Bluff Park Elementary chosen as state Bicentennial School

For the last two years, the state of Alabama has been gearing up to commemorate its final year of the bicentennial celebration in 2019 through ALABAMA 200, a three-year celebration of the people, places and events that form the state’s history.

As part of the celebration, Education Coordinator Susan DuBose said, the Alabama Bicentennial Commission was created to choose 200 schools to represent the state as Alabama Bicentennial Schools and receive a grant of $2,000 to pursue a community project.

Out of the 400 submitted proposals, their committees chose schools that focused on projects involving civic engagement and ideas that would inspire stronger connections between the community and the school. Among the chosen schools is Bluff Park Elementary. 

“Those children being engaged in their community are going to be so powerful as we go forward in the future if they have a deep and abiding care in the community. … We ask communities to do a great deal for our schools, so this is a chance for them to give back to their community,” DuBose said.

Joyia Pittman, Alabama Bicentennial Commission educational specialist, visited about 100 of the schools to check on their progress, including Bluff Park Elementary.

Bluff Park Elementary’s bicentennial project included expanding the amount of books in its bilingual library, in addition to purchasing electronic translators to assist parents and students. Even though they don't have a large multicultural population, Pittman said, they did see a need for it from some of their parents. 

Bluff Park Elementary Assistant Principal Chelsea Bayko said some parents within the school had come to the principal explaining that they had trouble helping their kids with homework because they were struggling with English themselves. 

With the $2,000 grant, she said they were able to purchase a variety of multicultural and bilingual books for their media center and library. Though they already had some books, Pittman said, they had a need to expand their collection.

“We have books that also have the English version, and we also have books that are in English and Arabic and Chinese and all different languages that we saw a need for in our community,” Bayko said. 

In their lunchroom, Pittman added, they also have hung different flags from different countries, which she said they add to every time they get a new student from a country they don’t already have represented.

“They really just wanted to make their parents and their students feel a little more at home,” Pittman said. 

On Nov. 15, Bluff Park Elementary had an open house where it invited the community to celebrate the library books purchased through the grant. Bayko said they were able to purchase electronic translators for parents or anyone from the school coming in, so that they would be able to speak another language and have it translated in English, or vice versa, to communicate.

“I want to make sure that we are doing everything we can for all students in our school and all stakeholders because they're what makes Bluff Park great,” Bayko said. 

 In August 2019, the school will present its project findings to the Alabama Bicentennial Commission. To learn more about the ALABAMA 200 celebration, go to alabama200.org.