Semmes Mayor Brandon Van Hook said of the possibility of a city school system: “What plays a part in economic development is our school system. We have to take care of our people here in Semmes and a part of that is that they stay here, live here and are educated here.” (Helen Joyce/Call News)
By ARTHUR L. MACK
SEMMES — The Semmes City Council unanimously voted Thursday to authorize a feasibility study to see if the city can form its own independent school system.
The five-month study from Aug. 1 to Dec. 31 will help guide the city in the expansion of its boundaries and to help with census figures to confirm it meets the standard of a population of 5,000 as required by state law to create a city school board. Semmes’ population was 4,941 as of the 2020 U.S. Census and it was estimated at 5,499 as of 2022, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
RNC Educational Consultants will join the city to authorize Decision Resources LLC to perform the study.
Mayor Brandon Van Hook said basic items such as public safety and economic development played a role in pursuing the feasibility study.
“Our job as elected officials is to see what the best option is for our community,” he said. “We said we were going to get back to the basics, which is infrastructure, economic development and public safety. What plays a part in economic development is our school system. We have to take care of our people here in Semmes and a part of that is that they stay here, live here and are educated here.
“Annexation is going to play a huge role. Some of our schools are not in the city limits but the feasibility study will show that.”
The city will pay $3,000 per month for the consultant services up to $15,000. If the annexation and census enumeration are successfully completed and the city wishes to proceed with a full financial feasibility study, it will cost $70,000 and require a separate contract.
Van Hook said the first step once the feasibility study is completed and citizens decide to vote on organizing a school system is to form a school board.
“Once we get 5,000 people, that allows us to form our own board of education and essentially start a school system,” city attorney Jacob Fuller said. “We would have to work out a separation agreement with the Mobile County Public School System. The feasibility study will help us on that.
“There’s a lot of moving parts when you transition from a county to a city school and obviously that’s a big process. It takes a lot of time. The feasibility study will tell us if it is viable financially, geographically, a lot of things.”
Saraland in 2006 and Satsuma and Chickasaw in 2012 broke away from the MCPSS and formed their own city school systems.
In a series of stories last summer about the emergence of Mary G. Montgomery High School’s football program as a state power, the Call News reported the estimated enrollment of MGM, Semmes Middle School, Semmes Elementary School and Allentown Elementary School was 4,500 — bigger than 52 other city school systems in Alabama, including Saraland’s (3,400).
