Jeff Thompson
Edgewood Elementary Students
At Edgewood Elementary School, the cafeteria starts serving lunch to its approximately 800 students at 10:30 a.m. and doesn’t wrap up until 1:30 p.m. Seeing evidence of school population growth at Edgewood and other elementary schools, Homewood City Schools is now considering how to accommodate increasing student population in its facilities. Photo by Jeff Thompson.At one time, rising enrollment at Edgewood Elementary School presented a specific problem for Principal Patricia Simpson.
“Specials,” the school’s term for activity classes like music and art, were once on a five-day rotation schedule. But as the number of students climbed, these classes began to burst at the seams.
“Sometimes I had a class and a half or even two classes in at a time,” said Edgewood music teacher Theresa McKibben.
Simpson’s solution, now in full effect at the school, was to amend the rotation schedule. Students now attend each special class once every seven days. And because extending the rotations left gaps, Simpson filled them with even more activities — technology, expressive writing and social studies.
“You have to adapt, and we’ve done that,” she said. “But we wouldn’t have done it if there weren’t more students now than there used to be.”
Homewood City Schools (HCS) is now looking to address how education facilities will accommodate the increasing growth in school enrollment.
Last month, Homewood City Schools Superintendent Bill Cleveland charged a Strategic Planning Committee to develop a solution for the growing student population. Enrollment numbers fluctuated for many years, he explained, but have grown year after year since 2006.
Back then, Edgewood had approximately 500 students. Now, the school serves nearly 800.
“We start serving lunch at 10:30 a.m. and don’t slow down until almost 1:30 p.m.,” Simpson said.
The Central Office is asking the committee of educators, administrators and community members for direction. For now, walls can be moved to fit children in a school, but such small changes will not be sustainable in the long term.
“We still have places where we can do things like that, but the things we can do will end,” Cleveland said. “You have to face these [issues] honestly. Everyone is talking about it anyway.”
The Strategic Planning Committee developed the overall HCS Strategic Plan three years ago, as HCS does every five years, to guide the system. However, Dr. Betty Winches, assistant superintendent for instruction, said they did not then recognize the pattern of growth like they do now. And that’s why they have come back together to address the issue.
Much like three years ago, the committee will research the issue and come back to the Central Office with a new big-picture plan that the Central Office will in turn work to implement.
Dr. Desiree Smith, HCS curriculum and technology coordinator, is leading the committee. Gina Dorough, who moved on from her position as principal at Hall-Kent Elementary to work at a camp after last school year, previously headed the group.
HCS enrollment data shows that elementary student population has grown each year since 2004. In 2006, the school system hit its all-time highest elementary enrollment, 1,571, and continued to grow by 209 students over the next six years.
While elementary population has grown the most, those students will grow into middle and high schoolers.
Middle school enrollment also started to increase in 2006, first slowly by 41 students from 2006 to 2009. Over the next three years, it climbed more rapidly by 117, presumably in part because three new grades had aged up from the growing elementary population in the area.
High school enrollment has decreased by 50 students since 2006, but the now-seventh and eighth graders will soon be high schoolers.
“We can’t tell you for sure [why there are more students], but we can tell you what you see when you look around,” Cleveland said, describing how residents are building bigger houses to accommodate their growing families. “We are just not used to this kind of growth.”
Census data confirms the rise in the number of school-aged children in the area. While the overall Homewood population grew only marginally from 2000 to 2010, ages 5-17 grew by 10 percent, and soon-to-be-elementary students, ages 0-4 in 2000, grew by 17 percent.
In light of this, Cleveland has a hopeful outlook about the future of Homewood City Schools.
“[Growth] is a positive thing to deal with if you deal with it,” Cleveland said.
During their initial meeting in September, Strategic Planning Committee members and Central Office staff brainstormed preliminary ideas for solutions as well as other factors that will inform the process. HCS does not currently have funds set aside for a new school building, and property taxes cannot be raised due to a millage law passed by the state legislature in the 1970s. Also of note, the recently approved plan for West Homewood redevelopment will likely bring growth to the area.
A new elementary school, intermediate school or other facility could be built on HCS’s recently acquired Magnolia Park property on Valley Avenue. Demolition has been completed on the property, and bids were opened last month to build a central office in the area of the old Homewood Middle School track on a small portion of the 24-acre plot.
Dr. Kevin Maddox, assistant superintendent for business operations, suggested the committee start by asking questions they want answered and by gathering information. Cleveland encouraged them to “dream in the big, broad spectrum.”
The Central Office gave no specific timeline to the committee, focusing on figuring out the best solution over immediacy.
“We are looking for a 20- to 30-year plan,” Winches said. “We need a good solution and not a band-aid. We will be done when we are done asking all the questions.”
