Second community feedback meeting for Hoover school rezoning is Tuesday

Tuesday night is the second chance for the Hoover community to give feedback in a public meeting to Hoover school officials regarding Superintendent Kathy Murphy’s plan to redraw school attendance zones.

The second of four community feedback meetings is scheduled from 6 to 8 p.m. at Hunter Street Baptist Church at 2600 John Hawkins Parkway. The meeting is designed primarily for families from Hoover High, Bumpus Middle and Trace Crossings and South Shades Crest elementary schools, but anyone is welcome to attend if this meeting better fits their schedule, Murphy said.

The first feedback meeting was held Thursday at Brock’s Gap Intermediate School and drew about 200 people. See the report from that meeting here.

Here are details for the third and fourth community feedback meetings:

·       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)

Murphy’s rezoning plan would shift about 2,500 students to different schools in the 2016-17 school year and realign grade levels at various schools in an effort to better utilize existing classroom space and, as a whole, put students in schools closer to where they live.

But the proposed new school attendance zones are pushing some families away from what they consider to be their “community school,” creating some opposition to the proposal.

Murphy said she will take community feedback into consideration before presenting a final proposal to the Hoover Board of Education around March 7 and filing a motion for approval with the federal court around March 14.