By Crystal McGough, Editor
TRUSSVILLE – Trussville City Schools Superintendent Dr. Patrick Martin gave his State of the Schools Address, the first of its kind for Trussville, at the Trussville Area Chamber of Commerce luncheon on Thursday, Jan. 18, 2024.
Martin’s address consisted of two main parts, the first looking back upon the school system’s recent accomplishments with the 2024 Annual Report, and the second looking forward to the growth of Trussville City Schools.
“This is a time for us to share our celebrations as a school system, but also what our needs are in order to stay one of the top school systems in the state of Alabama,” Martin said in a previous interview with The Tribune. “We have a lot to be proud of.”
During his address, Martin said one thing the school system is proud of is how it pursues excellence in the areas of arts, atheltics and academics.
“Today, we had a chance to experience a little bit in each one of those areas,” he said, as he introduced Mark Knauss, the new band director at HTHS. “Prior to us having lunch, we were serenaded by the smooth sounds of our Jazz Combo Band.”
Next, Martin recognized HTHS Choir Director Allen Gillespie for his accomplishments, both recent and throughout his past 50 years as an educator.
“This was a little bit of a surprise for me; I was hoping that Allen Gillespie would be up north with the high school chamber choir,” he said. “The Alabama Music Educator’s Association has their annual conference and two choirs across the entire state from high schools and middle schools were asked to come join them at the conference and perform. Our Hewitt-Trussville High School Chamber Choir was one of those two. Because of the weather, they had to cancel the conference.”
In the area of athletics, Martin recognized HTHS Head Football Coach Josh Floyd, who was recently named Alabama Football Coaches Association’s 7A Coach of the Year.
“Coach Floyd did something this season that no coach has done since 1996, and that was get us to the state semi-finals,” Martin said. “Because of that, the Alabama Football Coaches Association named him our 7A Coach of the Year.”
Martin also recognized the high school’s varsity softball team, under the leadership of Head Coach Taylor Burt, for not only winning three of the last four state championships, but also being chosen for the Nike Elite Program.
“Hewitt-Trussville Athletics is not just having excellent performance at the state level; this slide shows we are also doing it on a national level,” he said. “I give a lot of credit for this to both our Coach Taylor Burt of our softball program, as well as our athletic director Lance Walker.
“Hewitt-Trussville Softball was asked to be a Nike Elite member, of which only 12 Nike Elite systems are across the United States, and you can see, we are the second smallest high school on this list. You can see from Oklahoma to California, Texas – this is a really big deal for our softball program and it’s a point of pride that across the entire country, there are only 12 systems that are given this designation. Here in the state of Alabama, there is only one other program for all sports that has this designation and that’s Mountain Brook basketball. I think that’s a credit both to Lance Walker, our athletic director, as well as (Coach) Taylor Burt for the great things that she has done with our softball program.”
Additionally, Martin said that the city and school system will hopefully be breaking ground in March on a new softball complex.
“I feel that this will be one of the top softball complexes in the state for high school sports,” he said.
Academically, Martin shared graphics showing that not only was Trussville City Schools one of 12 school districts statewide to earn all A’s on the Alabama School Report Card, but Cahaba Elementary was named the ninth best elementary school in the state of Alabama by U.S. News and World Report, with Magnolia Elementary being named 14th and Paine placing 17th.
He also pointed out stats such as Hewitt-Trussville Middle School being given the designation of an A+ School of Excellence for the second consecutive year, and Hewitt-Trussville High School being named the 12th best high school by U.S. News and World Report in the state of Alabama.
Additionally, Martin said the high school has seen an increase in students participating in AP courses and taking AP exams, with 74% of test takers averaging a 3.2 on their exams.
“We want to put our students in a position to be competitive when they go on to college, when they go on to careers; we want to build a very firm foundation for them,” he said. “Our ACT scores are trending upwards from a 20.1, in 2021, to a 21.2, in 2022, to a 21.3, in 2023. The reason I think this is significant is if you stop and you think about the world that we were living in these last three years, and what we’ve seen from the media in terms of how students may be behind because of some of the social challenges that we had. In Trussville, we continue to trend upward.”
Moving into the second purpose of the State of the Schools Address, Martin asked members of the community, “What will the next chapter of Trussville City Schools look like?”
“I completely understand the gravity of what I’m going to ask the community of Trussville,” he prefaced. “I appreciate that and I respect it and I understand it . With that said, I can tell you, as a superintendent who hasn’t even been here a year, I don’t want to be in a position of coming to you and asking you what I’m going to ask you. Please understand that … I can assure you that no superintendent wants to come in immediately and make significant changes, but after the Board of Education and myself hired a demographer back in September … that’s the position that I’m placed in. And if we’re going to do what’s right for students, I feel like this is the direction that we need to go.”
Martin explained to those at the Chamber luncheon that the school system was in significant need of pursuing three expansion projects: a new elementary school, a new and larger cafeteria – in addition to other rennovations – at the middle school, and the addition of C-Wing at the high school.
