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45-484: Mobile County Public School System (MCPSS) is a school district based in unincorporated Mobile County , Alabama , United States . The system currently serves areas of Mobile County, including the city of Mobile , with the exception of the cities of Saraland , Satsuma and Chickasaw . Saraland voted to separate its schools from Mobile County in 2006, with Satsuma and Chickasaw following suit in 2012. The system serves urban, suburban, and rural areas. All schools in

90-454: A school board ) may be elected, appointed by a political office holder, serve ex officio , or a combination of any of these. An independent school district is a legally separate body corporate and political . Most school districts operate as independent local governmental units with exclusive authority over K–12 public educational operations and policies. The extent of their control is set by state-level law. Litigation against school districts

135-481: A "board of trustees," "board of education," "school committee," etc.. This body usually appoints or hires an experienced public school administrator to function as the district's superintendent of schools – a district's chief executive . The superintendent oversees daily operations, decisions and implements the policies of the board. The school board may also exercise a quasi-judicial function in serious employee or student discipline matters. School districts in

180-603: A certain degree comparable to a school district. Other arrangements are possible: certain types of special schools in North Rhine-Westphalia are run by the Landschaftsverbände . There also exist private schools , mostly funded by the States, but run by private entities like churches or foundations. In Italy , school districts were established in 1974 by the " Provvedimenti Delegati sulla scuola " ("Assigned Laws [to

225-561: A decline in property tax revenues during and after the Great Recession . By 2016 there were about 13,000 school districts, and the average student population was about 5,000. Although these terms can vary slightly between various states and regions, these are typical definitions for school district constitution: These terms may not appear in a district's name, even though the condition may apply. In England and Wales , school boards were established in 1870, and abolished in 1902, with

270-411: A decrease of 38,127 or 35%. Many states had passed laws facilitating school district consolidation. In 1951 the majority of the school districts in existence were rural school districts only providing elementary education, and some school districts did not operate schools but instead provided transportation to other schools. The Midwest had a large number of rural school districts. Previously areas of

315-514: A hero for the religious right. The plaintiffs charged that the books established a religion of secular humanism which gave no reason to believe in God. They attacked the home economics topic of values clarification - a favorite topic of home economics leader, Satenig St. Marie - for venturing too far away from what the plaintiffs viewed as home economics topics like sewing and cooking. The defense focused on religious liberty claims rather than accept help from

360-670: A member of the Supreme Court of the United States , declined not to bring contempt proceedings against the district's board. Later though, the schools were ordered to stop mandating school prayer on a permanent basis by the U.S. Supreme Court in Wallace v. Jaffree . In 1987, there was another lawsuit alleging that secular humanism was being promoted but this claim was rejected in Smith v. Board of School Commissioners of Mobile County . In 1991 MCPSS

405-632: A minority of secondary schools , a few primary schools, and much further education . (Most schools are neither organized geographically nor publicly managed, although the Department of Education inspects and funds them and pays teachers' salaries.) Each ETB area comprises one or more local authority areas , with city or county councilors forming the bulk of the ETB board. The ETBs was formed in 2005 by amalgamating Vocational Education Committees established in 1930, also based on local government areas. In Hong Kong ,

450-450: A school system that is separate but similar to a town's or a county's powers. These include the power to enter contacts, use eminent domain , and to issue binding rules and regulations affecting school policies and operations. The power of school districts to tax and spend is generally more limited. For example, many school districts in New York state require a majority of voters living in

495-706: A single school district." Noting that most modern school districts were formed by consolidating one-room school districts in the first seven decades of the 20th century, Fischel argues that "outside the South, these consolidations were consented to by local voters" who "preferred districts whose boundaries conformed to their everyday interactions rather than formal units of government" and that "[t]he South ended up with county-based school districts because segregation imposed diseconomies of scale on district operations and required larger land-area districts." In New York , most school districts are separate governmental units with

