As some schools reach capacity in one of Alabama’s fastest growing counties, the superintendent says the district has no choice but to rezone.

If the school board in Limestone County approves the rezoning plan, some students will find themselves attending new schools in the fall.

“It’s disheartening knowing that they’re just going to rip children away from things that they’ve known pretty much their entire lives,” parent Ashley Shaneyfelt told AL.com.

Under the district’s rezoning plan, Shaneyfelt’s children, who currently ride the bus to Creekside Elementary and East Limestone High School, would instead go to school at Tanner. They could remain at the schools on the east side of the county, if she’s able to drive them to school each day.

“Considering the fact that it’s going to be longer drives on the buses for the children, they’re going to be out longer,” she said. “It’s totally further away from our home facility.”

Superintendent Randy Shearouse said he understands parent concerns about the changes. He said the school system will continue addressing concerns, adjusting plans and plotting solutions ahead of the school board’s vote next month.

But he said the district must rezone to keep up with rapid growth across the county.

Speaking to a crowd of parents at a community meeting this week, Shearouse said the county has approved thousands of plots for home construction, most of which are in the East Limestone area. He said growth on that side of the county has left Creekside Primary and Creekside Elementary at capacity.

“We do need to move some students to make plans for new homes,” he said.

From January 2021 the county has approved about 2600 lots across the county, with most of those, about 2000, in East Limestone and over 400 in Tanner.

Board member Earl Glaze told AL.com that the district must move children.

“We as a board just have to do what’s best for not just one school but all the schools,” he said.

“We’re going to have to move some kids around in some form or fashion. What that is right now, I don’t know.”

The superintendent modified the plan after feedback from five meetings with parents across the district. He presented the redistricting proposal at a school board meeting last week.

The plan will kick off in August if the school board approves it at the March 12 meeting.

Four school zones will change based on the proposal.

1. Johnson Elementary School and Ardmore High School zone.

• Creekside students who live in the area from Barksdale to Copeland roads, and south of Highway 251 would move to Johnson.
• Contingent on parents providing transportation, students now in 3rd and 4th grade can remain at Creekside Elementary. Their younger siblings may remain at Creekside until the older siblings move to the 6th grade.
• Current East Limestone students living in the area can remain at East Limestone High School if their parents can provide transportation.

2. Elkmont Elementary School and Elkmont High Schools zone.

• New students living north of Highway 251 currently zoned for Johnson and Ardmore would go to Elkmont.
• Current students can stay in Johnson and Ardmore until they graduate if their parents can provide transportation.

3. Blue Springs Elementary and Clements High School zone.

• This area from Brownsferry Road up to the Athens City limits currently zones for Tanner. New students would go to Blue Springs Elementary and Clements High Schools.
• Current students can stay until they graduate if their parents provide transportation.

4. Tanner Elementary School and Tanner High School zone.

• The affected area is south of Huntsville-Brownsferry Road down to the Tennessee River.
• Students in this area currently attend Creekside, East Limestone, and Tanner.
• The Creekside students would go to Tanner.
• Contingent on parents providing transportation, current Creekside students moving on to 4th and 5th grade next session can remain. Younger siblings may also remain at Creekside until the 4th or 5th grader moves to 6th grade.
• Students going into 6th through 12th grade at East Limestone can continue until graduation if parents provide transportation.
• New students in the area would go to Tanner.

Speaking to the school board, some parents asked that the plan’s execution be delayed for one year.

Anton and Shannon Kochevar have special needs children at Creekside and believe moving to Elkmont would be disruptive.

“My special needs kids do not need to be used as a trial for the new services to find out what their new sensory room service or building is like,” Anton Kochevar said.

Shearouse said the district will decide on children in a similar situation based on their individualized education plan.

“Every special ed child has an IEP and so they look at the programs, they look at the students to make sure their needs are being met,” he said. “And so a lot of that will be taken care of at the school level when they have those meetings to make sure the needs of those special needs kids are taken care of.

“The IEP team ultimately makes that decision about special education children, and so the IEP team will make that decision of what’s best for the child.”

Parent Hayley King said she’s worried about losing her after-school childcare, a service that’s offered at Creekside.

“Not all parents have a support system to get their kids off the bus in the afternoon or be able to leave work early,” she told the school board. “I urge you to consider this factor and how parents and kids will be impacted by Johnson not offering any of the aftercare programs.”

Shearouse addressed the issue during his presentation.

“I know one of the things we talked about over at Johnson was child care,” Shearouse said. “The principal and I have talked about that. There’s opportunities for after-school care of course at Johnson. Johnson also could be eligible for a 21st century grant which would also allow some after-school care.”

Amy Bonville said she is worried about creating a new prom plan for her child at East Limestone.

“We bought class rings, we bought letterman jackets, we planned for the prom,” she said. “We’ve got a lot of things already planned out that if we do have to move schools, we will be behind on that.”

Heath Fogg threatens to pull his two elementary-grade children from the district if the planned changes progress. They now attend Creekside but may have to move to Tanner Elementary School based on the redistricting plans. He complained that going to the new school meant commuting significantly longer.

“Tanner is probably a great school, but it’s not our community, and we won’t be going to Tanner,” Hogg said during a meeting with the superintendent at Tanner.

“If the vote is yes, we’ll be annexing into Madison. We’re not going to spend any more Limestone County tax dollars for schools that our kids aren’t going to, basically,” Hogg said.

With the current plan, both Alison Jones’ 3rd grader at Creekside and her 8th grader at East Limestone would have to move to Johnson and Ardmore, if she could not transport them to school.

Jones, who is a real estate agent, told AL.com that people buy houses in East Limestone because of its central location, being a short drive to Madison, Huntsville, and Athens. She said that rezoning the school district could impact property values in the area if parents have to send their kids to schools further away.

“A large majority of the people in this area work in Huntsville, Redstone Arsenal, downtown Huntsville, NASA, places like that. So when they purchase their property here, they’re paying higher for it in this area, but it’s also because it’s conveniently located.”

“So, it’s going to have a huge effect, I think, on property value and for the ability for people to sell their house.”