Two more Phenix City schools to be expanded. Here’s the plan for additional projects
Two more schools in Phenix City will be expanded to accommodate enrollment growth and enhance activities, and a new plan lists additional capital projects envisioned for the school system.
During its December meeting, the Phenix City Board of Education unanimously approved superintendent Randy Wilkes’ recommendation to construct multipurpose buildings at Ridgecrest and Westview elementary schools.
Each building is designed to be 7,500 square feet, including a stage, for gatherings such as performances, assemblies, meetings and physical education.
Both projects have the same team bringing them to fruition: Hecht Burdeshaw Architects of Columbus and Beasley Construction Services of Notasulga.
The buildings, each with an estimated construction cost of $1.75 million, are expected to be completed by December 2021. They are among the board’s approved revisions to the school system’s capital plan.
The Alabama State Board of Education requires school systems to maintain a five-year plan that outlines potential capital projects, timelines and possible funding sources.
Phenix City Schools will pay for the buildings with revenue from the $9.1 million in capital bonds the system was awarded in November as part of the $1.5 billion issued for educational agencies in the state.
The current PCS capital project is the construction of the Career and Technical Education Annex on the campus shared by Central High School and Central Freshman Academy. This project, with a $10.1 million budget, is approximately 20% complete and is expected to be finished by December 2021, superintendent Randy Wilkes told the Ledger-Enquirer.
But the softball field’s renovation and conversion to artificial turf, which is part of the CTE Annex project, should be ready in time for Central’s softball season this spring, Wilkes said.
The annex will comprise 21 classrooms and six labs in its 33,000 square feet. It will have classes in computer science, business, health science, digital media and engineering, including mechatronics and robotics. Located behind the softball field’s home plate, the project includes a new concession stand, coach’s office and press box for the field.
Other projects
The revised PCS capital plan includes the following envisioned projects and budgets:
- $3.5 million in state bond revenue to add four core classrooms, three special-education classrooms and a band room at Phenix City Intermediate School, to be funded in 2021 and completed by March 2022.
- $2.1 million in local money to replace the roofs on South Girard School and Sherwood Elementary Schools, to be funded in 2024 and completed by August 2025.
- $1.3 million in local money for construction of an access road to the high school and freshman academy from Auburn Road, to be funded in 2022 and completed by August 2023. This will provide the campus an entrance and exit in addition to the one off Dobbs Drive.
- $1.2 million in state bond revenue for renovation of the soccer/physical education field and conversion to artificial turf at Central High, to be funded in 2021 and completed by summer 2021.
- $1 million in local money for replacement of roof on the Career and Technical Education building, to be funded in 2021 and completed by August 2022.
- $900,000 in state bond revenue for construction of a weight room and a locker room at South Girard School, to be funded in 2021 and completed by March 2022. The previous facilities were converted to classrooms during the summer, requiring the football and basketball teams to share a weight room and a locker room with physical education.
- $600,000 in local revenue for renovation of the Career and Technical Education building and Westview Elementary School cafeteria and stage, to be funded in 2021 and completed by August 2022.
Rationale
Since the board hired Wilkes from Crenshaw County in 2014, the PCS enrollment has grown from around 6,800 to more than 7,100. A demographic study conducted for PCS last year predicted a “conservative” estimate that the freshman academy and the high school would be at 130% and 115% capacity, respectively, in five years, Wilkes said.
But the need for more room already is here. The freshman academy is expecting to have nearly 600 ninth-graders next school year in a facility built for 400 students, Wilkes said.
“Our growth has kind of moved in a wave to middle school to junior high and now the high school,” he said. “… So the CTE Annex is a way to accommodate our student growth.”
Since 2000, the number of births in Russell County has fluctuated from a high of 1,138 in 2011 to a low of 449 in 2007, with 782 in 2018 the most recent year available, according to the Alabama Department of Public Health. But the overall trend has been relatively flat, so the key to enrollment growth has been reducing the number of students going to private schools or being homeschooled, Wilkes said.
And that, he said, is based on the school system’s improvement.
“We always have room for improvement,” he said. “We’re not satisfied. But all the major data points, whether it’s graduation rate, amount of scholarships, most improved school district in the state of Alabama on the last report card we had, receiving an A, that bodes well for the efforts of every child, every parent, every teacher, administrator, staff member in our school district. It’s been a long but enjoyable process.”
Still, a baby bump seems to be coming to Phenix City Schools. After the birth years of the current enrollment averaged 794 births, the most recent four years available (2015-18) have averaged 825 births of children not yet in the school system.
The multipurpose buildings at Ridgecrest and Westview are a way to accommodate equity as well. Those schools have been using their cafeteria for large gatherings.
“Westview and Ridgecrest very much need a place for PE,” Wilkes said, “and they also need a space for PTA meetings and so forth.”
The additions mean every PCS elementary school will have a multipurpose building except Meadowlane, which has the smallest enrollment.
This story was originally published January 4, 2021 at 6:00 AM.
