The first African-American woman to serve on the Alabama State Board was Democrat Ethel H. Hall (1987-2011) of Fairfield, Jefferson County.

One recent Board member was Al Thompson, he was appointed to a vacancy on the Board by Governor Robert Bentley in June, 2014 but he resigned in mid-2015 to take a similar position on the new governing body of the Alabama two-year college system. Governor Bentley replaced him with Matthew Brown of Fairhope in Baldwin County on July 16, 2015. Thompson and Brown successively followed board member, Tracy Roberts, who had resigned for undisclosed "personal reasons" after just one and one-half years on the board. Mr. Brown was defeated for re-nomination by Jackie Ziegler on April 12, 2016, but remained as a member of the Board until his term expired in January, 2017. From the end of Reconstruction until 1986, no Republicans were elected to the Alabama State Board of Education. That year, Spencer Bachus (1987-1991) won 57% of the vote in District 6, dislodging a 26-year Democrat incumbent and becoming the first Republican on the Board in over 100 years. In 1998, the GOP won four of the eight elected seats and achieved a majority in 2008. Democrats usually no longer contest the six Republican held seats and the GOP did not contest either of the black-majority Democrat held seats at their most recent respective elections.

Board Members

Members of the board include:[1]

  • President (The Governor of Alabama) - Kay Ivey
  • Superintendent/Secretary - Dr. Eric Mackey
  • Board Members:
    • District 1: Jackie Zeigler, (R) (2017-present)
    • District 2: Betty Peters, (R) (2003-present)
    • District 3: Stephanie W. Bell, (R) (1995-present), Vice President
    • District 4: Yvette Richardson, (D) (2011-present)
    • District 5: Ella B. Bell, (D) (2001-present)
    • District 6: Dr. Cynthia S. McCarty, (R) (2015-present), President Pro Tem
    • District 7: Jeffrey Newman, (R) (2013-present
    • District 8: Mary Scott Hunter, (R) (2011-present)

Superintendent

The Board is also responsible for appointing the Superintendent who also serves at the pleasure of the Board. The most recent superintendent was Michael Sentance, who resigned on September 12, 2017. Former Superintendent, Dr. Ed Richardson was named Interim Superintendent by the Board on September 14, 2017. He can serve up to two full six month terms during which time the Board will search for a permanent replacement.[2] Dr. Eric Mackey was named as the new permanent Superintendent in a 5-4 vote by the Board on April 20, 2018. Dr. Mackey is currently the Executive Director of the Alabama Association of School Superintendents.[3]

Past Superintendents

  • Dr. Leroy Brown (1971-1975)
  • Dr. Wayne Teague (1975-1995)
  • Dr. Ed Richardson (1995-2004)
  • Dr. Joseph B. Morton (2004-2011)
  • Dr. Thomas R. Bice (2011-2016)
  • Dr. Phillip Cleveland (2016) (Interim)
  • Michael Sentance (2016-2017)
  • Dr. Ed Richardson (2017-2018) (Interim)

Notes

  1. ↑ "{title}". Archived from the original on 2010-08-17. Retrieved 2010-09-01.
  2. ↑ AL.com, Sept. 14, 2017
  3. ↑ Trisha Powell Crain, AL.com, April 20, 2017
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