Schools prosper amid growth, funding challenges

The Hoover school system, though 20 years younger than the city of Hoover, was born in controversy just like the city.

Hoover voters were asked in December 1986 whether they wanted to form a school system, and supporters were shocked when the measure failed by 57 votes. There were 3,359 votes against the idea, and 3,302 in favor.

But the vote was nonbinding, and in October 1987, the Hoover City Council voted to form a school system anyway. The move angered some residents who felt the people’s voice was ignored, but city leaders pressed on.

The result is a school system that has seen tremendous growth over the years and become a highly regarded educational entity, with award-winning faculty and students who perform among the best in the state on achievement tests.

Birth of a system

The push to form a city school system was born out of dissatisfaction with county schools, said Charles Hickman, one of the first school board members.

“It seemed obvious to us that the quality of education our students were getting was not what most of the people in the city of Hoover wanted,” Hickman said.

Hoover residents were tired of having run-down facilities, old textbooks, old equipment, old technology and crowded classrooms, said Susanne Wright, who served on the school board from 1990-2002.

Most of the schools that served Hoover students at that time were in the Jefferson County system, and “they weren’t on the cutting edge of anything,” Wright said.

Hoover parents wanted lower class sizes, more guidance counselors, a dedicated college counselor, more special education and learning support teachers, and additional course offerings and advanced studies programs, Hickman said. He believes that, through the years, they have been able to achieve all of those.

When the Hoover system was formed, it obtained Berry High School, Simmons Junior High School and Bluff Park, Green Valley, Gwin, Rocky Ridge and Shades Mountain elementary schools from Jefferson County. There were 5,243 students that first year, records show.

One of the first orders of business was to renovate and repair school buildings.

“They were old Jefferson County schools that needed improvement,” Wright said.

But school officials quickly found they needed more classroom space to handle Hoover’s fast growth.

The school board bought 100 portable classrooms until they could build additional facilities. Between 1988 and 1994, every Hoover school had an addition built, including a brand-new school for Bluff Park Elementary that opened in two phases in 1994 and 1995.

The first completely new school to be built under the Hoover City Schools flag was Trace Crossings Elementary in 1993, thanks to a 14-mill property tax increase approved by residents in May 1990.

But perhaps the most defining construction project for the Hoover system was Hoover High School, which opened with 327,000 square feet for $22.8 million in 1994. The mammoth, almost college-like campus was dubbed “Hoover University.”

The original Hoover High buildings were built to hold 2,500 students, and the school opened with 2,100 coming from Berry High, making it the state’s largest high school.

With the city’s fast growth and continued annexation to the east, school officials realized one high school would not be enough. With Hoover High bursting at the seams with 2,800 students, Spain Park High School opened in 2001, at a cost of $40 million.

Splitting up Hoover High was quite contentious, said Connie Williams, who was Hoover High’s first principal and later became superintendent. While some people on the eastern side of Hoover were eager for a new high school, many people didn’t want to go to Spain Park, Williams said.

“They loved Hoover High, and they were entrenched,” she said. “Now, those same areas and those same people love Spain Park, as they should.”

Hoover High’s enrollment dropped below 2,000, but not for long. Continued growth boosted Hoover’s enrollment back above 2,400 by 2006. School officials opened a separate freshman campus for ninth-graders to buy time until a third high school could be built, but in 2011 they built 36 new classrooms for Hoover High instead, expanding capacity to 3,500. The school now has more than 2,900 students.

Systemwide, the district has grown to about 13,900 students in two high schools, three middle schools, an intermediate school and 10 elementary schools.

Six superintendents

The Hoover school system has had six superintendents over 30 years, not counting interim leaders.

The first was Robert Mitchell, who came back to Alabama from Portsmouth, Virginia. Mitchell’s supporters hailed him as an outstanding educator, but he lasted only three years. The school board fired him in April 1991 after allegedly receiving pressure from city officials, who were critical of school spending and called for more transparency.

Mitchell filed a $45 million lawsuit, claiming a conspiracy to oust him, but a federal judge dismissed it.

The Hoover school board hired Homewood Superintendent Robert Bumpus to take over. Bumpus was widely viewed as a peacemaker and healer.

“Everybody loved Robert Bumpus. He was a calming figure,” Wright said. “He was very popular, easy to talk to, very open — gave you any information you wanted.”

