Tuesday, April 08, 2008
By JOSH BEAN
Staff Reporter
More than a year after voters in Gulf Shores and Orange Beach turned aside efforts to create a new school system there, the appointed school boards in the two cities remain intact yet inactive.
For now.
The Baldwin County Board of Education wants the city boards to be abolished, but the cities remain unsure about the legal fallout of such a move. The crucial question: Could the beach cities restart the school boards in the future if they're dissolved now?
Attorneys for the two sides -- Mobile's Matt McDonald, representing the county board, and Birmingham's Carl Johnson, representing the beach cities' boards -- agree that nothing in state law prohibits a city school board from forming, disbanding and restarting.
In fact, Johnson cited the 1985 Marshall County Board of Education v. City of Albertville case, in which the state Supreme Court affirmed Albertville's right to re-form its city school board. Albertville had a city system before 1945, when it consolidated with the county system until it wanted to break away in 1985, according to the court ruling.
Based on such legal opinions, why would the beach cities be wary of eliminating their school boards? Orange Beach Mayor Pete Blalock and Gulf Shores Mayor G.W. "Billy" Duke said the cities need assurance -- most likely a formal agreement -- that the county board would not oppose reviving the city boards in the future.
The one-sided nature of the March 2007 referendum votes indicated that there's little public support for the city school boards. About 70 percent of voters opposed higher taxes to support a breakaway school system.
Still, the mayors said that local voters might favor independent city schools in the years ahead.
Click here to read the full article from the Mobile Press-Register.
