A board of Tuscaloosa officials will take another month to look over plans for a private, 90-student "microschool" being proposed for a long-vacant property in the Alberta area, pumping the brakes on a proposal many residents are unhappy about.

On Monday night, representatives for Spark Learning, Inc., presented a proposal for the Primer Microschool to the city council's Zoning Board of Adjustment. It's a private K-8 school they want to develop at 3325 University Boulevard East in Alberta - the empty Jim Myers Walgreens drugstore.

The presentation was led by Stephen Bridgers, the general manager for Primer in Alabama, who said the company is already operating at microschools they've launched in Florida and Arizona.

The drugstore is currently zoned as General Commercial, a classification which would not allow a school there, and Bridgers was there to ask the board to make a special exception and allow Primer to set up shop and launch classes as soon as this August.

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The Proposal

Perhaps the biggest issue with the microschool proposal on Monday was how much it differs from the actual petition submitted to the board.

"The petitioner is requesting a special exception to operate a private K through 8 school and will initially serve 75 students and eventually house up to 180 students," their application said - but that has changed.

"We have made an internal decision and have not yet been able to communicate to the city," Bridgers said. "That 180-student number is something we have internally decided to cut in half to a 90-student cap."

The plans before the board also involved renovating both floors of the drugstore and creating six classrooms for Primer students, but Bridgers said they have made extensive alterations to their plans and have decided to only build classrooms on the first floor. That left the Board wondering how five full-time staff members can teach 90 children in three classrooms.

"Our model is we utilize our teachers and we utilize a lot of technology and we utilize virtual teachers who are stationed around the country to have our students in learning pods," Bridgers said. "They're moving around the classroom constantly."

He also walked back the 90-student number again, even though the application before the board would have OK'd 180 students.

"The 90 kids is a cap - frankly, we'll probably never get there, but that's where we set our cap," Bridgers said. "This first year, we'll probably be expecting 20 kids per classroom to 25. But we're able to move them around and educate them well."

Board member Joe Eatmon also noticed that the drugstore isn't exactly full of natural light.

"I've never really seen a classroom without windows, and I noticed that building does not have windows," Eatmon said.

"Well yeah, we will have windows in all classrooms," Bridgers said. "These aren't our final plans; this was kind of an initial thing to draw up for this purpose."

And to Bridgers' credit, the ZBA is only the first stop on the long process of getting city approval for the Primer microschool, and matters like window requirements could be hammered out later.

"The permitting process - the Fire department reviews those, Building reviews them, Planning reviews them," Planning director Zach Ponds explained in a conversation with board chair Michele Coley. "[The ZBA would only be approving] the use [as a school.] They would not be able to use it without extensive upgrades."

Even so, the board was not satisfied with how different his presentation was from the actual proposal they were considering.

Community Concerns

The proposal also brought out a fair share of community concerns from residents like Amanda Mulkey, who lives nearby in Druid Hills.

She and several others noted that the plans make no real change for ingress and egress onto the property, and having 90 students dropped off and picked up on University Boulevard twice a day is going to be a recipe for disaster.

"It is uphill, it is around a curve, and there is an obscured sightline right by that trailer park," Mulkey said.

Even more so, though, Mulkey pointed out to the Board what they were already hinting at - that it would be hard to get the proverbial genie back in the bottle after they approve an exception for the microschool.

"This is a really important issue to the people who live in that area on a lot of different levels. There are philosophical concerns, there are traffic concerns, there are health and safety concerns," Mulkey said. "What I would like to address is the petition that is before you is the petition that is before you. What you just heard from Mr. Bridgers is substantially different from this - it is like it is a completely different application. I haven't seen the new plans, no one in the public has seen the new plans - it's different enough that I don't think the board should really even consider this."

Poor Alternatives

In a few rebuttals, Bridgers was joined by property owner Josh Jarboe and attorney Charlie Beavers to push for the project and fast approval of the exception they are seeking.

"As a Tuscaloosa City Schools graduate of Central High Class of 2000, I am grateful to be bringing new educational opportunities here to the kids in Tuscaloosa. Our desire is to create a school that will serve students in the community," Bridgers said. "I know this building has been one - the city and the residents of the Alberta area have been wanting to make sure something is coming in there that's adding to the community. We think there's nothing better to add to the community than a school that can serve students.

Jarboe told the Board the building needs a tenant, and the school is not a bad option compared to other suitors.

"This many stood empty for many years before we bought the building and it's been empty for almost two years now with us," Jarboe said. "Everybody that's requested to use this building has been either for a hookah lounge, a liquor store or things like that. I feel like a school is much more appropriate for the community than a bar or liquor store."

Tabled Until May

Bridgers and Beavers asked the ZBA to fast-track approving the exception Monday night, even if it meant tacking on conditions like getting a satisfactory traffic study. They argued that if this microschool is going to get up and running, they need this permission to operate as soon as possible.

"We have some time constraints involved. In order to get children lined up and enrolled to open in August, they've had to go ahead and start reaching out to and soliciting students who might want to come. 27 families have already signed up to come," Beavers said. "They are going to have quite a bit of work to do to get permitting and do construction because I've been told the renovations are going to be quite extensive to make that building "right" on the first floor. So time is really important to be able to meet that."

That was not enough to sway the Board.

"I would like to see it written up as you have presented it, and I would like to see the traffic analysis before we approve it, Coley told the petitioner. "Once we say OK, everything is in motion. And if you don't do [what you've said you would,] it's on the city to come and check and make sure. If we ask for it in the beginning, you'll make it a priority."

The ZBA voted unanimously to continue the matter over to their next meeting, scheduled for May 28th, 2025.

For more coverage of the issue as it develops at City Hall, stay connected to the Tuscaloosa Thread.