Hoover parents say they want to maintain 'community schools'

About 200 people showed up at Brock’s Gap Intermediate School tonight to give Hoover school officials feedback about the proposed rezoning proposal revealed a week ago.

The idea of keeping students close to the communities in which they live was a central theme of tonight’s meeting.

Superintendent Kathy Murphy and the Hoover school board heard from numerous parents in the Lake Cyrus community who were very happy with the proposal presented by Murphy last week because they would be able to attend elementary level schools close by.

But numerous parents from Trace Crossings and Gwin elementary schools expressed frustration with the plan because their communities and schools would be disrupted to a greater extent.

Heather Goss, a Lake Cyrus resident who is president of the Deer Valley Elementary School Parent Teacher Organization, said she at first was opposed to the idea of her community being rezoned from Deer Valley to South Shades Crest Elementary for grades K-2 and Brock’s Gap Intermediate School for grades 3-5.

However, the more she has thought about it, “this is really just the best possible scenario for us,” Goss said to hearty applause from many in the audience.

In the fall of 2014, many Lake Cyrus residents opposed former Superintendent Andy Craig’s plan to rezone the Lake Cyrus community from Deer Valley Elementary to Trace Crossings Elementary because they didn’t like the idea of passing by Deer Valley or South Shades Crest to get to Trace Crossings.

Under Murphy’s proposal, they will be much closer to Lake Cyrus. Plus, having a K-2 school will be a unique experience that will allow resources to be more concentrated by grade level, Goss said.

Autumm Jeter, another Deer Valley parent from Lake Cyrus, said change is hard, but they applaud the changes being recommended.

“That makes us feel comfortable and happy knowing our children can go to school in their neighborhood from kindergarten through fifth grade — literally in the neighborhood,” Jeter said. “I have faith in Dr. Murphy that all is going to be well for everyone.”

But some parents from Gwin and Trace Crossings aren’t convinced.

Under Murphy’s proposal, families in the Brock’s Gap portion of Trace Crossings would be rezoned from Trace Crossings to South Shades Crest and Brock’s Gap Intermediate.

One mother from that area said she can understand the excitement of the Lake Cyrus parents because they are getting a community school. “We are losing ours,” she said. “I will no longer be going to my community school.”

Numerous parents from The Preserve community told Murphy and the school board it doesn’t make sense to rezone them from Gwin Elementary, which they said is within walking distance of their community, to Trace Crossings Elementary, which is across John Hawkins Parkway and not within walking distance.

“Community schools are the heartbeat of our community,” Gwin parent Sarah Simmons said. “This is something that needs to be protected.”

Murphy told parents the rezoning proposal, which is not final yet, was designed as a whole to put students in schools closer to their communities. But there are some cases where the rezoning proposal does not do that.

School officials also are trying to make better use of existing classroom space that is underutilized and are making some changes to address concerns of the federal court and in hopes of being released from a decades-old school desegregation lawsuit, Murphy said.

The federal court and U.S. Department of Justice want to make sure minorities are being treated fairly in regard to school attendance zones, and Hoover school officials want to do that as well, she said.

“We love every child,” whether they come from a house or an apartment, whether they are white or black, Murphy said. “When they come to us, they’re ours.”

One Lake Cyrus resident asked Murphy if any options were considered other than rezoning, and Murphy said there are no other options.

“Rezoning is one of the things we can either embrace … or we can take a sitting position on this and the courts will rezone for us,” she said.

The federal court would have a big heart in trying to do the right thing but not as big a heart as the Hoover community has for itself, Murphy said.

A man with a son at Deer Valley asked why some Hoover elementary schools have strong ratings on some school rating websites and others don’t.

Murphy said sometimes disgruntled parents can skew the ratings on those websites.

“There’s nothing wrong with any of the elementary schools in Hoover,” Murphy said. “We are all blessed to be in Hoover City Schools.”

Angela Roberts, another Lake Cyrus residents, said some of her neighbors are concerned that Murphy’s proposal does not address the fact that Hoover High School is at 90 percent capacity and on the fastest-growing side of the city.

Murphy said she realizes that and said school officials will have to address that issue in the future. When she asked if it was time to be thinking about a third high school, there was strong applause. She mentioned the possibility of another addition to Hoover High, and the crowd responded by saying “no.”

Several parents mentioned concerns with reconfiguring the grade levels at various schools, specifically about converting Brock’s Gap Intermediate School, which now serves grades 5-6, into a school for grades 3-5.

Murphy said school staff already are brainstorming adjustments that would need to be made, such as building a playground at Brock’s Gap Intermediate and making adjustments to lunchroom serving lines, bathrooms, furniture, equipment and supplies.

“We’re Hoover, and we’re going to stay Hoover,” Murphy said. “We’re going to meet the needs of students, and we’re going to provide the resources that we need.”

Regarding staff, the teachers for the most part will follow the students, she said.

Numerous parents talked about the need to fix traffic problems at South Shades Crest Elementary School. Assistant Superintendent Melody Greene said school officials already are exploring some structural changes to the entrance at the school to try to help the situation. “We know it is a traffic debacle,” she said.

Murphy said some parents have expressed concerns that the rezoning proposal would require additional bus routes. That’s true, but overall, those routes would be shorter, with no students traveling more than 7.6 miles on a bus, she said. That would result in an estimated $666,000 savings to the school district, she said.

Some parents also have complained about children of Hoover City Schools employees who don’t live in Hoover attending Hoover schools and taking up valuable space in classrooms, Murphy said. School officials have determined there are 149 employees who have a combined 233 students in Hoover schools, which represents 1.6 percent of the district’s student population, she said.

“This is not hugely burdening our school district,” she said.

Murphy said school officials appreciate all the feedback they are receiving and will continue to receive at the three remaining community meetings.

She has received hundreds of emails, and about 800 people have responded to the online survey at hooverrezoning.com, she said.

School officials will take the feedback and consider making changes to the proposal as necessary before she presents a proposal to the school board for a vote in early March, she said. Then, if the school board approves a rezoning plan, it will go to the federal court, which would have to approve it before it could be implemented.

Read more about Murphy’s rezoning proposal here and visit the Hoover City Schools rezoning website for more information.

Three other meetings are scheduled for community feedback. Here is the schedule for those meetings:

• Feb. 16, 6-8 p.m., Hunter Street Baptist Church, 2600 John Hawkins Parkway (for families from Hoover High, Bumpus Middle and Trace Crossings and South Shades Crest elementary schools)
• Feb. 18, 6-8 p.m., Green Valley Baptist Church, 1815 Patton Chapel Road (for families from Simmons Middle School and Gwin, Green Valley and Bluff Park elementary schools)
• Feb. 23, 6-8 p.m., Spain Park High School, 4700 Jaguar Drive (for families from Spain Park High, Berry Middle and Riverchase, Rocky Ridge, Greystone and Shades Mountain elementary schools)

While these meetings are designed primarily for particular school communities, anyone is welcome to attend any meeting that better fits their schedule, Murphy said.