First feedback meeting for Hoover school rezoning proposal set for Thursday night
The Hoover school system on Thursday night will hold the first of four follow-up meetings to discuss Superintendent Kathy Murphy’s proposed plan to redraw school attendance zones.
Thursday night’s meeting is scheduled from 6 to 8 p.m. at Brock’s Gap Intermediate School at 1730 Lake Cyrus Club Drive. It is designed primarily for families from Brock’s Gap Intermediate and Deer Valley Elementary, but anyone is welcome to attend.
Murphy and other school officials plan to listen to feedback about her rezoning proposal and answer questions about it.
The proposal would send an estimated 2,516 students, or 18 percent of the kids in the district, to different school zones next year, Murphy said.
Some key elements of the proposal:
- South Shades Crest Elementary School would change from a K-4 school to a K-2 school.
- Brock’s Gap Intermediate School, now with grades 5-6, would begin to serve students in grades 3-5 in the South Shades Crest Elementary School zone only.
- Trace Crossings and Deer Valley elementary schools, now serving grades K-4, would return as K-5 schools.
- Bumpus Middle School, now serving grades 7-8, would switch to a 6-8 school.
- Trace Crossings Elementary students would split up between Bumpus and Simmons middle schools but all return to Hoover High together.
- All students currently in grades 8-22 would be “grandfathered” to attend the high school to which they are currently zoned.
- Students currently in the fourth or seventh grades would have the option to be “grandfathered” to stay at their current school for their fifth-grade or eighth-grade years. However, parents of these students would have to provide their own transportation.
Murphy said her proposal is not final yet. She plans to listen to feedback before making a final recommendation to the Hoover school board around March 7 and, if the recommendation is approved, filing a motion for approval with the federal court around March 14.
Three other meetings are scheduled for community feedback. Here is the schedule for those meetings:
- Feb. 16, 6-8 p.m., Hunter Street Baptist Church, 2600 John Hawkins Parkway (for families from Hoover High, Bumpus Middle and Trace Crossings and South Shades Crest elementary schools)
- Feb. 18, 6-8 p.m., Green Valley Baptist Church, 1815 Patton Chapel Road (for families from Simmons Middle School and Gwin, Green Valley and Bluff Park elementary schools)
- Feb. 23, 6-8 p.m., Spain Park High School, 4700 Jaguar Drive (for families from Spain Park High, Berry Middle and Riverchase, Rocky Ridge, Greystone and Shades Mountain elementary schools)
Parents can find out what schools their children would attend next year by plugging their address into a school locator software program at hooverrezoning.com. Maps showing proposed school zone lines also are available there, as well as more information presented to the public on Feb. 4 and a survey where people can submit comments online.