HUNTSVILLE, Alabama - Huntsville Superintendent Casey Wardynski asked parents on Tuesday to "stay the course" at the schools their children already attend - rather than transfer them to a different school - as the district deals with the latest fallout from the Alabama Accountability Act.

Dr. Casey Wardynski (The Huntsville Times)

Wardynski held a news conference Tuesday afternoon in response to state Superintendent Tommy Bice's release of a list of 78 schools that have been identified as "failing schools" under the Accountability Act. The act is designed, in part, to give parents of students at failing schools an income tax credit to help send their children to a private school or a more successful public school.

Nine of Huntsville's schools are on the list, along with Brookhaven Middle School in Decatur. The Huntsville schools on the list are Butler High, Chapman Middle, Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary, Davis Hills Middle, Ed White Middle, Johnson High, Lakewood Elementary, Dawson Elementary and Westlawn Middle.

One Huntsville district employee called the situation "pandemonium" as phones in the central office rang throughout the day Tuesday. On the other end of the line - parents asking about removing their children from the schools on the state's list.

Wardynski, speaking specifically to parents, urged them to keep their children where they are. He explained that, because of the way the new law is written, the "failing" list includes many Huntsville schools that have already seen vast improvements in student achievement over the past two years.

"For moms and dads at these schools, if you're looking to do a transfer to private school, or somewhere else in Huntsville City Schools, or to another school system, what you don't know is, you may be going to a school that is not as effective," Wardynski said.

The superintendent pointed to the elementary schools on the list, Dawson, Lakewood and MLK, which are some of the district's most improved schools. All three schools are on the list because they were among those in the bottom 6 percent of schools statewide for at least three of the past six years.

Both Dawson and MLK moved out of that category in 2011, however, and have been doing progressively better since. Dawson has improved from 57 percent of student proficient on state assessments in 2012 to 81 percent in 2012. MLK has gone from 60 percent proficiency to 87 percent in that same time frame.

Lakewood came out of the bottom 6 percent in 2012, going from 64 percent to 77 percent proficiency in the span of a year.

Despite the improvements, Dawson and MLK will remain on the "failing" list until the fall of 2014, Wardynski said, and Lakewood will remain on the list until the fall of 2015.

"For these three schools, your best course of action is to stay put," Wardynski said. "You're in schools that are effective, and will continue to get more effective."

Other schools on the list are undergoing drastic transformations as well, Wardynski said. Those schools include Westlawn Middle, which, along with Dawson, received a federal school improvement grant in 2012 to help turn the school around.

Westlawn has shown great improvement, Wardynski said, in part because of the extra resources on campus.

"If you want to move your student from Westlawn, you're moving him away from the most resource-intensive environment in our school system, and likely in the state," the superintendent said. "That school has more resources than anywhere else, and that school is improving dramatically."

State school board member Mary Scott Hunter, who also spoke at the news conference, criticized the criteria used in the law to determine which schools are "failing." She said she and Bice both advocated for a list that would take into account the schools that are in growth models like Westlawn.

"We have a list that does meet the black letter of the law, but I'm not sure it meets the intent of the law," said Hunter, whose district includes Huntsville.

She urged parents not to give up and spoke to students who might be listening.

"You are not failures. This does not label you, it does not label your future, it does not label what you will do," Hunter said.

Wardynski said some of the requested transfers will be difficult, if not impossible, because the district is still under a 1970 federal desegregation order. Priority for transfers will go to students who wish to move to a different school under the federal order.

"Federal law trumps state law," Wardynski said. "There is unlikely to be much room in any of our schools for transfers under this law."

Wardynski also reminded parents that, to qualify for the $3,500 tax credit to send their children to other schools, they will have to pay their child's tuition up front. They would receive the tax credit in arrears.

"So if mom and dad want to go to a private school, you don't get a voucher, you don't get a cash payment. There is no cash drawer anywhere to give you money," Wardynski said. "You pay, and then you file for a tax credit in the spring and you see if you get it.

"And it's the government, so watch the rules," Wardynski said.

The superintendent also expressed concern over the financial impact the law is already having on the school district. The $40 million reserve fund the Accountability Act sets up to pay for scholarships to private schools will take $1.2 million that otherwise would have come to Huntsville to improve education at the local level.

Students who are sent to private schools will also be taking 80 percent of the state funding for their educations with them, Wardynski said.

The state will also lose millions in federal funds that come to the public schools, including Title I funds to improve student achievement and Child Nutrition Program funds.

"The state is essentially passing by federal revenues with this program, which can't do anything but leave us in a worse position," Wardynski said.

Sen. Paul Sanford, R-Huntsville, in a statement praised Wardynski's success with the schools that have improved in student achievement over the past two years.

"There's no doubt that having nine schools on a 'failing schools' list is nine too many, but we've seen significant improvements in a third of those schools under Dr. Wardynski's leadership," Sanford said. "Given Dr. Wardynski's proven track record of success, I have no doubt that these three schools will continue improving and come off the list, but I expect the others to follow suit as well."

Updated at 6:02 p.m. to include comment from Sen. Paul Sanford.