Four hours after the Gulf Shores City School System officially began its operations on Saturday, construction crews arrived and hauled away eight trailers that once served as temporary classrooms.
That was around 4 a.m., and served as the official reminder for Gulf Shores school officials that they are now on their own. For the first time ever in Baldwin County, a city has officially branched off from the Baldwin County School System.
“We had about 50 community volunteers and high school athletes help empty the portables,” said Matt Akin, the superintendent of the state’s first city school system since Pike Road splintered away from Montgomery County Public Schools in 2015.
“It was just a big workday,” said Akin, referring to Saturday and into Sunday. “Unfortunately, we had a freezer go out at the high school and so (the volunteers) spent part of a day moving frozen foods from one school to the other.”
‘Excitement in the air’
The hectic first day of the newly-formed school system symbolizes the activity occurring outside the elementary, middle and high school buildings near Alabama State Route 180.
Work is underway in reconstructing the entrances to the schools, and in making improvements to traffic flow into and out of the schools.
The construction crews will be on the site through Aug. 9, when the 2019-2020 school year officially begins.
The three entrances leading into the school campuses will get a visual boost with the construction of brick pillars with banners affixed to them. They will each have the school system’s new logo and slogan, “Makin’ Waves,” on them. The logos were created by Red Square Agency based in Mobile.
Akin said most of the construction activity is expected to be final before Aug. 9, aside from the construction of canopies that will serve as weather protection for students waiting to be picked up in the traffic line. The projects are estimated to cost the school system between $5 million to $7 million.
A grand opening is being planned for Aug. 10, though details aren’t final.
“There is a feeling of excitement in the air,” said Akin. “The construction going on reminds people that it’s here.”
‘New beginning’
It was a long journey to get to this point.
The Gulf Shores City Council, approximately 20 months ago, approved the formation of the city school system. But negotiations stalled in early 2018, as disagreements arose between Gulf Shores and Baldwin County school officials.
Alabama State Superintendent Eric Mackey was then tapped to come up with a final split agreement. But his initial agreement in January was criticized by the Baldwin County School System as skewing too favorably for Gulf Shores, and the county sued.
A month later, the two sides settled on a revised agreement and June 1 was set as the official split date. The agreement was signed off by Mackey in late March.
The politics now seem like a long ago past. Akin and his staff are more focused preparing for the coming school year, and the same goes with the Baldwin County School System as their project -- a new $25 million school in Orange Beach -- is also under construction. The Orange Beach project won’t be completed until next summer.
Gulf Shores city schools, when it opens, will have close to 180 employees, which is down from last year’s 200 employees under the county school system. Enrollment will be close to 2,000 students, down around 2,300 at the end of the 2018-2019 school year.
Kevin Corcoran, president of the Gulf Shores city school board, said that the city wanted to do some sort of celebration on Saturday, which was the day they officially could walk into the buildings and begin getting the facility prepared for the 2019-2020 school year.
The party will have to wait.
“We thought about doing something June 1, but the contractor said that we needed to get out of the way,” said Corcoran. “June 1 had been on our calendar for a long time. It meant that this is a new beginning.”
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