Federal judge gives final approval to Hoover school rezoning for 2018-19 school year

A federal judge in Birmingham today approved a long-anticipated plan to redraw attendance zones for Hoover City Schools, to remedy what the judge has said were unfair zoning practices in the past and to help the school system deal with growth.

The rezoning plan, which school officials estimate will send 1,900-2,200 students to new school zones, will go into effect at the start of the next school year in August 2018, U.S. District Madeline Haikala ordered.

The rezoning plan has been in Haikala’s hands since April 2016, and many Hoover residents have been eagerly or anxiously awaiting her decision because of how it will impact where their children go to school.

The judge gave preliminary approval of the plan in May but ordered Hoover school officials to provide additional information and continue working with the U.S. Department of Justice and NAACP Legal Defense Fund to address issues related to desegregation of schools before she would give final approval.

Changes in the plan

Hoover school officials in August submitted two alterations to the plan, which Haikala also approved today:

• Students in a 35-home subdivision planned at the corner of Tyler Road and Alford Avenue in Bluff Park would attend Shades Mountain Elementary, Berry Middle School and Spain Park High School instead of Bluff Park Elementary, Simmons Middle School and Hoover High School due to crowding at the Bluff Park school. That subdivision is expected to add about 14 students to Hoover City Schools, school officials say.
• Students from homes in The Ridge at Magnolia Grove, a new 45-home subdivision just north of The Grove shopping center, will attend Trace Crossings Elementary, just as students in the nearby new Magnolia Grove subdivision are scheduled to go to Trace Crossings.

Superintendent Kathy Murphy said school officials also likely will submit other alterations for the judge to consider due to changes in development plans for new subdivisions coming online in and around the Trace Crossings community.

For example, an amendment to the Trace Crossings development plan approved by the Hoover City Council in June created a new sector of Trace Crossings called Flemming Farms. School officials will ask that students who live there attend Trace Crossings Elementary, Murphy said.

School officials also want students from two other new subdivisions coming online, Lake Wilborn and Blackridge, to go to South Shades Crest Elementary School, Murphy said. Those students will have to drive by Trace Crossings Elementary to get to South Shades Crest Elementary, but more space is available for them at South Shades Crest, Murphy said.

Other details and maps coming

Other details already approved in the rezoning plan include South Shades Crest Elementary School becoming a K-2 school and Brock’s Gap Intermediate School becoming a school for children in grades 3-5.

Certain students also would be “grandfathered,” or exempt, from the zoning plan, including:

• Students in grades 8-11 can continue in their current high school zone until graduation.
• Students in grades 1, 4 and 7 can remain at their current school one more year if they so choose to prevent them from being in a school only one year before being moved.

There are many other details to the rezoning plan that was submitted to the court in 2016, and Hoover school officials say they plan to have those maps with details about which areas are zoned to each school on the school system website -- hoovercityschools.net – as soon as possible.

The school system just updated its website and was in the process of moving information from the old site to the new one when the judge issued her order today. Also, school officials have developed new maps from what was presented nearly two years ago, to both correct some minor errors in the previous maps and to update them based on annexations by the City Council, Gaston said. The goal is to have the newest, most up-to-date maps on the website Friday, Dec. 15, he said.

Judge's orders

In addition to approving the rezoning plan, Haikala today directed the Hoover school system to do several other things:

• Submit to the court by Jan. 17 a revised student transfer policy to provide for transfers that take into account racial desegregation goals.
• Seek waivers from the Alabama Department of Education to provide school bus transportation for minority and low-income students who, because of the rezoning plan, will be moved within two miles of their assigned school and otherwise lose bus service.
• Hire a discipline consultant within 60 days to help the district identify trends or racial disparities in the district’s administration of student discipline and to consider the underlying causes of any trends or disparities.
• Provide professional development for faculty and staff to reduce the use of punitive and exclusionary discipline practices, facilitate socio-emotional learning and model positive behavior.
• Make sure disciplinary rules are consistent throughout the school district.
• Complete and implement enrichment programs for students at Trace Crossings, Green Valley and Gwin elementary schools, which have higher concentrations of students from low-income families.
• Make sure students who receive gifted or enrichment instruction currently also get such instruction at their new school and review the referral process for providing gifted and enrichment services.
• Develop a transition plan to help students and parents move into their new schools and communicate that information clearly.

The wait is over

Murphy, in a press conference this afternoon, said she was ready to do cartwheels when she heard Haikala had approved the rezoning plan.

“I’m exceptionally delighted today that this has been addressed by our federal judge,” she said. “We appreciate the time and thoughtfulness that she has given to our plan. We appreciate the patience of our community and of all of our stakeholders.”

Rezoning talks have been happening in Hoover for at least 3 ½ years, beginning under former Superintendent Andy Craig at least as far back as the summer of 2014. When Murphy was hired to replace Craig in summer 2015, she started afresh and held 13 community meetings to get public input about rezoning before asking the school board to approve a new plan.

Murphy also emphasized that the primary reasons for rezoning are twofold. First, the city has grown disproportionately, leaving some schools at over-capacity and others underutilized.

Second, in years past, Hoover schools rezoned students in apartment complexes, which had higher concentrations of minority and low-income students, and spread those students out across the city to try to provide greater racial diversity and not concentrate minorities in certain schools.

However, “that is not a good practice,” Murphy said. Those minority students were having to travel farther away from their homes to get to school, she said. “That should not happen on the backs of those students, and we accept that. What we’re trying to do now is rectify that.”

It may mean that minority students are impacted more by next year’s rezoning, but in the long term, it will make the situation more fair to them, she said. The idea is to allow all students, as best as possible, to be part of a school near where they live, she said.

While this rezoning plan was designed to prepare for future growth and have some shelf life, the school system will have to continue monitoring growth patterns and readjust zone lines again in the future as development patterns and school populations change, Murphy said.

Haikala, in her order, also noted that the rezoning plan should affect an estimated 120 faculty members. She directed school officials to consider the objectives of desegregation in making personnel decisions and to coordinate with the Justice Department and NAACP Legal Defense Fund on proposed personnel reassignments.

Murphy said the school district is considering hiring a data researcher to help compile all the data the judge is requiring and help the school system keep track of student achievement.

School system spokesman Jason Gaston emphasized that the number of students to be impacted by the rezoning plan is only an estimate. That number is a moving target because the school system’s enrollment numbers change almost daily, he said.

Students move in and out of the system and into new school zones constantly, and some people may move just to be able to stay within their desired school zone, Gaston said