The Huntsville school board announced their desire to sell University Place Elementary School to UAH a few days ago.  The plan “would reportedly transfer the University Place students to Terry Heights Elementary and possibly elsewhere.” 

The elsewhere could be the International Baccalaureate school that Madison County Commissioner Bob Harrison has been demanding in return for his support of the half cent county wide sales tax increase that has been bandied around for the last few months.

[City Council President Glenn] Watson said the move may be motivated, in part, to raise money to help build a new International Baccalaureate school in northwest Huntsville to help win the vote of County Commissioner Bob Harrison for a countywide half-cents [sic] sales tax hike for education.

The Huntsville City Council has been, shall we say, less than supportive of the school board’s plan.  Kling even took a dig at Birmingham in his remarks:

Councilman Bill Kling said closing the school would make a “very bad statement” about inner-city Huntsville. “If we’re not careful, we’ll wind up like Birmingham, where everything is moving out to the suburbs, and inner-city schools are not viewed as important.”

Kling said school leaders showed poor judgment in drawing zone lines too far out for the 2-year-old Providence. Doing that, he said, filled the school to capacity when school officials should have allowed time for growth.

The Providence school that Kling is referring to is a newer school in an uppity, expensive neighborhood.

Last night the City Council passed a resolution condemning the move.  One parent came out swinging at the meeting and landed a few on school board Superintendent Ann Roy Moore (figuratively speaking of course).

Renee Hodges, a school parent from west Huntsville, said taxpayers should be irate that the University Place School closing and subsequent building of an International Baccalaureate school in northwest Huntsville is being used as a “carrot” to win support for a half-cent countywide sales tax.

“Not only has the school been promised in such an extortionist manner, but at what school board work session has there been a need discussed for a school in that area?” Hodges asked.

The article didn’t mention a response from Moore.

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This entry was posted by Brian on Tuesday, April 10th, 2007 at 5:08 am and is filed under Education, Huntsville. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Please note the copyright policy.