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540-449: A state), most American school districts operate as independent local governmental units under a grant of authority and within geographic limits created by state law. The executive and legislative power over locally-controlled policies and operations of an independent school district are, in most cases, held by a school district's board of education. Depending on state law, members of a local board of education (often referred to informally as

585-455: Is a religion for purposes of the establishment clause, Appellees have failed to prove a violation of the establishment clause through the use in the Alabama public schools of the textbooks at issue in this case. According to Dreilinger, the 1980s were an era where the religious right brought home economics into the culture wars. In the 1980s, The Heritage Foundation published a pamphlet attacking

630-427: Is common and some law firms specialize in education law. Districts typically maintain professional liability insurance in order to pay its settlements and legal liabilities. As of 2023 in most U.S. states, public school districts may lay taxes to fund their operations. In others, such as Maine , some school districts are able to lay taxes and others are not. Independent school districts often exercise authority over

675-488: The American Home Economics Association for a broad definition of the word "family" and for encouraging children to make their own choices. In 1986, an Alabama federal court heard a class-action suit which challenged the materials in forty-four textbooks. Five of the textbooks, which were based on the subject of home economics, were deemed the worst by a prosecutor. The case brought national attention from

720-768: The Education Bureau divides primary schools into 36 districts, known as school nets, for its Primary One Admission System . Of the 36 districts, districts 34 and 41 in Kowloon and districts 11 and 12 in Hong Kong Island are considered the most prestigious. In Iranian cities school kids normal registrations are limited by school districts, register is online at my.medu.ir and the parent sees schools within range online. Smith v. Board of School Commissioners of Mobile County Smith v. Board of School Commissioners of Mobile County , 827 F.2d 684 (11th Cir. 1987),

765-773: The Midwest and West tend to cross municipal boundaries, while school districts in New England and the Mid-Atlantic regions tend to adhere to city, township, and/or county boundaries. As of 1951 school districts were independent governmental units in 26 states, while in 17 states there were mixes of independent school districts and school districts subordinate to other local governments. In nine states there were only school districts subordinate to local governments. In most Southern states, school systems operate either as an arm of county government or at least share coextensive boundaries with

810-480: The Southern Poverty Law Center won a permanent settlement with the school district that prohibits suspending students for violating the school uniform policy. As of 2012 the out-of-district tuition for Mobile County schools is $ 2,200 per student per year. As of 2011, the county school system had 60,946 students, making it the largest school district in Alabama. This was a decrease of 916 students from

855-671: The Unorganized Borough of Alaska were not served by school districts but instead served by schools directly operated by the Alaska Department of Education and by Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) schools. The state schools were transferred to the Alaska State-Operated School System (SOS) after the Alaska Legislature created it in 1971; that agency was terminated in 1975, with its schools transferred to

900-442: The county council and county borough councils becoming the local education authorities . In France, the system of the carte scolaire was dismantled by the beginning of the 2007 school year. More school choice has been given to French students; however, priority is given to those who meet the following criteria: In Germany , schools and teachers are predominately funded by the states of Germany , which also are in control of

945-487: The American Home Economics Association, and gathered Christian witnesses for that purpose. Many of the academic experts on both the prosecution and defense sides of the case admitted they had not read the books, had not seen a home economics class, nor had their children taken home economics. It was in this first ruling on March 3, 1987, that Judge Hand states that secular humanism was a religion and that

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990-546: The Government] about the school"). Each district must contain a minimum of 10,000 inhabitants. The national government attempted to link the local schools with local society and culture and local governments. The school districts were dissolved in 2003 by the "legge finanziaria" (law about the government budget) in an attempt to trim the national budget. In the Republic of Ireland, 16 Education and Training Boards (ETBs) administer

