(FAIRHOPE, Ala.) July 9 - According to an independent Education Advisory Committee, schools in Fairhope are overcrowded and the committee is asking the City Council here to spend up to $750,000 to help hire 10 teachers to ease the class size issue.
The EAC was created by Fairhope's City Council with the goal to have the EAC work with the Baldwin County Board of Education to make Fairhope Schools as good as it could possibly make them. After touring each of the five area schools, interviewing teachers, principals, and students and studying data provided by the Board of Education, the committee decided it was time for the city to provide the funding.
Part of the findings show that over the past five years, Fairhope schools have lost up to 60 teaching units and student enrollment had increased by almost 6% during the same time frame. The City Council will take the recommendation under advisement. The Advisory Committee recommends the money be spent as soon as possible and that the Council help pay the salaries of the 10 new teachers for the upcoming school year which begins August 25th.
