The Huntsville City School System

The Huntsville City School System is one of the largest and best school districts in the state of Alabama. The system includes two highly regarded magnet schools and a combined student population of more than 23,000. The Huntsville City School System’s goal is to not just educate, but to foster a lifelong love of learning which prepares Huntsville students to compete for spots in the best universities and to become productive members of society. The system’s optimized curriculum is geared towards helping every student achieve their full potential, with the full support of teachers and administrative personnel.

Achieving these goals means a strict adherence to the state curriculum for academic courses as well as health and physical education. The Huntsville City School system aims to meet Alabama standards and where applicable, extended standards for students with learning disabilities. These extended standards include grade-appropriate content with a reduced level of complexity which allows schools to provide skills and educational guidance to every student that creates the groundwork for success.

The Huntsville City School System’s magnet schools are an especially important piece of the educational puzzle. Like every other school in the system, the magnet schools (the Academy for Science & Foreign Languages and the Academy for Academics & Arts) follow the Alabama state curriculum with the addition of specialized educational content in the arts and sciences for a well rounded education with specialized areas of emphasis.

The Huntsville, Alabama metro area is one of the fastest growing in the state with a thriving aerospace and technology sector. That’s why the Huntsville City School System emphasizes science and technology; The Huntsville Center for Technology is one example of Huntsville schools which provide students with a science-focused education. The Center for Technology teaches specialized skills which are in demand as well as giving them a solid foundation for further education in the field.

The Huntsville City School System believes that its students deserve more than the state mandated minimum. Technology is advancing rapidly and the specialized skills that students will need in college and in their careers should be taught beginning as early as possible. With its enhanced curriculum, emphasis on science and technology and magnet schools which provide students with opportunities for more advanced studies, Huntsville schools are one of the many things that make Huntsville among the best places in the country to raise a family.

If you’d like to learn more about the Huntsville City School System or about any of the schools in the city, please visit: http://www.huntsvillecityschools.org

Ed White Middle School

Jo Stafford is the principle of Ed White Middle School, located at 4800 Sparkman Dr. Huntsville Alabama. If you have a student at the school or you need more information please feel free to call or email the principal.

What can you expect from Jo Stafford? For starters, he is a hands-on type of principal who manages the newsletter available on the official school website. The newsletter is both interesting and informative as well as an easy method for keeping up with school happenings. You will also find a book blog link on the website through a link on the library section. Under highlights, you will find announcements and information on activities that have taken place at school or in which students participated. If you want to keep up with special events coming soon, this is a good page to check on a regular basis. Another page to check out for upcoming events is the Spotlight page.

If you are looking for current information, whether it is the beginning of the year or any time throughout, check out the Latest News page. Here you can learn about upcoming sporting events, after school learning labs, school calendars and much more. For the parent that likes to remain involved and on top of things the website has become an invaluable tool.

In order to foster a cooperative learning environment for the students Ed White Middle School involves staff, faculty, students, families of students and the surrounding community. All of this is necessary if you want a school that cares about the future of its students. Overall students learn how to become productive American citizens.

Four days per week students must adhere to a strict dress code policy. Monday through Friday, students are expected to be in uniform. However, after several days of compliance the school will notify students and their parents that the very next Friday will be free uniform day. If you are still wondering about school, dress code, cold weather policy and more, go to the schools website and download a copy of the student handbook.

Academy For Science & Foreign Language

Located at 3221 Mastin Lake Rd, Huntsville, AL, the Academy for Science & Foreign Language is an International Baccalaureate school. Classroom instruction is provided for grades pre-K through eighth grade in science and foreign language electives as well as the required reading, math and other core education classes. As the world changes quickly, the faculty and staff strive to teach students to make universal connections in a diverse world and become respected, responsible and successful adults. It is believed that through nurturing the development into caring, knowledgeable and inquisitive young people, a more peaceful, better world can be created with respect and understanding through intercultural exchanges.

Among the clubs and organizations available for students are Math Club for elementary students, Math Club for middle students and Academic Team. Parents have an active PTA in which to become an active member. International Baccalaureate provides separate programs for primary and middle students in a holistic learning environment so students learn in the best way possible to achieve their best.

