Completing Mayor’s Cup Gives New Meaning to April 27th

Two years ago this afternoon an EF-4 tornado tore through Tuscaloosa and wiped out so many homes and neighborhoods.

This is a file photo taken in November 2012 after I completed the Couch to 5K at The University of Alabama.

As we remember those lives lost in the storm and the city continues to recover, I am proud to report something positive happened for me personally on this two-year anniversary.

I walked my SECOND 5K this morning.    For several years, I have been TALKING about doing “The Mayor’s Cup.”   I’ve even registered for it and starting training for it.  But, until this morning, it had never really happened.

Today at 8 a.m. that all changed as I joined about 1400 other neighbors and friends who moved through the streets of downtown Tuscaloosa on the 7th Annual Mayor’s Cup, an event started by Mayor Walt Maddox to help raise funds for our Pre-K Program.

It Started with the Crimson Couch to 5K

This journey to being more active — enough to finish the 3.1 mile route began last fall as I participated in the Crimson Couch to 5K Initiative at The University of Alabama.   For more than two months,  we met on cold mornings and trained for the 5K, which was held in November.

After November, I sustained a stress fracture and landed in a boot.

But, when I came out of boot in January, I vowed that I would walk another 5K.

And it happened today.

Next Goal

As those who are athletes and/or physically fit know, it’s not really about the race, but the fitness-intensive lifestyle that one develops, which makes the difference.
I started out last fall thinking I was going to become a runner.   But, after one training session running through the intramural fields at UA, I knew I could not keep that up, at least not at that point.

Now,  I have the momentum to try running again.   It’s a slow process.  But, I believe I can do it.

Alabama Football Coach’s Wife To Tell Her Story At Children’s Conference Tuesday

Terry Saban, wife of Alabama Head Football Coach Nick Saban,  isn’t the only football coach’s wife making the headlines these days.

On Tuesday, I’ll get a chance to hear Allison Jo Stoutland tell her story at the “Doing What Matters for Alabama’s Children” Conference.

Stoutland is Crimson Tide Offensive Line Coach Jeff Stoutland’s better half.

I was just looking over the line-up for Tuesday’s event and discovered an unfamiliar name.

I’m like ‘Who’s Allison Stoutland?’  Why is she on the conference program with State School Superintendent Tommy Bice?

Turns out Stoutland had beenfeatured in TUSCALOOSA Magazine for her work as a children’s author and co-owner of Inch-by-Inch Publications.

She’s author of  The Sad Flower.

Like my mother, Sallie Daniels, Stoutland has taught kindergarten.  Her Twitter profile says she’s also a dog owner, baker and gardner.

While I don’t have children yet,  I certainly want to find out more about this local celebrity writer, who’s connected to our University of Alabama campus.    Perhaps she has some wisdom for future parents like me.

Stoutland is set to give her talk at the Bryant Conference Center Tuesday at 10:15 a.m.

What Makes Tuscaloosa One of the BEST Places For Young People?

I’ve been in Tuscaloosa for a decade now.   But,  I have not always believed we had the absolute best schools. That’s primarily due to the lack of funding for education.

Still, despite my own perceptions,  Tuscaloosa County continues to rank among the America’s 100 Best Places For Young People.

Tomorrow, Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox,  Northport Mayor Bobby Herndon and Judge Hardy McCollum, who was recently elected to his seventh term as  Probate Judge of Tuscaloosa County, will gather for an official presentation of the national award.

This is the THIRD YEAR in a row Tuscaloosa County has won the award.

The only other Alabama communities to win such as distinction in 2012 are Sylacauga and Mobile.

HOW DID WE DO IT?

According to the 100 Best Communities for Young People Web site,  Tuscaloosa  County was recognized because it hosts programs to support healthy youth development such as FocusFirst and the Maude Whatley Health Clinic mobile van.

Professor Stephen Black from FocusFirst, will be among the speakers at Tuesday’s gathering at the Bryant Conference Center.

Community partnerships such as one between the Tuscaloosa district attorney’s office and the local sheriff’s office and the Tuscaloosa City Schools.

It’s called Helping Education Linking Parents, a program designed  to decrease students’ discipline problems and improve their retention and graduation rates

The venue for the presentation of this latest award Tuesday will be the  Doing What Matters for Alabama’s Children Conference, the seventh such event.

During the conference, I look forward to hearing more about the state of our community’s efforts to help children in 2013.