1035-791: The MCPSS. There are currently 19 middle schools operated by the MCPSS. There are currently 53 elementary schools operated by the MCPSS. Statewide testing ranks the schools in Alabama. Those in the bottom six percent are listed as "failing." As of early 2018, nine local schools were included in this category: The governing body of the Mobile County Public School System is the Mobile County Board of Education. The Board's members, of which there are five that represent different districts, are elected to staggered six-year terms. Saraland Elementary School and Adams Middle School left

1080-539: The Mobile County Public School System. The school board relocated to a new central office complex in 2007, leaving the historic building vacant. The Barton Academy building was added to Alabama Historical Commission 's "Places in Peril" list in 2009. In 1963 three African-American students brought a case against the Mobile County School Board for being denied admission to Murphy High School. The court ordered that

1125-403: The United States tend to be different from the demographics of the students. This difference is "most pronounced in majority nonwhite jurisdictions and school districts with the largest racial achievement gaps ." There were 130,000 school districts in the country in 1930, with an average student population of 150. From 1942 to 1951 the number of school districts declined from 108,579 to 70,452,

1170-414: The board was introduced by Willoughby Barton, a legislator from Mobile. The first school building built by the board, Barton Academy , was named in his honor. It was built in the block between Government, Cedar, Conti, and Lawrence Streets, which was purchased by this first board for $ 2750 in 1830. Lack of funding stalled progress on the project until an act was passed in the state legislature that allowed

1215-428: The commissioners to raise funds through a lottery . By early 1836 the board had managed to pull together $ 50,000 in lottery funds, a $ 15,000 municipal loan, and additional private donations with which to commence building a school. This included a large private donation from local millionaire Henry Hitchcock , who was also on the building committee. Construction commenced on February 13, 1836 and, after several delays,

1260-515: The curriculum. After an initial ruling in a federal district court in favor of the plaintiffs, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit ruled that as long as the school was motivated by a secular purpose, it didn't matter whether the curriculum and texts shared ideas held by one or more religious groups. The Court found that the texts in question promoted important secular values (tolerance, self-respect, logical decision making) and thus

1305-892: The district in April 2008; they are now operated by the Saraland City Schools . Satsuma High School , Lee Primary and Lee Intermediate ( Satsuma ) left the district in 2012 and are a part of the Satsuma City School System . In 2012, Chickasaw voted to separate and now has the Chickasaw City Schools . School district In the U.S., most K–12 public schools function as units of local school districts. A school district usually operates several elementary , middle , and high schools . The largest urban and suburban districts operate hundreds of schools. While practice varies significantly by state (and in some cases, within

1350-464: The district or the local government to approval their annual budget, but school districts in Virginia have no taxing authority and must depend on another local government (county, city, or town) for funding. A district's governing body, usually called a school board , is typically elected by direct popular vote but may be appointed by other governmental officials. The governing body might also be known as

1395-585: The newly created Alaska Unorganized Borough School District, which was broken apart into twenty-one school districts the following year. In the 2022 Census of Governments, the United States Census Bureau enumerated the following numbers of school systems in the United States: School districts in the US have reduced the number of their employees by 3.3%, or 270,000 between 2008 and 2012, owing to

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1440-504: The overall education policies. On the other hand, school buildings are mostly run and funded by municipal governments on different levels of the municipal system (municipalities proper, districts), depending on the size and specialization of a certain school or the population size of a certain municipality. As with other fields of government, for more specialized schools, special government bodies ("Zweckverband") can be established, where municipalities, and not voters, are members; these are to

1485-441: The power to levy taxes and incur debt, except for the five cities with a population of over 125,000 ( Buffalo , Rochester , Syracuse , Yonkers , and New York City ), where the schools are operated directly by the municipalities. The Hawaii State Department of Education functions as a single statewide school district, unique among states. According to a 2021 study, the demographics of voters who elect local school boards in

1530-452: The previous school year, with a decrease in 502 students in the traditional county schools. Much of the remaining population loss resulted from the termination of a contract with Alternatives Unlimited Inc., an outside company, to operate Drop Back In Academy. As of 2011, schools east of Interstate 65 usually had more severe decreases in their student bodies than schools west of the interstate. There are currently 17 high schools operated by