Learn more about the school and get the forms to enroll students in the school online by visiting the school's website at www.asflmagnate.org. In addition to regular school activities, parents will be able to learn about such online options for students and parents including Renaissance Place, Edmodo, Pearson SuccessNet, Home Connect, Community Connection, One to One Huntsville, Fine Arts and Success Net Plus.

Parents planning to enroll their children in the Academy for Science & Foreign Languages will want to check the website for orientation schedules and class schedules. The principal, Mrs. Jeanne Greer, can be contacted by phone or email if parents have questions. A contact form is available on the website that has email directed to the Administrative Assistant, Carolyn Maples. So parents can keep close tabs on their children's progress, the Faculty Email Directory on the site provides contact information for teachers so questions about a child can be directed to that child's teacher.

After enrolling their children, it is advisable for parents to download the handbook so parents and students will know what is expected before the start of classes. When parents, students, faculty and staff all work together and are on the same page, students will have more successful learning progress.

NAACP attorney who supports Huntsville school zones is back on the case

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- In the space of about 48 hours, Norman Chachkin went from asking to withdraw from Huntsville's historic desegregation case to withdrawing his motion to withdraw.
If that sounds confusing, that's because it is. But the bottom line, for the moment, is Huntsville school officials retained an ally in their legal skirmish with the U.S. Department of Justice.

Chachkin, attorney for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, has spent decades monitoring Huntsville's compliance with a 1970 federal court order ending dual schooling based on race.

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Raising Teens

Raising a child through their teenage years can be one of the hardest things a parent will do. Mounting pressures, physiological changes, and a hectic lifestyle means that it's also the hardest phase of life that your teen has ever known. When things don't all come together, you can end up with a troubled teenager displaying behavioral or academic issues. Because adolescence is such an important developmental period, parents need to take steps to ensure teens have a positive influence to help them get back on the right track.

All teenagers go through problems, and during their teen years, your child will be at their most unbalanced and unpredictable. There are a number of common reasons why teenagers rebel, develop issues with anger, or suffer drops in academic performance. Understanding the key factors is the first step in accepting that you have a problem teen.

Many of the undesirable traits and antisocial behaviors displayed by teens are actually coping mechanisms. Teenagers go through a long and painful transition towards adulthood, and the physiological changes are enough on their own to make things hard to cope with. As teens go through puberty they deal with unbalanced hormones, and a changing body that can be both scary and overwhelming. These changes don't justify bad behavior, but they're major contributing factors in any troubled teenagers behavioral problems.

Another major cause of troubled teens is mounting pressure from all angles. Typical pressures that teens have to deal with can come from three areas. Society, peer groups, and from within the family unit. There's pressure to perform academically, to fit in to society, to please parents and educators, and also the pressure from peers (which can sometimes be negative. As a teenager struggles to overcome these pressures, bad habits can manifest as they try to escape or remove focus from pressure.

When you understand and recognize the issues that your problem teen is facing, you can get the help and guidance that they need. Pinnacle Schools is a therapeutic care provider that offers expert care and guidance. By identifying the root problems through initial evaluation, Pinnacle Schools takes your child through a program to correct behavioral and academic issues. In addition to specialized counseling and group therapy sessions, there is a strong focus on the outdoors and physical activity. Our wilderness program aims to introduce new and positive outlets to troubled teens, allowing them to deal with issues without resorting to destructive behaviors.

Having a troubled teen doesn't mean that you can't get control back and set your child on the best path for their future. Sometimes you need extra help. That's exactly what Pinnacle Schools provides.

Parents Beware of Stress and Compassion Fatigue

Compassion fatigue is a term that refers to the state of people who become tired of taking care of others. It has become widely accepted that therapists, nurses, and first responders go through compassion fatigue. However, Jane Baker, a family counselor who works with troubled teens in a residential therapy program of The Pinnacle Schools in north Alabama, states that professional caregivers are not the only ones who experience this type of emotional exhaustion.

