By Gerri Miller
Staff Writer- Elmore/Autauga News
Government, business, and community leaders broke ground Friday for a $26.6 million Redland Middle School, which is expected to be completed and open for the beginning of the 2022 school year
The event included 12 future Redland Middle School students, who led the Pledge of Allegiance.
The 111,052-square-foot complex will include 32 classrooms, three storm shelters, a gym with lockers, science rooms, a weight room, a food court-type cafeteria, a media center, and several multipurpose classrooms. Goodwyn. Mills and Cawood (GMC) designed the school.
Freddie Lynn of GMC said the school was designed with expansion in mind and can be doubled in size if needed. Plans for the school also include spaces for future softball, baseball, and football fields.
“I don’t know what a field of dreams looks like, but I would imagine it looks like this one,” Lynn said.
Lynn said the school was “the big brother” to Redland Elementary School. “This started in 2006 and is still growing,” he said. He said the new school will have multi-purpose classrooms which can be used for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) projects.
Elmore County Superintendent of Education Richard Dennis said the project would not have gotten started so quickly if it was not for Rodney Griffith, an Elmore County resident who donated 50 acres of land for the project. “Rodney told me he was giving up his best hunting grounds for the project where he killed his biggest buck,” Dennis laughed.
Site grading for the project, which will cost more than $1.4 million, will begin immediately. Rodney Griffith Excavating, LLC, is the building contractor for that portion of the project. The grading is expected to be completed in December 2020.
Board of Education member Leisa Findley said there were no words to describe how excited the board is for the students. “Today we celebrate not just brick and mortar, although that’s very important because we need those and we need the teachers who will teach our students,” Finley said, “but always keep in mind that our schools are made up of those students that make a difference in our community and are the future of our community.”
Troy Stubbs, chairman of the Elmore County Commission, said the Redland area has involved parents who make things happen, “This area has the kind of vocal leadership that brings this type of project to the finish line,” he said.
Friday’s groundbreaking was the Elmore County Board of Education’s third in three weeks. Last week ground was broken for Stanhope Elmore High School’s $1.65 million band room/music complex. A ceremony was held two weeks ago for a $7 million expansion of the Elmore County Technical Center.
The projects are part of a $50 million bond issue floated by the Elmore County Board of Education. The bond will cover multiple projects throughout the county, including the Stanhope Elmore band room/music complex, the Technical Center expansion, and the new middle school. See more photos below!
