Gulf Shores, Ala. – (OBA) – A 200-acre site adjacent to the Beach Express and donated to the city has had several uses in the past and those uses left some of the ground in a mess.

“There’s a lot of bad materials,” Gulf Shores City Administrator Steve Griffin said. “It’s been used both as a staging area for the BP oil crisis and contractors to set up there. They had done debris processing from Hurricane Sally so the site’s in pretty bad shape.”

But the long-term goal for the property has always been to house a new Gulf Shores High School whether as part of the county system or in the city’s own school system. The city separated in 2019 from Baldwin County and is now making moves to have that new high school in place on the land in about two and a half years.

“At that end, we feel it was necessary to begin grading the high school site,” Griffin said. “The idea was to go ahead and begin the grading work, take care of some of the problem soils and honestly clean that site up. The school board on Jan. 5 recommended unanimously that the council approve an early grading package. It’s my recommendation to do the same.”

On Jan. 9, the Gulf Shores City Council approved a $7.4 million contract with Cunningham Delaney to complete the site work as the first step toward a new Gulf Shores High School. It will also be the first step toward relieving overcrowding in the school system especially at the elementary level.

“Early in March of 2022 the school board adopted a master plan for school capital construction projects for the next 10 years,” Griffin said. “With that plan they had identified a need to build a new high school and that site is chosen to be at the intersection of Foley Beach Express and Coastal Gateway. That was to accommodate the ever-increasing enrollment at the elementary school. The elementary would move into the middle school area and the middle school would go into the existing high school area. Our consultants and the school board feel that would accommodate all the school growth they’ve seen for the next 10 years.”

With the plan, once the high school is completed and hopefully opened for the 2025-26 school year, the middle school would be moved into the current high school location and the elementary school would take over the adjacent middle school. Extensive renovations are planned for all campuses during the change.

The city received three bids for the site work and the Cunningham Delaney bid was the lowest of the three.

“Cunningham and Delaney in a cost not to exceed $7.4 million and that’s my recommendation for y’all to consider,” Griffin said. “The other two bids came in at $9.3 (million) and $12.8 (million). The idea and the hope and goals of the school board is that the high school be constructed and up and running for the school year 2025-2026. By getting some of the grading work done and that site demucked and cleaned up and drained better it will achieve that.”

Griffin said architectural plans are in the works and would be presented to council this spring with hopes of going out for bid for construction this summer.