By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

ALABASTER – The Alabaster City School System will turn its attention to renovating and upgrading its existing facilities over the next couple of years, as the system’s largest construction project to date wraps up.

The city’s Board of Education approved the school system’s updated five-year capital plan during a Sept. 10 meeting.

Each year, school systems throughout the state are required to submit their five-year capital plans with the State Department of Education outlining funding amounts, funding years and years of expected completion for their capital projects.

Over the past few years, the capital plan’s largest project was the construction of the new Thompson High School, which opened to students last spring. With the new THS and all of its extracurricular facilities now nearly completed, the capital plan is now focusing on renovations to existing schools in the city.

Alabaster School Superintendent Dr. Wayne Vickers said the five-year capital plan is the school system planning for its future needs, and funding amounts for the projects included in the plan are not set in stone.

The school system set money aside during the 2018 fiscal year to complete roofing renovations at Thompson Sixth Grade Center and renovations to the old Thompson High School facility on Warrior Drive. The 2018 fiscal year also included about $2.5 million in information technology upgrades in Alabaster schools.

For the 2019 fiscal year, the school system included $2.5 million for roof renovations to the former THS, $1.5 million for renovations to Thompson Intermediate School, $850,000 for HVAC renovations throughout the district and $1 million for renovations to the Thompson Sixth Grade Center to house the school system’s central office.

The 2020 fiscal year includes $1 million for roof renovations across the school system and $750,000 for information technology upgrades throughout the system.

Vickers said some of the projects included on the 2019 and 2020 fiscal year capital plans would use funding from a bond issue the state Board of Education may issue in the future.