To stay in compliance with Federal judge Madeline Haikala, Gardendale Board of Education member Karen White stepped down from her position on Tuesday night at a called meeting in city hall.

As ordered by Haikala on April 24, the vacated seat must be filled by an African-American resident of Gardendale. Applications will be accepted from May 17 at 8 a.m. until May 30 at 5 p.m. Applications can be picked up at Gardendale City Hall or dowloaded off the city’s website.

After announcing personnel changes at Tuesday night’s meeting, the Gardendale Board of Education opened up the floor to public comments. 19 people—some from Mt. Olive, some from North Smithfield and several from Gardendale—took turns speaking before the council and those in attendance for well over an hour.

Robbie Towns opened that portion of the meeting, pleading with city officials to continue Gardendale’s pursuit of forming its own K through 12 school system.

“We’re 3.5 million dollars into this fight. There’s no sense in pulling the plug now,” said Towns. “I get that we’re not not exactly sure how we might pay for these things. Everybody in here bought a house, but they didn’t write a check for it, they worked out payment plans.”

“We’re at a point of no return. If it don’t happen now, it will never happen,” he continued. “Y’all can’t name a city in Jefferson County you want to move to that doesn’t have its own school system. Gardendale’s a rare thing.”

“We have to take this to the end. Everybody’s given a fight in life, this is our fight.”

Patrice Brooks, a retired teacher (20 years at Gardendale Elementary School), then went to the podium.

“I have a husband and three children who have all graduated from Rocket Country and currently one of my four grand children is a little Rocket,” said Brooks.

“I know many families that have children in two separate systems next fall. We the stakeholders have a right to know the stakes. I feel it’s up to the board to bring explanation to us for this. That’s all I’m asking for.”

Stanley Stevenson, who moved to Gardendale in 2009, spoke about moving forward with Gardendale City Schools in the ‘right way.’

“I’m all for a new school system; I’m all for people being able to do what’s best for their kids but, at the same time, we need to do it the right way,” said Stevenson. “We start our city council meetings talking about God and with a devotional. Now we can’t do that and then turn around and try to figure out how to eliminate kids from our school system; that’s just nor right.”

“There’s some people that are scratching and clawing, trying to get their kids in a good school and we need to do everything we can to start the school system in the right way,” he continued.

Erik Harris is the Sports Editor of The North Jefferson News. Email him at njnsports@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter @jeharris2.