Amber Courtney
Amber Courtney was a candidate for District 4 representative on the Birmingham City Schools school board in Alabama. Courtney was defeated in the by-district general election on August 22, 2017.
This candidate participated in Ballotpedia's 2017 school board candidate survey. Click here to view her responses.
Elections
2017
- See also: Birmingham City Schools elections (2017)
All nine seats on the Birmingham City Schools Board of Education in Alabama were up for by-district election on August 22, 2017. The races drew 32 candidates, including four incumbents who filed to retain their seats. Thirty-one candidates appeared on the ballot. Runoff elections for Districts 1, 4, 5, 7, and 8 were scheduled for October 3, 2017, after no candidates in those races received a majority of the votes.[1]
In the general election, District 6 incumbent Cheri Gardner defeated former candidate Ervin Philemon Hill Sr. Incumbent Sandra Brown was re-elected after facing newcomer Lawrence Jackson for the District 9 seat. District 2 newcomer Terri Michal defeated fellow newcomer Brandon McCray. District 3 candidate Mary Boehm defeated former Birmingham City Schools interim Superintendent Larry Contri.[1]
During the runoff election, District 1 former candidate Douglas Ragland defeated newcomer Cedric Small. They defeated former candidates Jerry Tate and Keith Rice and newcomer Bennie Holmes in the general election. District 4 incumbent Daagye Hendricks was re-elected after facing former board member Edward Maddox. They defeated Amber Courtney in the general election. Newcomer Michael Millsap defeated fellow newcomer David McKinney for the District 5 seat. They defeated former candidate Martha McDowell and newcomers Aaisha Muhammad, Eloise Manning Crenshaw, Lt. Buford Burks, Andrea Mitchell, and Angela Scoggins-Watson in the general election. Challengers Patricia Spigner McAdory and Walter "Big Walt" Wilson advanced to a runoff election after defeating incumbent Wardine Alexander in the race for the District 7 seat. Spigner McAdory won the seat. Sonja Smith defeated Patricia Bozeman-Henderson for the District 8 seat. They defeated former candidate Antwon Womack and newcomer Tyrone Silmon in the general election.[2]
| Birmingham City Schools, District 4 General Election, 4-year term, 2017 |
||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
 Edward Maddox |
46.91% | 1,791 |
| Daagye Hendricks Incumbent |
34.28% | 1,309 |
| Amber Courtney | 18.81% | 718 |
| Total Votes | 3,818 | |
| Source: Birmingham, Alabama, "Official Summary Report: City of Birmingham Mayoral Election," accessed September 5, 2017 | ||
Campaign themes
2017
Ballotpedia survey responses
Amber Courtney participated in Ballotpedia's 2017 survey of school board candidates.[3] In response to the question "What do you hope to achieve if elected to the school board?" the candidate stated on August 7, 2017:
| “ | I hope to achieve change for the better, and through a contribution that is rooted in a genuine desire to help students succeed, as well as through true capacity and understanding of what it takes to teach students as an educator (I am a part time teacher). As a product of a similar system, I'd like leadership to begin to show students what it takes with all odds stacked against them--that they could, too, obtain a Master's Degree from U.A.B. and a Doctorate from The University of Alabama in Education--they need not be resigned to all that they see, and inspire teachers and others working with them that we can provide them the tools they need to be successful all by orienting the focus back on children, and less on the politics of getting re-elected.[4][5] | ” |
Ranking the issues
The candidate was asked to rank the following issues based on how they should be prioritized by the school board, with 1 being the most important and 7 being the least important. Each ranking could only be used once.
| Education policy |
|---|
 |
Click here to learn more about education policy in Alabama. |
| Education on the ballot |
| Issue importance ranking | |
|---|---|
| Candidate's ranking | Issue |
| Closing the achievement gap | |
| Improving post-secondary readiness | |
| Balancing or maintaining the district's budget | |
| Improving relations with teachers | |
| Expanding arts education | |
| Improving education for special needs students | |
| Expanding school choice options | |
| “ | All of these are important goals for any school board, and arguably none trump the other--all need to be well balanced in order to create a functioning and progressive school system that achieves high student outcomes.[5] | ” |
| —Amber Courtney (August 7, 2017) | ||
Positions on the issues
The candidate was asked to answer eight questions from Ballotpedia regarding significant issues in education and the school district. The questions are highlighted in blue and followed by the candidate's responses. Some questions provided multiple choices, which are noted after those questions. The candidate was also provided space to elaborate on their answers to the multiple choice questions.
| Should new charter schools be approved in your district? (Not all school boards are empowered to approve charter schools. In those cases, the candidate was directed to answer the question as if the school board were able to do so.) |
|---|
| No. While this is a tool that has been commonly used across the Nation and is presented as an "option", when most of the schools in the area are on the deemed "failing" list, placing a school that operates completely out of the spectrum of the existent school system and thus in direct competition with them without addressing the issues of the failing school presents opposition and does not help the existing issue. We need to focus on making our public school system better first before we start injecting solutions that will only benefit some and not all. Due to State legislation, this cannot be the case, however. |
| Which statement best describes the ideal relationship between the state government and the school board? The state should always defer to school board decisions, defer to school board decisions in most cases, be involved in the district routinely or only intervene in severe cases of misconduct or mismanagement. |
| The state should defer to school board decisions in most cases. |
| Are standardized tests an accurate metric of student achievement? |
| No. |
| How should the district handle underperforming teachers? Terminate their contract before any damage is done to students, offer additional training options, put them on a probationary period while they seek to improve or set up a mentorship program for the underperforming teacher with a more experienced teacher in the district? |
| Offer additional training options. Put them on a probationary period while they seek to improve. Set up a mentorship program for the underperforming teacher with a more experienced teacher in the district. |
| Should teachers receive merit pay? |
| Yes. Incentives to do well, especially in a currently challenged school system might be a way to maintain current talent and attract some of the best right to our City. In order to have and keep the best, we have to treat teachers as they should be treated--which is as a priority. If not for them, what chance would any of our children have? |
| Should the state give money to private schools through a voucher system or scholarship program? |
| No. Much of the funding that the State has should be allotted to making public schools better, so that parents won't have to be faced with the burden of sending their children through a private school education. |
| How should expulsion be used in the district? |
| Only out of necessity. |
| What's the most important factor for success in the classroom: student-teacher ratio, the curriculum, teachers, parent involvement or school administration? |
| School administration. This is the most important because it can dictate the outcome of the rest--with diligence on behalf of a good administration, all other aspects can be ordained to be the best. This takes good, effective, smart leadership, however--which is what the school board needs and why I am running. |
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Amber Courtney Birmingham City Schools school board. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 AL.com, "Birmingham municipal election: Final numbers are in, winners declared," accessed August 29, 2017
- ↑ Birmingham, Alabama, "General Municipal Runoff Official Report," accessed October 11, 2017
- ↑ Note: The candidate's answers have been reproduced here verbatim without edits or corrections by Ballotpedia.
- ↑ Ballotpedia School Board Candidate Survey, 2017, "Amber Courtney's responses," August 7, 2017
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
