Hoover schools superintendent: Strong demand for new pre-K classes

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Demand was strong for the new pre-kindergarten classes that five Hoover elementary schools will offer this school year, Superintendent Kathy Murphy told the school board Thursday night.

Parents of 386 children asked to participate in the new pre-K classes, but the $600,000 in grants received by the state unfortunately will allow the district to serve only 90 of those students this school year, Murphy said. That’s 23 percent of those who wanted pre-K services.

School officials held lotteries today to randomly select which students would be able to participate, and principals will notify parents whose children were selected, Murphy said.

The school district plans to maintain waiting lists for each pre-class in case a student selected moves to another school district, said Autumm Jetter, the school district’s director of curriculum and instruction.

The new pre-K classes are being offered at Green Valley, Greystone, Gwin, Rocky Ridge and South Shades Crest elementary schools. Each school received a $120,000 grant from the Alabama Department of Early Childhood Education, and each school will have one pre-K class with 18 students, said Claire Jones-Moore, the district’s director of instructional support services.

At each school, the grant will cover the cost of a lead teacher, auxiliary teacher, tables, cubby hole shelves, curriculum, field trips and parental engagement activities, Jones-Moore said.

School districts are allowed to charge a tuition fee, but for this first year, the Hoover school district will absorb the cost, and pre-K services will be offered free of charge, Murphy said.

If districts charge a fee, the minimum fee is $40 per month, but it could be more, Murphy said. The fee is used to sustain the program once grant money goes away, she said.

Each Hoover school that received a grant for this school year will apply for a second phase of grants that assist school districts with pre-K costs over the following three years, Murphy said.

Also, those Hoover schools that did not apply for grants this year likely will apply for pre-K grants for the following year, she said. She would love for every Hoover elementary school to offer a pre-K program, she said.

The large number of families that requested to be part of the program this year is evidence of the demand, Murphy said.

Gwin Elementary had 109 families express interest, while there were 99 families at South Shades Crest, 70 at Rocky Ridge, 65 at Green Valley and 43 at Greystone, Murphy said.

Those children are not necessarily from those elementary school zones, Murphy said. Children were eligible for the pre-K program at any elementary school that is in the same middle school feeder pattern as the child’s elementary school, she said. For example, students from Shades Mountain or Riverchase elementary schools could apply for the pre-K program at either Rocky Ridge or Greystone elementary schools since each of those schools is in the Berry Middle School zone.

“There is a huge interest in our community to prepare our students and help them get ready for school,” Murphy said.

Trace Crossings Elementary School is the only Hoover school that has had a pre-K program to date. It is primarily designed for students with special needs, but other students participate as well, Murphy said.

In addition to the grants given to Hoover schools, the Alabama Department of Early Childhood Education also approved a grant to offer a pre-K class at a Regions Bank office in Riverchase this school year.

In all, the state approved grants for 164 new pre-K classrooms in 38 counties this fall in the first round of grant awards, according to the governor's office. More grants were to be announced before the beginning of the 2019-20 school year, the governor's office said. With the grants announced in June, the state is funding 1,202 pre-K classrooms statewide.

In other business Thursday night, the Hoover school board:

  • Amended its policy prohibiting the use of electronic devices without permission from the principal or a designee to include earbuds and headphones.
  • Heard a report from the superintendent that she will continue to have discussions with the community regarding a proposal to levy serious discipline for students for off-campus conduct or speech that disrupts the school setting, regardless if that conduct or speech took place on school grounds or at a school-sponsored activity.
  • Heard a request from the superintendent to think about a good date to have a citywide election regarding a proposed 2.4-mill increase in property taxes to support Hoover schools. The Legislature and governor authorized the election this spring, and school officials plan to communicate their desired date for the election to the Hoover City Council, which will officially set the date.
  • Heard a report from school board President Craig Kelley that Signature Homes and the city of Hoover plan to take a sidewalk that currently runs from the Kirkman Preserve community to Berry Middle School and extend it 900 feet along Jaguar Drive to Spain Park High School.
  • Heard a report that the Riverchase Career Connection Center will hold a ribbon cutting and open house at 9 a.m. on Aug. 1.
  • Agreed to hold hearings for the school district’s 2020 budget at 6 p.m. on Sept. 5 and 4 p.m. on Sept. 10.
  • Planned a special school board meeting for 10 a.m. on Aug. 1 at the Riverchase Career Connection Center and the next regular meeting at 5:30 p.m. on Aug. 13 at the Farr Administration Building.
  • Agreed to make the 4 percent raise approved by the Legislature for school employees effective in July for 12-month employees and in September for 9-month employees. Otherwise, the raise would have gone into effect Oct. 1. Murphy said the early effective date will cost the school system $426,000. Murphy elected not to receive the 4 percent raise herself.
  • Approved the 2019-20 salary schedule for school employees and supplement schedule for people coaching athletic teams or working with academic and other extra-curricular activities, such as the band and Scholars Bowl team.
  • Approved the hiring of Jennifer Box (most recently an assistant principal at West Blocton Middle School) as a new assistant principal at Hoover High School, Carl Berryhill (a teacher and coach at Simmons Middle School) as a new assistant principal at Gwin Elementary, Aldric Bennett as an assistant principal at Simmons Middle School, Matthew Wilson (director of operations at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex) as the new coordinator of operations, Michael Alford (recently at Brock’s Gap Intermediate School) as a new member of the student services staff, Lindsay Lauderdale (currently with Hotel & Restaurant Supply) as the new child nutrition program supervisor, Dena Netterville (a bookkeeper for the district) as the new executive assistant to the superintendent.
  • Agreed to gradually purchase kitchen small wares from Restaurant Equipment Warehouse over three years for the Culinary and Hospitality Academy at the Riverchase Career Connection Center and family and consumer science programs. The estimated first-year cost for the academy is $39,592.
  • Agreed to purchase an ambulance simulator from Rescue Simulation Products International for the Riverchase Career Connection Center.
  • Agreed to hire E.S.S. to do random drug testing for student drivers and students in competitive sports at a cost of $31.95 per initial test. Last year, 924 students were chosen randomly throughout the year for testing, which is equivalent to the number of student drivers at the two high schools. School officials use $25 from each student’s parking fee to support the drug testing.