Madison city school leaders are handling being one of the fastest–growing areas in the state. They are set to open a new elementary school for the 2026-2027 school year.

Russell Branch Elementary will be the eighth elementary school in the school district.

Madison City Superintendent Dr. Ed Nichols said it’s necessary to bring in an additional school because all of the existing elementary schools are at 100% capacity. He is trying to keep up with the 350 new students who have been coming into the district each year for the last 10 years.

It’s been compounding over the past couple of years.

“Even with the last four years of growth, we’ve had about 2,000 new houses and 2,000 new apartments in the last four years,” Nichols said. “We still would have seen growth. But you know, that magnifies it.”

The system added Midtown Elementary School five years ago, which added 500 seats to the district. Soon after, they realized they would need another elementary school. That’s when they started planning for Russell Branch Elementary, which would hold 1,000 students. It’s being built inside the new Madison Branch subdivision off of Hardiman Road, just past the new roundabout.

He is taking into account the physical space of the school because he prioritizes “programmatic” growth. That means he will continue to pour into programs like career technology and fine arts.

“If you don’t have the adequate space, then you have to start turning people away from the programs that, in ways, drive students to have success outside just the academics,” Dr. Nichols said. “So that’s a challenge we’ve got to look at, as we grow the high schools to 2,500 or 2,600 that we’re still able to offer students access to these programs, and we’re not turning students away. Then you need facilities. Right now, we have two and a half art teachers with two art rooms, but we’ll need three rooms, and you have two drama teachers at each school, but maybe you’ll need a third one. So you don’t want to take students out of these career tech or fine arts or those programs, they’re going to grow as the school grows.”

While many parents are happy with their Madison City education, they dread possibly having to move their kids to different schools. One of those parents is Madison City Council Parent Teacher Association President Sarita Edwards. All five of her children are either attending or have graduated from a Madison City school. Two children are in high school, and one is in elementary school.

“It’s a part of the world that comes with living in Madison city, and so you know I just always try to keep an open mind and hope that the result doesn’t drastically affect our dynamic,” said Edwards. “I don’t think any of us enjoy the process, but it is to be expected.”

Elijah is her youngest. He’s a rising third grader at Rainbow Elementary School. She prefers that he stay at Rainbow because he’s doing well in his special education program. He was diagnosed with Trisomy 18. It’s a chromosomal abnormality that has led him to be wheelchair-bound and non-verbal. She worries about adapting to a new environment.

“My other children had really good experiences in different elementary schools, too,” Edwards said. “I’m not necessarily afraid of him having a negative experience, I just know the good experience at Rainbow. So it would be a learning curve for all of us. It would be a learning curve for me. It would be a learning curve for them to know my son. It would be a learning curve for him to get to know another group of people, and it’s a lot to consider. Because of his special health needs, that’s always a priority in terms of my thoughts.”

She says she doesn’t know if he’ll have to move to a different zone, since he was specifically moved to Rainbow Elementary School. She’s not particularly worried about going to a different Madison City School.

“The school system has been phenomenal,” she said. “I have friends in other districts outside of North Alabama who talk about the challenges that they have with their special education needs, and I’m able to say that I don’t have those challenges. We have an amazing team for him. They are part of our medical team. We try to have full care coordination, we bring in what they do at school for him to the healthcare space, and it helps navigate his entire care.”

Parents like Edwards have already been included in the rezoning process. Dr. Nichols hosted two focus groups with 60 community stakeholders to gather input on where to establish the new zones.

“My takeaway was all the intricate parts that come with rezoning, it’s not just about choosing the school that’s closest to your home, like it’s so many variables that need to be considered,” said Edwards. “That was the fresh perspective that I walked away with.”

Those maps were turned over to construction scheduling experts HPM Consultants to draft three rezoning options. Each potential plan includes rezoning options for elementary, middle, and high schools, which take into account how they interconnect.

Dr. Nichols prioritizes socioeconomic diversity in each zone as well as ensuring that every school is at approximately 90% capacity.

“The predominant amount of growth probably is on the western side of Madison, but we can’t build everything on the western side,” Nichols said. “If we do, we can’t balance our schools right.”

The three draft maps were sent out to Madison City parents a couple of weeks ago. They were asked to vote for their preferred map. Dr. Nichols said approximately 3,000 out of 24,000 parents responded.

He said he expects to narrow down the options and send out one to two more surveys for feedback. He will also host community meetings to hear parents’ concerns.

“I think the last time the final product (Midtown Elementary School) that we came up with, while you can’t please everybody, we did take into account a lot of feedback we got, and so it helped us to have a better zoning plan,” Nichols said.

He’s confident that his school system can provide an excellent education, even if students have to leave their current school.

“The number one thing is, parents love their school, and we don’t want to leave our school, and I understand that. But the good news is, you’re going to go into another high-performing school. I mean, our high schools and middle schools are in the top 2% performance-wise, and our elementary schools, there are far more of them. I think there are probably 700-plus elementary schools in the state. They’re probably top 4% of every one of those, and they rank nationally. So you’re wherever you go, you’re walking into a great school.

It’s the kids through the years, parents have told me this, the kids adapt far faster than the adults. Maybe adapt to the change. But you know, nobody likes a change. Nobody likes that. And that’s probably the biggest thing.”

He encourages parents to keep an eye out for the next survey and community meeting.