Birmingham News (AL)
SCHOOL BOARD LEARNED LESSON FROM ZONE FLAP  
 
October 13, 2004  
Section: Neighborhoods  
Page: 1-H  
   Peggy Sanford  
Hoover school officials apparently took to heart the painful lesson they endured this spring as the school system undertook to redraw attendance zone lines for elementary schools.  
 
This time around, as the system prepares to redraw zone lines for its middle and high school students, officials are stepping out with a systematic plan for formulating the changes.
 
Kudos for not wanting to make the same mistake twice.
 
The Hoover Board of Education in April adopted a plan to rezone about 1,500 of the city's 5,100 elementary students. Unfortunately, weeks of anger, confusion and distrust on behalf of many parents preceded the vote.
 
School officials had put forth a rezoning proposal before holding or scheduling any public hearings to gauge the concerns and desires of families who would be affected.
 
The fallout was loud and long.
 
Parents made themselves heard, but for the most part, the dialogue pivoted on fear and accusation from parents and retreat and reassurance by the school board.
 
Monday, the school board set out to do things differently in redrawing middle and high school attendance lines. The board held a special meeting and adopted a process that would involve community focus groups, a professional telephone survey and a community planning team - all at the outset of the rezoning work.
 
Superintendent Connie Williams will have the outcome of the planning process to use as a basis for the rezoning plan she and her staff will formulate and present to the school board.
 
School officials have said they hope to have a rezoning decision by January or February.
 
The planning process intends to use three focus groups to come up with a list of community values related to school zoning, then survey 200 residents by phone to rank those values.
 
A community planning team, representing a crosssection of Hoover, then would use that information to develop zoning concepts and scenarios. A mathematical formula would be applied to test each scenario and see how it stacks up to the highest-ranked community values.
 
It sounds fairly academic, but a dispassionate, fact-finding community assessment is the way to go at the beginning of a process that will result in changing the schools some students attend.
 
Residents and parents don't need to be the ones who redraw school attendance zones, but their concerns and expectations must be honestly and seriously considered in the formulation.
 
It appears the school board has taken note.  

Birmingham News (AL)
HOOVER PONDERS NEW SCHOOL REZONING TACK  
 
October 6, 2004  
Section: News  
Page: 1-C  
   JON ANDERSON News staff writer  
Hoover school officials dove into the complex and controversial issue of redrawing middle and high school attendance zones Tuesday night with a proposal to restart the planning process from scratch.  
 
About 100 people, including Hoover's newly elected mayor and City Council, showed up at Spain Park High School to hear details.
 
Numerous rezoning options were studied this past spring, but new Superintendent Connie Williams now is considering a new and more systematic approach.
 
Tim Aho, a school planning consultant and parent at Hoover's Green Valley Elementary School, outlined a plan that throws out notions about what the community wants from its school system.
 
His proposal is to use three focus groups of elementary, middle and high school parents to come up with a list of community values related to school zone lines and then survey 200 Hoover residents by telephone to prioritize those values.
 
A community planning team, representing a cross-section of Hoover, then would use that information to develop zoning concepts and scenarios. A mathematical formula would be used to test each scenario to see how well it meets the most important community values, and thus a preferred zoning scenario would emerge, Aho said.
 
The superintendent would use the outcome of the planning process as a basis for her rezoning recommendation to the school board, he said.
 
The whole process should take about 21/2 months, which meets school officials' desire to have a rezoning decision by late January or February.
 
Some parents and city leaders, including new Hoover Mayor Tony Petelos, who attended Tuesday's meeting with the entire newly elected City Council, said the proposed process is a systematic one that should work well for Hoover.
 
However, Petelos agreed with Councilman Jack Wright that school officials need to better specify from the start the need for rezoning and options that can be considered.
 
Williams said school zone lines have to be redrawn to ac commodate the planned opening of a middle school at Spain Park in August 2005. However, this process also needs to address the need for future schools due to expected crowding at Hoover High and Bumpus Middle School, Williams said.
 
New Council President Gary Ivey said focus groups need to be informed about possible zoning scenarios and other relevant information before they get started rather than beginning with a blank sheet of paper.
 
Some parents questioned whether 200 people in a telephone survey are enough to represent 65,000 Hoover residents. Aho said the sample size meets industry standards.
 
Williams said she hopes the school board will decide this week whether to proceed with this process.  

