Alabama’s Largest School Planning a $30 Million Dollar Expansion
By Digital Team
Blue RAM Media/Gulf Coast News
MAY 11, 2026
TRUSSVILLE, Ala. |
AL.com
Trussville City Schools is working to open a new elementary school as part of an overall plan to address overcrowding.
Since Trussville first opened their own public schools in 2005, the district, like the city, has been continually growing. Currently, the community is home to the largest elementary school in Alabama. Superintendent Patrick Martin said the district is working to balance enrollment across the district.
“This is a good problem to have, but it’s a problem nonetheless and our infrastructure needs to be able to support our student enrollment,” Martin told AL.com.
Martin said the district is in the planning stages to expand by building a new elementary school and adding a sixth grade to all elementary schools.
“You address two problem areas with the build of one school,” Martin said.
Paine Elementary School houses about 1,300 students, the most of any elementary school in the state, compared to 400 students at Magnolia Elementary School and 500 students at Cahaba Elementary School.
As a result, at Paine Elementary, there are 12 sections per grade level, as opposed to three to five sections at Trussville’s other elementaries.
The district is expecting 1,000 to 1,200 new students to enroll within the next ten years due to new housing being built throughout the city, Martin said.
To accommodate population growth, the city has already added an extra wing to Hewitt-Trussville High School which currently has about 1,600 students.
Last year, the district proposed funding the school expansions through a 12.9 mil property tax increase, but voters did not approve.
“We needed to go back to the drawing board and come up with another solution to this matter of student enrollment and capacity issues,” Martin said.
He said it will take about $30 to $35 million to build a new elementary school that can accommodate 1,000 students. The district is still working to figure out the location of the school.
Martin said the district is in talks with the city to figure out how to fund the expansion. He added that the city may have to discuss new zoning to accommodate the new elementary school.
“It’s a tribute to our teachers and our city,” Martin said. “People – families – want to come to Trussville and put their students in our school system.”
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