WE WON!!!!!!

We are back to Riverchase Elementary, Berry Middle and Spain Park High!!!
Huge thank yous to everyone who took the time to fill out the surveys, email, call and attend meetings to make this happen.
Special thank you to Becky Patterson, Ashley Bates and Chris Hamer!!!!

Chace Lake is an amazing community!

Community Meeting!

Please attend!
Tuesday, Feb 23
6:00 pm
Spain Park High School

Feb 12 informational letter

Below is a copy of the letter that was in your mailboxes today. Please take time to fill out all the surveys. The City of Hoover and the School Board are aware of us and are listening. 

Dear Chace Lake Neighbor:

As you may already be aware, our neighborhood is slated to be rezoned to completely different schools, which is proposed to become effective at the start of the 2016-2017 school year. This means our neighborhood students are potentially faced with attending all new schools for K-12. Our current zoning is for Riverchase Elementary (right out our back door), Berry Middle School, and Spain Park High School. The new zoning would send our elementary students to Trace Crossings Elementary (by the Hoover Met), Simmons Middle School and Hoover High School.

There has been an ongoing discussion with many of the Chace Lake residents, and the general consensus is that this change is not in the best interest of our children or the neighborhood. We feel as though our community is in a unique position, as we are one of the few, if not only, neighborhoods that facing a comprehensive rezoning of our current schools. A list of identified issues/concerns that have been raised by neighbors are included on the second page of this letter. We are asking for your support as a resident of this community, whether or not you have children enrolled in the system. We need the City Council and School Board to know that the children in our community are important to us and that we will stand behind them in this. So how can you help? 

1.      Neighborhood Survey.  We are asking you to fill out a survey in order for us to give the school board some quantifiable date regarding the impact of the plan on our neighborhood. Please fill it out or complete online. It is critical that we obtain as many responses as possible, so we can provide accurate data to the city. The survey requests information from families who do not yet have children in the school system and from those homeowners who may be retired or past the child rearing days. This will help us give the school board a complete look at our neighborhood, how it impacts this plan and how the plan impacts our residents. The survey may be completed online at:  https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SQYFK2F, or you can fill out the printed copy and return to by placing in the mailbox of one of the addresses below. It is a short nine (9) question survey and should take no more than 5 minutes of your time, but could have a huge impact! We need them completed and returned by Sunday, February 14^th. Only ONE per household needs to be completed. Please return completed surveys to: 1843 Chace Drive or 1933 Cahaba Cove.

2.      Hoover City Survey. We are asking you to complete the Hoover Rezoning Survey with your disapproval of the current proposal for Chace Lake, in addition to the survey above. This is a separate survey conducted by the City. Survey can be found at:  Hoovercityschools.net, Choose “Rezoning” from menu. Choose survey/feedback from second menu (left side of screen). If so inclined, you can also send an email to Rezoning@hoover.k12.al.us  to provide written feedback.

3.      Meeting Attendance. Finally, we ask that you make every effort for you and your families to attend the upcoming meetings to show support. There will be a meeting Tuesday, February 16th at 6:00 pm at Hunter Street and Tuesday, February 23^rd at 6:00 pm at Spain Park High School. Even if only one person can make it or you don’t have kids in the school system, we need you there. You do not have to say anything but a strong community presence is important to our success. Thank you so much for your time and efforts. Every effort counts in this!

Identified issues/concerns from the neighborhood meeting held on February 9^th:

Geographic location (community): This new zoning takes our children out of the geographic community in which they live. Most of us shop, play, attend church and eat in the areas surrounding our subdivision (because our location is so convenient and awesome!). The rezoning measures seek to develop community schools and contiguous zoning boundaries and in our case it does the exact opposite. Our students and parents will have to leave ALL of the schools in which they have formed friendships, a sense of belonging, and who they run into in our daily lives because we are all in the same community.

Our Student Impact: We believe that our student impact on Trace Crossings elementary school (they are trying to fill it up) is negligible and the overall negative impact to our students and families over switching outweighs the little contribution our neighborhood provides. Additionally, once those students leave elementary they will move into middle and high schools that are facing maximum capacity issues, there is no reason for us to further add to it. We have asked you to fill out a survey in order for us to give the school board an exact number for this. Please fill it out. We need complete and exact data for it to be used.

