Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

Alabama Elementary School Breaks Ground on Replacement Facility

  • By Matt Jones
  • 10/04/22

Hartselle City Schools in Hartselle, Ala., recently broke ground on a replacement facility for the oldest school in its district. The new Crestline Elementary School will cover about 105,000 square feet, cost about $36 million, and is scheduled for completion in time for the beginning of the 2024–25 school year, according to local news.

The new building will have a capacity of more than 1,000 students in grades PreK–4. The primary purpose of construction was to relieve overcrowding at the existing school; local news reports that the district has grown by more than 500 students over the last ten years. School district leaders said they expect the trend to continue as new neighborhoods with hundreds of homes continue their development.

Amenities in the new elementary school will include 65 classrooms, a separate drop-off line for PreK and special needs students, a special-needs wing featuring a sensory room, gifted education classrooms, and an expanded robotics lab.

Part of the existing Crestline Elementary building will be demolished, and part of it will remain standing as additional classroom space for the district as needed, local news reports.

“Crestline has served our school system, our students, and our community well since its original construction in the 1950s,” said school board member Daxton Maze. “As education needs change and as Hartselle continues to grow, the expanded footprint of the new school will allow us to serve our rising student population in an environment that is conducive to high-quality instruction. The scholastic expectation in Hartselle is excellence, and the new Crestline School will be a visual representation of the community’s desire to provide the best education possible for our kids.”

The school district is partnering with Davis Architects for the building’s design and with Bailey-Harris Construction Co. for the building’s construction.

About the Author

Matt Jones is senior editor of Spaces4Learning. He can be reached at [email protected].

Featured

  • Rethinking K-12 Schools as a Continuous Learning Experience

    Most students move through three or more separate facilities during their K-12 journey, yet the built environments they encounter at each stage have traditionally been designed in isolation, with little continuity in spatial language, learning philosophy, or physical resources. Each new school is a reset with different layouts, learning models, expectations, and ways of moving through a building. The next generation of school design is making the case that the first day of kindergarten and the last day of high school can and should feel connected through common support systems and infrastructure in the physical environment.

  • Planning with Clarity: Using AI to Make Better Campus Decisions, Not Just Better Designs

    Higher education leaders are being asked to make increasingly high-stakes decisions about campus facilities amid greater uncertainty than ever before. Social and economic pressures, shifting enrollment, and evolving learning models compete with growing deferred maintenance needs to strain even the most robust infrastructure budgets.

  • Virginia Tech Tops Out New College of Engineering Building

    Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va., recently celebrated the topping out of Mitchell Hall, which will soon stand as the largest College of Engineering building on campus, according to a news release. The university partnered with Skanska on the 285,500-square-foot facility, which has an expected completion date of winter 2028.

  • Children walking along bright school corridor with motion blur

    How Next-Gen Design Is Reshaping the Student Experience

    The environments where students learn play a crucial role in shaping their growth in and out of the classroom. By centering design on well-being, flexibility, and purpose, districts can ensure their facilities remain vibrant community assets for many years to come.