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Sydney Cromwell
Homewood schools and parks study
A proposed layout for a new Homewood High School and playing fields at West Homewood Park.
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Sydney Cromwell
Homewood schools and parks study
A proposed layout for the Homewood High School and West Homewood Park.
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Sydney Cromwell
Homewood schools and parks study
A proposed layout of a new Homewood High School and West Homewood Park.
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Sydney Cromwell
Homewood schools and parks study
The proposed pools and tennis courts at Patriot Park.
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Sydney Cromwell
Homewood schools and parks study
The proposed pools and tennis courts at Patriot Park.
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Sydney Cromwell
Homewood schools and parks study
A proposed addition to Hall-Kent.
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Sydney Cromwell
Homewood schools and parks study
A proposed addition at Hall-Kent.
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Sydney Cromwell
Homewood schools and parks study
A proposed addition and changes at Edgewood Elementary.
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Sydney Cromwell
Homewood schools and parks study
Proposed changes and additions at Edgewood Elementary.
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Homewood schools and parks study
Proposed changes at Shades Cahaba, including a new gymnasium (yellow).
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Sydney Cromwell
Homewood schools and parks study
Proposed changes at Shades Cahaba.
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Sydney Cromwell
Homewood schools and parks study
A proposed 5th-grade wing at Homewood Middle.
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Sydney Cromwell
Homewood schools and parks study
A proposed 5th grade wing at Homewood Middle.
With record numbers of children in Homewood's classrooms and ball fields, Homewood City Schools and the Parks and Recreation Department presented possibilities for growth plans to the community on Sept. 27.
The meeting at Homewood High School was centered on the results and possible solutions from a study that has been conducted by B.L. Harbert International since January. Charlie Vick of Harbert said that Davis Architects and Goodwyn Mills Cawood contributed to the architectural renderings presented.
Superintendent Bill Cleveland led the meeting and stressed multiple times throughout that the proposals were not definite plans or even fully mapped out. More specifics would come with the school system's five-year strategic planning process, which begins in October and will last about a year, he said.
The biggest potential change would be moving Homewood High School to a 15-acre lot the city recently purchased next to West Homewood Park. The current high school on Lakeshore Drive has limited expansion options due to topography and floodplains, Cleveland said, and the only likely place for expansion would be a small building on the third-tier parking lot and construction of a parking deck on the second-tier. This would cost an estimated $20 million.
Specific layouts and cost estimates for a new high school in West Homewood were not provided. However, Cleveland said it could easily make room for 1,400 to 1,600 students. There are currently 1,177 high school students in Homewood, on track to surpass 1,300 by the 2022-23 school year or sooner.
“It would be tough for this to be an optimal learning environment then,” Cleveland said.
Though the school system does own a 28-acre property next to Homewood Middle on Valley Avenue, Cleveland said the topography of the site would make it more difficult to build there. He said the school system has considered selling the land for single-family homes or keeping it for further expansion, but does not know yet what will happen. He also said the school system has not talked to faculty yet about the possibility of a new high school building.
Parents in the audience expressed concern about the placement of the new school being less central to the city, and proposed the option of using the Valley Avenue property for a 9th grade school or repurposing the current high school property to fit elementary school needs. All of these possibilities, Cleveland said, would need more study but it's too early in the process for definite answers.
“We’re not sure what we need to do. We have some options now,” Cleveland said.
Homewood Middle School also needs additional classroom space to be built and more cafeteria space. To alleviate crowding there and in the elementary schools, Harbert suggested an addition that would bring 12 classrooms, more cafeteria space and a multi-purpose room, along with a separate 5th grade wing. The wing would have its own entrance but connect to the rest of the school on the north east side of the property.
Alternatively, all three elementary schools could have additions built on much more easily than at the high school, and Cleveland said with careful planning “the normal orderly daily process of school can take place with limited disruption" during construction. Hall-Kent, Edgewood and Shades Cahaba are currently in need of more classroom, office and cafeteria space.
At Hall-Kent, the proposed L-shaped addition would be on the east side of the school, adding 16 classrooms, upping cafeteria capacity and allowing for other improvements as needed. At Edgewood, the largest elementary school, an addition would be made at the back of the school for 10 classrooms and offices, including an SRO office, and the cafeteria could be joined with the current theater to add more seating.
Shades Cahaba has the smallest number of classrooms at 39 and also still has some original infrastructure from its construction in the 1920s. Major changes would be more complex, but Harbert proposed expanding the cafeteria by taking some current classrooms, adding classrooms into the theater space and near the current 5th grade classes and building a new gymnasium on the site of the current playground. The playground would move to the center of the circular drive and the gym would connect to the school with a second-story enclosed walkway.
Cleveland said at some point in the future the older schools may need to be entirely replaced, but he doesn't see that need at this time. When that does happen, he hopes they will be rebuilt in their current locations rather than new properties. At that time, property like the vacant one on Valley Avenue could make a temporary spot for education to continue while a school was being constructed.
Based on Harbert's estimates, the proposed additions to the three elementary schools would be about $29.4 million. In contrast, adding a 5th grade wing to HMS instead would cost $13.7 million, though that does not include the cost of an addition for more classrooms in grades 6-8.
Tied to growth in schools is growth in the use of city parks. Parks and Recreation Superintendent Berkley Squires said that recreational sports involvement has grown from 3,100 kids in 2009 to 4,100 in 2016, especially in new sports like flag football and lacrosse. The department has been running out of room and using “any field we can grab a hold of” at the various schools to supplement their own for team practices and games, Squires said.
Several options for the integration of a high school in West Homewood with the rest of West Homewood Park were presented by Harbert, all of which would add more space for baseball, softball and multi-purpose fields as well as tennis courts. These would remove the current pool at the park, but give the department the chance to move its maintenance equipment out of trailers and into more permanent facilities.
The parks department wants to add two tennis courts and an aquatic center to Patriot Park, between the Senior Center and the existing walking track. The renderings provided by Harbert show an aquatic center with an outdoor lap pool and splash pool for younger kids, as well as additional parking around the senior center.
“We feel like this kind of gets it in an area there in West Homewood that gives everybody the ability to walk to it," Squires said. "It’s an exciting thing.”
Estimates on the cost of these improvements were not provided at the meeting.
The substantial cost of the proposed school changes will have to be considered as part of whether the projects are approved. Cleveland pointed out that the city has already maxed out what ad valorem revenue it can collect and donate to the school system. The city also gives one cent of its sales tax to the schools, totaling about $8 million per year.
“That [revenue] is a game changer. That’s not happening in other places. That’s not taken for granted,” Cleveland said. “I feel like a child who’s given everything, and I’m standing up here saying, 'Gee, thanks Dad, but can I have some more?'”
Cleveland said more financial support from the city is what's needed to make any of these proposed changes happen. He noted after the meeting that he does not want a capital fundraising campaign for the buildings. City Council President Bruce Limbaugh said he would like to consider another sales tax increase as a possible source.
“We’re going to have plenty of opportunities to discuss that and listen to that in the future,” Limbaugh said.
There were many questions left unanswered for parents at the meeting, including traffic, timeline, total financial cost and how much public input will be collected before final decisions are made by the school board. Cleveland said that the results of the study are still so recent that many of these things have not been determined.
He said a very broad timeline would be to have a solution complete before HHS passes that 1,300 mark in population. Otherwise, there is still too much in the air.
“We are not that far along,” Cleveland said.
The full presentation, along with a video of the night's meeting and more information from Harbert's study, will be available at homewood.k12.al.us/hwdgrowth. Email questions and comments to hbe@homewood.k12.al.us.
