FAIRHOPE, Ala. - Local efforts to create a separate Fairhope city school system lost a major organizational supporter Friday, when the Fairhope Schools Good 2 Great group announced it was suspending advocacy work on that front, shifting it instead to countywide reform measures.

“Two things led to our decision,” said Amy Greer Thompson, a main organizer of the group. “One was a lack of leadership from the top down from the City Council. The other was the timing of the tremendous momentum being gained and built by the ‘Yes We Can’ movement, which is advocating a lot of the same things we’ve been demanding here in Fairhope.”

Thompson said the Baldwin County Education Coalition is also seeking smaller class sizes and more accountability and standards throughout the system.

An e-mail newsletter sent by the Fairhope group on Jan. 21 announced the suspension of its efforts to have the city split from the county school system and form its own independent one.

“We know that many of you will be disappointed,” the group’s e-mail stated. “We share your disappointment. But we also believe, very strongly, that no effort is wasted. Because of Fairhope Schools Good 2 Great, more and more have been made aware of the shortcomings in our education system.”

That e-mail also stated one of the reasons the group suspended its efforts was “a lack of leadership from the City of Fairhope.”

At Monday’s City Council meeting, Councilman Dan Stankoski took issue with that group’s statement, which was also reported in the media over the weekend.

“I beg to differ,” said Stankoski, pointing to a $25,000 study commissioned by the council and a town meeting hosted by the city. “I was offended that the council was accused of not showing leadership.”

Had he been presented with a strong showing of support for an independent system, he would have been in favor of putting the issue before Fairhope residents in the form of a referendum, Stankoski said.

Thompson said her group will not formally dissolve because it was never organized with a board of directors, officers or membership. She did say several hundred people were receiving their e-mail newsletter and that many had shown support for a separate system.

She extended her thanks to those supporters, “especially to the teachers, principals and others who stuck their necks out and really believed in this.”

Efforts to contact a spokesman for Baldwin County Schools and its superintendent regarding the group’s announcement were unsuccessful.

One vocal Fairhope advocate for education accountability, but who opposed efforts for a separate system if students outside the city limits were not included in the new system, welcomed the group’s announcement.

“I hope now we can all come together as a community and give great support to the ‘Yes We Can’ campaign,” said Kristie Street, who sought to serve on a city committee to study the separate school system issue but was not appointed by the council.