DAPHNE, Ala. — It looks like the town of Elberta will finally get a high school.

Baldwin County Public Schools Interim Superintendent Robbie Owen announced plans for an Elberta high school during an education summit at Daphne Civic Center Thursday night.

Owen said that plan would be enacted by renovating the current Elberta Elementary School to house grades K-6. Then the current Elberta Middle School would become the high school, housing grades 7-12.

“This plan will relieve Foley High School of 450 students,” Assistant Superintendent Russ Moore added. “This school in Elberta is going to have the opportunity to grow.”

Elberta town leaders were present for the announcement and expressed their pleasure at the outcome.

“Our objective was for our kids to one day have the opportunity to go to school in our community, and that is what was accomplished,” Councilman Jim Hamby said. “Once Elberta gets its own feeder pattern, it won’t be long before we get one of those shiny, new buildings.”

That addition is part of a $350 million capital-improvement plan the School System presented. According to Owen, it’s a plan that would eliminate portable classrooms throughout the county.

Additional changes are planned throughout the county. They include:

• Moving the Career Tech Center to the Baldwin County High School campus.
• Building a new Bay Minette Elementary School.
• Building a new elementary school in Belforest.
• Renovating the Fairhope K-1 Center to house a school.
• Building a second elementary school in Foley.
• Adding a new parking lot and practice field at Robertsdale High.
• Addition a two-story addition and gymnasium at Spanish Fort High School, as well as turning current gym into classrooms.
• In three to five years building a new elementary school on 40 acres along U.S. Highway 31 in Spanish Fort.
• Additions and upgrades to existing schools to ensure removal of portable classrooms.

To pay for the improvements, School System CFO John Wilson proposed an additional 8-mil property tax increase, which would take the county’s millage up to 20.

“What does 8 mils mean?” he asked.

Wilson explained that such an increase would cost property-taxpayers an additional $148 per year or $12 each month.

Owen added that earlier in the day Thursday, the School Board passed a resolution earmarking revenue from the proposed increase for capital improvements.

To take effect, the proposed mil increase would have to be approved by voter referendum in 2015. Owen said the campaign to promote the initiative is “Build Baldwin Now."