Birmingham City Schools still unsure of start date

Dr. Michael Wilson, principal at Glen Iris Elementary is carrying plants and sweeping floors at his school to make sure his building is ready, now just four weeks until schools are supposed to start statewide. But when will students walk in these doors?

"We're fielding phone calls right and left: 'When is school opening, when is school opening?." Dr. Wilson said. "We can't tell parents that. We cannot afford to lose students, and the focus is the student."

The Birmingham City School board's delay in figuring out who's losing their jobs means there are several schools who don't have principals right now, and most schools need to hire teachers.

Glen Iris is fortunate to at least have a principal in place, several other Birmingham schools don't.

"We just work overtime," Dr. Wilson said. "I mean principals, secretaries, service staff, they're constantly working overtime to be proactive and ready. So that when my vacancies are filled, my staff can welcome them and help them get ready in any way they can. So that when they say school starts on this date, we're ready."

But Dr. Wilson knows there's only so much prepping parents can do.

"It makes it difficult for parents because they don't know, and if they have to make the days up, work schedules and all those kind of things, so the sooner we know the better."

At this point, we know Birmingham schools will start late, but nobody knows how late.

"Each and every day all I can do is make sure Glen Iris Elementary is ready, and I know that's the mindset of all the other principals," Wilson said.

We reached out to the state Thursday to try to get an updated start date for Birmingham City Schools, but our calls weren't returned.

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