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Courtesy of Hoover City Schools.
Hoover's elementary school zones by color
In the above map, light blue represents Bluff Park, puce represents Deer Valley, brown represents Green Valley, pink represents Greystone, tan represents Gwin, green represents Riverchase, light purple represent Rocky Ridge, aqua represents Shades Mountain, grey represents South Shades Crest and purple represents Trace Crossings.
The colors represent the current zoning, and the areas outlined in red illustrate the possible reassignments.
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Photo courtesy of Hoover City Schools.
Students in Lake Cyrus area may have to move from Deer Valley Elementary School to South Shades Crest Elementary School.
In the map, the tan color represents Gwin Elementary, purple represents Trace Crossings, grey represents South Shades Crest and park purple represents Deer Park.
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Photo courtesy of Hoover City Schools.
Students in area along South Shades Crest Road may have to move from South Shades Crest to Trace Crossings.
In the map, Trace Crossings is in purple, and South Shades Crest is in grey.
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Photo courtesy of Hoover City Schools.
Students in the Woodlands and Grand Oaks areas may have to move from South Shades Crest to Trace Crossings.
In the map, Trace Crossings is represented by purple and South Shades Crest is represented by grey.
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Photo courtesy of Hoover City Schools.
Students in the Ridge Crossings multi-dwelling units may have to move from Deer Valley to Trace Crossings.
In the map, pink represents Deer Valley and purple represents Trace Crossings.
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Photo courtesy of Hoover City Schools.
Students in the Riverchase Landing multi-dwelling units may have to move from Trace Crossings to Deer Valley, and students in the Wood Gardens and Wildwood multi-dwelling units may have to move from Rocky Ridge Elementary to Riverchase.
In the map, green represents Riverchase, light purple represents Rocky Ridge, purple represents Trace Crossings, grey represents South Shades Crest and brown represents Green Valley.
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Photo courtesy of Hoover City Schools.
Students in the Lake Crest area may have to move from Gwin Elementary to Trace Crossings.
By reassigning students Gwin Elementary School to Trace Crossings, those students would also be moving from the Simmons Middle School feeder path to the Brock’s Gap Intermediate School or Robert F. Bumpus Middle School feeder path. In the map, purple represents Trace Crossings, tan represents Gwin and dark purple represents Deer Valley.
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Photo courtesy of Hoover City Schools.
Students in the Carisbrooke area may have to move from Bluff Park Elementary School to Gwin.
In the map, tan represents Gwin and light blue represents Bluff Park.
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Photo courtesy of Hoover City Schools.
Students in the Riverchase Parkway area multi-dwelling units between Highway 31 and Interstate 65 might have to move from Riverchase to Greystone Elementary School.
Those multi-dwelling units include Riverchase Gardens, Royal Oaks, The Gables Condominiums, Summerchase of Riverchase, Colonial Grand at Riverchase Trails and Sterling Oaks of Riverchase. In the map, Riverchase is represented by green.
In response to the multiple meetings with parents and residents, Hoover City Schools released a breakdown of a proposed realignment plan for the 2015-2016.
When word of possible rezoning within the school system got out in the past few weeks, some parents and residents responded by forming support groups on Facebook and holding parent-only meetings with Superintendent Andy Craig.
Bluff Park United is one of those Facebook groups with about 540 people involved. Stephen Hertz, head of Bluff Park Unites, said the original purpose of the group was to spread information to get the community involved with the rezoning issue.
Hertz said one of the biggest concerns of the group is the disproportion of resources being divided among the schools.
“Every other school is gaining something in resources or any number of things,” Hertz said. “Bluff Park is kind of at the end of the line of dominos, and we are being taken from.”
Parents of current Bluff Park Elementary School students met with Superintendent Andy Craig in a closed meeting Aug. 11. During those community meetings, Craig provided some realignment maps for each of the nine areas that could possibly be affected.
“The proposed rezoning plan takes one of the oldest communities, in one of the oldest parts of the city, and cuts it in half,” Hertz said. “It goes against all the reasons people move to Bluff Park. We move here not because the houses are nice and new and have pools in the backyards. We move here for sense of community.”
Although the proposal is still in draft form and no official decisions have been made, those maps are now available in PDF form on the Hoover City Schools website.
“I know for some folks it feels like we shouldn’t have to rezone, but in our community we are in this continuous growth,” Craig said. “There are going to be times along the way where we are going to have to realign ourselves, re-balance things, and hopefully we do that in such a way that it looks forward as well so we won’t have to do this more often than we would otherwise.”
Craig said he hopes to have a final draft of the rezoning proposal ready by the Sept. 8, the next board meeting, so that residents can provide additional feedback before any proposal is given a vote. He said he is working collaboratively to put the district in a position to provide quality education for a long period of time for all students.
Possible area reassignments
The realignment summary provided by Hoover City Schools on its website illustrates nine areas that could possibly be rezoned for the 2015-1016 school year. For more detailed information, refer to the maps above that include boundary line proposals for the ten elementary schools in the system.
The possible reassignments are:
- Some students in the Lake Cyrus area will move from Deer Valley Elementary School to South Shades Crest Elementary School.
- Some students in the area along South Shades Crest Road will move from South Shades Crest to Trace Crossings Elementary School.
- Some students in the Woodlands and Grand Oaks areas will move from from South Shades Crest to Trace Crossings.
- Some students in Ridge Crossings multi-dwelling units will move from Deer Valley to Trace Crossings.
- Some students in the Riverchase Landing multi-dwelling units will move from Trace Crossings to Deer Valley.
- Some students in the Lake Crest area will move from Gwin Elementary School (which feeds into Simmons Middle School) to Trace Crossings (which feeds into Brock’s Gap Intermediate School or Robert F. Bumpus Middle School).
- Some students in the Carisbrooke area will move from Bluff Park Elementary School to Gwin.
- Some students in the Riverchase Parkway area multi-dwelling units (Riverchase Gardens, Royal Oaks, The Gables Condominiums, Summerchase of Riverchase, Colonial Grand at Riverchase Trails, Sterling Oaks of Riverchase) between. Highway 31 and Interstate 65 will move from Riverchase Elementary School to Greystone Elementary School.
- Some students from the Wood Gardens and Wildwood multi-dwelling units will move from Rocky Ridge Elementary School (RRES) to Riverchase.
