SPANISH FORT, Ala. — The new Spanish Fort Middle School may be opening its doors next fall for sixth grade through eighth grade students.

“The school is set to be ready prior to the start of the 2008-2009 school year,” Baldwin County Board of Education spokesman Terry Wilhite said.

The school will accommodate more than 900 students. “It’s one of the first two-story schools in our school system,” Wilhite said. “It’s going to be a beautiful school.”

The facility is 80 to 90 percent complete, he said. Construction began in November 2006 at 33899 Jimmy Faulkner Drive. Currently, the elementary school houses the sixth grade, while the high school houses approximately 420 seventh and eighth graders, SFHS Assistant Principal Mary Kelly said.

“It will be a great relief to Spanish Fort High School when the new middle school opens,” Wilhite said.

The seventh graders are located in the portable buildings, and the eighth graders are located in a wing next to the portables.

“It will open up some room,” Kelly said.

The new school will have 44 classrooms and will be 134,870 square feet. Wilhite said that building two-story schools is being done more now in Baldwin County due to land availability. Two-story buildings are in progress of being built in Fairhope and Foley, Wilhite said.

The architects are Goodwyn, Mills and Cawood, Inc. There are no outdoor athletic facilities planned, but Spanish Fort High School athletic facilities are currently under construction, he said.

At the Dec. 13 school board meeting, roadway improvements to Jimmy Faulkner Drive at Spanish Fort Middle School were recommended to low bidder J. S. Walton and Co., Inc. for a cost of $218,000.

A ribbon cutting ceremony will be held after school begins. Carol Palumbo will be the principal of the Spanish Fort Middle School. Palumbo is currently the assistant principal at Daphne High School. No additional staff has been named.