The Board of Education approved a voting district resolution last week asking the local legislative delegation to introduce a bill that would allow residents to vote in elections pertaining to boards and superintendents that actually oversee their children’s schools.“This is a step forward in clearing up some gray areas,” Superintendent Dr. Bobby Hathcock said.
Currently, many residents in the Pell City school district have taxation without representation. Only residents living within the city limits can run for a Board of Education spot, even though more than 50 percent of the students live outside the city, in unincorporated areas of the county.
“I’ve said it all along,” Hathcock said, adding that it is taxation without representation for many St. Clair County residents. “But our folks try to represent everybody the best they can.”
Hathcock said some county residents vote in the St. Clair County superintendent and board races, even though their children go to Pell City schools, which has its own board and superintendent.
Hathcock and St. Clair County Schools Superintendent Jenny Seals say that’s not right.
On Jan. 28, the St. Clair County Board of Education passed a similar resolution requesting help from the local delegation to alleviate the problem.
“We’re looking toward the future,” Seals said Tuesday, adding that the St. Clair County School System receives 13.5 mills from ad valorem taxes collected in the county.
She said different school districts within St. Clair County are looking for additional funds for new facilities to meet growing populations.
Seals said this is the first step in establishing district school lines, so residents from certain areas of the county can decide whether their school districts need more money and can legally put it to a community vote.
She also said people who live outside Pell City but whose children attend Pell City schools should have representation on the Pell City school board if their taxes are being used to fund that School System.
“This has needed to be fixed for a long, long time,” Seals said, adding that St. Clair County school officials will meet with Pell City school officials in the future to discuss establishing district lines, the next step in the process. “We have some places that have grown so much that in one subdivision half of the children go to one school and the other half go to another.”
She said St. Clair County and Pell City school officials appeared to be on the same page with this issue, wanting what’s best for all students.
“We have a great working relationship,” Seals said. “They want what’s best for the kids at Pell City.”
Hathcock said Pell City school officials will forward the resolution passed by the board Tuesday night to the local legislative delegation for their consideration and action.
“… The Pell City Board of Education hereby petitions the St. Clair County legislative delegation at the next session of the Alabama Legislature to introduce and adopt legislation that provides, among other things, that citizens be allowed to vote only in elections for Superintendents and Board of Education members who exercise jurisdiction and control over the school system that services the territory in which the voter resides,” states the resolution unanimously passed by the Board of Education Tuesday night.
The Pell City school district was established in 1982. The school district included a large area of southern St. Clair County that was not within the city limits of Pell City.