Birmingham News (AL)
WITT DEFENDS BOARD'S DECISION TO REDRAW ATTENDANCE ZONES  
 
August 11, 2004  
Section: Neighborhoods  
Page: 10-H  
   JON ANDERSON News staff writer  
Hoover school board President Kay Witt last week defended school board members and elected city officials from what she called "flaming arrows" being fired by political candidates.  
 
Witt read a two-page statement during a special called school board meeting Thursday, defending the integrity of school board members and their decision to redraw elementary school zone lines and plans to redraw secondary school zone lines.
 
Witt said several politicians in Hoover's municipal elections are using issues involving the school system as an attempt to gain votes. They've faulted current elected officials for not controlling the school board, accused school board members of not listening to parents and called the rezoning effort a "fiasco," Witt said.
 
Witt said the school board has made a concerted, conscientious effort not to be involved in the political arena.
 
"However, when flaming arrows are fired into our houses, or in this case, our mailboxes, we are forced to remove and extinguish those arrows," she said.
 
While the Hoover City Council appoints school board members, "the school board is not a political entity," Witt said. "To the current mayor and City Council's great credit, they have not attempted to control this school board."
 
School board members do value their opinions, "but we do not make decisions based on popular vote," Witt said. "Anyone who tries to control the school board to gain political favor is misusing his or her power."
 
The redrawing of elementary school zone lines for the school year that begins today is not a fiasco, Witt said.
 
The rezoning affected about 1,455 of Hoover's 5,100 elementary students, records show. Of those, about 390 were fourth and fifth-graders who were given the option to remain in the school they attended last year. About 100 students took advantage of that option, records show.
 
"It is unfortunate that some students have to leave schools they love, and that made the rezoning plan an agonizing decision for school board members," Witt said.
 
However, the school board did listen to parents before making their decision, she said. School board members received e-mails, phone calls and comments from as many voters who were in favor of the rezoning plan as they did from those who opposed it, Witt said.
 
"We do not base our decisions on popular vote, but on what we believe, after careful study and deliberation, to be best for the children of Hoover," she said.
 
The rezoning plan approved by the school board in April was designed to bring many students closer to their schools and accommodate population shifts, growth and changes in Hoover's geography over the past 15 years.
 
One of the more controversial aspects was the rezoning of about 1,000 of the 1,300 Hoover elementary students who live in apartments. School officials said the apartment rezoning was needed, in many cases, to get students closer to their school, but also to redistribute apartment students more evenly among schools to reduce high student turnover in certain schools.
 
Witt said the changes will benefit all elementary school students. Teachers will have fewer students in each classroom who are new to Hoover schools and thus need extra time and attention, she said.
 
With a new middle school slated to open in August 2005, secondary school zone lines will need to be redrawn, Witt said. Again, school board members have listened to parents and explored every suggestion, she said.
 
"There is no way to please every person in this situation because somebody has to attend all three of these middle schools," Witt said.
 
She said she understands that 30 percent of the land in Hoover is undeveloped.
 
"History leads me to believe that this land will be developed due to economic factors and public demand for housing regardless of who we elect as future mayors and City Council members." Witt said. "I agree that this growth needs to be well-planned, but this growth will necessitate the need for additional schools and the need for future rezoning plans."  

Birmingham News (AL)
HOOVER BOARD TO HOLD HEARING ON SCHOOL ZONING  
 
June 22, 2004  
Section: Neighborhoods  
Page: 3-B  
   Jon Anderson  
The Hoover Board of Education will hold a public hearing Thursday to discuss middle and high school rezoning, including the possible closing of Berry Middle School.  
 
School officials already have received approval from the U.S. Department of Justice for a controversial elementary school rezoning plan, but they're still trying to decide how to best redraw middle and high school zone lines.
 
Lines need to be redrawn to accommodate the scheduled opening of Spain Park Middle School in August 2005. School officials, however, also are keeping in mind anticipated growth in the school system.
 
Thursday's hearing will be held immediately following the school board's regular work session, which begins at 4:30 p.m. Interim Superintendent Connie Williams said she expects the public hearing to begin about 5 p.m. and end by 7 p.m.  

Birmingham News (AL)
SCHOOL BOARD STARTS EARLY PLANNING FOR MIDDLE SCHOOL  
 
May 26, 2004  
Section: Neighborhoods  
Page: 1-H  
   JON ANDERSON News staff writer  
The Hoover school board last week voted to begin preliminary work for the "possible construction" of a new school next to Hoover High and Trace Crossings Elementary.  
 
