No it will always be an appointed board, controlled by the city council.

Looks like the county needs new schools too, so it looks like the county taxes are going to go up, plus if this thing passes we are going to get hit with a double property tax.

Does it have anything to do with recent school board meetings that OB was left out of? Something to do with a new school in Gulf Shores?

BTW, auto correct suggestions for OB were our Muslim in Chiefs first name. It's no longer in my phone

I wouldn't like that. I believe the board needs to be elected.

I don't live in OB so my opinion doesn't really matter but this is the way I see it. Splitting off and starting your own is not the solution. As Fur pointed out, there will be new administrators and new support staff that have nothing to do with actually teaching kids. This is a waste of money. Our schools are already overloaded with administrators. You mentioned that a half cent sales tax increase would be levied to pay for it. I think a better solution is to fix the issues with the current schools whatever they may be without splitting off and creating more waste. You're creating more administrative positions that aren't fruitful and you're levying a tax on your citizens that is already one of the highest in the state. I am never in favor of bigger or more bureaucratic bodies. Let's start holding the ones that exist more accountable for doing things right and quit creating more.

There is no way to hold them accountable any more except by essentially taking their money away by cutting off the tax base and starting your own system. That is what these cities are doing. They are essentially saying they are tired of you taking our money and misusing it and we can do a better job by keeping that tax money local. More communities should do that.

My $.02:

It will probably make for a better schools just by the huge amount of money they will have coming in. Like others said, I imagine OBA is probably paying a disproportionate amount towards the other county schools, even though none of them are hurting like ours in the Blackbelt are. The fact that their piece of the pie (in fact they will get the whole pie) will increase will far exceed any administrative costs.

I have seen a local school board go from appointed to elected. I liked the appointed one better, but that was just because of our voters. There are too many wannabe politicians looking out for themselves on the elected board. It is too easy for idiots to get elected by idiot voters. With a good sound voter base, like I would hope is in OBA, I would support an elected board beholden to the electorate instead of a council.

To sum up my opinion, which obviously means nothing, I think it is a good move for OBA, but I would rather have an elected board, unless I completely trusted my council.

This is a particular pet peeve of mine. I understand the want (need) to split off from the county system and found your own. Saraland and Satsuma (my son is in school there) are good examples BUT.....

It is a PUBLICLY FUNDED RESOURCE. I understand how they do but SHOULD Hoover, Mtn Brook, etc have 10x the facilities and resources that an inner city Bham school does? What if streets, police protection, fire protection, etc was doled out by who was in a better neighborhood and payed more in taxes recieved disprapporionate PUBLIC services?

The problem in Mobile County was REPRESENTATION (the lack of it). SMe problem they have with the county commisssion (3 members TOTAL). The representative for Saraland, Satsuma, Creola, and Citronelle was a black lady from Prichard who's ONLY interest was Blount and Vigor. She probably had never BEEN to some of the schools she represented on the school board. It needed 3X as many members to avoid the cronyism and neglect that went on. I'll quit now while my blood pressure is manageable.

Again I don't blame ANY of these schools for what they did (or want to do) in leaving, BUT doling out PUBLIC SERVICE'S based on who's better able to pay is freaking unAmerican in the very least and borderline criminal in my opinion. RD out

She got real interested in the north Mobile schools once Saraland looked into breaking away. The Mobile County School Board marched her into Saraland city council meetings to play the race card saying they only wanted to break away because of racism. I'd have wrote a check for the Mayor's reelection campaign if he would have told her they were there for serious discussion, then had her escorted out of the building.
The Mobile County school board needing breaking up. It had gotten too big and like you said, the people weren't represented. Satsuma and Chickasaw broke away shortly thereafter, and I've heard that Semmes is likely to in the near future as well. Hopefully, the school system will take this correction constructively and try to do a better job now that they have competition.

UnAmerican? I would say it is the exact example of American ideals. The way you are describing it is a socialist system where everyone gets the same weak underfunded schools no matter how much they pay.

Wow. I'd be interested in seeing how that is working 10 years from now.

I don't think you followed my train of thought (which may have derailed I admit).

You pay the same income tax as someone else in your neighborhood who has a similar job.

You pay the same sales tax as others in your community.

Should there be mail service 6 days a week in the nicer metro areas and 3 in the ghetto or the out of police jurisdiction outskirts of the county?

Should the. Sherriff's Dept respond to calls faster in different places?

Should they send better trucks and better trained firemen ONLY to the richer neighborhoods?

Should they only pave and keep up the streets based on the incomes of who lives where?



I DONT THINK SO! Those things are PUBLIC, funded with ALL of our money's. If you want to build a nicer school in Fairhope than I have in Bay Minette, help yourself. Start a privately funded Academy and build HARVARD frigging University if you can pay for it.

PUBLICLY FUNDED SERVICES should be doled out equally to ALL Americans. Not just the ones who make more $. What has happened in Birmingham to public schools is a crime in my book. Are some of the schools in the inner city mismanaged and wasteful with some of the funding they get? I wouldn't doubt it.

Mobile County HAD a pretty good system for the way it was funded. It was just wildly under and mis-represented (see my above post). Had Satsuma, Creola, Citronelle, and Chickasaw had their OWN School Board Members the breakaway might not have been necessary. I hate it happened and I hate to see what happened happen to Baldwin County's schools.

What happens when a school underperforms? The people who can, MOVE! When they move, it's not the poorest who do. It's the better able (financially) that do. This further reduces the tax base and exacerbates the problem.

What happens next? MORE people move. White Flight, it has been called. But the more prosperous of any race will move to get their kids in better schools. Then you have. Birmingham. How many people who make more than $100k and have school age children live in the Birmingham City Limits?

VERY VERY few. They're all in Hoover, Mtn. Brook, etc. Why? Schools are a BIG reason.

This problem feeds on itself. Yes, Mobile had Prichard, BUT Blount and Vigor (predominantly urban poor schools) had two of the newest buildings.

Citronelle, Baker, Murphy, Satsuma, Blount, BC Rain, Theodore, and Alma Bryant all pulled from the same pot and were overseen by the same people. They SHOULD have been treated equally but they weren't. The neighborhoods around MOST of these schools was still decent. The same can't be said for many inner city systems (Memphis for example, since I've worn out B'ham) who have had the better suburban areas break away.

Do I believe in Socialism? No, but I believe PUBLICLY FUNDED resources should be available to ALL, equally. We all pay.