BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Seven Jefferson County schools are set to become magnet schools over the next three years, part of a long-planned expansion that will add new STEAM and International Baccalaureate options and serve as a court-approved desegregation strategy.
The first programs will open in the 2027-28 school year at Irondale Community School and Brighton School, which will become STEAM magnets, and at Pleasant Grove Elementary School, which is seeking authorization to offer the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme.
Irondale Middle School and Minor Middle School will become STEAM magnets in 2028-29, followed by Shades Valley High School and Minor High School in 2029-30.
Superintendent Walter Gonsoulin said the district has been working toward the expansion for several years and that the new magnet programs will complement the Signature Academies already offered at district high schools.
“This is about better serving our students and our families,” Gonsoulin said. “Alabama is currently a school choice state, and through these efforts, we are letting our families know that public education is the premier choice.”
He said some of the planning grew out of a district study conducted around the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic that found parents and students wanted more educational choices. The district has since expanded its Signature Academies and other programs that allow students to attend specialized programs outside their assigned schools.
The magnet schools will also play a specific role in Jefferson County’s longstanding federal school desegregation case.
U.S. District Judge Madeline Haikala approved the district’s final magnet plan July 24, calling the proposed magnet schools “critical” to the district’s efforts to remedy the effects of “recent and past intentional racial discrimination.”
Haikala said the programs are being strategically located to attract students from across Jefferson County and encourage students to voluntarily attend schools outside their usual attendance zones, furthering desegregation without extensive involuntary busing or redrawing school attendance zones.
The court order also has implications for Irondale, which has been considering forming its own municipal school system. Two of the new magnet sites – Irondale Community School and Irondale Middle School – are in the city, and Shades Valley High School is part of the same eastern STEAM pathway.
READ MORE: Why Alabama still has dozens of school desegregation cases – and why some want to end them
STEAM stands for science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics.
Haikala ordered that the magnet programs and the facilities housing them remain under Jefferson County’s “direction, control, and ownership” while the district remains under federal supervision. Gonsoulin said that means the Irondale magnet schools will remain part of Jefferson County Schools “for the foreseeable future.”
On the western side of the district, Brighton, Minor Middle and Minor High will form the magnet pathway.
Gonsoulin said the schools will integrate those subjects across the curriculum, with an emphasis on project-based learning, collaboration and solving real-world problems.
Pleasant Grove Elementary will accept applications countywide if it receives approval to become an IB Primary Years Programme school, which serves elementary students.
Students already zoned for the magnet schools will be able to participate in the new programs if they choose, while students from outside the attendance zones will be able to apply.
Families zoned for one of the new magnet schools can choose to attend a nearby traditional school if they do not want the magnet program.
In Alabama, some magnet schools have admission requirements such as a minimum GPA or an entrance exam.
Gonsoulin said Jefferson County’s new programs will be based on student interest rather than academic performance or other selective criteria. He said the district is still working through some details of the admissions process.
The district chose campuses with enough room to hold additional students, Gonsoulin said.
He said he does not anticipate the programs initially attracting more students than the schools can hold. The federal consent decree governing the magnet program, however, calls for a weighted lottery if demand exceeds available seats.
Gonsoulin said that while the full costs are not yet known, the district expects to use a combination of state, local and federal funds. He also said transportation will be necessary to make the programs accessible to students outside their home-school zones.
Parents should receive more information in the coming months about the programs, registration and the application process, district officials said.