Baldwin County Schools Paid Solution Tree Nearly $1.5 Million Over Three Years, Records Show

BAY MINETTE, Ala. — The Baldwin County Board of Education paid nearly $1.5 million to Solution Tree, a national professional development company, over three recent fiscal years, according to records the school system released in response to a public records request. Solution Tree is best known for its “Professional Learning Communities at Work” model. Its catalog also includes workshops and books on equity, anti-racism and social-emotional learning, which critics of diversity, equity and inclusion programs have pointed to.

The payments to Solution Tree climbed sharply from year to year and peaked in the 2026 fiscal year at $817,701, according to the totals. The records were provided on the board’s behalf by Adams and Reese, a law firm with an office in Montgomery.

What the records show

The totals released by the school system break down this way:

• Fiscal year 2026: $817,701
• Fiscal year 2025: $461,347
• Earliest year in the records (listed as 2023): $204,487
• Three-year total: $1,483,535

Alabama public school systems run on a fiscal year from Oct. 1 through Sept. 30, so the 2026 fiscal year ended last month.

The totals do not show which Solution Tree products or services the money paid for, such as workshops, coaching, books, conference registrations or online courses. They also do not show how much, if any, went to the company’s equity-related offerings and how much went to its core teacher-collaboration training.

Separately, the board recently approved $29,200 in federal Title I money to buy four workshops from Solution Tree.

Who Solution Tree is

Solution Tree is an education publisher and professional development company based in Bloomington, Indiana, and founded in 1998. It sells books, videos, conferences, workshops, consulting and online courses for K-12 teachers and school leaders. It works with schools and districts on professional learning communities, response to intervention, student assessment and other topics.

The company is closely tied to the Professional Learning Communities at Work process, which educators Richard DuFour and Robert Eaker introduced in their 1998 book of the same name. The model asks teachers to work in teams built around three ideas: making sure students learn, building a collaborative culture and focusing on results. In practice, teacher teams in a PLC regularly look at student data together, agree on what students should learn and plan how to help students who are struggling or already ahead.

Solution Tree also runs AllThingsPLC, an online community for schools using the model. Schools can apply for recognition there, and model schools must meet set criteria and reapply each year.

A Baldwin County school’s recognition

J. Larry Newton Elementary School in Baldwin County recently celebrated earning PLC “Promising Practices” status, a recognition tier granted by AllThingsPLC. According to AllThingsPLC records, at least 18 Alabama schools in three school systems hold one of Solution Tree’s PLC recognition tiers.

The heavy concentration of AllThingsPLC schools in Baldwin County, together with the board’s recent Title I purchase, prompted the records request that turned up the payment totals.

J. Larry Newton is on the Eastern Shore a few miles south of Fairhope. The school’s page on the district website says it serves about 750 students, first qualified for federal Title I funding in 2013 and is the only Title I school in the Fairhope feeder pattern.

The equity and anti-racism offerings

Solution Tree’s catalog includes dozens of workshops. Some cover diversity, equity and inclusion. One workshop on “strategies and resources for navigating anti-racism” encourages educators to “Initiate conversations rather than reacting to questions.” Company materials also urge teachers to “examine the beliefs, expectations, and habits that create an equitable, justice-driven school environment.”

A workshop titled “The Antiracist School Leader: What to Know, Say, and Do” says participants will learn to “reinforce systems that lead to equitable student outcomes” and “practice strategies for addressing stakeholders’ fears, deflections, or rejections of antiracist work.”

Books the company publishes include:

• Raising Equity Through SEL: A Framework for Implementing Trauma-Informed, Culturally Responsive Teaching and Restorative Practices
• Building Blocks for Social-Emotional Learning
• Finding Your Blind Spots: Eight Guiding Principles for Overcoming Implicit Bias in Teaching
• The Identity-Conscious Educator: Building Habits and Skills for a More Inclusive School, which describes a “framework for building awareness and understanding of five identity categories: race, social class, gender, sexual orientation, and disability.” Its sixth chapter covers gender identity, including moving beyond a gender binary and talking with students about gender diversity.

Solution Tree’s website also describes its own internal employee training. The company says it partners with an organization called Paradigm to teach its staff DEI concepts. “Solution Tree started their DEI journey with a two-day Cultural Competency Training with a DEI expert,” the site says. “When this training received overwhelmingly positive feedback from staff, Solution Tree realized they needed a more scalable solution that gave employees options to learn at their own pace.”

The board’s records do not say whether Baldwin County educators took any of these equity-focused workshops or used any of these books.

How Alabama law treats DEI in public schools

The payments come as Alabama’s law on diversity, equity and inclusion programs is in effect. Senate Bill 129, signed by Gov. Kay Ivey on March 20, 2024, took effect Oct. 1, 2024. It applies to state agencies, local boards of education and public colleges and universities.

Among other things, the law bars covered entities from keeping DEI offices, from sponsoring DEI programs that advocate what it calls “divisive concepts” and from requiring students, employees or contractors to attend training that requires them to agree with those concepts. The law lists eight divisive concepts. They include the ideas that one race, sex or religion is inherently superior to another, that a person is inherently racist or sexist because of his or her race or sex, and that people should feel guilt because of their race or sex.

The law also includes exceptions. It does not ban teaching topics or historical events in a historically accurate context. Whether any particular workshop or book would fall under the law’s restrictions depends on its content and how it is used. The records released do not show that.

Paying for teacher training

School systems commonly buy professional development from outside vendors, often with federal money. Title I, the largest federal K-12 program, sends money to schools with high percentages of students from low-income families. Districts may use it for extra staff, tutoring and teacher training intended to raise achievement. Purchases like the board’s recent $29,200 workshop approval come up for a vote at public board meetings.

About the Baldwin County school system

The Baldwin County Board of Education is headquartered in Bay Minette and has seven members elected by district. The system runs dozens of elementary, middle and high schools and career-technical centers across one of Alabama’s fastest-growing counties. Gulf Shores and Orange Beach have left the county system in recent years to form their own city school districts.

What to know

• Total paid: $1,483,535 to Solution Tree over three fiscal years, according to records released by the board.
• Biggest year: Fiscal 2026, at $817,701, up from $461,347 the year before.
• Recent approval: $29,200 in Title I funds for four Solution Tree workshops.
• What’s not in the records: A breakdown of which products or services the payments covered.
• Applicable state law: SB129, in effect since Oct. 1, 2024, limits certain DEI programs at local school boards.
• How to weigh in: Board meetings are open to the public, and agendas list items such as vendor contracts before votes.