On August 4, 2023 Pelham City Schools completed the purchase of 69 acres of land for a future school site. The nine million dollar purchase involved acquisition of contiguous property from seven different land owners in the city limits of Pelham.
After exploring several areas over the past two years, the Pelham Board of Education honed in on the area located north of Highway 52, west of Parkview Drive and east of the Pelham Racquet Club.The site can be accessed from Highway 52 or from Racquet Club Parkway.
At the August 8 Special Called Board of Education meeting, superintendent Dr. Chuck Ledbetter commented, “This will be something that will be a few years down the road before anything starts happening, but it's a really big piece of the puzzle for our future and for our planning.”
Based on information from a demographic study conducted in late 2022, the board of education is currently projecting that a secondary school will be built on the site. However, that final determination will be made at a later date. In order to properly budget and maintain fiscal stability for the school system, the timeframe for construction on the new school site is projected to begin in seven to eight years.
Since its inception in 2014, Pelham City Schools has invested over $90 million in facilities, including this recent land purchase, the construction of two new schools and many other facilities improvements.