Bumpus hired former Homewood High Principal Jack Farr as director of planning and community services and promoted him to associate superintendent in 1993, Farr then replaced Bumpus when he retired in 1996. The school board named a new middle school after Bumpus in 1999.

Bumpus and Farr led the school system during its peak growth years, but Farr was diagnosed with a brain tumor in November 2002 and took a leave of absence. Upon returning, he oversaw a controversial rezoning effort that moved about 1,500 of Hoover’s 5,100 elementary students — mostly students from apartments — to new schools.

The same day he recommended the zoning plan in 2004, he announced his retirement due to health complications. Farr died in November 2004.

Farr was followed by his deputy superintendent, Connie Williams. Williams led a middle school rezoning effort that resulted in the relocation of Berry Middle School to Spain Park and the closing of the original Berry campus. She also was in charge when film crews documented the Hoover High football program in the MTV series “Two-A-Days” that brought national fame to the school.

But Williams drew the ire of city officials when she publicly criticized city funding cuts for schools. She was fired less than a month after the council appointed two new school board members in 2006. Council members denied being behind Williams’ ouster.

School board members later said Williams had lost respect for the school board’s authority and showed preferential treatment to Hoover High, but Williams said board members from both high school zones were asking for favors for athletic programs that she was unwilling to grant.

The board picked Andy Craig, the assistant superintendent for finance and business, to replace Williams.

Craig hired a retired federal judge in 2007 for an investigation that found evidence of academic, athletic and moral improprieties related to the Hoover High football program. The investigation resulted in the firing of the principal, resignation of the football coach and an assistant principal and changes in the way athletic-related finances are handled.

Craig led the system through a period of declining revenues. A one-time $85 million boost from Jefferson County helped avoid drastic cuts in personnel or services but led to deficit spending that was highly criticized.

Craig also sparked uproars with a rezoning plan and his recommendation to eliminate school bus service — and later charge bus fees — for most students. His rezoning plan was scrapped, and both bus decisions were rescinded after the NAACP and Justice Department intervened.

Craig also launched a program to put handheld computers or laptops in the hands of every student in grades 3-12. He became a deputy state superintendent in January 2015 but remains Hoover’s longest-serving superintendent.

This time, the board went outside the system and hired Monroe County schools Superintendent Kathy Murphy. She started in June 2015 and spent time rebuilding trust with the community and redrawing school attendance zones — a plan waiting approval from a federal judge at press time.

Murphy also has worked to rein in budget deficits and helped the school system end 2016 in the black for the first time since 2011.

Every Hoover superintendent has had to deal with rezoning, which has caused much angst. Williams said rezoning is one of the “necessary evils” that comes with growth.

Athletic, academic excellence

Most city leaders say the school system is one of the main reasons people move to Hoover.

Kelvin Smith said that was the case for him and his wife, Alicia, who moved to Hoover from Center Point in 2013. They believed their youngest son, Darius, would do well in Hoover High’s baseball program, and they liked the academic offerings.

“None of the other schools we looked at had a Finance Academy,” Kelvin Smith said.

His son dropped out of the baseball program after his sophomore year.

“It seemed like if you didn’t grow up in the community, you were going to get very little opportunity,” Kelvin Smith said. But his son stuck with football and had a good experience there and with the rest of the school, he said.

“Overall, I think it [moving to Hoover] was a very good decision,” he said.

Outstanding athletic programs are some of the first things people think about Hoover schools, but Williams said outstanding academic programs also are a hallmark.

Hoover parents expect excellence in everything, and “that’s a valid expectation,” she said.

However, Hoover really shouldn’t be compared with Mountain Brook, Vestavia Hills and Homewood because Hoover is much larger and more diverse, Williams and Wright said.

While diversity is a huge asset that draws many people to Hoover, it can be a challenge, too, Williams said. The system attracts more transient and lower-income families whose children sometimes don’t have strong educational backgrounds.

“I think that they’re up to that challenge,” Williams said. “It just takes time, resources and effort and a determination to provide for all kids, no matter who they are, where they come from or how they got here.”

Wright and Hickman said Hoover schools are doing a remarkable job in spite of fast growth, demographic changes and funding challenges.

“We have a great system, and I think it’s getting better every year,” Hickman said.