Hoover School Board Approves Rezoning Plan
The Hoover City Schools has been trying for more than two years to come up with a rezoning plan that addresses growth and changing demographics while also passing muster with federal authorities. The school board approved the plan Monday night and hopes it makes the grade.
Approval by the Hoover school board sends this proposal for rezoning on to the next level – the federal courts. School officials say the plan already has received nods from the Department of Justice and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Hoover schools have to clear these hurdles because they’re still under a desegregation court order.
During the Monday school board meeting, Hoover Superintendent Dr. Kathy Murphy explained: “I realize that this plan does not meet the satisfaction of all in our community, and I do regret that there is no perfect plan.”
About a dozen speakers took to the mic to oppose the plan, including Highland Crest neighborhood parent Trent Cowsert.
“I am concerned that the Simmons Middle School and those feeder elementary schools in the central part of town are being disparately impacted by the number of poverty students that are going into those schools,” Cowsert says.
He says he fears test scores will be negatively impacted by the large number of students in poverty assigned to his kids’ schools — Simmons Middle and Gwin Elementary.
Cowsert says most minority students are being pushed toward central Hoover while white students remain primarily in the wealthier east and west.
“It’s almost like segregation instead of desegregation,” says Cowsert. “It does not seem to flow with the spirit of the original desegregation case.”
Murphy, however, says all of those issues were taken into consideration.
“We studied demographics of this school district. We looked at free and reduced lunch students. We looked at special needs students,” Murphy says. “So this has been no simple task with lots of moving parts and pieces.”
The plan now goes to a federal judge for approval, School officials want to the rezoning in place for the start of the next school year.
Alabama coal mine keeps digging after hundreds of fines and a fatal explosion
Following the death of a grandfather, Crimson Oak Grove Resources has left a community afraid for their homes and lives. An expert warns one resident may need to evacuate her home while she still can.
Florida’s 6-week abortion ban will have a ‘snowball effect’ on residents across the South
Abortion rights advocates say the ban will likely force many to travel farther for abortion care and endure pregnancy and childbirth against their will.
Attitudes among Alabama lawmakers softening on Medicaid expansion
Alabama is one of ten states which has not expanded Medicaid. Republican leaders have pushed back against the idea for years.
Birmingham is 3rd worst in the Southeast for ozone pollution, new report says
The American Lung Association's "State of the Air" report shows some metro areas in the Gulf States continue to have poor air quality.
Why haven’t Kansas and Alabama — among other holdouts — expanded access to Medicaid?
Only 10 states have not joined the federal program that expands Medicaid to people who are still in the "coverage gap" for health care
Once praised, settlement to help sickened BP oil spill workers leaves most with nearly nothing
Thousands of ordinary people who helped clean up after the 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico say they got sick. A court settlement was supposed to help compensate them, but it hasn’t turned out as expected.