Sue Bell Cobb Issues Advocacy Challenge to Children’s Conference Attendees

A tobacco tax is what stands between Alabama and its ability to serve the needs of its youngest residents.   And, those who are advocates for children need to make that known to their legislators.

Former Alabama Chief Supreme Court Justice Sue Bell Cobb urged those attending the Doing What Matters Conference to advocate for a $1 increase in the state's cigarette tax.

That was the message today from Sue Bell Cobb, retired chief justice from the Alabama Supreme Court as she criticized those state lawmakers in Alabama who took pledges not to raise taxes without considering the needs of state’s children.

Cobb called for the state’s electorate to become more informed about the difference between federal taxes and Alabama’s taxes.

Alabama has the fifth lowest cigarette tax in the country at 42.5 cents per package.

The average cigarette tax is now $1.46 a pack, up 11 cents since 2010.

The organization Children First is advocating for Alabama’s tax rate to be raised to $1 to $1.42 a pack.  The millions of dollars generated would be distributed to the Children First Trust Fund and the General Fund.

Cobb had a message for lawmakers, who were elected in 2010 because of a promise not to raise taxes.

“If you signed a ‘no tax’ pledge you’re basically saying your election and re-election is more important than anything else,” Cobb said.

Cobb’s advocacy for an increase in the tobacco tax capped her morning address to the “Doing What Matters for Alabama’s Children ” Conference, which is underway today at the Bryant Conference Center here on the University of Alabama Campus.

“Whatever we’re doing folks, we’re not doing enough,” Cobb said.  ”Part of getting it done for kids is just raw, hard core advocacy.”

Most of the hundreds of attendees stood and pledged to contact their representatives in the legislature to advocate for the cigarette tax.

Leadership Tuscaloosa 2011-2012 Launches At Phelps Center Near Lake Tuscaloosa

One of the highlights of the first full day of the program is posing for our official Leadership Tuscaloosa photo. As you can see from this shot taken moments before we were all in place, getting all 42 of us in the photo was not easy.

I’m excited to have been selected for the new class of local residents going through the Leadership Tuscaloosa Program, sponsored by the West Alabama Chamber of Commerce.

Actually, my colleague Lynn Brooks from our own WVUA-TV, former co-worker Tamika Alexander (now at the United Way of West Alabama) and I are among the “media types” in this year’s class.

The 29th year of the program began in earnest yesterday with the first of our monthly gatherings.   As expected, I met lots of new people right here in Tuscaloosa who were right in my backyard.

Steve Sikes talks about what his team learned in reading about the history of Tuscaloosa County while Patricia Evans Mokolo, a former broadcast journalist, assists him.

When I say backyard, I MEAN backyard.  One of my classmates is Steve Sikes, who works in the University of Alabama’s Development department  in  Temple Tutweiler, right behind my building.

A big part of our first day was spent identifying turning points or key dates in the history of Tuscaloosa County.   We put our key dates on flip charts that were posted on the wall.  Each team who worked on this assignment got up to present what they had learned in reading about a particular era in the Tuscaloosa County history.

The afternoon hours were spent getting directions about upcoming Leadership Tuscaloosa meetings and talking about leadership strategies.

Tom Harris, who retired just last year from the our faculty here at the University facilitated this part of our daylong meeting.

David Reynolds of Capstone Bank is chairing this year's Leadership Tuscaloosa class. He's our coordinator. Dr. Tom Harris, professor emeritus in Communication Studies facilitated our leadership sessions Wednesday afternoon at the Phelps Activity Center near Lake Tuscaloosa.

Listening in on Tuscaloosa Schools Listening Tour

In the same room where he was interviewed by community members as a finalist for Tuscaloosa City Schools Superintendent two months ago, Paul McKendrick gave the mic to the community Tuesday  night.

McKendrick

The auditorium at Central High School was not quite as full as it was in early July when McKendrick was one of two candidates in the running to head the new school system.

But it’s safe to say the crowd of nearly 100 topped the number of those reported by the Tuscaloosa News who attended the first of three stops on McKendrick’s listening tour.

” Our purpose for tonight is to sit and listen to you.  We need to hear from you, ” McKendrick said as he invited those in the auditorium to come to one of two microphones.  “What do you want us to stop doing? What should we start doing?”