The school would be designed as a middle school but would be used temporarily to house Hoover High ninth-graders until Hoover's third high school opens, Acting Superintendent Connie Williams said.
 
This doesn't mean school officials have definitely decided to build the middle school building, Williams said.
 
"It simply gets the ball rolling so that if that is decided, it may be possible to do it in time to open in the fall of 2006," Williams said. If they wait to get started, it could delay opening the school for another year, she said.
 
Time is of the essence because school officials have said they expect Hoover High to be overcrowded in a few years unless something is done to relieve it. Hoover High already has more than 2,000 students. It can hold about 2,200 without portable classrooms, school officials say.
 
School officials now will begin securing a topographical survey of the land next to Hoover High and do a site design that would include clearing, grading and installation of utilities, Williams said.
 
The best chance to open a new school there in August 2006 would involve using the same middle school design being used for Spain Park Middle School, with some minor modifications for programming purposes, she said.
 
Williams has not made a recommendation to the school board concerning redrawing attendance zones for middle and high schools. School board member Joe Dean said there needs to be more discussion regarding potential uses for Berry Middle School if it is closed before a rezoning decision is made.
 
In other business last week, the school board:
 
Agreed to pay $94,684 to Giffen Recreation for playground equipment for the new Riverchase Elementary School.
 
Approved three-year contracts for Linda Campanotta and Sonia Carrington, the principals at Green Valley and Rocky Ridge elementary schools, respectively. The two principals have completed their probationary periods, Williams said.
 
Declared nine school buses in the spare bus fleet as surplus. The buses now are used on a limited basis or not at all, Assistant Superintendent Andy Craig said in a memo to Williams. They will be sold to make room for new buses that will be delivered this summer, allowing 1994 models to be transferred into the spare fleet, Craig said.  

Birmingham News (AL)
MIDDLE, HIGH SCHOOL REZONING DEBATE CONTINUES  
 
May 5, 2004  
Section: News  
Page: 1-B  
   JON ANDERSON News staff writer  
The debate over school rezoning in Hoover continued Tuesday night as parents pleaded with the Hoover school board to consider various zoning options for middle and high schools.  
 
The school board last month adopted a controversial rezoning plan for elementary schools but postponed a decision for middle and high schools.
 
In Tuesday's special work session, board members, about 75 parents and school staff explored the merits of eight rezoning scenarios. They included everything from opening a new Spain Park Middle School with two or three elementary feeder schools to closing Berry Middle School because of its location on the edge of the city's border with Vestavia Hills.
 
However, board members didn't reach any consensus.
 
Acting Superintendent Connie Williams first must make a recommendation to the school board, and Williams said Tuesday night she wasn't sure when that would come.
 
Spain Park Middle School is to open in August 2005, and Williams said parents want as much notice as possible concerning which elementary school students will go there. Plus, whatever rezoning decision is made by the board must be sent to the U.S. Department of Justice for approval, she said. School officials don't want to wait too long, she said.
 
Tuesday's debate focused on which elementary school students should go to Spain Park Middle.
 
Original plans called for Greystone and Rocky Ridge elementary students to go to Spain Park, but Williams and Gary McBay, who is overseeing the rezoning process, said they're concerned that would leave Berry Middle School with too few students.
 
One option that would boost Berry's population would be to rezone Green Valley Elementary students from Simmons Middle to Berry and from Hoover High to Spain Park High. Green Valley parents voiced strong opposition to that plan Tuesday night.
 
Berry and Spain Park High are farther away, and Green Valley students are too intertwined with students headed for Simmons and Hoover High to separate them, parent Ann Molony said.
 
"Sometimes what makes sense on paper is not the right thing to do," Molony said.
 
Complicating matters is the fact that some parents in Riverchase said Tuesday they want students from the new Riverchase Elementary to go to Spain Park Middle rather than Berry. Berry is too far from a traffic standpoint and will leave some parents traveling in a giant triangle to pick up children at Berry and older siblings at Spain Park High, parents said.
 
Williams said school officials would consider closing Berry if someone were interested in buying the school for the right price. However, previous and recent attempts to find an interested buyer have failed, she said.
 
School board member Robert Bumpus, a former Hoover schools superintendent, said he doesn't see closing Berry as an option. A middle school with 400 students can work, he said.
 
The school board will meet again Monday from 5 to 9 p.m.  
 
