Prattville High School Proposal Seeks $150 Million for New CACC Campus Facility

Autauga County Schools Superintendent Lyman Woodfin stood before the Autauga County Commission and Prattville City Council on March 17 with a straightforward demand wrapped in an ambitious vision: commit millions of dollars annually to help bond a new $150 million Prattville High School on the Central Alabama Community College campus, or risk losing the window entirely.

"We need to know pretty quickly, and I say that respectfully," Woodfin told the council. "We have been talking about this project for going on a year now, and the reality is that the board is up for reelection in three years, so if you start construction today, you're looking at three years before kids walk in the door."

Woodfin proposed that the county commission and Prattville City Council contribute between $5 million and $6 million annually, with the Autauga County School Board adding between $2 million and $3 million per year. His financing framework targets a bond covering roughly 40% of the project cost, with the remaining 60% drawn from state, federal, and private partners. He acknowledged he is planning for the possibility that outside grant money may not materialize. The Montgomery Advertiser reported Woodfin presented payout scenarios for both a $150 million and a $200 million bond, with the larger option potentially encompassing additional construction projects in Prattville and Pine Level.

Woodfin was direct about the limits of his authority. "These are (my) numbers," he told the Prattville City Council, and he repeatedly noted that the Autauga County Board of Education had not approved the plan.

The proposed school on the CACC campus would offer something Autauga County Schools called a "first-of-its-kind partnership in the southeast": students earning a high school diploma and an associate degree simultaneously without leaving campus. The facility would also include expanded career and technical education programs and a dedicated military preparedness wing. "That new school would have a military preparedness wing, where we would work on giving our military families what they want," Woodfin explained. He cited military families directly when describing the school's program design, telling the Prattville City Council: "What they are asking for is: Do you have an International Baccalaureate program? Do you have a way of preparing my kid for the military? We do."

If funding is secured, Woodfin's target is to break ground in January 2027 and open the school for the 2029 school year. The new facility would likely carry the Prattville High School name; what grades the current PHS campus would serve is a question the board of education would settle later. The Autauga County Technology Center, which sits adjacent to the existing high school, would remain open for workforce development programs.

District 1 Prattville Councilor Wade Newman raised concerns from constituents who view a new school as a luxury rather than a necessity. Woodfin pushed back directly. "I can understand that rationale if you're not in our world every day," he said. "The reality is that, with the needs of the kids and everything your faculty and staff need… by the time you get done renovating, you could have built something cheaper."

That skepticism has financial roots. Autauga County voters pay only the minimum 10 mills of property tax allowed by state law, all of which must fund the district's share of Alabama's Foundation Program for basic operations. In 2024, Woodfin and the board proposed a 7-mill increase that would have generated approximately $7 million annually; voters rejected it by a two-to-one margin. Consultants subsequently found that forming a hybrid county-city school system or spinning Prattville into its own city district were not financially viable alternatives.

Woodfin framed the stakes in regional terms. "Man, oh man, if we can figure it out, I think it changes the River Region from here on out," he said. "I think that model can become something that not only drives state improvement, but it drives improvement in the southeast, because I would expect other community colleges to look at the success and go 'that's how you partner with your local school system.'"

No formal votes or commitments from the county commission or Prattville City Council were reported following the March 17 presentation.