One of the highlights of the 90-minute question-and-answer session was when an impassioned industrial arts teacher from Westlawn Middle School urged McKendrick to let him use more traditional methods for teaching his classes instead of places so much emphasis on computers and technology.

“Our kids need more hands-on activities,” Harold Body said.  “The technology is fine.  It’s not meant for all kids.”

Body told of how he started industrial arts programs at the former Eastwood Middle School and how the generation of students since then have changed.

Ironically, only a few blocks from Body’s school, the old Westlawn Middle School on Martin Luther King Boulevard was razed last month to make way for the new Tuscaloosa Center for Technology.

Many of the parents and other teachers who spoke gave McKendrick an earful on a variety of topics:

• Teachers should be ABA-certified (Applied Behavior Analysis) for those working with students with Autism.
• Central High’s International Baccalaureate (IB) program needs the community’s support.   Teacher says: “We need you all to believe and have faith in us.”
• The achievement gap (between students of various racial groups and various schools) needs attention — There is a “culture of  low expectations”
• Kids today need more attention and after-school programs is one way to get them the necessary attention

I Am Not Smarter Than A Second Grader

Before too much time goes by, I have to write something about an incredible summer experience I had doing journalism with a second grade class here in Tuscaloosa.

This past Tuesday was the last day of the Summer Bridge Program at Oakdale Elementary School, which is located on Culver Road on the West End of the city.

In just three weeks, the students produced a four-page newsletter with stories they themselves wrote, edited and typed.  They also took most all of the photos that appear in the very first edition of  The Oakdale Eagle.

I know I could not have done what these students did when I was a 2nd grade student back in 1977 at Luther Memorial School in my hometown of  Richmond, Va.

Best of all, these students taught me something about how to learn to type– hunting and pecking can work when you have to get the story done.

You can learn to type (as one student did) in the second grade.

You can learn to use the Promethean Board, which these students showed me how it’s done.

This photo was just for the guys--Tywaun Smith, Dorian Pugh (who decided not to look at the camera) and I were the only guys there on Monday.

And, iCarly has nothing to do with the iPod or iPad.

Now I know what iCarly is, thanks to some very smart second graders.

That lesson came as we worked with the digital video camera this week.

I think this experience will not only prepare the Oakdale students who participated, but me, as a college journalism instructor, as well.

I am now more prepared for what will come to our college classrooms in a few years.

I realize the digital literacy of second graders is much higher than many might think.

And when I have my own children soon, I can know what to expect.

What a great outcome to wonderful summer enrichment experience!

Southern Baptist Convention Leader Visits As Two Tuscaloosa Churches Gather For Special Service

Fred Luter, vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention and pastor of the Franklin Avenue Baptist Church of New Orleans spoke Monday at Valley View Baptist in Tuscaloosa.

Six weeks after becoming the first African American elected to the number-two post in the Southern Baptist Convention, Fred Luter brought a message about relationships to Tuscaloosa as two churches reached across racial lines in a special worship service Monday night.

It wasn’t the first time that the predominantly white Valley View Baptist Church and Cornerstone Full Gospel Baptist Church , one of the largest African American churches in Tuscaloosa, have gathered together for worship.

The last time the two churches got together, Dr. Billy Joy was not pastor of Valley View Baptist Church.

Joy, senior pastor of Valley View, wasn’t quite sure how to introduce the praise team and Voices of Cornerstone as he began the service, one in a series of Monday evening worship experiences the church located on Highway 69 has sponsored this summer.

PRAISING GOD TOGETHER

The relationship between members of the two Baptist churches was quite evident at several points during Monday’s service.

Right before Luter’s message, Mark Patterson and Greg Stone of Valley View and Roland Lewis from Cornerstone formed a trio to minister the song “I Will Follow Christ.”

The mix of praise music, contemporary and traditional Gospel songs from the music ministry at Cornerstone was just the prelude to a 35-minute message where Luter challenged those in attendance to consider their relationships with God and one another.

A MESSAGE FOR BODY OF CHRIST

“Those who say they are saved, those who say they are born again, those who say they are Christians, those who say they are believers, we should have a genuine, authentic love for all of the saints,” Luter said. “How I wished the saints of God truly loved each other.”

Based on the first chapter of the book of Ephesians, Luter’s message was entitled “Your Most Important Relationship.”

“If you truly have a relationship with the Savior, you can’t help but have a relationship with the saints,” Luter said.

