County manager, superintendent speak at second annexation meeting

A second meeting held by the Friends of Dunnavant Valley Greenway was held Tuesday, Aug. 17 at the Double Oak Community Church in Mt Laurel. 

County Manager Chad Scroggins and Shelby County Superintendent Lewis Brooks spoke about the impact the proposed annexation by the city of Chelsea would mean for the area. 

Virginia Randolph, who serves on the board of Friends of Dunnavant Valley Greenway said their mission is to build partnerships within the community in an effort to protect and promote Dunnavant Valley and to focus attention on the needs of the area through the use of the small area plan that was developed in 2012. 

“Tonight, we are here to explore issues of annexation that involve all aspects services of the county including education, safety, development and quality of life in the valley as laid out in the small area plan,” Randolph said.

Scroggins spoke first and said he hoped to bring some things to light to make sure the attendees were  educated on what has been proposed by the city of Chelsea. On June 15, the Chelsea City Council voted to hire a consulting group to explore the idea of starting a city school system, with results to come in October. 

One part of the plan was possible annexation of the city’s borders, to include those zoned for Chelsea schools to be able to stay in the school system, which include Highland Lakes, Dunnavant Valley and Mt Laurel. 

“In this process, you will have the ability to vote whether you want to be part of the city of Chelsea,” Scroggins said. “Shelby County provides services for unincorporated spots that rival or are better than many municipalities. As county manager, I take the resources you provide us as residents and we manage those to serve you.”

Scroggins said his office has received many phone calls about this potential annexation and reminded the audience the county did not do this, it was done by the Chelsea mayor and city council. 

He pointed out that Chelsea does not have some of the amenities of unincorporated areas, including a development services group, police department or animal control. They will also not be required to recognize groups like the Friends of Dunnavant Valley Greenway. 

The survey by the city of Chelsea will assess the number of mills of property that would be needed. Shelby County residents currently pay 44 mills in county tax. 

“I want to drive home the point of when you annex into a municipality, you have to think about the other services, not just the educational aspect of it.”

Dr. Lewis Brooks began his portion of the meeting by presenting Double Oak Community Church with a Journey Shaper award which is given to people or entities that impact the Shelby County School district. 

Brooks shared that there are 31 schools in the Shelby County School system with over 20,800 students in the district. Approximately 1,100 of those are in the Dunnavant Valley area that attend Chelsea schools out of the 4,500 total students zoned for Chelsea.

“We are proud of the things going on in the Chelsea school zone and the schools have a good ranking among our state,” Brooks said. “All seven of our high schools were ranked in the top 1/3 of schools in the state (out of 565 total schools). That speaks so much to our staff, our leaders and you all as a community and we are very proud of that.” 

The annual budget for Shelby County Schools is about $242 million, and while it is a large budget that covers a lot of things. Brooks said they are currently going through budget hearings for the 2022 budget and they recently launched a capital campaign of $41M to do capital projects at schools across the county.

“With growth comes great challenges and what I've seen over the years is our investment to make sure we can accommodate students in regards to growth,” he said. “It feels like we’ve done that in the Chelsea community. Since 2010, the district has spent over $28 million on facilities in the Chelsea community, including $13 million to build Forest Oaks Elementary School. 

Some questions Brooks has been asked include:

• What happens to students if we choose not to annex?

He said that at Monday night’s meeting, the mayor made declaration he didn't see a path forward for annexation for this community

• What does that mean for those students?

Students in this area go to the closest school zone to this area, which is Oak Mountain. That will be a decision made as a school district.

• Why haven’t you done that already? 

It’s early in this process. The council made a decision that they feel strongly about, and we feel strongly we want to offer our kids a great opportunity in Shelby Co Schools, so as a leader. I want to make sure I exercise patients with the decisions we make. I don't want to respond just because I can respond. We want to make sure we as a school district gather as much info as we can. A lot of it will be hashed out in the negotiations process if Chelsea decides to start their own school system. 

Brooks said they could serve students in the Oak Mountain zone at this moment without much upheaval to the school zone. The high school has 72 classrooms and the capability to build 14 more with a capacity for 1,800 students. Mt Laurel Elementary would stay the K-5 and incoming 6th graders would then go to Oak Mountain Middle School, which has five empty classrooms. 

“I feel strongly that Shelby County Schools are a great place,” Brooks said. “I know we have dealt with some challenges over the last 18 months, and we are continuing to do so. We are very committed to serving all our communities in a way that offers our kids a high quality education.

Brooks said he met with the mayor and several Chelsea City Council members in July 2019, about six months into his term. He shared with them the cost of building a new school with athletic facilities and said the Shelby County School district does not have $80 million to spend in the Chelsea community. They only have about $41 million to spend across all the Shelby County schools. 

“We are growing at a pace that is very fast, one of fastest growing counties and has been for years,” Brooks said. “Our challenge we have is we don't have unlimited resources and the money has to be spread around to our county as a whole.”

If Chelsea does proceed with starting their own school system (planned for 2023), Brooks said their attorney would work with the city’s attorney as they did with Alabaster and Pelham. 

In a statement on Aug. 16, Picklesimer said that "at this point I no longer see a path forward to offer annexation to the Highland Lakes, Dunnavant Valley and Mt Laurel areas."