BOE hears options for rezoning, sets up public comment process

The Vestavia Hills Board of Education formally kicked off the elementary school rezoning process Thursday as the board met for a work session and specially-called board meeting.

With Hoar Program Management and DeJONG-RICHTER, formerly known as Cooperative Strategies, taking the lead, the process truly began in January, when the results of the firms’ demographic study were used along with feedback from focus groups to try to narrow down options.

The process paused briefly this spring to await a final verdict from the federal courts about the sale of Gresham Elementary School, but once the sale was finalized, planning began in earnest, said Superintendent Todd Freeman.

Scott Leopold with DeJONG presented the final three options to the board during the work session.

He explained the basics of the process the firm went through to try to create an even distribution at the three elementary schools on the U.S. 31 side of Vestavia: Vestavia Hills Elementary East, Vestavia Hills Elementary West and Gresham.

The process included breaking up the current school zones into smaller planning units that have a certain number of current and projected students.

Using that data and geographic information system technology, Leopold said the firm looked at the question they get most often, which is “Why can’t everyone just attend the school closest to them?”

If the district were broken down that way, West would have more than 1200 students, or 150 percent of its maximum capacity, and other schools would be at only half capacity.

“It’s not always going to be possible for people to attend their geographically closest school,” he said.

Consideration of what is the closest school was still involved in the process, however, as was maximizing the utilization of space and resources, providing longevity for the district and maintaining the “neighborhood concept” of having kids from the same neighborhood or subdivision go to the same school as much as possible.

“We don’t want to split up neighborhoods or subdivisions where we can avoid it,” he said.

However, none of the plans address all of the objectives, and compromises will have to be made.

The plans and presentation Leopold gave and a survey are available online, and larger maps will be available at the public forums on June 12 and 13 at 5 p.m. and 9 a.m., respectively.

Freeman stressed that the options accomodate for the future growth in the district.

“A lot of forethought was given to these zones based on where that growth might be,” he said.

BOE member Steve Bendall said he wanted people to know that there are still no “hard lines” drawn, but that it is inevitable that some students will have to move to different schools.

“In the process, we have to determine the best equitable distribution of resources, and there’s a whole grab-bag full of things that are considered resources,” he said.

However, he wants parents and other stakeholders to know that he and the other board members want to hear the public’s feedback, either in person at the forums or online through the survey.

“We’re going to give people a chance for feedback,” he said.

[A video of the board meeting is available on the district’s website.]

To view the rezoning options and presentation and to participate in the survey, visit dejongrichter.com/vestaviahills.