The Baldwin County school board is weighing a proposal to authorize negotiations for roughly 20 acres of land next to Foley High School, part of a plan to expand the school’s growing Agriculture Academy into a working outdoor classroom.
Assistant Superintendent Russ Moore outlined the proposal for board members during a work session ahead of Thursday’s scheduled meeting. He said the parcel is attractive because it sits directly next to existing school property, and acquiring it would extend the district’s holdings all the way to Hickory Street. District staff have recommended a purchase price of no more than $300,000.
The land would become a hands-on farm site for students in Foley High’s Agriculture Academy, a STEM-focused program — covering science, technology, engineering and math — that currently enrolls more than 600 students under three teachers. Academy students have already begun developing roughly 20 acres of school-owned land, and the new parcel would roughly double that footprint, giving them room to apply classroom lessons to real agricultural work.
Any purchase, however, comes with a significant condition attached. Regardless of how the board votes on authorizing negotiations, the actual land buy depends on Baldwin County voters approving a proposed 8-mill property tax increase at a referendum scheduled for March 31.
Foley High School is the largest high school in Baldwin County, with an enrollment of 1,819 students, and district officials say the campus has outgrown parts of its current footprint. If voters approve the tax increase in March, the agriculture land purchase would be just one piece of a broader package of construction projects planned for the Foley area. Those plans include an addition and renovation at Foley Intermediate School to accommodate grades K-6, an addition at Foley High School itself, a renovation of Elberta Middle School to reconfigure it as a 7-12 high school, an addition at Elberta Elementary School for grades K-6, and a possible addition to Foley Middle School along with a renovation of an old auditorium into a fine arts building.
Supporters of the tax increase argue the growth in south Baldwin County, particularly around Foley and the beach communities, has strained school facilities and that new revenue is needed to keep pace with enrollment. The board’s vote on the land negotiation proposal is expected to be one of several agenda items addressed at Thursday’s meeting in Bay Minette.