Community, faculty survey show strong desire for more space, smaller class sizes

In the second of three public meetings, Homewood City Schools Superintendent Bill Cleveland and Greg Ellis, Hoar Program Management's director of pre-construction services, shared the results of surveys on the school system's needs and the next steps toward creating a plan to accommodate growing enrollment.

At the meeting, held on June 15 at Edgewood Elementary, Cleveland said he felt fortunate that separate surveys of community members and school faculty and staff revealed mostly similar priorities, which will make it easier to create plans that fulfill those needs. The two most consistent needs, showing up in response to multiple questions, were more classroom space and smaller class sizes.

“We had a lot of themes that kind of popped up … That tells us what’s really important to you,” Ellis said.

Cleveland said he wants to make sure Homewood's teachers get what they need, as they're the underpinning for the city's high educational standards. Right now, the average Homewood teacher has a master's degree, about 12 years of experience and earns about $78,000 in salary and benefits. Meeting teachers' needs is  “really how we help make a large impact on the students,” he said.

Ellis presented a summary of survey results, which covered a wide variety of quality, safety and growth topics. The surveys attracted 385 community respondents and 195 faculty and staff respondents, with roughly equal representation across the three elementary schools and slightly higher response rates from high school faculty, staff and parents.

Top concerns for the respondents about quality of the learning spaces in Homewood schools included not only crowding and class size, but also outdated facilities. At the middle school, there was a strong desire for a science lab and additional band space, and faculty at the high school requested more natural light and parking.

Both surveys also showed significant support for more non-traditional spaces such as gyms, auditoriums and band rooms. Community members and faculty said the current facilities did not have enough room and had poor sound quality, as well as being outdated.

Roughly 60 percent of the respondents to both surveys said they felt the school system is "very safe," but some of their recommendations for additional measures included front entry security measures, identification check-ins and more school resource officers (SROs).

ADA accessibility was seen as a larger issue than safety, with community and faculty respondents requesting more ramps, handicap parking, wider entrances and hallways and accessible bathrooms and playgrounds. Still, about 30 percent of community members and 50 percent of faculty and staff said they did not believe accessibility was an issue.

Other needs that were mentioned by many survey respondents included an updated library, career-simulated learning spaces and better facility maintenance.

When asked what they felt was most important for the school system to maintain as it grows, the top three responses from community member and faculty respondents were identical: small class sizes, quality teachers and high education standards.

Several people mentioned the possibility of a new high school or intermediate school in their survey, as the idea came up in initial discussions of the school system's growth plans. Ellis said he couldn't say for sure if that is in the future, but it will be among the options considered.

“I can’t tell you today whether either of those are viable or not. What I can tell you is we’re going to study it,” Ellis said.

View the full summary of survey results here.

Aside from the survey results, Ellis said HPM will also be doing walk-throughs of all five schools over the next two weeks to assess the current state of the buildings and their capacities. This will be combined with a demographics study that will show projected enrollment over the next 10 years and how different areas of the city will contribute to the student population.

Cooperative Strategies is working on the demographics study currently and Ellis projected an Aug. 1 completion date. 

“Time after time, school system after school system, when I get that information … it yields very good results,” Ellis said of Cooperative Strategies' work.

Ellis said HPM plans to present their results and an initial set of possible solutions at the August Board of Education meeting.

“It’s going to be a long meeting and its going to be an exhausting meeting, but we’re going to go through all the options because you deserve to know how the options come together,” Ellis said.

At the request of an audience member, Ellis and Cleveland both said they'd be willing to host another set of presentations with this new information at all three elementary schools. This would be followed by a refined set of options, probably about four, that would be presented in September. At that point, the board could make a decision and HPM would proceed to the design phase.

Due to the use of city bond funds for this project, the school system must commit its funds and have a viable final plan for their use by fall 2019, though construction can continue past that point. Ellis said without a final plan of how the schools will accommodate their growth, it's hard to say when exactly each school will start seeing changes.

Two residents at the meeting also asked about the possibility of "dream big" plans, such as the creation of a new high school, that come with a higher price tag. Cleveland said the school system is limited on how much funding it can receive because Homewood's property tax is capped by the state lid law. Right now, the school system's debt – including construction of the middle school and central office – mean it would be difficult to fund such a project and its long-term operational costs, but Cleveland said the situation could be different when that debt is paid off, expected in 2032. In the meantime, he said he would like to continue talking with state representatives about a lid bill exception for Homewood.

There will be one more public forum about the survey results, on June 27 at 6 p.m. at Shades Cahaba Elementary. Ellis and Cleveland said videos from the meetings, presentations and other information will be posted on the school system's website.

“Any time we’re presenting or talking about facilities … that video will go up the next day,” Ellis said.

“This is not my plan, this is not Dr. Cleveland’s plan. This is your plan. These are your schools, your children,” he added.