 
 

Birmingham News (AL)
APARTMENTS CAUSE POLITICAL CROSSFIRE  
 
April 28, 2004  
Section: Neighborhoods  
Page: 1-H  
   TROY GOODMAN News staff writer  
More than a year ago, Phillip and Dana Christian determined that a house in Hoover, one of northern Alabama's hottest realestate markets, was beyond their financial means.  
 
An apartment, however, was within their budget.
So the Christians moved into the aging Spring Aire Apartments off Rocky Ridge Road with their baby girl.
 
Now an elementary school, parks and plenty of shopping are just blocks away, the young couple said. Interstates 65 and 459 are close by, so getting to their jobs seems easier than from other suburbs, they said.
 
But it didn't take long for the Christians to pick up on negative comments being made by some city leaders, school officials and many home-owning neighbors that apartment renters are somehow less worthy than residents in more traditional homes.
 
The apartment critics use terms like transient and substandard housing. It's a dialogue that makes Phillip Christian bristle, he said.
 
"This makes me angry when people act so elitist," the 24-year-old BellSouth technician said.
 
"If there are single-parent families or young families like ours and they want to live in a nice area, they should be able to do that."
 
Hoover apartments generate more than $650,000 in annual revenue for the city through a 1-percent lease tax levied against apartment owners for each rental unit, records show.
 
The complexes also generate property tax, but that goes to the county, according to city Revenue Director Frank Lopez.
 
Homeowners' opposition
 
Still, many Hoover residents don't welcome apartment renters with open arms. Homeowner groups regularly crowd the city's Planning and Zoning Commission meetings to oppose apartment construction out of fear it will bring down nearby home values. Business owners have complained to City Council members about existing apartments, claiming they generate street clutter and drive customers away.
 
City officials say the clustering of apartments is a safety issue, since the majority of nonmedical fire department calls in Hoover are in response to apartment fires.
 
Even the mayor's office is publicizing the fact that, since October 2000, the administration has rezoned a dozen properties that could have contained 1,900 apartment units to some other building class. Those rezoned districts must now contain single-family homes, garden homes or something besides apartments in order for development to move forward.
 
"Hoover is saying 'we don't want apartments' and they take pride in that," said Kent Graeve, president of the Alabama Apartment Association. He said his group has kept a close eye on the situation, and may entervene, in some way politically, if Hoover doesn't soften toward renters.
 
"When we go to other states, there is a more open attitude to more sound planning, Graeve said.
 
The association's Birmingham chapter helps publish the bi-annual Birmingham Apartment Survey. The latest issue, which shows economic activity up to November 2003, found Hoover's apartment market has the highest-priced, newest units of the eight "submarkets" surrounding the Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan area.
 
In terms of occupancy over a one-year period, Hoover had a net gain of 3 rental units compared to net losses in every other submarket except the Southside, data shows.
 
Councilman vocal
 
The rosy market analysis doesn't impress City Councilman Jody Patterson. Last week Patterson delivered a halfhour speech before the council, criticizing Mayor Barbara McCollum for failing to live up to several 2000 campaign-related promises, including opposing any new apartments. McCollum, who is running for re-election, has taken heat lately for allowing the planned Ross Bridge development on the city's western edge to include 600 apartments.
 
"She keeps saying these apartments that (Ross Bridge developer) Daniel Corp. is putting in Shannon Valley will be upscale, and first class," Patterson said a few days before his speech. "But all the apartments on Lorna Road and other areas were first class 20 or 30 years ago. Now it's totally different."
 
Graeve said such views are misinformed and feed antiapartment sentiments.
 
Graeve, president of Birmingham-based Arlington Properties, which owns several apartment complexes, talked about national statistics that show more and more affluent Americans live in apartments because they want to cut their work commutes and be closer to shopping and green-space areas.
 
Also, Census 2000 numbers reveal demand for apartments is likely to remain strong for the next 10 years, mainly because the fastest growing segment of the population - households without school-age children - is the segment most likely to rent. Graeve said economics will prove that any community push toward 100-percent home ownership will prove risky to personal incomes and property values.
 
"This attitude that everyone has to live in a house . . . my prediction is that in two years, this nation is going to see the highest foreclosure rate we've ever seen in history," Graeve said.
 
Another thorny issue for Hoover has been the school system's decision to rezone, in part, because administrators say they must disperse apartment-based students more evenly among all campuses. The goal, according to the school board, is to lessen student turnover in an effort to improve learning opportunities for all students.
 
The loudest apartment foes have seized on the rezoning issue, using the pressure Hoover schools are feeling as a way to discourage new apartment construction. Two mayoral candidates, Bob Lochamy and Tony Petelos, have been blunt: "no new apartments," each has said during campaign meetings.
 
