BOARD MEMBERS

MR. RANDY WILKES

SUPERINTENDENT
EDUCATIONAL SERVICES CENTER
1212 NINTH AVE, P.O. BOX 460
PHENIX CITY, AL 36868-0460
334.298.0534 OFFICE
334.298.6038 FAX

MR. BRAD BAKER, PRESIDENT

MR. KELVIN REDD, VICE PRESIDENT
MR. RICK CARPENTER
MRS. FRAN ELLIS
MRS. BARBARA MITCHELL
MS. ZARA PARHAM
MR. PAUL STAMP

Contact: Lara Beth Johns

334-298-0534
lbjohns@pcboe.net
Phenix City Schools Advances to Final Round of XQ: The Super School Project
PHENIX CITY, AL, April 11, 2016 An untold number of schools recently received some happy news and
Phenix City Schools was one of them.
Last Monday, philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs, wife of the late Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs,
revealed that a six-month-old national education challenge she is backing called XQ: The Super School
Project would announce which U.S. schools advance to the next, and final, phase. And on Friday, she did
just that. The competition will ultimately see at least five institutions receive a collective $50 million to try
what will be for them entirely new educational approaches.
XQ: The Super School Project launched in September 2015 as an open call to rethink and redesign the
American high school. Thousands of applicants and tens of thousands of supporters from towns and cities
across the country have united to take on this important work. Teams of students, teachers, parents,
community leaders and many more came together to conceptualize innovative models for 21st century
learning and create a pathway to success for students.
Since its launch, XQ has proven to be more than a challenge to create innovative high schools. It is a
growing movement to reimagine what is possible for public education in America, and a hub for
community voices, cutting edge ideas, and expert resources to make real change possible.
The XQ challenge in Phenix City Schools has been spearheaded by Grace Jernigan, a long-time educator
and Assistant Principal of Lakewood Primary and Lakewood Elementary schools. Along with Mrs. Jernigan,
51 XQ team members made of 7th-12th grade students, teachers, administrators, parents, and
community members have been rethinking high school and working since October 2015 on their XQ
proposal.
Phenix City Schools project, Area 21: Where Innovation and the Future Begin, aims to develop a school
on the high school level that focuses on cybersecurity, telematics, advanced coding, and computer repair.
Cybersecurity is the protection of information systems from theft or damage to the hardware, the
software, and to the information on them, as well as from disruption or misdirection of the services they
provide. Telematics is a general term that refers to any device which merges telecommunications and
infomatics. Telematics includes anything from GPS systems to navigation systems. It is responsible for
many features in vehicles from OnStar to hands free mobile calling.
During a recent meeting with KIA, who has founded their own charter school in LaGrange to meet the
ever-growing needs for well-trained technicians, Superintendent Randy Wilkes discussed the need for
employees trained in cybersecurity and telematics. As the number of connected devices explodes from
roughly 2 billion in 2010 to an estimated 25 billion by 20201 security researchers have repeatedly shown

that most online devices can be hacked, including vehicles. Among the most vivid examples came recently,
when security researchers demonstrated that they could hijack a vehicle over the Internet, without any
dealership-installed device to ease access. By hacking into a 2014 Jeep Cherokee, the researchers were
able to turn the steering wheel, briefly disable the brakes and shut down the engine.1
If named a winner of the XQ challenge, Phenix City Schools hopes to provide a foundation for those
interested in pursuing these types of technological jobs that will curtail cyber-community issues of the
future. Interested students will complete an application process including, but not limited to, a
psychological evaluation. This type of evaluation is necessary due to the sensitive nature of the
cybersecurity and telematics. The second floor of the proposed school will house these classrooms and
will be cyber-secure.
In addition to the cybersecurity and telematics focus, Phenix City Schools hopes to change the culture and
pedagogy of high school to increase hands-on learning through real-world project based learning projects.
The XQ team proposes to increase the collaborative focus simply by changing furniture to a style that is
both collaborative and technology friendly; to give students educational experiences outside the
classroom walls by utilizing community networks and partnerships that have been propagated since the
projects inception; to place a stronger focus on the arts by transforming Red Devil TV to Red Devil
Productions; and to give the Career Tech facility a facelift by transforming into a makerspace type setting.
The next step for Phenix City Schools is to fine-tune ideas and transform them into tangible school designs.
The next phase is called Developa series of exercises and questions designed to help push imaginative
skills and show the XQ Super School Project the capacity to actually implement a school design. The
deadline for completing the Develop phase is May 23, 2016.
Winners of the XQ: The Super School Project will be announced in August 2016.
1 http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/business/2015/07/22/hacks-on-the-highway/

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