
Neal Embry Starnes Media
VHCS Superintendent Todd Freeman, accompanied by VHHS theater teacher Jamie Stephenson, honors theater students who recently competed at the Trumbauer State Theater Festival, taking home superior honors.
Months after the playground at Vestavia Hills Elementary East was partially closed due to the intrusion of golf balls from the neighboring Vestavia Country Club, the Vestavia Hills Board of Education voted to install nets at the playground to create a safer environment for students.
The vote, taken at the Jan. 27 board meeting, comes after the playground was closed Tuesdays through Sundays in early August, after school officials found golf balls were landing on the playground. The country club had recently redesigned its course, leading golfers to hit balls in that general direction.
Vestavia Hills City Schools Superintendent Todd Freeman praised the leadership of the country club in reaching an agreement. While the school system will pay $38,500 to have the nets installed, the country club in exchange will allow golf and tennis teams from the system to use its amenities for free for five years, and will also help offset the cost for the Vestavia Hills City Schools Foundation’s annual Dinner and Diamonds fundraiser, which is held at the country club each year. In total, Freeman estimates the trade-offs from the country club to be a value of about $70,000 to $80,000 over the five-year period.
Vestavia Hills High School Principal Tyler Burgess and Assistant Principal David Howard gave an update on the freshmen campus, set to open this fall at the current Pizitz Middle School. Pizitz will move to the old Berry High School campus on Columbiana Road.
Burgess said school leaders are committed to making the freshmen campus a place for “transitional development” for freshmen, with Howard adding that ninth-grade students in the past have been “taken back” by being in the same school as 10th through 12th-grade students.
Howard and VHHS Assistant Principal Jennifer Brown will be located at the campus, and will keep their current titles, Burgess said.
A majority of staff has been assigned to the school, and there will be some athletics at the campus. The campus will also feature a black box theater and dance facility that will offer a more intimate viewing experience for shows and give dance teams a professional-level dance floor.
A virtual room will be included to allow teachers from the freshmen campus and the high school to communicate and collaborate, Burgess said.
The reconfiguration of both campuses will be staggered over the summer, Assistant Superintendent Patrick Martin said.
VHCS Director of Public Relations Whit McGhee gave an update on the school’s 50th anniversary plans. The school system was founded 50 years ago and will host a celebration and grand opening of the new Pizitz on Aug. 18 of this year.
“We want to do it right,” McGhee said.
McGhee introduced a four-part plan that includes building community awareness through creating an emblem for the anniversary, capturing the school’s success by putting together a professional documentary, commemorating the milestone with the Aug. 18 celebration and lastly, honoring the people who have been a part of the school system for 50 years by creating a Vestavia Hills City Schools Hall of Fame.
McGhee said the criteria and nomination process for the Hall of Fame will be announced this spring.
In other business, the board:
- Approved a joint purchasing agreement with the city of Vestavia Hills to pay $252,000 to pave the parking lots at Berry. The school will receive a $135,000 credit back, and the agreement allows the BOE to use the city’s financing with Dunn Construction.
- Approved courses for the 2020-21 school year.
- Approved the financial statement, consent items and personnel items.