By Sarah Stephens
Elmore/Autauga News
The City of Prattville is moving its City Council Work Session Meeting and Regular Meeting to the Doster Center Tuesday, in anticipation of a large crowd.
At 5:30 p.m. Tuesday the Council members are expected to hear from Autauga County School Supt. Timothy Tidmore who is expected to give a presentation and update about Autauga County Public Schools. He will have 30 minutes to speak.
At 6 p.m. Bradley Neave, founding member of the planned Ivy Classical Academy Charter School, will address the council explaining the “benefits” to the city helping his Charter School purchase several buildings for the school’s location if it locates at the High Point Shopping Center.
“We still have some limitations due to COVID, so we will still have only half capacity at the Doster Center,” Mayor Bill Gillespie told the EAN. That would mean that only about 250 people, including any media, will be allowed inside the building.
There is expected to be a great amount of interest in the meeting Tuesday due to the issue of the High Point Shopping Center being a potential location and whether or not Prattville will support the school financially.
The Charter School has requested the city help to fund the almost $23 Million needed to acquire buildings at the High Point Center.
While there are a lot of moving parts to all of this, first know that no vote will be taken on the Charter School request this coming Tuesday. Council members and those present will be given a lot of information to digest.
In play here is the fact that a one-cent sales tax that generates approximately $7 Million a year for the city is about to expire. The good news is that the money generated by that tax has afforded the city the ability to pay off all eligible debt service 10 years early. The council, at some point, will have to decide whether to allow that sales tax to expire, or to repurpose it for other things. But whether or not the council lets the tax expire, or repurposes it, is a decision that will not be made this Tuesday.
The new charter school officials hope be ready to welcome students in August of 2022. According to the school’s website, 700 students are already pre-enrolled. The charter school listed itself as an Autauga County School on its application to the state’s charter school commission.
There is a catch, however. The High Point Center is located in Prattville city limits, but falls within Elmore County, not Autauga County.
Much of Prattville’s east side is actually within Elmore County, but within Prattville city limits. This has caused some confusion over the years. Under the current legislation, a school located at High Point would not be an Autauga County School.
Enter legislation sponsored and introduced by Senator Clyde Chambliss, that would amend Section 16-6F-5 of the Alabama School Choice and Student Opportunity Act. The amendment relates to “providing further for the physical location and attendance area of a public charter school that is within the corporate limits of a municipality that lies in two counties.”
SB297 was first introduced and read March 3, 2021. If it passes, the charter school could be allowed to locate at High Point, and still be considered an Autauga County School.
If the legislation fails, then school officials would be required to keep searching for a location that is actually within Autauga County to match up with their application submitted to the state’s Public Charter School Commission.
“The bill is kind of stalled right now because there is no known support for it in the House,” Senator Clyde Chambliss told the EAN. “With probably 100 bills trying to get through Senate, leadership looks at bills with the best chance for passage. The Charter school is working on finding House sponsorship. This is a general bill, so anyone in the House could sponsor the bill. It would not have to be a House member from that district.”
However, there are just seven legislative days left in this session in order to get the bill passed. According to Chambliss, it takes a minimum of five legislative days to pass a bill, from introduction to final passage.
“The bill has already been introduced, and it has committee approval. But about three more days would be needed, and that would require a sponsor from the House. So, this really all comes down to whether or not it gets that (House) support,” Chambliss said. “And this bill has nothing to do with whether or not Prattville decides to help fund the Charter School. That is a separate issue entirely.”
The Charter School would be a tuition-free, public school. Funding would come from the state, just like any other public school. Priority would be given to board members’ and school staff members’ children for enrollment first as long it does not exceed 10 percent of the student population. Thereafter it would be open to all Autauga County students. If there is still capacity available, it would open up to all other students, including Elmore County students and surrounding counties. However, the successful student population would be based on a random selection process, such as a lottery system. What this means is that even if parents pre-enroll their children, there is no guarantee they will be accepted.
In the first year of operation Ivy Classical Academy would be a K-6th grade facility. However, the plan is to add an additional grade each year, until reaching 12th grade.
For more information on details of the school’s plan, visit their website at ivyclassical.com
On the website you will find information on how to pre-enroll students in the program if you are interested. You can also follow the school on their Facebook page found at https://www.facebook.com/ivyclassical
As stated earlier, there are a lot of facets to this issue. The EAN will be present for both the work session and regular council meeting Tuesday and we expect multiple stories to come from those meetings. Our goal is to put some light on opinions from all sides, while also presenting fact-based information.
Sarah Stephens is an owner of Elmore/Autauga News and can be reached at [email protected].
