Glen Iris Elementary School

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Glen Iris Elementary School
Glen Iris School 1931.jpg
BCS small logo.png Birmingham City Schools
Years 1923present
Location 1115 11th Street South, (map)
Glen Iris
Grades K-5
Principal Troncie Southall-Mason
Enrollment 800 (2012)
Colors green & gold
Mascot Gators
Website bhamcityschools.org

Glen Iris Elementary School is an elementary school in the Birmingham City Schools system located at 1115 11th Street South in Southside's Glen Iris neighborhood. Originally Glen Iris School served grades K-12, and continued as a K-8 school after the construction of Ramsay High School in 1939.

Glen Iris School was constructed with $11,000 from bonds issued in 1918 and 1919, but the projects were delayed by World War I. The original Tudor-style brick school building, arranged around a central courtyard, was designed by architect D. O. Whilldin. The first 2-story unit was completed in 1923, and a second in 1928, providing 14 classrooms, including special rooms for a kindergarten, domestic science lab, and manual training. The Works Progress Administration constructed six "temporary" classrooms in a wood-framed wing in 1936-1937.

In 1941 the school's Parent-Teacher Association donated 25 Chinese elm trees which were planted around the school. One weekend in October 1953 three boys, aged 10-11, vandalized a dozen classrooms, causing hundreds of dollars of damage. Judge Talbot Ellis participated in a panel discussion on juvenile delinquency at the school later that month. Funds from the 1956 Birmingham bond issue were used to replace the 20-year-old "temporary" classrooms with a new wing.

In 1973-1974 Glen Iris hosted the pilot of the federally-funded EPIC School program to integrate gifted students and students with disabilities into regular classrooms. The program was expanded to the entire student body in grades 1-5 for the following year. Although the program was intended to maintain a 50/50 balance of white and black students, the inclusion of the rest of Glen Iris's students changed the racial makeup of the program. EPIC moved into its own building nearby in 1980.

In 1989 the system added middle schools, keeping Glen Iris as a K-5 elementary school.

The school was renovated expanded in 2006 with 10 additional classrooms. The $8.4 million project was designed by Evan Terry Associates and constructed by Argo Building.

Student and faculty volunteers from UAB often participate in Glen Iris classrooms. The school was the first to receive XO laptops for each student provided by the City of Birmingham in 2008. On October 8 of that year, UAB student Kayla Fanaei was shot to death during an attempted late-night robbery in the school's parking lot.

In May 2012 principal Wilson spent 26 hours on the roof of the school building as part of a fund-raiser for construction of a school garden and outdoor classroom.

Principals

References