Karim Shamsi-Basha
Moving schools
Equipment sits, ready to move into rooms soon to be occupied by teachers at Vestavia Hills Elementary Dolly Ridge.
UPDATE: This story previously reported the move from Pizitz to the Berry campus would happen next summer. No date has been set yet. The school has said that ninth-grade students will attend the current Pizitz facility in the 2020-21 school year.
As part of the wide-sweeping changes coming to Vestavia Hills City Schools in the next two years, school staff worked alongside a professional moving company this summer to move teachers, classrooms and other equipment all over the district.
At the conclusion of the 2018-19 school year, Vestavia Hills Elementary Central went offline after more than 30 years of serving fourth and fifth-grade students in the city. The district’s elementary schools all transitioned to kindergarten through fifth-grade schools, and Vestavia Hills Elementary – Dolly Ridge joined the system. Dolly Ridge is located at the former home of Gresham Elementary, which was part of the Jefferson County school system.
In addition to the physical changes, several families in the city were rezoned from their current elementary school campus in order to address the ever-growing number of students in the system, particularly at the elementary schools, many of which were nearing capacity. As a whole, the school system has seen about a 20% growth in students in recent years.
The rezoning brought each elementary school between 78% and 88% capacity, with the exception of Vestavia Hills Elementary East, which is at 92.6%.
While the original plan was to move Pizitz Middle School to the former Berry High School campus, the facility won’t be ready in time for the start of school due to unexpected rainfall affecting major projects. The move has been pushed back, with no date set yet. When Pizitz does move to its new home on Columbiana Road, the current PMS facility will become the ninth-grade campus. For the 2020-21 school year, ninth-grade students will attend the current PMS facility, but it is unknown when middle-school students will move to Berry.
This summer, elementary school teachers from all over the city moved to their new homes, with staff at Central divided between the other elementary schools.
Moving on up
To coordinate and execute such a large move in time for the start of school on Aug. 8, the school system hired Armstrong Relocation Services, which has handled a number of high-profile moves in the state of Alabama, including moves by the University of Alabama and the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
“They do quite a bit,” Assistant Superintendent Patrick Martin said.
Although the plan to move Pizitz students to their new home fell through, Martin said one positive effect of the delay is the school district can focus solely on its elementary schools. Armstrong will eventually move Pizitz over to its new home, Martin said, with the already-approved bid continuing through that project.
The move began on June 14 and was expected to continue into early July, Martin said. After the first few days of moving, Martin said everything was going well.
District faculty and staff were responsible for packing and ensuring anything they wanted moved to their new home made it into a box. Armstrong moved the boxes, as well as furniture, fixtures and other equipment.
At Dolly Ridge, Martin said the existing furniture will be used, so not as much had to be moved from other schools. The final phase of the move to Dolly Ridge included moving items over to the classroom addition currently being constructed. The addition will include 14 classrooms spread across two stories, Martin said.
In order to make sure the teachers were happy with their classrooms, Armstrong had each teacher fill out a layout of what they want their room to look like in terms of desks, furniture and other items moved by the company. As part of their punch list at the end of the project, the company was expected to meet with teachers and make sure they met their expectations, Martin said.
The company’s move was thorough, teachers at Central said.
Fifth grade teacher Jenna Williams, who’s moving to Dolly Ridge, said the company gave teachers “precise” instructions on how to fold, tape and label their boxes and showed them how to fill in their relocation map.
‘Moving their life’
Martin said the district understands how important it is to take the move seriously.
“Moving a teacher’s classroom is [moving] their life,” Martin said.
For the teachers at Central, saying goodbye and cleaning their room at the end of school this year was especially emotional.
“It’s like breaking up a family,” fifth grade teacher Bindi Visram said.
Williams did her student teaching at Central before coming back to join the staff. Lynne Sullivan, a fourth grade teacher who spent 24 years at the school, said it’s “bittersweet.”
“We have so many memories to celebrate,” Sullivan said.
While they knew they had to eventually leave the school, she said teachers in mid-May were still committed to taking care of their students, knowing it meant working longer hours to reach the June 1 deadline to be prepared for the move.
The move does present opportunities, teachers said. Visram said moving will allow her to “weed out” her old way of teaching, as she throws away materials and other things no longer needed and takes a fresh look at how to best utilize her classroom.
Fifth grade teacher Adam Stansell said he sees the move as a “clean slate” at the end of his first year of teaching.
“This is a good opportunity to restart and refresh,” Stansell said.
The move has presented an opportunity to give back to the community as well. Teachers have collected and donated unused school supplies to Grace House and Restoration Academy, both located in Fairfield.
Moving the talent
The district’s teachers will be spread all over the city’s elementary schools, Martin said.
While the exact number of teachers going to each school is not known, they’ll carry the Vestavia “tradition of excellence” wherever they go.
The expected number of students at Dolly Ridge is between 750 and 765, Martin said, but they won’t know officially until registration is finished.
One of the main concerns in moving so many students and teachers across the city is the comparability of the education given at each school, but Martin said that won’t be an issue due to the instructional staff that’s in place, as well as support staff and administration.
“A lot [of staff] are coming from Vestavia Hills City Schools,” Martin said.
Ty Arendall will lead VHEDR after serving as the principal of Vestavia Hills Elementary – Liberty Park. At VHELP, Arendall’s assistant principal, Abbie Freeman, will take over as principal.
The new carpool lane, playground and parking spaces should be complete by the start of school, with the facility addition expected to be completed no later than the end of August, Martin said.
As Vestavia Hills City Schools celebrates its 50th year in 2020, Martin said he’s excited to see all of the changes finally take place.
While the school system has had to say goodbye this past year, Communications Director Whit McGhee said it’s already fun to begin new adventures.
“We’re excited to work with people we already know and get to do something new,” McGhee said.