Tuscaloosa City Board of Ed Names Finalists For Superintendent, Finalizes Interview Process

By the evening of July 7, we may know whether a soon-to-be retired Virginia school superintendent or an area school superintendent from San Diego will be the next leader of the 10,000-student Tuscaloosa City Schools.

Burks

Paul McKendrick, who announced his retirement as superintendent of the Lynchburg Schools  and Tony Burks from the San Diego Unified School Districts will be invited for second interviews July 6th and 7th here in Tuscaloosa.

The two were just here Tuesday night for Day 2 of interviews as semi-finalists.

After the last two semi-finalists interviewed Wednesday night, the board ranked the six candidates and McKendrick and Burks came up with the highest ratings, which involved a matrix used by Ray and Associates Inc, the search firm hired to assist with the selection of the superintendent.

McKendrick

The board held two rounds of closed-door deliberations to discuss their rankings before returning to an open business meeting  around 11:30 p.m.

After a brief discussion about whether two or three finalists should selected, the decision was made to invite McKendrick and Burks.

But, the decision was not without some discussion about whether the candidate with the third highest ranking, Limestone County Superintendent Barry Carroll should also be invited.

“I think he did very well,” said School Board Member Harry Lee, referring to Carroll, who was the last of the semi-finalists to interview with the Board of Education.

Lee voted against the motion to select just McKendrick and Burks for second interviews.

Following the discussion about the finalists, board members talked for nearly an hour about the dates and process of the final interviews.

The end result of the marathon Board of Education meeting that did not end until 12:15 a.m. Thursday,  was the candidates who advanced to the final round will be interviewed on July 6th and 7th with the board possibly making a final decision as early as July 7th.

Process for Public Input Debated

As has been reported previously, a community forum is set for July 6 at Central High School.

“It is going to be a very structured approach,” said Dan Meissner, chairman of the Tuscaloosa City Board of Education.

Members of the public will have the opportunity to submit questions, which will be screened and then posed to each of the finalists, who will appear in separate 45-minute sessions at 6 p.m. and 7 p.m on July 6.

At the end of the 45-minute sessions, attendees at the public forum will be asked to fill out feedback forms.

The information from the feedback forums will be tabulated and reported to the Board of Education, which will have its second interview with the candidates on July 7.

In addition to the community forum, separate focus groups or small group sessions are being organized.    But, exactly who will be invited to those small group sessions was still undetermined.

The board was set to further outline the events for the interview days at its regular open work session Thursday evening.

Stillman College Loses Technology Leader, Award-Winning Professor

Outside of Tuscaloosa’s Stillman College, the name  “Anthony Nzeocha” may not ring a bell.The native of Nigeria was not one to seek a great deal of attention, unless of course you talk about Stillman’s Annual Integration of Technology in the Classroom Conference.

Anthony Nzeocha

“The conference is designed to demonstrate innovative uses of technology to enhance learning,” Nzeocha said of the most recent conference, which has taken place for the last nine years.

Nzeocha was the face of the Integration of Technology technology, which is held each year during the month of February.

I first met Dr. Nzeocha through this event that brings college professors from around the Southeast who are interested in ways to link technology to teaching.

Each year that I attended I remember Nzeocha keeping us on time and on task even as he captured portions of the conference on video and still photo.   He was the perfect host, while also challenging students who attended the sessions to take seriously the insights of the faculty presenters who came from near and far.

Nzeocha lost his battle with cancer this week and will be memorialized at an 11 a.m.  service this Thursday, June 16 at Tuscaloosa’s Holy Spirit Catholic Church.

The West African native graduated from Clark Atlanta University with his Ph.D. in July 1990.

He has been at Stillman for more than 20 years.

He taught classes in both Stillman’s department of Education and Psychology.

In addition to his role as coordinator of the technology conference, Nzeocha also served as Stillman’s National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) Assessment Director.

In fact, almost every year at Integration of Technology College, Nzeocha made sure to include a presentation or discussion about how technology aids those in higher education to do assessment.

While I don’t work on the Stillman campus, all of us in the Tuscaloosa educational community are affected when one of our great educators is taken from us.

Fortunately, during his more than decades at Stillman, Nzeocha was recognized for his great work in the classroom.

He received The Joseph A. Gore Faculty Merit Award for Excellence in Teaching twice.

We celebrate the life of this great teacher who was clearly one of Stillman’s biggest champions for technology.

He will be missed!