Photo by Jon Anderson
The Hoover Board of Education meets at the Farr Administration Building on Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2022. From left are board President Amy Tosney, Vice President Amy Mudano and board member Alan Paquette.
The Hoover school board voted 4-0 on Dec. 13 to seek federal court approval to send children from the planned Everlee community to South Shades Crest Elementary School, Brock’s Gap Intermediate School, Bumpus Middle School and Hoover High School.
The Everlee community, under construction off Alabama 150 between Lake Cyrus and Ross Bridge, is slated to have 2,344 housing units. Six hundred of those homes will be restricted to people age 55 or older and people without children under the age of 18 living in the home, leaving 1,744 potential homes with children.
The school board also on Dec. 13 voted to ask the court to allow the school system, at some undetermined point in the future, to turn the South Shades Crest and Brock’s Gap schools both into K-5 schools.
Right now, South Shades Crest serves K-2 students, and Brock’s Gap serves students in grades 3-5 from the same attendance zone.
Superintendent Dee Fowler said South Shades Crest is likely to run out of room at some point because students in kindergarten and first grade aren’t supposed to be housed on the second floor of the school.
There is sufficient space right now to add more students at South Shades Crest and Brock’s Gap, but as the Everlee community and other new communities add houses and children, that school zone will need to be divided into two school zones, Fowler told the school board.
He’s not sure how long it will take to get to that point, he said. It could be three years, or it could be five years, he said.
But he and the school board want to go ahead and get court approval to make the change when the time comes and let people buying homes now know what the plan will be in the future, he said.
School officials still will have to gather more demographic information and projections for the future before submitting the request to the court, Fowler said.
The main thing right now is “we’re just finding a place for kids at Everlee to go to school,” he said. No teachers or grades are being moved at this time, he said.
No homes have been built in Everlee yet, but Signature Homes already has received approval on preliminary plans for 249 home sites in Everlee.
STRAIGHT A REPORT CARDS
In other business, Hoover’s chief academic officer, Chris Robbins, informed the board that all 16 schools in the Hoover public school system, as well as the school district as a whole, received an A letter grade on their state report card for 2022.
There were only five school districts in the state with all their schools receiving an A, putting Hoover in the top 3% in the state, Robbins said. Also, Hoover (with about 13,700 students) was the largest school district to have each school earn an A, he said.
Schools grades are determined based on achievement scores, educational growth, absenteeism, proficiency of students learning the English language, college and career readiness and graduation rates.
This is the first time the state has given out report cards since 2019. A decision was made not to produce the report cards for 2020 and 2021 due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Hoover school district as a whole earned a 93 for 2022. Here are the scores for each individual school:
- Bluff Park Elementary — 97
- Deer Valley Elementary — 98
- Green Valley Elementary — 92
- Greystone Elementary — 98
- Gwin Elementary — 92
- Riverchase Elementary — 96
- Rocky Ridge Elementary — 93
- Shades Mountain Elementary — 95
- Trace Crossings Elementary — 92
- Brock’s Gap Intermediate — 97
- Berry Middle — 91
- Bumpus Middle — 93
- Simmons Middle — 91
- Hoover High — 90
- Spain Park High — 91
“We’re very excited about these results,” Robbins said. “We have a lot to celebrate. …. But also, as with any data, we always have opportunities to pursue excellence and growth, and we’re continue to identify areas where we can do even better.”
Board member Craig Kelley said he’s particularly impressed with how Hoover students and teachers have been able to achieve this with 26% of the student body coming from low-income families, which face additional challenges to achieve educational excellence.
The school board also on Dec. 13:
- Amended its 2023 capital plan to provide $1 million for artificial turf for the softball fields at Hoover and Spain Park high schools, $1.8 million for a potential automotive academy and $600,000 for a potential cosmetology/barbering program at the Riverchase Career Connection Center, $100,000 for a shower upgrade in the Hoover High football locker room (with boosters matching that amount) and an extra $150,000 for playgrounds at Deer Valley, Riverchase and Trace Crossings elementary schools (for a total of $750,000).
- Amended the 2023 capital plan to postpone $1.6 million worth of roofing projects at Gwin Elementary and Brock’s Gap Intermediate and $200,000 worth of furniture replacements
- Amended the capital plans for 2024 through 2028 to add another $250,000 for playgrounds at Shades Mountain, Gwin, Bluff Park, Green Valley and Rocky Ridge (for a total of $1.25 million).
- Agreed to pay $280,000 to H&R Supply to renovate the 30-year-old dishroom in the kitchen at Trace Crossings Elementary and buy new warmers and coolers for several schools.
- Agreed to pay $1.4 million for the second phase of replacing heating, ventilation and air conditioning equipment at Gwin Elementary
- Agreed to pay $1.5 million to replace most of the roofing at Simmons Middle School
- Agreed to pay $473,000 to renovate classrooms at the Riverchase Career Connection Center for cosmetology and barbering classes, including architectural fees
- Agreed to pay for geotechnical services for upgrades to athletic facilities at Bumpus Middle School
