This is the entire statement issued Monday night by the Gardendale Board of Education, regarding its stance on grandfathering in students from Mt. Olive and other areas outside the Gardendale city limits.

As the negotiations between the Jefferson County Board of Education and the new Gardendale City School System continue, the latter has set broken its silence to establish one very large point: it wants all students who are currently in the Gardendale High feeder pattern to continue in that path, whether they live within the city limits or not.

The Gardendale Board of Education issued a written statement on Monday, which was also read aloud by President Chris Segroves during their regular monthly meeting Monday night.

The statement, which is linked here as an image, states that the board supports the concept of grandfathering — allowing students from Mt. Olive and surrounding neighborhoods, who have traditionally attended Gardendale High and Bragg Middle schools for decades.

By law, the new city system’s boundaries are those of the city limits, and Gardendale is not obliged to seek those students from outside the system for grandfathering. The issue was a hot point in the referendum to levy a property tax to help pay for the new system, with a number of Mt. Olive residents expressing a desire to annex the so-called “red zone” into Gardendale to ensure a place in the new system for their children. Conversely, many Mt. Olive residents opposed such an effort.

A key paragraph in the statement, which Segroves said was taken from similar separation agreements negotiated by other breakaway systems, reads: “…the immediate removal of county students from the city school system and certain city students from the county system is not in the best interest of students, families, communities, or the respective school systems, and that appropriate measures to ease the transition of students into the respective school zones are needed and will benefit both school boards and the students that they serve.”

The statement went on to say that the Gardendale board is “steadfastly committed to this principle,” and asserts that the new system seeks to have an open attendance policies that allows Mt. Olive students to stay in the system.

Whether or not that will actually happen remains to be negotiated, or perhaps to be mediated by State Supt. Dr. Tommy Bice, who by law must settle any issues the two systems can’t agree to. The Gardendale Board statement confirmed “a detailed account of the critical issues needing resolution” has been sent to Bice; that statement echoes what JefCoEd Supt. Dr. Craig Pouncey told The North Jefferson News last week.

How that process will affect the timetable for Gardendale to assume control of the new system for the 2015-16 academic year remains to be seen. But in response to a question posed by former Rockets football standout Mike “Bucket” Burkett about any possible delays, Supt. Dr. Patrick Martin was unequivocal in his response.

“I remain confident that this will not affect the schedule,” Martin said.