By Gary Lloyd
The Trussville City Council and Trussville City Board of Education will meet in a joint work session June 17 at the school system’s Central Office.
The meeting is at 5:30 p.m. in the board room.
The joint session will likely focus on how to fund two new elementary schools, which the board of education voted for May 20. The two community schools will be located in Magnolia Place and in the Cahaba Project, preserving the building that housed Trussville’s original high school and a middle high school.
Each school will house roughly 400 students, with a capacity of about 500. Construction, including equipment necessary for students to move in, will cost a total of about $18 million, said Trussville City Schools Superintendent Pattie Neill. Neill said building one school with a larger capacity would have cost about $1 million less. Neill said building two community schools “brought unity” to Trussville and preserved a New Deal era historic school.
Neill said the two schools will likely be constructed concurrently, though the two projects will appear different throughout construction due to the difference in the two sites. Land must be cleared at Magnolia Place. At the old high school and middle school site, Jack Wood Stadium will be torn down, and the historic building, library and eighth grade wing will be preserved. Additional structures will be built.
Both schools will be built with hard rooms as a student shelter during threatening weather.
Neill said a landfill near the Magnolia Place site is about 41 years old and is expected to be full and covered in 10 years. The landfill has had some noise and odor complaints, Neill said, all of which were taken care of. Neill said air quality monitors will be located around the school and checked daily.
Contact Gary Lloyd at news@trussvilletribune.com and follow him on Twitter @GaryALloyd.