SPANISH FORT, Ala.—The Baldwin County  Board of Education at its Jan. 29 meeting unanimously voted to approve rezoning of Rockwell and Spanish Fort Elementary school districts, which will shuffle about 190 students from Rockwell to Spanish Fort Elementary.

The change will go into effect for the 2009-10 school year; current Rockwell fourth-graders will be grandfathered in so they won’t have to attend three different schools in three years. These students would go from Rockwell in fourth grade, to Spanish Fort Elementary in fifth grade and then attend Spanish Fort Middle for sixth grade.

The areas of Spanish Fort that will be affected by the rezoning include all roads that feed Stagecoach Road, which includes Sibley Creek and Buzbee roads; U.S. Highway 31 westward to the Spanish Fort school zone; and the  Wakefield and Wilson Heights neighborhoods.

About 60 parents attended a Jan. 20 community meeting to give rezoning input to the board before the vote.

Rockwell’s overcrowding and Spanish Fort Elementary’s empty classrooms are the the reasons behind the rezoning. Multiple neighborhoods and apartment complexes have been constructed within Rockwell’s school zone, which has caused the school to become overcrowded.

Spanish Fort Elementary has 10  to 15 empty classrooms, Assistant Superintendent JaNay Dawson has said.

Rockwell enrolls about 807 students, versus Spanish Fort Elementary’s 552. Rockwell was built to hold about 550 students, versus Spanish Fort Elementary’s 800 capacity, according to Dawson.

Spanish Fort Elementary did have sixth-graders at its school until Spanish Fort Middle School opened in August.

The board used geographic information systems technology to monitor and analyze growth patterns in Spanish Fort.

The data helps predict what residential housing will be like in Spanish Fort in years to come.

The data estimates that over the next five to 10 years more than 2,000 new residential housing units will be sold in Rockwell’s school zone, based on the current real estate market.

Many parents at the Jan. 20 meeting said they didn’t want their child to change schools because of the time and money they have invested in the school.

Other parents are still concerned why the TimberCreek neighborhood can’t be rezoned since there are about 172 Rockwell students who live there. About 187 Rockwell students live from Stagecoach Road westward to Walling Road, which is the area planned to be rezoned.

Many parents have  said they purchased their homes to be in Rockwell’s school zone; other parents wondered why the the school board can’t build another school in Spanish Fort.

Because of the ailing national economy, Dawson said it could  be three to five years before there is another large-school development in Baldwin County.

“The market may come back but we don’t anticipate that for several years,” Dawson has said. “We have to be diligent with our money.”

Dawson has said Rockwell Elementary is so overcrowded that all students and faculty can’t fit in the gym for an assembly; the cafeteria is too small for the amount of students; and the number of restrooms at the school is inadequate for more than 800 students.

The school also has 13 portables set us as classrooms, which the school board rents.

Portables cost between $450 and $600 a month to rent and provide utilities for. With 13 portables, the school board must pay between $5,850 and $7,800 per month just to rent portables at Rockwell.

Now, six to eight portables will be removed from Rockwell, Dawson said.