New Pike Road High School Tops 70% Complete and On Track

Source: Pike Road News

Pike Road’s new high school is on track with construction and remains on schedule to welcome students for the start of the second semester of the 2026-2027 school year, according to an on-site update from Dr. Keith Lankford, Pike Road Schools Superintendent, following a recent construction review.

“We’re probably about seventy to seventy-two percent complete,” Lankford said. “We’re still on track to move in and start the second semester on January 11, 2027. Everything seems to be moving as planned right now.”

Lankford shared that the building’s brick facade is now about 80% complete, with crews targeting full exterior completion within the next 60 days across academic and athletic facilities.

“Within sixty days, we should have all of the exterior facade one hundred percent complete,” he said. “And in ninety days, you’re probably looking at the majority of the school actually having conditioned air. That’s a big step.”

Alabama Power is scheduled to connect permanent service the first week of March, he added, allowing contractors to advance to casework, flooring, and other interior finishes. Work is currently concentrated in Building C—on the left side of campus as viewed from the road—which houses career and technical education (CTE) spaces.

“Alabama Power will be out there to start hooking up the power, and the construction team is ready to get everything ready to flip the switches in phases so that we can move forward with casework and flooring,” Lankford said. “As we finish Building C, we’ll move across to Building B and just move across the school.”“I want to have all the problems solved before we ever step foot on that campus,” he said.

As part of the discussion, Lankford praised Stone Builders, the general contractor, for steady progress, tight coordination, and minimal changes. The contractor has had multiple teams working on the project to move it along more quickly.

“I am really proud of Stone Builders,” said Lankford. “1 don’t think we could have got a better construction group. We communicate on a daily basis. We’ve had only three change orders, and they’ve all been things that I think should have been done—to better suit our teachers and our students.”

In discussing the project’s financial status, Lankford shared that spending is closely tracking its build-out schedule.

“We’re about sixty-eight to seventy percent on budget,” he said. “That’s good when you’re seventy percent finished with it, and you’re seventy percent through with your budget. Everything is really, really aligning.”

He credited Stone Builders’ plan to purchase materials early to help the project avoid delays and cost increases on long-lead materials. The contractor is also running parallel crews—one focused on academic buildings and one on athletics—which has accelerated the sports complex.

“The athletics facilities are running a good bit ahead of everything else,” Lankford noted.

He discussed that the decision to complete both academic and athletic components in the initial phase was intentional.

“If you build any structure and say, ‘Okay, well in five years we’ll come back and do it,’ one, it always looks like it’s an add-on,” he said. “And secondly, there is always going to be an increasing cost. It is best if you can do all of the infrastructure and everything at one time, you reduce the cost over time.”

He added that Pike Road High School and Athletic programs have outgrown their current facilities. “We needed more room for our football, for cheer and for band—for everyone. Everything that we had—we are beyond its intended capacity,” he said. “I thank the town council, the mayor, and the school board for aligning and supporting the financing. We all had to go to the market to get this money. Everybody had to have the same vision, and we didn’t have a single problem with it.”

Alongside the athletics build, the school’s performing arts and Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs are central features of the new campus.

“Being able to make sure we had a band, choir, and drama area in the new performing arts center (PAC)—was important,” Lankford said.

On career pathways, he emphasized, “To have true CTE courses that are going to develop the next generation of workers—from nursing to welding to marketing and business—we’re even looking at having ROTC out there.”

Lankford was quick to highlight that the new high school will add multiple safety and instructional technology upgrades.

“There is an audio enhancement system where there are cameras in every classroom, there are panic buttons, there are microphones, there are speakers,” he said. “It’s going to be a level where our teachers and our students will feel very safe in that school.”

The new school layout and size will also relieve current congestion. Lankford noted the district’s present reliance on multiple outbuildings and portable classrooms makes perimeter security challenging and forces early lunch periods.

“The new lunchroom will seat nearly four hundred and fifty kids at one time,” he said. “It’s got an outdoor space—they can go outside and sit in a courtyard.”

He added that larger, fully equipped science labs and a band room “able to hold all of them at one time” should support instructional quality and student performance. “I think if students feel more comfortable every single day, we’ll continue to have some academic gains as well.”

In closing, Lankford outlined a step-by-step transition plan to avoid first-day confusion.

“We have laid out some timelines to help with the move to the new school,” he said. “There is a plan for when I’m going to talk to the teachers about traffic flow and when we will communicate with the parents about traffic flow.”

As part of the plan, “we’re going to make sure all classrooms are equipped, and teachers get to walk through the building and classrooms and understand the new technology—and then we train them on the technology prior to starting classes.”

Students will also have an opportunity to preview the campus before winter break. “We’re going to bring the students over on buses by each grade and allow them to walk through the school. Helping them to understand where their homeroom is going to be, because they’re going to already have their schedules for the second semester,” Lankford said.

To keep the process manageable, the district will stage the tours by grade level. “You are not shuffling eight hundred and eighty students; you are only shuffling about two hundred,” he said.

While PRS has public open houses planned, the dates will be announced later in the schedule. “My primary focus right now is going to be on the teachers and the students and making sure they feel comfortable with everything,” Lankford said. “Then we will have that open house for our community to go through and participate in the celebration.”

With major exterior work nearing completion, power set to be energized in early March, and HVAC coming online over the next 90 days, Lankford said the project’s momentum is tangible.

“I want to have all the problems solved before we ever step foot on that campus,” he said. “It was a lot of work and a lot of planning, but it’s
worth it. What an investment we’re making in our kids.”

Upcoming Dates/Schedule:

• Students will transition to the new Pike Road High School on Jan. 11, 2027, for the first day of the second semester.
• Teachers will be assigned classrooms Oct. 12-16, with teacher tours of the school scheduled Nov. 16-20.
• Student tours by grade level with second-semester schedules Dec 7-11.
• Parent tours by grade level Dec. 14-18, with traffic flow Q&A and a schematic of traffic flow provided during the large-group gym assembly.
• Professional movers will move materials needed from the GW Campus to the new high school Dec. 18-23.
• Teachers and staff will work in classrooms and become familiar with the new layout Jan. 6-8, with Jan. 8 being our second-semester District Institute Day in the new high school.

Construction updates will be posted on the Pike Road Schools website at:
https://www.pikeroadschools.org/page/capital-projects-facilities