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By Billy Singleton | Contributed Writer

As a member of the Clanton City Council, I occasionally receive questions concerning the advantages, disadvantages and challenges relating to the establishment of a city school system. Unfortunately, there is no short or simple response to the question. The process of establishing a city operated school system is lengthy, complicated, and expensive. This is especially true in the current political environment in which the future of federal oversight and funding of education is uncertain and unpredictable.

During the past four years, I have had the opportunity to join Mayor Jeff Mims in meetings with superintendents of various city school systems in Alabama. Although each of these meetings proved to be informative and enlightening, the need for extensive preparation, planning, prudence, patience, and most important, support from the entire community were repeatedly identified as essential elements in establishing a new school system.

The decision to adopt a city-operated education system must be evaluated on the basis that the potential benefit outweighs the costs. The establishment of a city system would require the municipality to assume the financial obligations of operating, maintaining and eventually replacing school buildings located within the city limits. Additionally, any outstanding debt relating to repairs or improvements to the existing structures would be assumed by the city. Furthermore, the city would be required to operate and maintain a fleet of buses for students requiring transportation to school each day.

Additional costs would be incurred through the hiring of a Superintendent of Education, Chief Financial Officer, grant coordinator, administrative staff, faculty, transportation and maintenance personnel and facilities, office space, utilities, establishment of a reserve operating fund and a host of other recurring expenditures. Additional funding challenges would arise if attendance were limited to only those students living within the municipal boundaries. In this case, the student population would likely decrease, causing an associated reduction in federal and state matching funds. Because a significant percentage of the costs of operating a school system are fixed, the municipality would be required to commit additional funds to finance this deficit.

In an interview regarding the establishment of city school systems, Martha Peek, former superintendent of Mobile County Schools stated, “Those who launch a new system must be prepared for a great reduction in terms of academics, athletics and extracurricular activities, at least in the short term.”  Additionally, smaller school systems will initially be incapable of offering the full range of classes and services for special needs students.

To adequately fund a school system, the city will require additional revenue above that provided through federal and state appropriations. According to a recent feasibility study produced for a city in a neighboring county, “The pattern across Alabama has been that a new city school system being formed requires additional local revenues for continuing operations and the historical pattern has been for the levy and collection of additional city sales and use taxes.”

However, the levy of additional sales or ad valorem taxes to fund education no longer appears to be realistic or desirable. During the past twelve years, the cities of Orange Beach, Gulf Shores and Chickasaw held referendums to increase ad valorem or sales tax rates to finance school systems. In each case, the referendums failed. In Fairhope, a proposed referendum for additional taxes for education was abandoned because of a lack of public support. Recently, members of the Calera City Council decided that their city is not yet ready financially to create its own school system, in part because of the need to generate additional revenue by increasing sales tax or ad valorem millage rates.

To be fair, there are certain advantages to a city operated school system. However, these advantages must be evaluated in terms of the ultimate costs to residents and the impact on the financial health of the city. Considering these financial challenges as well as the current uncertainty surrounding federal funding streams for education, I submit a more prudent approach for the City of Clanton is to continue to strengthen our existing partnership with the Chilton County Board of Education by exploring options to provide increased financial and other types of support for the schools within our city.

In discussions with Superintendent Corey Clements and members of the Board of Education, it is obvious that our collective goals are identical; to maintain a safe learning environment that will provide the best educational opportunities possible to prepare our young people to be successful in life and become productive members of society. I firmly believe that shared goals require a shared commitment.

The recent announcement regarding the partnership between Jefferson State Community College and the Chilton County School System to develop a new career technical and innovation center is a significant accomplishment and represents a tremendous opportunity in achieving our educational goals. The participation of Mayor Jeff Mims in this effort demonstrates the benefit of the cooperation between the Board of Education and the City of Clanton in creating new and exciting opportunities in education.

I look forward to continuing to work with Superintendent Clements and the Board of Education to achieve our shared goals and to reaffirm our commitment to continue to expand opportunities and improve the quality of education of our young people. Education is an investment in our future, and I believe the best investment opportunity is our continued partnership with the Chilton County Board of Education.