Baldwin County School System honors legislative delegation

Posted

ROBERTSDALE, Alabama — Last week, the Baldwin County Public School System honored the Baldwin County Legislative Delegation for its help and support of the school system.

Superintendent Eddie Tyler said he was thankful for the partnership with the delegation.

“We are hopeful this is a partnership that will continue to grow and thrive,” Tyler said. “We all have the same goal in mind, which is making sure the children of Baldwin County continue to get an excellent education.”

Rep. Harry Shiver (R – Bay Minette) and Sen. Chris Elliott (R – Daphne) were on hand at the event to give updates from their respective houses of the Legislature.

Shiver said the House was due to take up several bills of interest to the school system, including a possible one-time bonus for retired teachers.

“We’re going to do what we can there,” Shiver said. “We wish it could be more, but it seems like all the money that’s coming in is already spoken for.”

Elliott said Baldwin County’s growth is something both the school system and county have to plan for and deal with, which is why he has introduced two bills dealing with Baldwin County’s schools.

“Census numbers released recently had us growing 5,400 people last year,” Elliott said. “It is not just the volume of growth that concerns me, but the rate as well. As the rate continues to increase every year, that’s where we have serious challenges and have to make sure we’re planning for that growth.”

With SB 250, Elliott said he sought to allow planning commissions to consider school capacity issues as a factor when those bodies are tasked to approve subdivisions and projects of over 100 lots.

“Currently, that’s not something commissioners have the ability to consider,” Elliott said. “You can look at what we do with our sewers, with whether or not there is power or road capacity, but you can not look at school capacity issues currently.”

Another bill Elliott said he hoped to introduce this week would require a majority vote of city residents in a special election before a city school system could be formed.