Hoover school board gives artists until Dec. 31 to move out of former Bluff Park school

The Hoover school board voted unanimously tonight to give the Artists on the Bluff group until Dec. 31 to vacate the former Bluff Park Elementary School.

In conjunction with that, the artist collective has agreed to pay all utility costs in the building from Sept. 1 through Dec. 31, Hoover schools Superintendent Kathy Murphy told the school board at its special-called meeting.

Additionally, the Artists on the Bluff group can only stay in the building if enough improvements are made to satisfy the Hoover fire marshal that the building can be occupied, Murphy said.

Ron Jones,  chairman of the board of directors for the Artists on the Bluff, told the Hoover City Council last week that the artist group had already made numerous changes in response to a recent Fire Department inspection and were ready for a re-inspection.

Before the Hoover school board voted tonight, the board heard from numerous people in the arts community, praising the value that Artists on the Bluff brings to the city and how there is nothing else like it in the Birmingham area.

Murphy and school board members said they wholeheartedly support the arts, but Murphy said she could not in good conscience continue to pay utilities for an entity that is outside of the school system, especially when the group is charging rent to artists to be there.

Also, an architectural firm has determined it would cost about $3.75 million to bring the nearly 100-year-old building up to current building codes, and that does not include aesthetic improvements, Murphy said.

The school district has higher priorities for capital expenses in the school system that relate more directly to children, she said.

School officials tried to reach an agreement that would allow the city to lease the building and sublease it to Artists on the Bluff, but the City Council also was reluctant to take responsibility for repairs to the building.

“I’m very much supportive of what goes on at Artists on the Bluff, but I would remind you as a board that it is not our obligation to carry the arts,” Murphy sad. “It is our obligation to educate children, and it is our obligation to spend our time focused on teaching and learning.”

She would rather use the school district’s money in a productive and savvy way that is specific to children, she said.

Murphy said it troubled her that, as she sought to eliminate deficit spending in the school district’s budget, she as superintendent had to cut spending for other programs in schools but pay utility costs for Artists on the Bluff.

Dirk Walker, one of the artists who rent space in the building, said after the vote that he appreciates the school board letting the artists stay in the building through the end of the year because it gives them time to find another place to go.

“It’s a tough thing,” Walker said. “But if it were my building, I wouldn’t want to put money into it.”

Walker said he can find other art studio space, but artist Jayne Morgan said if she has to move, she would expect to lose some of her art students who attend school at the newer Bluff Park Elementary next door and walk to her studio for lessons after school.

Her father, Dr. John Morgan, said he thinks it could be possible to find grants or corporate sponsors to help with the cost of renovating parts of the building for use by artists if the school board would be open to consider an alternative arrangement.

Murphy said she believes the school board would be willing to listen to proposals but could not promise anything.

The school system is not interested in selling the property, Murphy said.

“Frankly, we’re just simply not interested in selling this property for another group to be right up under our school and our kids at this point,” she said.

First, the school system is still dealing with growth issues, Murphy said. Bluff Park, with a new 32-home subdivision being built, is still growing, and young families continue to move into houses formerly occupied by people with no school-age kids, she said.

Plus, the school system would have to get approval from a federal judge to sell the property if it were so inclined, because of a decades-old federal desegregation court case that includes the Hoover school system, she said.

Murphy said she couldn’t say what the school board would do if artists were somehow able to convince the city to invest money in repairs of the building and lease it from the school board.

She did all she could do in that regard, “and it didn’t happen,” Murphy said. “I don’t know what would be different now.”

Murphy said school officials have spent a lot of time and energy on trying to work something out for Artists on the Bluff, “but it’s time to move on.”

The school district has a lot of other pressing issues to address, including adopting a new comprehensive plan, getting rezoning approved by the federal court and working to get released from the federal desegregation court case, she said.