G.S. to break ground on $131 million high school April 26

G.S. to break ground on $131 million high school April 26

The City of Gulf Shores will break ground on the new Gulf Shores High School on April 26 at 10 a.m. at the construction site located at 21656 Coastal Gateway Blvd. at the corner of Coastal Gateway Boulevard (County Road 8) and the Foley Beach Express. The new Gulf Shores High School will accommodate 1,000 students when it opens in the fall of 2026. When complete, it will clear the way for expanding Gulf Shores Elementary to include the connecting middle school campus and shift middle school students into the current high school.
Rabren Construction signed the $131 million contract to construct the new high school. The 287,000-square-foot facility will be built to accomodated future growth that could nearly double the 1,000 students that will enroll initially.
The state of the art facility will be designed for collaborative and hands-on learning experiences with leading-edge technology labs for engineering, bio-medical, marine biology, culinary, music production and finance, as well as maker spaces, greenhouses, outdoor learning centers, and a broadcast studio.
Band, choral, art, and theatre students will also have dedicated spaces connected to an advanced visual and performing arts center, including a costume design lab, a set production workshop, a greenroom, and an auditorium hosting school and community events all year.
A new Dolphin athletics center will be home to all sports, including two gymnasiums, tiered meeting rooms, athletic training rooms, an athletic performance center, and a covered practice pavilion providing year-round training opportunities for all Dolphin athletes.
The project team also includes Goodwyn Mills Cawood (GMC) and DLR Group for architecture design and Volkert, Inc. serving as the program manager.
More than six years ago, the Gulf Shores City Council voted to form its own city school system. After A nearly 15-month journey filled with distrust and a lawsuit against three entities by the Baldwin County School System, State Sen. Chris Elliott and Gulf Shores Mayor Robert Craft stepped in to broker an agreement that allowed Gulf Shores City Schools to open for the business of educating chiddren in August of 2019 and has been named an A School District by the AL Dept. of Education and a Green Ribbon School District by the US Dept. of Education. More info: gsboe.org.