Plans are for a new elementary school and a county-wide technical school in Flomaton
The Escambia County (Ala.) Board of Education last Thursday approved the purchase of 100 acres in Flomaton located behind Sweat Tire Shop to build a new elementary school and career center over the next two years to raise student capacity in Flomaton and allow all students across the county access to career technical classes.
The property is located at the intersection of U.S. Highways 31 and 113 in Flomaton and was purchased for $425,000, utilizing local funds. The property is valued at $460,000, according to appraiser Harold W. Grimes, III. The school board is responsible for the property's appraisal fee of $750, and will not assume any debt with the purchase of this property.
Escambia County Deputy of Operations Shaun Goolsby said the purchase was approved pending a phase 1 environmental study, which will take about about two weeks and involve assessing core drill samples, to make sure the land is viable with no issues. He said the 100 acres is an ‘L’ shape and part of it is behind the tire shop at the intersection of Highways 31 and 113. Goolsby said he feels it was a good deal and that they got the land at a good price.
He said the goal in building a new elementary school is to allow more room at Flomaton’s current K through 12th grade school, which is now at full capacity.
“A new elementary school means we could make the Flomaton Elementary School that’s there now into a true middle school and have growing room,” said Goolsby. “The high school is full and there’s no room for growth. If we take the middle school classes out, we could have room for growth as a middle school as well as for the high school.”
Currently, the Escambia Career Readiness Center (ECRC) in Brewton is the county’s only technical school and it’s location on one end of the county makes access for students county-wide a near impossibility.
“Our goal is to build one career tech center right in the middle of the county,” said Goolsby. “We’ve got kids at Escambia County High School who can’t take what the kids on the Brewton side take because logistically, there not enough time to get them over there, do the program and get them back. We are going to have one location where everything’s offered where every student in the county has the opportunity to take what the kid at another high school has the opportunity to take.”
He said there is currently no plan for ECRC if the new school is built, although the board is looking at several options.
“Until the board makes a decision on where we are going to put what and what we are going to build exactly, I can’t build it without a funding source,” said Goolsby. “Once I present that to the state, I have to have a funding source. There’s a lot of moving parts.”
Goolsby said the only projects that are almost 100 percent funded right now are the Huxford Elementary School gymnasium and additional classrooms, the Escambia County High School Herbert Barnes stadium concession stand and field house and the concession stand at the W.S. Neal High School softball field.
Goolsby will present aerial shots of the 100 acres with overlays of the proposed facilities at an upcoming school board workshop April 20. He hopes the results of the environmental study will be completed by then.
