Auburn City Schools is making preparations for a second high school to be opened in 2027, a move that will help the district accommodate its growing population.

The construction cost of the new school is projected to be $77.18 million with an additional program cost of about $91 million, according to the district’s master plan.

The plan states that the campus will have over 81 acres of land and the building will be 348,000 square feet and feature a three-story classroom building, a two-story athletic building, and a one-story performing arts building.

The school will hold 1,600 students in grades 9-12 and plans to add an additional 600 students in the future for a total capacity of 2,200.

According to reporting by the Opelika-Auburn News, Auburn City Schools held public forums about how the school system should move forward to accommodate growth in 2014, and by 2018, the board had approved the decision to build an additional high school within 10 years.

“It’s just simply accommodating the growth of the community,” Daniel Chesser, ACS public relations coordinator, told the local news outlet. “As this community grows, we need to be able to provide adequate learning spaces for our students and families, so it’s simply an effort to keep up with the pace of growth.”

Auburn High School, the district’s current and only high school, was built in 2017 and serves 2,200 students in grades 10-12 on a 104 acre campus.

The district has 9,410 total students enrolled and has had 25% growth over the last decade, making it the 17th largest overall district in the state.