From statewide legislation to how schools have dealt with growth, each school system in Baldwin County saw big storylines in 2025.
Remember back in February when Silverhill Elementary School …
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From statewide legislation to how schools have dealt with growth, each school system in Baldwin County saw big storylines in 2025.
Remember back in February when Silverhill Elementary School held its ribbon cutting? Or in March when the city school systems partnered to push for legislation to receive a portion of countywide sales tax? Do you remember when Gov. Kay Ivey approved the school cellphone ban in May? How about the September presentations on school growth or the county school rezoning meetings in November?
In case you missed some of these stories, here's what happened in education for Baldwin County this year.
In March, Gulf Shores City Schools (GSCS) and Orange Beach City Schools (OBCS) called for legislation to change the distribution of the county's 1-cent sales tax, which currently goes to the Baldwin County Board of Education (BCBE) among other organizations within the county.
The city schools pushed for four companion bills introduced by state Sen. Chris Elliot, R-Daphne and Rep. Frances Holk-Jones, R-Foley.
Gulf Shores Board of Education President Kevin Corcoran previously told GCM cities could be getting anywhere from $3 to $5 million of the $28 million generated from this tax, depending on how the taxes were distributed.
In April, an additional State Senate Bill, which would distribute taxes based on enrollment at each school system within a county, had its first reading.
After continued discussion between county and city school representatives, Sen. Linda Coleman-Madison, D-Birmingham, said at a meeting of the Alabama Senate County and Municipal Government Committee, the situation should be handled locally as the issues only pertained to the people of Baldwin County.
"You know, they say when elephants fight, the only thing that gets hurt is the grass," she said. "… I really hope, again, that you can all work this out."
In a September BCBE meeting, Geographical Information Systems (GIS) manager and geographer for Baldwin County Public Schools (BCPS) Michael Malm presented data he has collected from municipalities to determine where future schools should be built based on student population and growth.
According to his data, 315 subdivisions are currently under construction — from those just having dirt moved around to those going vertical – which are set to add about 17,000 additional students to BCPS in the next five to 10 years.
The cities with the largest estimated increase in student population are Spanish Fort, Foley and Fairhope with estimates of an additional 9,800, 2,612 and 1,114 students, respectively.
The next largest projections were Robertsdale with 785 additional students, Elberta with 720, Daphne with 716 and Bay Minette with 247.
Malm said at the beginning of his presentation "there's a little bit everywhere" when it comes to growth in the county. He said he is actively looking into growth and will continue to work with the board on next steps.
One solution to balance student populations was first presented to the public in November, when BCBE held three public input meetings on projected redistricting in Summerdale School zone, Robertsdale feeder pattern and Daphne feeder pattern.
The Summerdale School rezoning mostly removes the Marlow community, which spans approximately between County Road 55 and County Road 9 just west of the school. Around 120 students would be rezoned under the projections.
The Robertsdale feeder pattern is set to lose a little more than 200 students moving from the northwest corner of the Robertsdale district, between County Road 71 and County Road 55, to Loxley Elementary. A few neighborhoods along the west side of the district, which runs along Hwy. 59 between Hwy. 104 and 90, will be moved to Silverhill Elementary.
For the Daphne feeder pattern, the proposed redistricting is set to distribute students more evenly within the zone. This redistricting also accounts for the new Jubilee Elementary, projected to open by fall semester, and W. J. Carroll Intermediate (K-8) changing to W. J. Carroll Middle School.
Projected boundary lines showing who's affected and where students would be relocated to can be found at www.bcbe.org/departments/communications/redistricting.
Officials at the redistricting meetings encouraged the public to attend BCBE meetings to voice their thoughts or concerns on the rezoning. The next meeting will be Jan. 15 at 5:30 p.m. at 2600 North Hand Ave. For case-specific questions, officials recommended reaching out to principals and requesting zone variances.
"A lot of children aren't going to be starting the school year with their friends," BCPS Superintendent Eddie Tyler said at the Daphne zoning meeting. "I wish we could do something about that for each one of them if we can, but grandfathering at the elementary level is not something that's done."
Officials said the final proposal is set to go before the board at the end of January.
In May, Gov. Kay Ivey signed the FOCUS Act into law, creating legislation prohibiting student use of communication devices in Alabama public schools.
Under the new legislation, BCPS students must leave their devices in the car or in a Yondr pouch, which magnetically seals and is to be stored — silenced and untouched — in students' backpacks. Devices are not allowed to be used on buses.
OBCS developed a cellphone policy focused on general prohibition, storage requirements, permitted exceptions and searches. Students are required to store their devices away and power them off while on campus.
GSCS had existing policies on device-use in place at the middle school that were like the state law and saw little changes with the act. The high school received new policies requiring students to store away and silence their devices during instructional hours.
In November, GSCS spoke with GCM on how the new rules looked at each school. Both the middle school and the high school reported relatively low numbers of incident reports for the first semester with the law in place.
Gulf Shores Middle School had 27 violations of the FOCUS policy and Gulf Shores High School reported 94 incidents. The middle school has 635 students, and the high school has 896 students.
BCPS completed several projects and announced ongoing construction in 2025.
After a snowy delay from Winter Storm Enzo, Silverhill Elementary held its opening ceremony Feb. 5.
The upcoming elementary school in Daphne, Jubilee Elementary, is set to be completed by fall 2026. Construction on the Elberta Middle School is set to wrap up in the spring 2027.
BCPS saw the completion of several projects from a partially student-built outdoor classroom in Spanish Fort Elementary School to athletic facility upgrades in four schools. Upcoming projects include the Daphne High School Veterans Memorial, set to wrap up around May, and an Early Learning Academy in Silverhill.
South Baldwin Christian Academy's campus saw expansion with seven new classrooms, which were ceremoniously opened in September.
In October, Bayside Academy opened a new middle school building with flexible classrooms, integrated technology and open common areas serving as learning spaces.
