What DON'T you like about Huntsville/Decater areas? (Madison, Minor: transfer to, neighborhood)

[Reactionary]

Current Huntsville City Board of Education members:

District 1 - James Dawson (term expires 2008)
District 2 - Doug Martinson (2010)
District 3 - Jennie Robinson (2010)
District 4 - Topper Birney (2010)
District 5 - Alta Morrison (2008)

All except Morrison (she wasn't in office then) were quoted in the 2003 Times article cited above.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by Reactionary

Charles - here is a 'Special Report' series from The Huntsville Times, dated 2003.

Cool, those URLs worked and I read some of these articles a few months ago. I just don't know why the other URLs don't work..I need to re-read this stuff. Thanks.

[Reactionary]

Charles, IMO the Huntsville City Schools (BofE and Mgt) have no urgency to fix anything - they've paid consultants who've warned of the City becoming an "inner city" school system and they've paid consultants for demographic studies and school consolidation / construction / closure recommendations...

[RANT ON] I don't know what it's going to take to spur action - most of the schools are less than half capacity and most of those schools can be described as 'failing'. The few good schools are full or overcrowded.

And yet nothing can be done - can't build a new high school in the SE because of the desegregation order, new schools meant for new BRAC development are zoned for kids fleeing failing schools - which limits the new development, failing schools hurt home values, can't get rid of crappy teachers, can't discipline disruptive children. [RANT OFF]

Note that private schools in Huntsville are booming...

[Charles]

Originally Posted by Reactionary

Charles, IMO the Huntsville City Schools (BofE and Mgt) have no urgency to fix anything - they've paid consultants who've warned of the City becoming an "inner city" school system and they've paid consultants for demographic studies and school consolidation / construction / closure recommendations...

[RANT ON] I don't know what it's going to take to spur action - most of the schools are less than half capacity and most of those schools can be described as 'failing'. The few good schools are full or overcrowded.

And yet nothing can be done - can't build a new high school in the SE because of the desegregation order, new schools meant for new BRAC development are zoned for kids fleeing failing schools - which limits the new development, failing schools hurt home values, can't get rid of crappy teachers, can't discipline disruptive children. [RANT OFF]

Note that private schools in Huntsville are booming...

We expect to move there and we would expect to attend HHS, VGHS or BJHS. I have four kids so I'd prefer to attend government (public) schools. My oldest is only going to be in 4th grade so while we have time to make adjustments, we'd prefer to buy a home in a decent high school zone. All three of those schools mentioned above are fine with us.

I am an only child and I grew up in a so-so neighborhood in LA so my parents sent me to private schools. The public high school I would have attended was kind of rough, lots of drugs (and we're talking a lot more than doing bong loads). One disadvantage of huge high schools like those above is making sports teams. My private school was small so I made the football and soccer teams. I probably couldn't have played sports at the LA City high school - those kids are like college sized.

[BKOTH97]

Originally Posted by Charles

We expect to move there and we would expect to attend HHS, VGHS or BJHS. I have four kids so I'd prefer to attend government (public) schools. My oldest is only going to be in 4th grade so while we have time to make adjustments, we'd prefer to buy a home in a decent high school zone. All three of those schools mentioned above are fine with us.

I am an only child and I grew up in a so-so neighborhood in LA so my parents sent me to private schools. The public high school I would have attended was kind of rough, lots of drugs (and we're talking a lot more than doing bong loads). One disadvantage of huge high schools like those above is making sports teams. My private school was small so I made the football and soccer teams. I probably couldn't have played sports at the LA City high school - those kids are like college sized.

Madison has plans for a second highschool and the plans (from what I know) are for all of those east of Hughes to attend Bob Jones and those west of Hughes to attend the new high school. From my experience in Madison (lived here 6 years) that will be a very even split (demographic wise) and will create 2 excellent high schools. I honestly don't think you can go wrong by moving to Madison from a school perspective. If you move into one of the Huntsville school districts there is a distinct possibility of major zone changes because of the overcrowding in certain districts.

[VMH2507]

Originally Posted by BKOTH97

If you move into one of the Huntsville school districts there is a distinct possibility of major zone changes because of the overcrowding in certain districts.

I have always thought this as well particularly with Grissom where the zone covers a very large area. People who buy in Grissom zone seem to feel that there will never be a rezoning. This has not happened yet because of the aging of the population in SE Huntsville. However, with new younger families moving in, it will put additional stress on Grissom which already has portables on the front lawn.
As a side note, my son graduated from a high school in TX where there were 3200 students in grades 10-12. That school was rated recently by Newsweek at #421 (Grissom was 688). He also played on the football team but was definitely not college football material - academically yes, but football no.

[Reactionary]

How could Grissom (140% capacity) be rezoned? You could only shift kids to Huntsville High (100% capacity). Can't really shift HHS kids, because the neighborhoods you could rezone to Butler would violate the deseg order, or shifting Blossomwood / downtown / Monte Sano kids to Lee would cause riots (or more likely, private school enrollments would increase).

Bussing is out - there would be riots plus the City doesn't have enough busses.

SE HSV needs a new HS, but building one supposedly violates the deseg order.

[BKOTH97]

Originally Posted by Reactionary

How could Grissom (140% capacity) be rezoned? You could only shift kids to Huntsville High (100% capacity). Can't really shift HHS kids, because the neighborhoods you could rezone to Butler would violate the deseg order, or shifting Blossomwood / downtown / Monte Sano kids to Lee would cause riots (or more likely, private school enrollments would increase).

Bussing is out - there would be riots plus the City doesn't have enough busses.

SE HSV needs a new HS, but building one supposedly violates the deseg order.

I'm not sure, but I know that they can't continue to add students without moving something. Madison is in the same situation. Maybe build a HS in Hampton Cove and that woud relieve pressure from HHS. Then you could rezone some of the Grissom kids to HHS. This may also violate the deseg order because of the Hampton Cove High School. I am not sure.

I don't have all the answers, but everyone can see that there is a problem.

[Charles]

Prompted by this entry in the Huntsville Times, I just emailed back and forth with City Council President Glenn Watson:

City Council, school board discuss hot topics - Breaking News from The Huntsville Times - al.com

He wrote to me that HCHS is a desire but there are no plans for it in the near future. He passed me on to Alta Morrison who is on the Huntsville School Board. I emailed her requesting additional information - if there is any. Will pass on to the forum.

[33458]

Originally Posted by Reactionary

How could Grissom (140% capacity) be rezoned? You could only shift kids to Huntsville High (100% capacity). Can't really shift HHS kids, because the neighborhoods you could rezone to Butler would violate the deseg order, or shifting Blossomwood / downtown / Monte Sano kids to Lee would cause riots (or more likely, private school enrollments would increase).

Bussing is out - there would be riots plus the City doesn't have enough busses.

SE HSV needs a new HS, but building one supposedly violates the deseg order.

Reactionary -

How much community pressure do you believe it would take to improve the slagging conditions at Lee? Matter of funding, demands, both? Neither?

If the zones were changed to include my 'neighbors', do you think the parents actively participating in school meetings, calling for change (insert here) would have a positive effect, especially with the proposed new Lee being built whenever it is that should happen? Or do you think we'd just have a local flutter and grumble about private tuitions and vouchers?

I'm curious about all of this because we, in Oak Park, are zoned for Lee. I'm glad that it is a magnet school, not sure if I hear a general bias against the minority population (every public school in South Florida had serious issues)...understand perfectly how the scoring works (see South Florida again) and also fully comprehend that it is my duty as the parent to be completely involved in my child's education, not solely relying on an outside source to create a scholar.

We have private school as an option...should it come to that.