Board of Education
If and when The Bray development comes to Liberty Park in the next few years, it will not create a need for a new high school for Vestavia Hills City Schools, Superintendent Todd Freeman said at the Jan. 31 Board of Education meeting.
The estimated impact to VHCS from the development, which must still be voted on by the City Council, is about 1,000 students, which equals about 77 students per grade level. The development would bring almost 2,000 new homes to 700 acres of undeveloped land, including a mix of apartments and single-family homes.
Freeman said taking current capacity into account and projected growth, there would be a need to build a new elementary school to come online for the 2028-29 school year. Liberty Park Middle School would also add a little more than 100 students in those projections, and would likely need to be expanded ahead of the 2035-36 school year, Freeman said. There is space to expand the LPMS campus without a need to build a new middle school, he said.
However, there is enough capacity at the freshman campus and at Vestavia Hills High School to not need more space, Freeman said. Right now, the freshman campus has 557 students with a capacity of 1,200, while the high school has 1,512 students and a capacity of 2,100, Freeman said. While there would be about 220 students added to the high school with The Bray, that still leaves enough capacity to not necessitate the building of a new high school.
“With The Bray, there is no intention or need for a new high school,” Freeman said.
One of the proposals put forward by Daniel Communities, which is managing the development for Liberty Park Joint Venture, is to donate 15 acres of land to the city to be used for a future school site by VHCS.
Freeman also gave an update on COVID-19 numbers. Positive cases have continued to drop since mid-January, with 38 positive cases reported among students in the last week of January, down from 154 on Jan. 18. On Jan. 19, there were 352 total students and staff out with a positive test, with that number dropping to 107 on Jan. 28.
Three residents shared their thoughts on the board’s decision-making. Vestavia Hills City Schools has, outside of two weeks earlier in the school year, been mask optional during the 2021-22 school year.
Former Board of Education President David Powell thanked the board and urged them to “pursue normalcy.”
“Our students need normal,” Powell said.
Powell said in-person learning is important and added that the medical community is not infallible and other components must be considered.
Jen Vachris also thanked the board for “not leading out of fear, but instead for leading with level heads and common sense, and a love for truth.”
“Thank you for holding the line on parent’s freedom of choice,” Vachris said. “Thank you for holding fast to the truths that were true nearly two years ago.”
Vachris spoke against mandates.
“If something is truly good for a community, it wouldn’t be mandated,” Vachris said.
Watts Ueltschey questioned why the school system does not have a way of determining if and when they would switch to virtual learning. He also noted that since students returned to school in January, VHCS has been among the top 20 school systems in the state when it comes to infection rates.
“I think we hold ourselves to a higher standard than that,” Ueltschey said.
In other business, the board:
Approved high school courses
Approved a roughly $88,000 bid by Holt AV for projection and audio services for Liberty Park Middle School
Approved a $13,000 increase to the track resurfacing project at LPMS
Raised the daily pay of substitutes from $78 to $100 for the rest of the school year
Heard an update from Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning Aimee Rainey on professional development for teachers
