ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Carol Birks, new acting superintendent of Allentown School District (ASD), said it was her own background that made her interested to serve in a leadership role in districts like ASD.
Birks said she is passionate about working with children who live in urban areas, students of color and those who live in poverty.
She said she knows those conditions because each touched her as she was growing up.
“I feel I am Allentown,” Birks said. "The community is very similar... to Bridgeport in which I grew up. I, like many of the students who grew up in Allentown, experienced some challenges in terms of poverty and single mom and all those things. And my life is a testament to the power of a great public education."
Birks said her top goal as Allentown’s superintendent is to create conditions in which students and the adults who work with them are safe. She wants students to feel cared about, valued and empowered.
- ASD Acting Superintendent Carol Birks said her top priority is making sure students and staff feel safe
- Birks plans a community forum this month
- Some in the community remain upset at former Superintendent Stanford's ouster
The interim chief has just completed her first week in the role for Allentown School District.
Birks replaced former Superintendent John Stanford, who was fired by the school board last month. No reason was made public, but district officials maintained it was a mutual decision.
ASD is paying her $850 a day for working three days a week until mid-December when she will be full-time on-site.
Birks said she grew up poor in Connecticut, where her mother was a domestic worker and her father, a military veteran, worked as a mechanic.
She said neither of her parents finished college, but they instilled in her the importance of education. She also credits the teachers she had along the way.
“I really had this great caring community — teachers and members of church and those who really believed in me,” she said.
Some Allentown residents, including city officials and members of the community, have expressed concerns about what they see as a lack of stability in the school district’s top leadership position. The school board cut ties with Stanford, its sixth superintendent in 12 years, less than a year after he started work.
"Given the opportunity, I will stay in this community. I will do the great work for the citizens, work very collaboratively with everyone within this community."Carol Birks, Interim Allentown School Superintendent
Birks said she would like to be considered for the permanent position when the time comes.
School Board President Nancy Wilt said that decision will come after the board is reorganized in December. She said whoever is elected board president and vice president will determine how the search proceeds.
"Given the opportunity, I will stay in this community," Birks said. "I will do the great work for the citizens, work very collaboratively with everyone within this community."
Some community stakeholders and school board members have expressed doubts about Birks being the right person to provide stability in the superintendent’s position. Her short tenure at New Haven Public Schools in Connecticut in 2019 was marred with controversies over teacher reductions, payments to consultants and complaints due to last-minute bus route changes.
She said that when the school board decided to go in a different direction a year and a half into her contract, she had to respect that.
In her next post, Birks served as superintendent of Chester Upland School District in southeastern Pennsylvania for just over a year, starting June 2020, but was removed after the person who hired her left and outsourced the operations to Montgomery County Intermediate Unit. Birks said that is common in many industries.
For her most recent position, she said the reason she is leaving the superintendent's role at Booker T. Washington, where she started as a consultant in February, is because the Allentown interim superintendent job opened up.
Birks' record worries Esther Lee, president of the Bethlehem NAACP. Lee was among protestors who rallied recently in front of Lehigh Valley Courthouse, demanding to know why Stanford was let go.
“She doesn’t seem to be able to stay in one place long enough to get a fix on what it is she needs to do.”Esther Lee, president of the Bethlehem NAACP
“She doesn’t seem to be able to stay in one place long enough to get a fix on what it is she needs to do,” Lee said of Birks.
Area members of the NAACP held another protest over the weekend in Allentown. They have also called on the state to take over the school district. A spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Department of Education said it has no authority to do so except in cases of financial instability.
Allentown Mayor Matt Tuerk said he was disappointed in the board’s decision to oust Stanford, in part because he was a friend and in part because of the time it takes to build relationships with the community.
Tuerk said he believes one of the mayor’s jobs is to have a close relationship with whoever is the district's superintendent.
“You will be able to count on me as an ally to help serve the kids of the district,” he said at a recent breakfast meeting with Birks.
The acting superintendent said one of her goals is to build relationships with those in the community, such as NAACP members. She said she was targeting mid-November to hold a community forum to meet families and others in the district and start making those connections.
She said she also wants to visit locations such as hair salons, barbershops and churches.
“All throughout my leadership, I’ve always been grassroots in doing that work,” she said.
The interim chief said she was unaware that she was the only applicant for Allentown’s acting superintendent position.
Birks supports school choice, but would not say whether her support for that concerned any members of the school board during her interview. But she said she is in favor of families having a portfolio of schools to select from.
