FAIRHOPE, Ala.—More than 200 people turned out on a rainy Monday night this week to get some answers about the formation of independent city school systems in Alabama and the possibility of Fairhope doing the same by splitting from Baldwin County Schools, as has been suggested by several local citizens.

“In Trussville, there was a real desire for local control,” said Dr. Suzanne Freeman, superintendent of that city school system which split from Jefferson County about six years ago. “We were really able to tailor it to the needs of our community.”

Freeman pointed to decreased class size and increased academic and extracurricular programs, as well as a more “personalized” local system as some of the positive results of a city splitting from the county.

The Nov. 15 forum, which lasted over two hours at the Fairhope Civic Center, was sponsored officially by the City Council, but most of the organizing for the meeting was handled by an entity called Fairhope Schools Good 2 Great, according to City Council President Lonnie Mixon.

Mixon said unequivocally that Monday’s meeting would be the last one sponsored by the city on the issue of forming an independent school system.

“None whatsoever,” he said regarding whether the city had any plans for future meetings.

Some media accounts on Tuesday indicated another meeting would occur next month, but Mixon said any such meeting would be the work of the private group.

Good 2 Great leaders Scott Thompson and Amy Thompson (not related) were the principal movers behind the forum, Mixon said.

That work involved promoting the forum through a Facebook page, selecting the panelists, organizing the submitted questions into categories, selecting the moderator, paying for the appearance of Dr. Ira Harvey (the educational consultant who conducted the $25,000 study for the city this year), as well as paying the travel expenses for Freeman, according to Mixon and those individuals. Harvey received a local bank check from Fairhope Schools Good 2 Great.

“For all of us who’ve spent the past several months frustrated, concerned and anxiously wondering what the future holds for our troubled schools – join our effort to take Fairhope Schools from Good to Great,” a statement on the group’s Facebook read Tuesday morning.

Some 60 questions were submitted in advance to a city e-mail address, which was forwarded to Scott Thompson who organized the questions into 22 question categories with a suggested panelist for each category. All the questions were submitted in advance to all the panelists, Amy Thompson said.

The forum was moderated by Dr. Phillip E. Norris, director of University of South Alabama Baldwin County, who said a condition of his moderating the forum was that he be allowed to determine the format and that all the original e-mailed questions be available to the public. In addition to the submitted questions from which Norris selected an hour’s worth, he also opened the floor to questions, which lasted just over an hour.

In addition to Freeman and Harvey, whose school studies have preceded the formation of separate systems in cities like Saraland, the panel included Dr. Craig Pouncey, assistant superintendent, Alabama State Department of Education, Bill Silver, school board president, Saraland City Schools, and Dr. Howard Rubenstein, president, Saraland City Council.

“One of the biggest things that gets you in trouble is you want to do so many things that you end up hiring more people than you can pay for,” Silver said.

Both Silver and Rubenstein spoke very positively about their experiences in creating and running a new city school system separate from Mobile County.

“We knew we needed a wonderful school board,” said Rubenstein as one of the elements in what he characterized as their successful city system.

Rubenstein said it was also important to seek the input of the citizenry in deciding to split from the county. Saraland did that by way of a referendum that stated a half-cent sales tax would also be passed to form the system. The referendum passed by 72 percent, he said.

A city need not go that route, however, and can form a city school board by a majority vote of the council instead. The board would then be independent of the city and could take whatever steps it wanted regarding the formation of a city system and what it would entail, Harvey said.

Harvey added that any tax increases, however, could only come from the taxing authority, such as the city of Fairhope, and not the board itself.

Amy Thompson said a meeting of their group and supporters is anticipated in the near future at which the public may be invited. A recent meeting of the group and its supporters at St. James Episcopal Church in Fairhope was not advertised in advance, she said.

“Fairhope (Schools) Good 2 Great is not organized with a board of directors, officers, etc.,” Scott Thompson stated in a Monday e-mail. “Amy and I are the ringleaders, I guess, but we have over 30 people that help us on a consistent basis (we don’t have membership).”

Last year, a group of about a dozen residents requested the council to appropriate funds for the study on the feasibility of creating a separate system in Fairhope.

The council approved $25,000 for the study in January, which was to be done in three to four months. The study, conducted by Harvey, was released at a public meeting in September.

Four of five council members were present at the forum. Mixon said he did not introduce the moderator as planned because of a minor illness he was suffering, and he asked believed Councilwoman Debbie Quinn was out of town.

The 167-page study, entitled “A Report on the Financial Feasibilty to Form an Independent City School System for the Municipaloty of Fairhope, Alabama,” is available for download on the city’s website.