Marvin Smith has ambitious plans to take an abandoned school building and turn it into an academy aimed at building broad skills for young men and women. Photo by David Garrett.
Marvin B. Smith Jr. looks at the old Banks High School and sees much more than an aging building, abandoned with broken windows, graffiti and other signs of neglect.
Instead, he sees a bustling campus where young people take courses in everything from construction trades to sewing and arts, where community members come to learn things like ceramics and ballroom dancing and where a cafeteria and theater draw hundreds of visitors.
If Smith realizes his vision, the former campus in the eastern area of Birmingham — which later became a middle school before closing in 2008 — will become the Goal Institute of Construction Technology and the Arts.
“It’s a disaster inside,” Smith says of the 58-year-old building. But, he adds, “It’s got good bones.”
Smith, Goal’s chief executive officer and founder, says he spent a year working with city officials to get support for his plan. The city took ownership of Banks several years ago in a deal with the Birmingham City Schools.
In September, Mayor William Bell signed a memorandum of understanding that gives Smith up to a year to assess and even clean up the property so that he and city officials can determine if the Goal project is feasible. If Smith’s plan is doable, the agreement says, Bell will recommend that the City Council approve sale or lease of Banks to Goal.
“We are really excited about it,” Smith says. “We have a golden opportunity to put the school back together.”
Promotional signs for the project even set a goal of getting the military jet that was a prominent feature of the Banks campus returned to its original home. It now is housed at the Southern Museum of Flight.
Smith now is working to promote Goal and raise money to get it started. “I’ve already assembled a team of very skilled craftsmen. … This project is going to come down to one thing: money,” he says.
He is hiring a grant writer to begin the process of seeking private and government grants for the Banks project. He says he also has spoken with officials at the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs and even Gov. Robert Bentley about loan programs that are available through the state.
He estimates that it will cost about $2 million to do the basic work needed to make the Banks building functional again.
Marvin Smith. Photo by Michaelle Chapman.
Smith, 52, lived in Fairfield as a baby but grew up in California. He taught school there and also became a general contractor. He decided to return with his construction company to the Birmingham area in 2009 when the economy in California tanked.
“My specialty is taking old houses and completely rebuilding them,” he says.
He says a friend told him about Banks last year and he began to investigate. When he spoke with community members about the old school, he learned that people want it to be brought back to life. A plan that had been formulated several years ago never got off the ground, and the Banks building remains empty and deteriorating.
When Smith developed his own plan, he decided on the name “Goal” because his father, Marvin Bryce Smith Sr., owned a business named Goal Chemical Sealants Corp. that provided sealants for aircraft.
Smith speaks proudly of his father and mother, Doris White Smith, who both are Fairfield natives who were involved in the 1963 civil rights marches. His father was president of the Miles College student body and led students from there to the marches.
Smith’s plan calls for a postsecondary school that offers programs in construction trades like electrical and plumbing careers, as well as a master builder program that would qualify students to pass the general contractor licensing exam. He says the final “exam” would be building a home from the ground up using resources at Goal.
The Birmingham area is low in the number of people with skills in construction trades, Smith says. He sees Goal playing a role in changing that. “We can put out some of the best skilled craftsmen,” he says.
Goal would have to offer only certificates at first because it takes two years to get fully accredited, he says. But the eventual plan is to offer associate and bachelor’s degrees and even master’s programs and doctoral degrees.
Goal’s conceptual master plan includes more than the Banks campus. It also encompasses the former South Eastlake Elementary School property that is directly across 86th Street South from Banks. That building still houses school system administrative departments, but South Eastlake is up for sale. Plans call for the departments now housed there to move near the former Wells Fargo bank building the district has purchased to consolidate facilities.
Smith says he has talked to district officials about leasing or purchasing South Eastlake, which is a functional building and could house Goal in its startup stages. “If I can get $100,000, I can get it [South Eastlake],” he says.
Smith envisions having Goal construction students work on the Banks renovations as part of their training. Eventually, students would work on renovating abandoned or rundown houses and building new homes on vacant lots in the community. “The people who live in the city of Birmingham will benefit,” he says.
While Goal would start as a technical school, it also would offer arts programs and mini courses that people from the community could take. Smith wants to give people an opportunity to explore the arts and do things using their hands.
Goal “is going to have a lot of different things happening there,” he says.
The master plan calls for fully renovating the Banks theater and gym, refurbishing athletic facilities and construction of an indoor swimming pool behind the South Eastlake building. The area behind the Banks building would include a community walking trail. Community gardens also are part of the plan.
Smith speaks enthusiastically about his plan. “I believe that this is really going to happen. … [Goal] is going to be really strong one day.”
Goal received federal status as a nonprofit organization in April, making donations tax deductible. He says donations can be made through the Goal PayPal account, gictadonate@gmail.com, or by mail at P.O. Box 13544, Birmingham, AL 35202. Smith can be contacted by email at gictadonate@gmail.com.
