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Schools to see more changes in 2001-2002
Published April 17, 2001
A lot of changes will take place in the 2001-2002 school year for area students and faculty members.
The Albertville City School System is planning to relocate hundreds of students with their plan to house all of grades 1-4 at one location, Albertville Elementary School. All fifth graders will be at Evans Elementary, and all kindergarten students will attend Big Spring Lake Elementary.
The Marshall County School System will be moving students from Grassy and Union Grove junior high schools to a new school, Brindlee Mountain Middle School. The new school will house grades 5-8.
Controversy has surrounded the new school on Brindley Mountain. The questions have not centered so much on where or when to build the school, but rather on how to spell the name — Brindlee or Brindley.
Members of the Brindley family contend (and rightly so) the mountain was named for their ancestor, Mace Brindley, who came to Alabama with his mother and siblings in 1819.
In 1832, he homesteaded a 160-acre plot of land on Brindley Mountain. For years his family was one of only a handful on the mountain.
Over time he became a prominent man in the area and earned a reputation of a good businessman. He served in the State Legislature as a senator for three terms. While serving in the Senate, other notable figures often visited the Brindley Mountain area as guests of the Brindley family.
While it isn’t known exactly when the mountain became known as Brindley Mountain, it is known the Brindley family has always spelled their name Brindley. Yet somehow in the 1960s, the spelling of the mountain, in the Arab area, became accepted as Brindlee. Members of the family say the first time they knew of the change in spelling was when businessman Sid McDonald called his phone company Brindlee Mountain.
Over time the other things were named Brindlee Mountain such and such. For example, one of the main streets in Arab is the Brindlee Mountain Parkway.
The Brindley family has been waging a battle for years to return the spelling to the family spelling, and they have been discussing the matter with the Marshall County School Board, bringing the argument to the table that misspelling a name if just wrong. Joe Brindley told the school board last week that if something were named for them or their family, they would probably want the spelling to be accurate.
Geological maps show the name of the mountain to be Brindley. At a meeting in February, board members seemed to agree the spelling of the new school should be Brindley, not Brindlee. But by last week, they had all changed their minds. The Brindley family who were present at the meeting said the board had obviously bowed to political pressure.
When Board President Gerry Ledbetter asked for a motion to change the spelling of the school’s name, no one made one. So the Brindley family had lost that battle. While Brindley family members said the board had obviously bowed to political pressure, board members said other residents of the Brindley Mountain area wanted the name to stay Brindlee.
They also cited cost factors, saying the state had already approved the school as Brindlee, and new applications would have to be filed and approved if the spelling is changed. I don’t know, personally, who is right and who is wrong.
I am a Brindley descendant, but I have never really felt a connection to the Brindleys and only last week realized that Mike Brindley of Albertville is a distant relation. Even though I knew my mother was a great-great-something of Mace Brindley, I’ve never really made the connection. Mike was a family member at the board meeting who expressed disappointment in the board’s decision.
I predict the grit and determination the Brindley family members have shown in their efforts to recognize their ancestors will not end with the school board’s decision. I bet they are saying they may have lost a battle, but the final battle hasn’t been fought.
Parents and faculty members of Albertville School were hoping to get answers to lots of questions about the changes in the Albertville schools Monday night at a forum sponsored by the Albertville PTA Council. More about that later.
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