Orange Beach, Ala. – (OBA) – The Orange Beach Board of Education and city council during May 17 a joint session of the two bodies had a brainstorming session on how best to use the property available at Orange Beach Elementary School.

One of those ideas is a certainty, expanding by 17,000 feet to the south of the current building to house a combination cafeteria and auditorium and library media center and renovate the current cafeteria and library into eight more classrooms. Leaders say they expect those rooms to be filled to capacity by the time they are complete.

Baldwin County started the $6.5 million project but the Orange Beach School Board will manage and pay for the expansion.

Sawgrass Consulting has been hired to take a survey of the current campus and decide which areas can be built on and what parts are wetlands. Under consideration are a new wing for Pre-K classrooms and converting the Sea Sand and Stars Museum into classroom space including a lab to meet requirements for STEM certification.

Board Vice President Nelson Bauer said a serious study is underway to consider putting 12 classrooms on two levels in the current gym and build a new gym in the parking lot next to the old gym.

“We grabbed Casey from McCollough Architecture and we went into the existing gym, looked at the height, looked at the structure and looked at the area just to see if it’s feasible to put classrooms in there,” Bauer said. “Mainly two levels of classrooms. Looking at it conservatively it looks like we could go six classrooms per level which would ultimately give us 12 classrooms with us being land poor that may be the most effective means.”

Taking up parking spaces for a new gym raised other questions like where the 60-plus staffers at the school will park. City Administrator Ken Grimes pointed out with the field trips to Sea Sand and Stars being eliminated the parking between the current gym and the museum could be used for staff.

Bauer is encouraged by the possibility of converting the current gym into 12 new classrooms.

“Thinking of six classrooms I think the largest grade level now has five classrooms so I thought of that as one grade level per floor,” Bauer said. “That’s huge when you’re talking about expansion and ultimately a gym out front. That was trying to project five years down the road. It seems to be a viable option. You’d probably have to reinforce that floor but ultimately and preliminarily it looks like a super good option.”

Also, during the meeting, members of both boards heard from City Finance Director and temporary Schools Chief Financial Officer Ford Handley on how the city plans to utilize $50 million it is borrowing for school improvements. The majority, about $42.5 million will pay Baldwin County for the current facilities in Orange Beach and the elementary school expansion.

Here's how it will be broken down:

• $32.4 million for the middle and high school building

• $3 million for the elementary school

• $2.37 million in debt picked up from Baldwin County

• $6.5 million for elementary school expansion

“The goal of today is to figure out basically the funding mechanism between the school and the city and make sure you guys are comfortable,” Handley said. “There are still some unknowns regarding the foundation (state) revenue. The $50 million is a straight 20-year bank loan and we’ve dedicated that toward the schools.”

The city recently passed an increase in the lodging tax by 3 percent that will be earmarked for schools. It will be phased in by 2 percent on May 1, 2023, and another percent added on Sept. 1, 2023. Handley said one percent of the lodging tax would generate $4.1 million annually.

Another project discussed in the joint session was a 60,000-square-foot athletic facility with a gym taking up about 8,000 to 10,000 of that space. It would serve the needs of all athletic teams at both the middle and high school. The city has received a preliminary price for just the shell of the new facility at $2.5 million.