Bussing/Commute: Under the proposed plan the city would have to add an additional bus route to our neighborhood to serve the elementary students that is currently does not have to service. In addition, any parents who prefer to take their children to school face a commute of 20 minutes (per parents who have already driven it) as opposed to 5 minutes. This also affects the morning commute of those parents who choose to take their children to school on their way into work. Mileage wise, this is a 600% increase!

Longevity: Because of the geographic location of our neighborhood (more eastern in the city), we could face another rezoning in the upcoming years as current and future development are completed and come online. Currently there are 499 lots scheduled for development in Trace Crossings and an additional 50 in the Magnolia Grove subdivision currently zoned for Trace Crossings. We feel as though any impact our students will have on the Trace Crossing’s numbers will soon be even further diminished as those developments progress in completion. Simmons middle faces a 23% increase in students and Hoover high will be at 91% capacity after the rezoning. It will only be a matter of time before they will need to rezone and our neighborhood sits in the most logical place to be sent back to the eastern side where there is little room for future development.

February 9 Meeting

We had a very impressive turnout Tuesday night. It was very encouraging to see 50-60 of us there to support our community and our schools

That was one of the key points brought up, that in our efforts to stay in the current zone area, we need to focus on the children who will be affected and the community that will be split up.

It was emphasized that we do need to try to keep emotions out of our arguments and just stick to facts.

With that in mind,  a group is currently working on a survey that will give specific facts and data to the superintendent and board

We will be placing the information on the blog and will be passing out hard copies to the neighborhood.

Please reach out to your neighbors. If we can show that the whole neighborhood is behind this, we have a greater chance of fighting the rezoning proposal and keeping our kids where they are.

If you have not yet emailed or filled out the survey, please do so ASAP. 

A few things to think about:

Traffic Issues:
Bussing costs, Time to Trace Crossings could be 20 minutes one way, depending on traffic,
New neighborhoods growing in that area, new Hoover sports complex, will only increase traffic.
Our little kids as well, imagine them on the busy Chace Drive or Riverview waiting on a bus with the kind of traffic that goes through our neighborhood

Apartment Issues: They are a part of our community too. We cannot play the "us vs them". Their kids have every right to a great education and a community as we do.

Future Growth: There are plans for several new neighborhoods and additions to existing neighborhoods in the Hoover area. Will we then be rezoned again as TC, Simmons and HHS reach capacity?

Please contact school board members, city council members. We need to make as much positive noise as we can before the Feb 23 meeting at Spain Park High School

Tuesday, February 9 meeting

Ok neighbors

For those interested in coming Tuesday night..  The time is from 6 to 7.  I think Mr Murphy, the school board president, is coming, at 7.  We figured an hour would give us time as a community to talk and come up with a plan before he gets there.  Also, for those that are writing letters, please be positive and don't say anything ugly or negative about other schools, people, etc.  I have talked to several teachers and ppl that know Dr Murphy (superintendent) and they say she is very reasonable, but doesn't tolerate any negativity.

Park on the 5th level of the south parking deck (one to the Right when you are looking at Von Maur) at the Galleria.  Enter through the main entrance of the Galleria Tower.  There will be a security guard at the front desk who will direct you to the 5th level.  There will be some chairs set up, but may not be enough for everybody.  Feel free to bring folding chairs or a blanket to sit on.  Might want to bring something to entertain the kids as well.  There will be a teenage girl there to help watch the kids, but if you want her to watch yours, please bring $5 to pay her.  Please let us know if you plan to bring your kids and how many will be coming.

Hope we have a good turnout and we can stay where we are at!

Megan Switzer

Chace Lake Rezoning Issues

Hoover City Schools Rezoning Proposal

The city of Hoover is planning a rezoning of the school system.

Currently we are zoned for Spain Park. This means Riverchase Elementary, Berry Middle and Spain Park High.

If this rezoning goes into effect, Chace Lake will now be zoned for Trace Crossings Elementary, Simmons Middle and Hoover High.

Whether or not you have children who will be affected, this will affect home values.

Please take time to email: rezoning@hoover.k12.al.us

And complete the survey on the Hoover Schools website ( I created a shorter link, but this is to their survey)

http://goo.gl/UKx9aE

Thank you

Gwen Acree