Pelham school board approves sale of Riverchase Middle School campus to Hoover

The Pelham Board of Education this week approved the sale of Riverchase Middle School to the Hoover school board for $4.25 million.

The vote took place Monday, and now the property must be de-annexed from Pelham by the Pelham City Council before the deal closes, Pelham Superintendent Scott Coefield said.

Pelham has built a new middle school called Pelham Park Middle School and no longer needs the 41-acre campus in the Riverchase community.

Hoover school officials have not fully decided how they will use the property but are considering using the campus to offer training in skilled trades such as culinary arts, welding and everything in between, Hoover Superintendent Kathy Murphy said. The school system also is considering using the site for some of its specialty academies now offered at Hoover and Spain Park high schools, she said.

School officials have had preliminary conversations with the two high school principals and will be gathering input from other school personnel, including career tech and academy instructors, Murphy said.

Administrators also will be seeking out conversations with school board members and the community at large to discuss potential uses for the Riverchase Middle School campus, she said.

If the facility were used to provide skilled trades training, the types of classes offered there would be driven by input provided by students regarding their interests, Murphy said.

Coefield said he’s not sure how long it will take to get the property de-annexed from Pelham and annexed into Hoover, but “I don’t think it will be a long process — a month or so maybe.”

Pelham originally had a contract to sell the Riverchase Middle School campus to Heritage Christian Academy, formerly known as Shades Mountain Christian School, but that deal fell through.

Heritage Christian Academy was not able to close the purchase of the property on the agreed-upon date, Coefield said. The private Christian school was re-evaluating its financing plan, Coefield told Pelham City Schools employees in an email last month.

Coefield today said it’s not that Pelham wasn’t still interested in doing business with Heritage Christian, but when the certainty of the deal came into question, his school district had to begin to look at other options and do what was best for the school district.

He contacted Hoover City Schools to see if Hoover officials had any interest in the property, and they did, he said.

Heritage Christian Academy officials did not return phone calls seeking comment but issued a press release saying the school would continue at its current campus on Tyler Road for the 2017-18 school year.