Parents of adolescents, particularly teens who are troubled, also get to the point where they are stressed-out, and when this happens they need to take time out for themselves and seek support. Caring for others takes its toll and results in a condition often referred to as burnout. Parents caring for troubled teens and adults caring for their parents can suffer from this.

Compassion fatigue can manifest itself in symptoms strikingly similar to depression. These symptoms can include:

• A marked change (decrease or increase) in appetite

• Irritability

• Changes in sleep patterns (sleeping too much or too little)

• Feelings that the person is developing unpleasant characteristics

Dealing with teens is in itself an often complex task, but parents who are taking care of troubled children or children with special needs have an even more stressful challenge confronting them. This applies to parents of children with autism, learning difficulties, depression, and behavioral problems. It also holds true for those whose children have issues such as self-harm. This kind of torment was once described in a blog by a tired Michigan mother who was caring for an autistic teenage daughter. Using “Status Woe”, her blog, she poured out what she referred to as her “battle fatigue” after her daughter’s failed murder-suicide attempt in 2013.

Baker states that it is essential for parents in this situation to make an impartial assessment of what they are going through and address it. Failure to do so will eventually breed resentment toward the person the caregiver is taking care of; this would be an unhealthy and undesirable state.

Baker says that one of the things parents can do is to examine their schedules to see if these are over saturated with chores and activities. According to her, it is necessary for parents and caregivers to place importance on meeting their own emotional, physical, and spiritual needs. It is also important for parents and caregivers to accept the fact that they cannot always be all things to all people.

Baker works with youth at the Elk River Treatment Program where she is family services coordinator. In her experience, she has seen that both professionals and parents often ignore their own health and rarely seek help for themselves. In the long run, this neglect makes it harder for them to take care of their children. Parents who do not take care of themselves will find it increasingly difficult to be totally and patiently engaged with their children. This is why in flight emergency instructions always caution parents to put on their own oxygen masks before seeing to the children in their care.

Parents and persons in caregiving professions can begin with small changes that will amount to taking better care themselves and eventually their children. These changes can include eating right and doing some exercises such as yoga.

Parents can also seek out support organizations for parents of children with issues; these can be productive for as long as they do more than allow members to vent. Other sources of support are relatives, friends, and church groups.

People who are providing long-term care will find that they won’t be able to indulge in activities they enjoy as often as they used to, but it is important that they do not totally abandon these or other sources of rejuvenation. People who lose sight of the pursuits that offer them enjoyment will become drained. Baker likens the danger of exhausting one’s store of energy to a paper cup with so many holes their energy is emptying far more quickly than it can be replaced.

As parents and caregivers review their own schedules, they must ask themselves what they can and cannot change; what things they can let go off in the meantime. This is essential to making even minor changes that can spell a big difference in relieving pressure from an overburdened schedule. Sometimes, schedules become crowded with so many activities because parents assumed that this is how things should be. A review of what families can let go will often lead to less hectic days when families can have dinner together and reconnect instead of being always on the go.

Parents need to look at their family’s schedule to make sure people are not so busy their lives are ruled by outside activities. People need to spend time with their families, and it is up to parents to see to it that children’s schedules are not so busy there is no time for family to simply relax and be together.

April is Stress Awareness Month, and professional counsellors say that in order to solve the problem of stress and its results, people must first see the problem and seek help. Parents and individuals in situations where long-term care is demanded of them must learn to balance their daily lives so that they can take care of themselves – even if it means letting go of some things or delegating some tasks to others.

Approximately 700 youths from all over the United States have undergone the Elk River Treatment Program of the Pinnacle Schools. The residential program is designed for adolescents from age 12 to 18.

Commissioner Bob Harrison Demanded Johnson High Be Closed in Exchange for His Vote

(Huntsville, Alabama)… Huntsville City School Board President David Blair released papers today written in 2006 by County Commissioner Bob Harrison to former Huntsville City School Superintendent and her response.  David Blair stated, “These recently found documents shows County Commissioner Harrison demanding the closing of Johnson High School in return for voting yes on the ½ cent sales tax. Mr. Harrison’s strong arm tactics and glaring inconsistencies are disturbing.”

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