By CHLOE ALLEN / Special to the Reporter

PELHAM- In December 2014, Pelham City Schools Superintendent Dr. Scott Coefield outlined a $50 million building plan for Pelham City Schools during a Board of Education meeting.

The deal called for development of a new middle school and as well as an addition to two new elementary schools that had already been green-lighted. The plans for both of the schools are still under way and are in the early stages their layouts being finalized.

The city plans to build the kindergarten-through-fifth-grade school off of the Shelby County 52 area on the west side of I-65 and the middle school off of U.S. 31.

School Board President Rick Rhoades said the developments for Applegate Elementary School, the kindergarten-through-fifth-grade school will be a two-story building with a more contemporary and modern feel to it and will be accessible and more convenient for residents.

“There is plenty of land there to take care of the traffic flow,” Rhoades said. “And it will be a state-of-the-art school. It’s going to have all the bells and whistles.”

Rhoades also said the design will still be in keeping with current direction that all schools in the area are going.

“We want our schools to have the Pelham stamp on them for sure,” Rhoades said.

The middle school, Pelham Park Middle, will also be built in a more convenient location and will carry with it a state-of-the-art facility design.

“We are very careful in our design to make sure we can get traffic off the main road. With the growth of Pelham, we need to have a balance of where our schools are,” Rhoades said. “We are taking both schools and placing them toward the center of town which is what we have wanted to do.”

The elementary schools will be completed by the 2016-2017 school year and the middle school will follow in the 2017-2018 year.