Bush K-8 School

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Bush K-8 School
BCS small logo.png Birmingham City Schools
Years 1901–present
Location 1112 25th Street Ensley, (map)
Ensley
Grades K-8
Principal Genita Nolan-Matthews
Enrollment 475 (2012)
Colors blue & gold
Mascot Bulldogs
Website bcs.schoolwires.net

Ernest F. Bush K-8 School is a school serving Kindergarten through eighth grade in the Birmingham City Schools system located at 1112 25th Street Ensley in Ensley. The principal is Genita Nolan-Matthews.

Bush K-8 School is the successor to the Ensley School which was founded at the corner of Avenue G and 23rd Street by the city of Ensley in 1901. By 1903 it had been renamed for Ernest Forrest Bush, the first superintendent of schools for Ensley.

Ensley School became part of the Birmingham City Schools system in 1910 when Ensley was annexed as part of the Greater Birmingham consolidation. The high school grades were transferred to the new Ensley High School the same year. The Birmingham Board of Education's "Birmingham School Survey" of 1923 found that the 22-year-old school was serving 703 students in the first through seventh grades. A report on the physical condition of the school by F. B. Dressler of the U.S. Bureau of Education found the building "not suitable for further service", stating that "the whole building reveals decrepitude and decay and should be abandoned at the earliest possible moment."

The board followed that advice and immediately commissioned architect David O. Whilldin to design a new Bush School to be built adjacent to Ensley High School. After an addition was completed in 1928 the school fully replaced the older Ensley School. Further additions were completed in 1952, 1957 and in the 1990s.

In 2009 plans were made for $7 million in renovations to Councill Elementary, but interim superintendent Barbara Allen suggested joining the student body with that of Bush Middle School in a new K-8 school.

In 2013, under the terms of the Alabama Accountability Act, Bush K-8 School was deemed a "failing school," permitting parents to claim tax credits to transfer students to another school.

In 2014 the board reconsidered the proposal to build a new school, proposing to apply $7 million toward renovating and upgrading the existing building. Some parents opposed the change in plans, arguing that the community had been promised a new school, that the renovation would not allow for pre-kindergarten program, parking improvements, and improvements to playgrounds and athletic fields. Some also complained that students were getting sick in the existing building, possibly from mold. An investigation led by the Jefferson County Health Department found "a single, isolated instance" of mold in a locked supply closet and removed it.

In June the Board approved the renovation plan and made arrangements to bus students to the recently-closed Center Street Middle School during construction.

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