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BAY MINETTE, Alabama — With a new initiative outlining sweeping changes for Baldwin County Public Schools, a grassroots group in Fairhope is pushing for a move toward independence even as new legislation could make it tougher.

“We’ve got a tiger by the tail,” Amy Greer Thompson of Good2Great said Tuesday. “We are seeing a groundswell of support and we are gaining momentum.”

The group had suspended its efforts aimed at creating a city school system in Fairhope in January when a countywide initiative, Yes We Can Baldwin County, successfully developed a community agreement on the heels of an overwhelming vote to approve a 3-year, 1 percent sales tax for schools.

Things changed in March when board members voted to close the Fairhope K Center — a beloved learning center for young children in the city for generations. The cost of keeping the center open for a small number of children outweighed the benefits, according to board members.

That was enough to rekindle calls for a separate system where Fairhope residents had a greater say in their schools.

Mixed results

State Deputy Superintendent Craig Pouncey said city schools can fare better in some areas, but creating a new system is not always the answer. He said a look at the ranking of more than 60 city school systems in the state is proof enough.

“Success in city schools systems is scattered much like it is in county systems,” Pouncey said. “Typically, city systems have greater financial capabilities because taxes can be passed more easily by city councils. They have home rule. Normally, what we do find is a higher degree of collaboration between city councils and school boards in those systems.”

Recently, he said, both city and county systems have struggled financially as city resources get redirected as well as state allocations. As far as performance, he said that has “more to do with the demographic of students and less to do with the kind of system it is.”

Per student spending

The idea, Thompson said of the renewed movement, is to give Fairhope residents control so local priorities get attention. She said disproportionate spending in Baldwin was only part of the issue. According to materials distributed by Good2Great, the county system spends far more per student at some county schools like Foley and Bay Minette than it does on Fairhope students who perform among the best in the state on standardized tests. Student spending doesn’t tell the whole story, school officials said, because not all costs are included and federal programs cause significant differences.

Baldwin County does spend more in some schools than others, school officials said. But they said there are valid reasons why.

“Federal and state dollars track student needs” and those “differ from campus to campus,” said public schools spokesman Terry Wilhite. “Free and reduced meal funding is just one of the reasons why (per student spending) differs from campus to campus.”

Title 1 spending for children from low-income families has a large impact as well, officials said.

Federal programs subsidize additional programs for students who perform poorly on tests or who come from lower socio-economic backgrounds. Elementary schools typically have higher spending per child due to nutrition programs, officials said. Federally funded special education programs add to costs, and some factors like teacher longevity can impact the overall spending at some schools.

Fairhope has benefited from millions of dollars in improvements to buildings in recent years such as a new elementary school, upgrades to other buildings and a theater, records show. Those figures are not reflected in per student spending. New buildings, Wilhite said, are generally less expensive to maintain and to heat and cool so spending is less for some facilities in Fairhope.

House Bill 140

There have been success stories among city schools — Mountain Brook and others. But there have been failures too. In 1998, Valley attempted to form a city system breaking away from Chambers County, Pouncey said. The effort collapsed when required paperwork didn’t get filed with the federal government. Another effort in the Birmingham area failed when a city system couldn’t make a go independently and returned to Jefferson County Schools, Pouncey said. He declined to identify the city.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, cities can’t pull out of county systems if it would result in a distortion of the county system’s demographic makeup. And a bill pending in the Alabama legislature would make formation of city school systems more difficult, Pouncey said.

House Bill 140 is in a senate committee and was waiting for action Tuesday. The bill raises the minimum municipal population for independent systems to 7,500 and mandates prior state approval. Municipalities must prove the financial means to support a separate system, and pulling out of a county system must not negatively impact the county system financially, according to the bill. Fairhope’s population count in 2010 was more than 15,000, according to Census records.

Thompson said those provisions are too restrictive, and her group is fighting the bill, she said. Meanwhile, she said, work continues to get a referendum set to bring the issue to a vote this fall.

“We have had some community meetings, and now we are meeting in small groups, talking with civic organizations,” Thompson said. “There is huge interest. People want to hear about it.”

One issue drawing attention is the number of students living outside city limits, Thompson said. She said “many of the parents in the leadership of Good2Great don’t live in Fairhope. As a county school, the feeder pattern includes hundreds of students that live outside the city limits. Thompson said the goal of Good2Great has always been to include those students in a new system, whether by annexation into the city or through assessing a fee so families living in unincorporated areas can pay their fair share if they children attend a city system.

Innovative county system

County school board president Angie Swiger said she can’t blame any parent for pushing for the best education possible for children, but she said the county system is on the brink of taking education beyond what Good2Great has outlined.

“While I always commend a community’s effort to insure the best possible education for its children,” Swiger said in an email Tuesday, “I feel that the Baldwin County system has plans for education that will far exceed the “Great” standards of the Fairhope City Schools advocate group.”

Swiger said the “Digital Renaissance” program will ultimately put laptops in the hands of all county school students, and other innovations in learning are on the way. Plans already in the works for county schools make Good2Great goals described in handouts “pale in comparison to Baldwin County’s educational plan,” Swiger said.

“It is my fear that by the time Fairhope is able to secure the funding for a new system, Baldwin County’s effort will far outreach any that Fairhope could attain in the next five years,” she said.

Swiger said county initiatives like International Baccalaureate at Fairhope High have helped make the schools in Fairhope among the best in the state. Technology upgrades will continue in county schools, she said.

“While Good to Great works to raise funds to purchase more textbooks and workbooks, Baldwin County’s progressive philosophy sees them as nearly obsolete and is working to replace them altogether,” Swiger said.

Swiger said the county system is using money wisely to improve things, and higher taxes will be part of any new system’s startup, “which is not something the majority of Fairhope residents are in favor of.” She said a unified county system would be beneficial to all the county, and “I truly believe that the children of Fairhope will benefit from a partnership rather than alienation.”

Good2Great leadership member Robert Seaborn said local control is worth the challenge.

“We will be better able to match the priorities of the community to what happens in schools,” Seaborn said. “We have so many diverse communities in the county with other priorities. I don’t see a downside to a city system. We will need more community involvement and we can assume a higher tax bill. Generally, if you want more than you have in education, you have to pay more.”

Seaborn said any innovations in county schools could be adopted for the city system if it comes to pass.

Thompson said other groups like the “Jolly Rogers” or “Friends of Fairhope Public Schools” have joined the efforts of Good2Great. 

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