“In the fall of 2016, two new elementary schools (Magnolia and Cahaba) were opened and you can see we had just over 4,500 students back in the fall of 2016,” he said. “Since that time, we have now increased another 500 students. This is what we want, correct? Individuals think so highly of Trussville, they want to move their families here. … But still, it creates an issue in terms of those spaces and those places to accommodate those students.
“The city council had the foresight to know that this growth was coming, to know that individuals would want to move to this community, and so as you’re all aware, we have the 2040 Plan, and as part of the 2040 Plan, it discusses that it’s the responsibility of the community of Trussville, that as more students and more families move to this community, that there will need to be infrastructure changes to accomodate that growth.”
As a solution to this problem, which Martin says is a good problem for Trussville to have, he recommended a 12.9 millage increase to try to bring Trussville City Schools in range with other competitive school systems in Alabama, primarily to fund growth and expansion projects in the schools.
Currently, the millage rate in Trussville is 62.1, which puts Trussville between Bessemer (68.7) and Hueytown and Gardendale (both 60.1). In comparison, Mountain Brook’s millage rate is 109, Vestavia Hills is 92.6, Homewood is 75 and Hoover is 72.6.
A 12.9 mil increase would bring Trussville to an even 75, the same as Homewood.
“It’s still far below some systems but puts us probably in the area of the systems that we want to compete with,” Martin said to The Tribune. “When you look at ad valorem, those systems who we want to be compared with, the ones that are the top performing systems in the state, that just shows the revenue that they’re able to draw from compared to ours. The Vestavia system, not only are they pulling 92 mil compared to our 62, but what a mil generates in Trussville is about $500,000, and what a mil generates in Vestavia is about $900,000. So not only are they generating about 30 more mill, but what a mil is able to generate is greater by almost (double) … we’re almost half of what a mil in Vestavia generates.”
According to the chart, 12.9 mil is equivalent to $129 per $100,000 of Home Value (Assessment). For a home valued at $100,000, that would be +$129/annum or $2.48 per week. For a home valued at $300,000, it would be +$387/annum or $7.44 per week. A home valued at $500,000 would have an increase of +$645/annum or $12.40 per week.
Martin said 100% of funds generated by this millage increase will go directly toward one of three projects that line up with the city’s 2040 Plan, the first of which is the proposed new elementary school at Glendale Farms.
“The numbers state what the 2040 Plan stated, which was there will be a need for a new elementary school,” Martin said to The Tribune. “When you look at the best elementary schools in the state (according to Niche and U.S. News & World Report) … you’ll see Paine Elementary School, by far and away, is the largest elementary school in the state. It’s pushing 1,400 students. So, when you look at the top performing elementary schools in the state, there are no (other) schools that go over 1,000.
“I think the 2040 Plan states that Paine should never be over 1,200 students (current enrollment is 1,339),” he added. “That was a goal that the city put for Paine, so by building another elementary school, we bring that number back down close to what that expectation was under the 2040 Plan.”
The second project Martin mentioned is a new 15,000 square-foot cafeteria at the middle school, as well as a new competition gym and renovations of the old cafeteria to make special education classrooms.
“For the middle school, we’re just under 90% capacity,” Martin said. “I went and met with every PTO when I first took this position, and I could barely get through my middle school presentation before the hands of those mothers and fathers went up (asking), ‘What are you going to do about the kitchen cafeteria over there?’ … Our kitchen cafeteria space … is not big enough to accomodate even half of the students. Over half of the students are having lunch in their classrooms. … We can do better, Trussville.”
Martin proposed to use the auxiliary gym and the old band room to create a 15,000 square-foot cafeteria that’s more suitable for the HTMS student body. He also said TCS would like to create a new competition gym, and then plan to use the current middle school kitchen and cafeteria area for special education classrooms.
“Our special education classrooms are just regular classrooms that have been made into special needs spaces for our students who are self-contained and have our most significant need,” Martin told The Tribune. “We need to create a more suitable space for those students and doing this would allow us to do that.”
The final project the mill increase would fund is the much-anticipated C-Wing at the high school.
“We are currently at 106% capacity in terms of our high school,” Martin said. “Even with C-Wing, and 22 (additional) classrooms, four of which would be science labs, we would still be just under 80% in terms of our capacity at the high school. This has been talked about for a long time. This has been pointed out in the city’s 2040 Plan, but in my mind, basically what this is, it turns the high school from an F to an E. … Essentially what it does is it gives you that third wing off the back of the building and moves our capacity from over 100% down to under 80%.”
Martin said, as a person who keeps up with politics and the economy, he understands now is not an ideal time to be suggesting a tax increase. However, looking at the numbers, he anticipates that cost of these projects will continue to raise the longer Trussville waits to begin.
“In 2023, we are hoping to be between $400-450 per square foot,” Martin said. “In talking with individuals in the field, in talking with our design teams, we don’t see that number coming down. If anything, that number is going to continue to climb. And so, when I asked the question before, is now the right time, in terms of where the economy is, in terms of where we stand currently, the answer to that is no. But if we keep waiting, the chances are very good that that cost is just going to continue to climb and what could be a $40 million elementary school could be $60 or $70 million. And so what I’m proposing to the community, with the support of our Board of Education and our city council, is a 12.9 mil increase.”
Watch Dr. Martin’s entire State of the Schools Address here.