Emily Featherston
At its final work session of the year, the Vestavia Hills Board of Education continued discussion on the future of the district's facilities.
Superintendent Sheila Phillips opened the discussion by expressing some of her thoughts on the facilities situation based on the immense feedback the board has received.
She said based on that feedback, she is not recommending that the board continue to consider moving all middle schoolers to the Berry campus. She said the concept of a joint school has "not been viewed favorably," especially by Liberty Park parents.
While she said it would have solved the alignment problem all at once, the trade-offs for some families were clearly not worth it. She also said that alignment would continue as planned even without combining the schools.
Phillips also said she would not recommend creating a separate 9th grade school that would be geographically removed from the other schools.
“To have 9th grade stand alone doesn’t fit our profile,” she said, citing the research she has done into schools that have tried the configuration. She said those schools have generally created stand-alone 9th grades in order to improve graduation rates and have had only marginal success.
She also expressed that based on the given numbers, building a new high school at Liberty Park might be a discussion that should be pushed further into the future. In addition to the significant construction cost, she said the recently identified, ongoing operation costs may cause the project to be out of reach for the time being.
Current estimates, which don't include the cost of acquiring land or operational costs, price the construction cost at around $50 million, with an additional $10 million for athletics facilities. Phillips said that the estimated operational costs would be $15 million to $16 million.
After Phillips' remarks, Brennan Bell presented eight options for the board to consider going forward, with the caveat that the options use currently-known capacity and projection numbers, and the details of the options may change based on the demographic study currently underway.
Bell began the presentation by reminding the board of its current financial situation when it comes to construction and facilities.
With the current bond balance of $54 million and by taking $15 million from the reserves, which would leave enough reserve funding for two months' operations, the total budget for facilities upgrades and additions is $69 million.
However, Bell said, after accounting for those projects already underway or committed to, the amount is only just over $37 million.
With regard to available property where the city could currently make additions, there is roughly 5 acres available at Vestavia Hills High School, 2.5 acres available at Vestavia Hills Elementary Cahaba Heights and 5 acres at the back of the Berry property.
After taking the budget and available facilities and land into account, Bell said the team looked at what it would take to bring about the ideal student to teacher ratio of 19 to 1, they came up with eight main options.
Option No. 1
The first option uses the current school alignment and feeder patterns, and does not require any rezoning.
Pizitz Middle School students, grades 6-8, would move to the Berry campus, and the Vestavia Hills Elementary Central students, grades 4-5, would move to the Pizitz campus. The Central campus would then be converted into a grades 9-12 "Academy" for special programs, and would be optimized to hold 25 percent of the current VHHS capacity.
While Bell pointed out that there would be no need to rezone students, there would be the need to identify which students would move to the academy school.
Option No. 2
Option two would implement a system-wide K-5 alignment, and would also add the academy facility.
Vestavia Hills Elementary East and Vestavia Hills Elementary West would be converted from K-3 to K-5. Pizitz would move to Berry, and VHEC would move to the Pizitz campus and also convert to K-5.
The option would require rezoning for VHEC, VHEE and VHEW, but would leave the rest of the system the same.
Option No. 3
The third option would aim to align K-3, 4-6 and 7-8 along the U.S. 31 corridor, and would create a system-wide 9th grade.
This would be accomplished by VHEC converting to K-3, the Pizitz facility converting to 4-6, and 7-9 students in the U.S. 31 area taking over the Berry campus. Liberty Park students would stay at Liberty Park Middle 6-8, and move to Berry for 9th.
This would make VHHS 10-12, and would require rezoning for VHEE, VHEW, Pizitz and Berry.
Option No. 4
Option No. 4 uses the majority of the current alignment pattern for most of the elementary schools, but would move Pizitz 6-8 to the Berry campus, moves VHEC 4-5 to Pizitz, and adds the 9th grade wing to Berry, with Liberty Park students moving to Berry in 9th.
The plan does not require any rezoning, and would take the VHEC campus offline, which Bell said would open the facility open for other uses or to sell.
Option No. 5
The fifth option would create a system-wide K-6 alignment for elementary schools, and would convert both middle schools to 7-9, with Pizitz Middle moving to Berry and VHEC moving to Pizitz.
In order to accommodate the growth at VHEW, the board of education would potentially move its offices to the vacated VHEC campus. The option would also require rezoning for VHEE, VHEW and Pizitz.
Option No. 6
Option No. 6 would maintain the current alignment and feeder patterns across the system, and create a new high school in Liberty Park. This would move Pizitz to Berry, VHEC to Pizitz and would take the VHEC campus offline to be used for another purpose.
While one of the simpler options, Bell pointed out that it not only would require the upgrades at the various schools to accommodate for growth, but would obviously require the construction of a Liberty Park High School and associated operation costs.
With the major costs, board members considered the feasibility of the option, if there is the required 40 acres of land available and if Liberty Park has the students to populate a 1000 capacity school.
City Councilor George Pierce commented from the audience, however, that growth in Liberty Park is expected to explode in the coming years, with 400-600 new houses expected to be built.
Option No. 7
The seventh option would create K-5 alignment for all elementary schools, converting VHEE and VHEW to K-5, as well as VHEC and a new K-5 at Pizitz. Pizitz Middle students would move to Berry for 6-8.
To accommodate for growth at VHHS, a new 9th grade wing would be added somewhere on the campus.
Bell showed the board the available land where a wing could be constructed, including above the north parking lot, on the school's practice field, in the tennis court area or directly across Lime Rock Road in the lower parking area. He said there are pros and cons to each option, namely that the farther away from the main campus the wing is built, there may be a need to construct additional cafeteria and library facilities.
Option No. 8
The current final option would be to create K-2 and 3-5 alignment along U.S. 31, with VHEE and VHEW converting to K-2, VHEC moving to Pizitz and converting to 3-5.
Pizitz, 6-8, would move to Berry, and the VHEC campus would become a 9-12 academy facility. The other facilities would remain the same
Bell emphasized to the board that the options are still fluid, and that the results of the demographic study may alter the final classroom addition numbers.
Phillips said that the board would continue to evaluate and listen to feedback, and would further discuss the options and the results of the demographic study at the January work session.
Other Board Business Included:
- The board discussed entering into a contract with Bruno Event Team for brand management and merchandising.
- At its regular meeting, the board voted to approve updates and changes to several of the systems policies, including the absences policy, policy for migrant/English language learner/foster care enrollment students, and the system's janitorial custodian job description.
- The board voted to change the salary schedule for school nurses, decreasing the salary rates for new hires, but keeping the system's rates higher than neighboring towns. Current employees will not be affected.
