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Courtesy of Vestavia Hills City Schools
A map showing the new zoning for VHCS, passed unanimously July 10 by the board of education.
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Neal Embry
Vestavia Superintendent Todd Freeman and the board of education look at a map showing the new zones for Vestavia City Schools. The rezoning recommendations were passed unanimously at a July 10 meeting.
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Neal Embry
Vestavia Superintendent Todd Freeman talks with board president David Powell before a July 10 meeting.
In a unanimous decision on the afternoon of Tuesday, July 10, the Vestavia Hills School Board approved Superintendent Todd Freeman’s plans to rezone the district’s elementary schools by August 2019, as well as make changes to the district’s two middle schools, in a special called meeting today.
The board upheld his recommendation with no debate and no public comment was given in the allotted time at the meeting. The meeting lasted about 20 minutes.
Freeman told the board he believed the option gives the school the best chance to meet the needs of its students.
“I believe that this option gives us the best chance to do what we think is important, which is stay on mission to make sure we provide opportunities for all of our students to learn without limits,” Freeman said.
“We’ve all been engaged with the public and we appreciate everybody’s engagement,” council member Steve Bendall said before the vote.
The four parameters laid out in the plan developed by Cooperative Strategies were proximity to school, neighborhood concept, utilization of school space and the growth of student population over time. Freeman said while not every home in Vestavia will have met those four parameters exactly in the rezoning, the decision was the best one available given the almost 20 percent growth in student population in recent years.
The move spreads elementary students evenly across the district’s five schools: Cahaba Heights, Gresham (which will be called Vestavia Hills Elementary Dolly Ridge), Vestavia Hills Elementary East, Vestavia Hills Elementary West and Liberty Park Elementary. It will take effect in 2019-20.
Vestavia Hills Elementary Central will be shut down after this upcoming school year, with those students and staff members dispersed among the other schools. Students at East, West and Dolly Ridge will go to Pizitz Middle School, while students at Cahaba Heights and Liberty Park will go to Liberty Park Middle School. Ninth grade students will attend a ninth-grade center to be located at the current Pizitz facility. Grades 10 through 12 will attend Vestavia Hills High School.
The school’s communications specialist, Whit McGee, said the issue of staffing, including shifting around teachers and hiring new ones, is an ongoing process and will continue up until August 2019.
After the meeting, Freeman said the board’s plan when talks began three years ago were well-thought out, and that while there was no public comment at the meeting, the district did a good job engaging the community along the way with surveys, community forums and constant communication with stakeholders.
The board also voted to approve the name change from Gresham to Dolly Ridge, as well as transfer over the Pizitz name to the current Berry High School campus.
Also approved were personnel items and several consent items, listed below:
- A March 2019 varsity baseball trip to Phoenix, estimated cost of $25,000–$30,000
- An October 2018 college tour trip to Troy University, the University of Mobile, Mississippi State and Ole Miss, with an estimated cost of $5,600
- The disposal of old televisions and broken classroom equipment
- The disposal of two office chairs
- Two student transfers to Jefferson County International Baccalaureate School