A survey last year by the Hoover City Schools found that elementary-school student turnover was 47.8 percent for apartment residents, compared to 9.4 percent for single-familyhome residents. Apartmentbased students represented less than a third of total elementary enrollment, though, allowing smaller student turnover numbers to appear large as a percentage.
 
National numbers paint a different picture of apartments' impact on schools, Graeve said. A 1999 survey by the National Multi Housing Council and other advocacy groups found on a unit-by-unit basis, newer single-family houses have three times as many school-age children as apartments.
 
Apartment stats
 
94.8 % occupancy rate (out of a total 10,597 units) Up 3 Net change in occupied apartments during one year (period ending November 2003). 1,081 sq. ft. Average apartment size $696 Average monthly rent (includes efficiency, one-, two- and three-bedroom units)
 
Sources: Birmingham Apartment Survey, Hoover city schools Note: Data include complexes in Vestavia Hills, south Jefferson County and north Shelby County. They exclude apartments along U.S.  

Birmingham News (AL)
COMMUNITY BRIEFS  
 
April 27, 2004  
Section: Neighborhoods  
Page: 3-B  
Hoover to discuss school zones The Hoover Board of Education on Monday called a special work session for Tuesday, May 4, to discuss redrawing attendance zones for Hoover's middle and high schools.  
 
The school board approved rezoning plans April 7 for its 10 elementary schools but still has to address secondary schools. The work session is set for 5 p.m., and the public will have a chance to speak at the beginning and end of the session, school board President Joe Dean said.
 
Board members also will discuss the matter with school system administrators. If more time is needed, a second work session will be held Monday, May 10 at 5 p.m.
 
New middle school lines must be drawn to accommodate the opening of Hoover's fourth middle school, Spain Park Middle. Site work has begun, and the school is set to open in August 2005.
 
School officials also are considering redrawing high school zones because of the middle school changes and the need to address expected crowding at Hoover High in several years.

Birmingham News (AL)
BOARD TO REDRAW ELEMENTARY ZONES SUPERINTENDENT JACK FARR RETIRES, CITES BATTLE AGAINST CANCEROUS BRAIN TUMOR  
 
April 8, 2004  
Section: News  
Page: 1-C  
Illustration: A Newschart titled 'Results of school zone changes' accompanied this article.
   JON ANDERSON News staff writer  
The Hoover school board voted 4-1 Wednesday to redraw all of its elementary school zone lines after several months of contentious debate in the community.  
 
Superintendent Jack Farr also resigned, citing his ongoing battle with a cancerous brain tumor and desire to spend more time with family. Farr's 37-year career in education will end officially by June 1. However, the board on Wednesday agreed to give him medical leave, effective today, and appointed Deputy Superintendent Connie Williams as acting superintendent.
 
More than 100 people crowded the school system's central office for the special called meeting, lining the walls and overflowing into the hall.
 
Most were there because of the controversial school zoning plan, which school officials say will rezone about 1,500 of 5,100 elementary students to different schools next school year.
 
The school board did not rezone high school students and put off the creation of a new middle school zone until questions about the plan can be addressed, board President Joe Dean said.
 
Farr withdrew plans to create an attendance zone for the Spain Park Middle School set to open in August 2005. He had recommended that students in that school come from Greystone and Rocky Ridge elementaries.
 
Dean said board members still had questions about that idea.
 
The comprehensive rezoning plan was designed to bring many students closer to their schools and accommodate population shifts, growth and changes in Hoover's geography in the past 15 years, Dean said.
 
It also rezones about 1,000 of the 1,300 Hoover students who live in apartments, shifting students in 25 of Hoover's 40 or so apartment complexes.
 
School officials said the apartment rezoning was needed, in many cases, to get students closer to their school, but also to redistribute apartment students more evenly among schools to reduce high student turnover in certain schools.
 
After the vote, Dean said the plan approved by the board is the best plan because of the intense scrutiny from parents, who have helped school officials understand the passion they have for their children's education. Hundreds of parents turned out for four public meetings last week to express their views and ask questions. Others have flooded school officials with phone calls, letters and emails.
 
"Processes such as this are inevitably fraught with frustration and difficulty because no one feels that their voice is being heard," Dean said. "In reality, their voices are being heard but are having to be balanced against the voices of other parents just as passionate regarding their own situation."
 
