The Mobile County school board is offering some "concessions" to Chickasaw and Satsuma, hoping that those cities will halt plans to split into separate school systems.
Essentially, children in the two cities would attend schools in their communities, and schools would be renovated.
And the students would, according to system officials, continue to have access to services offered by a larger school district, including advanced classes, career-technical education programs and magnet schools.
Chickasaw Mayor Byron Pittman said the proposal — approved unanimously by the five-member school board Thursday — is worthy of consideration. He said he presented some of those same proposals to the school system a couple of years ago, before the Chickasaw City Council raised taxes to pay for a separate school system.
"This solves several of the issues we were facing," Pittman said. "We may be able to work something out."
Pittman said he would talk to community leaders and his city council to get their feelings on the proposal from county schools.
In Satsuma, school board President Linda Robbins said Thursday afternoon that she had not received a copy of the proposal. She said it was apparently emailed to school system employees.
"I really don’t want to react to it. I haven’t read it word for word," she said. "I will say that if you read it, even though it includes Satsuma as being a recipient, we are a separate city from Chickasaw, and most every reference is something about Chickasaw."
Officials in both cities plan to meet with county school officials in a couple of weeks to discuss this proposal and otherwise negotiate their splits. Meanwhile, officials in both cities said their appointed school boards would continue to work toward opening separate school systems in August.
If the cities remained part of the Mobile County Public School System, according to the proposal:
- Satsuma High School would be converted into a junior-senior high school, serving sixth- through 12th-graders from both Satsuma and Chickasaw. Satsuma students are currently zoned for Satsuma High, while most Chickasaw students are zoned for Vigor High School in Prichard.
- Hamilton Elementary in Chickasaw and Lee Primary School in Satsuma would be completely renovated within the next five years.
- The Chickasaw School of Math and Science would be expanded to serve pre-kindergarten through eighth-grade students.
- The former Chickasaw Elementary School would be transferred to the city of Chickasaw to use as it wants.
County school officials said the cities would save money by remaining part of the county system. That in turn might allow both to reduce taxes that were recently raised in both cities to pay for separate school systems.
Chickasaw and Satsuma school systems would have about 1,100 students apiece and would be among the smallest in Alabama.
Saying it was concerned with the quality of education that would be offered in the much smaller system, the Mobile school board voted recently to pursue legal action against the cities to try to stop them from splitting.
But on Thursday, the board backed away from that slightly, voting to seek an attorney general’s opinion on whether the cities could legally split.
Alabama law allows cities with at least 5,000 residents to split from county school systems. But Mobile County school officials have said that because the district formed before the state, that law may not apply here.
Schools Superintendent Roy Nichols said he’d prefer that Chickasaw and Satsuma accept these concessions.
"I think this shows an effort on our part," said Mobile County school board President Ken Megginson. "We want them to stay a part of Mobile County Public Schools."
Added board member Bill Foster: "It’s an excellent plan. It could significantly lower taxes" in the two cities. "The superintendent has done an excellent job trying to keep intact the schools that we serve."
Chickasaw and Satsuma residents have complained that their schools have been neglected and that their children are currently being sent outside their cities to attend school. They have said they want more local control on how school dollars are spent.
The school board on Thursday also passed its $434 million fiscal year 2012 budget.
