Orange Beach and Bay Minette will get new schools under a program approved Thursday by the Baldwin County School Board.
In a 5-2 vote, the board endorsed a change to its capital budget to add $8.7 million to build a new $14.9 million middle school on Canal Road in Orange Beach and a $13.4 million elementary school in Bay Minette.
"The people of Orange Beach are absolutely thrilled," said Orange Beach Mayor Tony Kennon.
Added Bay Minette Mayor Bob Wills: "We are ecstatic."
The plan is in an addition to an already-approved $60 million pay-as-you-go program.
The $8.7 million is separate from that program, and is paid for through a number of resources: $2.2 million comes from reserves, $2.5 million is from unappropriated BP settlement funds, $2 million comes from capital surplus money and $2 million is in savings from projects already included in the pay-as-you-go program.
"If you can invest into a new school, it's better than just adding on another wing or having an expansion," said Baldwin County Schools CFO John Wilson.
'Relationship strain'
But the plan, crafted within the past two weeks, was viewed as a snub to Gulf Shores city officials and to Angie Swiger, the school board member who represents the two coastal cities. She, along with board member David Tarwater, voted against it.
"I think this will put a strain on the relationship between Gulf Shores and the Baldwin County Board of Education," Swiger said. "I don't think there is as much of a strain between the citizens of Gulf Shores and the citizens of Orange Beach as people would like to think. But I think the cities, the politics, have done more to harm those relationships."
Swiger's biggest concern was on the process of how the Orange Beach middle school came about. The school system originally proposed a $3.8 million addition to the elementary school that included 12 new classrooms and a larger gymnasium. The project was aimed at removing 11 portable classrooms which accommodates the school's overcrowding.
But Baldwin County School officials decided to freeze that project, which was included in the pay-as-you-go program, because Gulf Shores city officials are flirting with the potential of a city-county school split.
The county is also halting construction projects in Daphne, which is also weighing the potential of a split.
"Why would I continue construction in a city considering a split?" Superintendent Eddie Tyler said. "I'm sorry, but they created this problem. Not me."
Swiger said she has been inundated with calls and emails from upset residents. Most of those calls, she said, were not over disappointment that Orange Beach would get the new school rather than Gulf Shores. Instead, she said residents were in a "tirade" over not being allowed to add input into the decision.
Swiger urged the school system to wait for at least one month before voting. But the school system argued that the design and construction of a new school was on a tight timeline if it was to be completed by 2019.
Swiger called the plan a "farce" and a "terrible thing" for the board to approve when she, as the representative of the coastal area, had concerns.
Tarwater said his concerns was on the abruptness of voting on a major school construction program. The board, until this year, had not approved the construction of a new school since 2009.
'Political thing'
Swiger's comments came after Gulf Shores Mayor Robert Craft, in a strongly worded letter to the school system on Wednesday, said he was first notified about the Orange Beach school on Tuesday and called what he said was a "complete absence of communication" as "perplexing."
"Approximately 75 percent of the children attending schools within our feeder pattern live in Gulf Shores," said Craft, referring to the Gulf Shores and Orange Beach schools which are combined with students from both cities. "Their neglect to incorporate any input or involvement from our community into the development of a plan of this magnitude is extremely disappointing."
Tyler said that he had been in contact with all the principals within the feeder system about the plan. He first spoke publicly about it Monday before the Orange Beach City Council.
Tyler and Wilson also defended the inclusion of a new middle school in Orange Beach, noting that the prospects for one have been discussed for over 1-1/2 year.
Tyler said the addition of a new Orange Beach school wasn't a political sleight at Gulf Shores.
"This is not an underhanded political thing to penalize Gulf Shores because they are working on a split," said Tyler. "I'm sorry. I'm just not a politician."
Relationships between the school system and Gulf Shores have been strained in recent months as the city pursues a study for an independent city-run school. No final determinations have been made on whether Gulf Shores will break off from the Baldwin County School System.
