Latest Headlines
- Fire Destroys Large Detached Garage In Cottage Hill For Second Time In Four Years
- Mostly Sunny, Slight Chance Of Sunday Showers
- Beulah Man Charged With 20 Child Porn Counts Can Remove GPS Monitor On Bond, Judge Rules
- Escambia County Misses Chance To Sink SS United States For A Reef
- Neptune Leads Tate As The Aggies Roll Over Gulf Breeze 41-0
- Northview Chiefs Drop Road Game To Opp
- Escambia County Animal Welfare Offers Free Pet Adoptions
- High School Football Scoreboard
- Blue Wahoos Miss On Chances As M-Braves Even Series
- $90 Million Proposed For Indoor Sports Facility At Ashton Brosnaham Park And Bay Center Upgrades
Byrneville Elementary Continues Toward Multi-Million Dollar Construction Project
April 27, 2017
Byrneville Elementary School is continuing to work toward a change in the school’s charter status and the construction of a new multi-million dollar facility.
Exactly how much a newly constructed building will cost remains to be seen.
Wednesday afternoon, the school’s board of directors met with an area banker to discuss possible finance options, but the discussion did not move very far because the board does not yet have a bottom line cost estimate. One finance program discussed by the banker requires a note of at least $5 million.
Currently, over one-half of Byrneville’s classrooms are located in eight aging wooden portable buildings with administration, a lunchroom and a few classrooms located in a wood frame brick building constructed in 1941.
School officials have expressed interest in a new modern building containing some number of classrooms, likely a cafetorium and possibly even a small gym. Wednesday, the board decided to hold an organizational building committee meeting on May 25 at a time yet to be determined. The committee will meet with teachers and staff to learn about what they feel is needed in a new facility. After that meeting, the board hopes to determine a preliminary cost for a new facility.
The new building, if approved by the board of directors and if financing is approved, would be constructed on the Byrneville Elementary School’s current four acre property at 1600 Byrneville Road.
Byrneville has been a “conversion charter” school since 2002 when the Escambia County School District closed the existing Byrneville Elementary School and converted it into charter school operated under its own board of directors. Funding for the school is still provided by the state and local government, with the local school district providing the campus and major maintenance services.
Byrneville will need to become a full charter school, taking over building ownership, to become eligible to construct a new permanent building.
Pictured top: The main building at Byrneville Elementary was constructed in 1941. Pictured below: One of the portable classrooms on the Byrneville Elementary campus. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Comments
6 Responses to “Byrneville Elementary Continues Toward Multi-Million Dollar Construction Project”
PLEASE, just don’t destroy the original building. Preserve it & use it for the administration offices. It’s a wonderful piece of history. Look what happened to Ernest Ward.
Does anyone know how much has been spent building state-of-the-art schools in foreign countries and ghettos lately? Why has Byrneville been ignored for so long would be my question. It’s about time someone started considering investing in an area that represents the backbone of America. It’s time we stop throwing good money at problem areas that will never change. I don’t live in Byrneville but I know that area very well and I’m willing to support such a project any way I can.
Byrneville’s neighborhood and the old Century school site are two entirely different types of area. Not seeing it happen.
Oh this is such good news. I surely hope they can build more and fix the things needed and a gym would be great. My children go to this school, I went to there when I was little and my father also. Weve always lived a few houses down from Byrnevill elementary. The people who live in our community just love this school and would be devastated to see it gone because it means a lot to us. To see big things for Byrneville Elementary would be wonderful.
At this time there is a private school on the premise of the old Century Elementary.
Someone correct me if i am wrong but aren’t all these facilities available at the old century elementary. They exist now. They are just sitting there. They are paid for.