BY STEVEN STIEFEL
FOR THE OBSERVER
LEE COUNTY — At its November meeting, the Lee County Board of Education approved an option for realigning Smiths Station elementary schools to account for funding shortages blamed on dwindling enrollment over the past decade.
For the 2026 school year, the student population for the four Smiths Station Elementary schools is projected to be about 2,018 students. The funding for teacher units comes from state foundation or local funds. The funding for buildings comes from capital outlay funding, such as state issued funding or board-acquired bonds, and those funds cannot be used for salaries.
“State Foundation Units” are Alabama’s way of deciding how much money each school gets for instruction, grouping students into “units.” Basically, schools get more units if they have more students to help cover costs of classified staff in each of the schools.
Currently, the board is funding 76 local units, equivalent to $6.5 million above what the state funds provide for salaries. Next year, Smiths Station alone will have 49 locally funded units at $4.1 million. That amount will continue to increase as the population declines. Even after minimum cuts needed in Smiths Station, Lee County will still have 19 locally funded until beyond the 76 that are already locally funded, adding $1.6 million to the existing $6.5 million locally funded by the district.
Lee County currently funds 34.1 units above the State Foundation Units in four Smiths Station schools, but next year, it will actually be over 40.70 units above the State allocations — worse than the 30 units shared in Superintendent Mike Howard’s presentation from a work session before the previous school board meeting in October.
At that meeting, Howard reviewed several options, warning that most of them would violate laws to avoid discriminating against students in one school as compared to another. He cited deep cuts to arts and athletic programs required to make up for the deficiencies. “Option Six” was an alternative that eliminated doing this, but it requires parents to adjust their children to new campuses dedicated to specific grades (as opposed to offering various grades at multiple neighborhood schools).
“Rather than having four schools teaching a grade level, only one school would teach that grade level. This allows better alignment for resources, discipline and instruction,” Howard said.
Being cautious, the School Board was presented with an overage of 30 units and a proposed reduction of 21 units — representing cuts based upon certified units. If the numbers hold, the Board would already be operating at a 19 unit overage for the Smiths Station Elementary schools regardless of which option presented by the superintendent was chosen. These numbers did not include the overage amounts for Smith Stations’ junior high or high school, nor the overages in Loachapoka, Beulah and Beauregard schools.
The board-approved shift to “grade level schools” will consolidate resources to be most efficient, but it poses problems for families with children in different grades whose parents drive them to school rather than riding a school bus.
“The option of grade level schools creates more opportunities for consistency among grade levels and consistency among schools,” explained Howard. “Rather than having four schools teaching a grade level, only one school would teach that grade level. This allows better alignment for resources, discipline and instruction.”
Howard said back-to-school meetings prior to school starting will be crucial so that parents understand the new transportation routines.
“The students and parents will be provided information on drop-off/pick-up, bus information, etc. at these meetings. We are discussing color-coding the schools so students/parents/teachers/bus drivers can easily identify each student’s location,” Howard said.
“We believe the 45 minutes will give almost everyone ample time to drop off multiple grade level students before the tardy bell rings. I encourage them to be ready to drop the first student off at 7 a.m. so it’ll give them the most time to drop off the other students,” he said.
The “worst case scenario” was presented as a blended family with three children of different ages needing to attend different schools who refuse bus transportation. Travel times are estimated to be approximately 15-18 minutes apart.
“At this time, we do not believe a staggered start and stop time is necessary,” Howard said. “We believe we will start drop-off at 7 a.m., which gives a 45-minute buffer before school starts at 7:45 a.m. We will start pick-up at 3 p.m. For employees and substitute teachers assigned to one of the elementary schools, we will provide a designated bus that travels between campuses. Students associated with those employees will be transported on that bus.”
All Smiths Station elementary teachers are being provided with a Google form so they can select the school, grade and content area they prefer (greatest to least preferred). The principals will meet and discuss the forms to divide up the staff based on total units available at each location and by preference. In January/February, the teachers will be notified.
“The goal is to place everyone with their first or second choice, although this may not be possible based upon the volume of requests for a specific grade or location,” Howard said.
For more answers, see a presentation at www.docs.google.com/document/d/1v0I8me7GT7cHp1KS1mHxrlELIXwhtdJVP6ZY2Jat8-8/edit?pli=1&tab=t.0.
In other business, the Board:
• approved awarding bids for partial re-roofing of Wacoochee Elementary School and South Smiths Station Elementary School to Old South Construction for $290,000 and $242,000.
• received reports on monthly finances and cash reconciliation for the month of September, as well as seclusion and restraint monthly reports for October.
• authorized human resource recommendations.
• approved out-of-state and overnight field trips.
• approved reorganization of the Board with nominations for president and vice-president.
• approved revisions to Policy 7.15 for parent and family engagement.