The Gulf Shores City Council, in August, approved a $15,000 study with Birmingham-based Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama (PARCA) to produce interactive modeling on the best way to move forward with a city school system. A portion of that contract is being paid for by residents who favor a city-county school split.
Craft wasn't at Thursday's board meeting, but a leading advocate for analyzing a city school was and he criticized the school system for being "out of touch" with growth projections within the Gulf Shores-Orange Beach feeder system.
Kevin Corcoran, co-chairman of the Island Task Force for Education, said that school officials are underestimating growth. The school system, on the other hand, has maintained that growth patterns in Gulf Shores does not warrant immediate construction of a new school.
Corcoran and Gulf Shores officials including Craft have cited U.S. Census figures which shows the city among the fastest growing in Alabama.
The school system, however, has historical data that shows faster growth in other school feeder systems such as Fairhope. The school system contends that Gulf Shores' enrollment projections fluctuate more erratically than elsewhere in the county.
The county school system encompasses 45 campus and educates 31,000 students. The pay-as-you-go construction program is focused on spreading around the $60 million, over the course of four years, for upgrades throughout the county.
New schools in Foley and at an undetermined site on the Eastern Shore highlight the program that was made possible after the Baldwin County Commission voted in January to make a 1 percent sales tax permanent. The tax, which pumps about $40 million into the school, was set to expire next year before the commission acted.
Gulf Shores officials believe they have not received a fair share. The last new school built in Gulf Shores was in 1999, but Tyler said that about $10 million in expansions and renovations have occurred within the city since.
Last year, Gulf Shores and Orange Beach negotiated the potential of creating a special taxing district to pay for school needs, backed by a 3-mill property tax. Kennon, the Orange Beach mayor, denied that there was anything imminent with that proposal.
Tyler said once the taxing district idea was halted, the school system added Gulf Shores back into the pay-as-you-go program to pay for the elementary school expansion. That project was only halted because of the city's interest in the split, he said.
Nicky Gotschall, a Gulf Shores resident, said she feels like the residents have been "blindsided" by the school system. She encouraged Tyler to visit a Gulf Shores meeting to provide updates. Tyler, who was at the Orange Beach City Council meeting on Monday to introduce the project, declined.
"I don't mind going to any group and talking to them, but I don't want to go (before) a group that will back you into a corner and discredit you," Tyler said.
The school system's headbutting with Gulf Shores city officials, and praise from Orange Beach, is a relationship reversal. As recent as 2014, Orange Beach had considered a city breakaway from Baldwin County and Kennon was a critic of the school system's leadership under former Superintendent Alan Lee.
A school official said that Kennon approached the system's leadership about 18 months ago with interest in improving the relationship and to move away from the city school concept.
The new Orange Beach middle school will be constructed on city-owned land that will be donated to the Baldwin County School System. Kennon said it's worth about $5 million, and he added that the city is willing to make road and other infrastructure-related improvements to accommodate the new school.
It's located about four miles east of Gulf Shores along a road that is often congested, which is another concern Swiger and others expressed.
Said Kennon on Thursday: "I do want to let the board and superintendent know how much we appreciate how hard they worked to for us to make sure Orange Beach's educational needs are served."
He described the new middle school as a "win-win" proposal for his city.
"This school allows them to prepare for Gulf Shores leaving or for Gulf Shores staying," said Kennon. "It's a smart, common sense solution."
'Terrific boost'
Lost, somewhat, in the Gulf Shores-Orange Beach dispute was the praise directed to school officials for including a new Bay Minette elementary school.
The school will be built on property located near the existing school, which is more than 80 years old. In recent years, the aging school has been criticized by parents for being outdated and moldy.
The school was originally slated to get a $9.4 million expansion that included 35 new classrooms. The new $13.4 million school has the capacity for 1,200 students.
"I cannot express to you what a terrific boost it will be for teachers and administrators and the entire community," Mayor Wills said.
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