Bill Vietch was the only school board member to vote against the plan. Vietch said he supports 90 percent of it but would rather consider waiting a year or two or giving more people an opportunity to stay where they are.
 
The approved plan gives third- and fourth-graders the option to stay at their current school two more years until they go to middle school in the sixth grade. However, all new students in rezoned areas must attend the school for which that area is zoned.
 
Vietch said he also had a problem with zoning the new 1,600-acre Ross Bridge development in western Hoover to Spain Park High School on the eastern side of the city.
 
'Awful long way' "It seems like an awful long way for them to drive," he said. "That just bothers me."
 
Witt said that decision needs to made now so homeowners will know where their children will attend before they buy lots.
 
Brian Brown, a Greystone El ementary parent whose child is being rezoned to Rocky Ridge Elementary, said the rezoning plan is irresponsible.
 
"We want our children to attend the best school possible. That's the reason we moved into our neighborhood," Brown said.
 
There's a vast difference between Greystone and Rocky Ridge, Brown said, noting Rocky Ridge's high student turnover and standardized test scores that are significantly lower than scores at Greystone.
 
Moving students from areas where there are fewer transients to Rocky Ridge is not the solution to the problems there, Brown said.
 
Rocky Ridge parent Robert McGuffie was pleased with the school board's decision.
 
"From an elementary standpoint, it's the best possible process for the entire system," McGuffie said. "It serves each school better in terms of the educational opportunities . . . This board has done an excellent job and put a lot of long hours in trying to do the right thing for everybody."
 
Bluff Park Elementary and Simmons Middle School parent Don Lutomski said the rezoning plan is somewhat helpful but isn't the real solution to help children learn better.
 
School leaders need to put more people in the classroom to help struggling students, he said.  
 
Hoover Superintendent Jack Farr asks the school board to accept his resignation for medical reasons during a meeting on Wednesday. Board members accepted, granted his request for medical leave beginning today and named an acting superintendent. Farr was supported by his wife, Janice, left, and daughter Jani.  

Birmingham News (AL)
PARTIAL REZONING, FIVE NEW SCHOOLS PROPOSED SPECIAL BOARD MEETING WEDNESDAY CALLED TO STUDY FARR'S SUGGESTIONS  
 
April 6, 2004  
Section: News  
Page: 2-B  
   JON ANDERSON News staff writer  
Hoover school officials on Monday outlined plans for rezoning middle school students and said they likely will need to spend about $120 million on five new schools in the next six to eight years.  
 
Superintendent Jack Farr said Monday night he expects to recommend that students from Greystone and Rocky Ridge elementary schools should feed into the Spain Park Middle School set to open in August 2005.
 
That would give Spain Park Middle an estimated 485 students when it opens and shrink enrollment at Berry Middle School from 1,075 to about 560 students, said Gary McBay, Hoover's director of school services.
 
The middle school rezoning plan will be combined with an elementary school rezoning plan as part of Farr's recommendation to the school board, which must approve any rezoning.
 
The school board has called a special meeting for 4 p.m. Wednesday to take action on the plan.
 
Farr said his recommendations will take into account talks with his staff and the school board on Sunday and Monday and public meetings last week.
 
Farr said he won't recommend any changes in high school zoning.
 
He and school board President Joe Dean said they hope the school system can avoid rezoning students in the Green Valley Elementary zone from Simmons Middle to Berry Middle, and thus also avoid switching them from Hoover High to Spain Park High.
 
Many Green Valley parents opposed such a switch, saying Spain Park was too far away and that, as the oldest part of Hoover, Green Valley has deep ties to the Hoover Buccaneers.
 
Farr plans to recommend the construction of a new building next to Hoover High that initially could house Hoover High ninth-graders but later be turned into Hoover's fifth middle school.
 
That hopefully should help avoid expected overcrowding at Hoover High, which could allow students from the Green Valley zone to stay at Hoover High, Farr said.
 
Changes in high school zoning hopefully won't be necessary until Hoover builds its third high school by 2010 or 2012, McBay said.
 
Dean said it's important for people to understand that a third high school and other schools will be needed.
 
"Once people begin to come to grips with that, they should also be prepared to be thinking because building new facilities and the new zones that would be required could possibly affect them," Dean said.
 
Hoover already has begun the process of building Spain Park Middle. The ninth-grade building and future middle school next to Hoover High needs to be ready in three years, McBay said.
 
Three to four years after that, the third high school will be needed, and two other elementary schools likely will be needed by then, he said.