1575-611: The start, with The National Legal Foundation funding the prosecution and in response, the ACLU and the People for the American Way funding a defense team to work with the state school board's attorney. At the time, Pat Robertson was seeking the Republican presidential nomination and was also the founder of The National Legal Foundation. The judge hearing the case, W. Brevard Hand , was described as

1620-551: The state's counties. A 2010 study by economist William A. Fischel found that "two-thirds of medium-to-large American cities have boundaries that substantially overlap those of a single school district" with substantial regional and state variations in the degree of overlap, "ranging from nearly perfect congruence in New England , New Jersey, and Virginia, to hardly any in Illinois, Texas, and Florida." Older and more populous municipalities "tend to have boundaries that closely match those of

1665-556: The system are required to adopt school uniform policies. It is the largest school system in Alabama and the 71st largest school system in the United States. The current Mobile County Public School System can trace its beginnings to the Board of School Commissioners of Mobile County, created by the Alabama Legislature through an act passed on January 10, 1826. This was the first education board created in Alabama. The act to establish

1710-499: The teaching of science is not invalidated purely because of its association with secular humanism. Excerpt below from the Circuit Court decision (cited earlier): The Supreme Court has never established a comprehensive test for determining the "delicate question" of what constitutes a religious belief for purposes of the first amendment, and we need not attempt to do so in this case, for we find that, even assuming that secular humanism

1755-530: The three students be admitted to Murphy for the 1964 school year, leading to the desegregation of Mobile County's school system. The Civil Rights Movement led to the end of legal racial segregation with passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 . In 1983 there were allegations that the Mobile County school board deliberately ignored an injunction against prayer led by teachers, but that year, Lewis F. Powell ,

1800-487: The use of the textbooks neither unconstitutionally advanced a nontheistic religion nor inhibited theistic religions. This case is occasionally and incorrectly cited as proving that 'secular humanism' is a religion. The text below shows the Circuit Court, in overturning the District Court decision, made no such finding. They both set aside the question as moot and offered that even if it were (and they weren't saying it is),

1845-684: Was a lawsuit in which the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit held that the Mobile County Public School System could use textbooks which purportedly promoted " secular humanism ", characterized by the complainants as a religion . Parents and other citizens brought a lawsuit against the school board, alleging that the school system was teaching the tenets of secular humanism, an anti-theistic religion. The complainants asked that forty-four different elementary through high school level textbooks be removed from

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1890-401: Was behind another act on February 9, 1852 that would have allowed the commission to sell the building, which was now in need of maintenance and repairs, and distribute the proceeds among the existing schools, if approved by the voters. The electorate rejected this and subsequently elected a new board of commissioners. After the election of the new board, the building was repaired and the system

1935-455: Was finally completed in January 1839. Following completion of Barton Academy, the Board of School Commissioners of Mobile County then allowed the building to be used for private and denominational schools, with some funding appropriated to them by the commissioners. An act in 1846 allowed for taxes to be collected for the establishment of a free Methodist school by the commission. The commission

1980-590: Was reorganized. The building reopened as a public school in November 1852. The school was closed for the duration of the American Civil War . The Girls High School reopened in 1865, followed by the Boys High School in 1870. Both would continue at Barton until the opening of Murphy High School in 1926. It continued to serve as a school building until the 1960s when it was converted into the central office for

2025-520: Was the largest school district in Alabama. In 1991 Governor of Alabama Guy Hunt announced that the state education budget would decrease by $ 145 million. Therefore, the MCPSS administration prepared for a possible closure. In 2001 superintendent Harold W. Dodge proposed removing all extracurricular activities from MCPSS schools in order to save $ 1.3 million. This money funded supplemental salaries for people who do instruction for extracurricular activities, including American football programs. In 2013,

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