Huntsville City Schools’ $600 million, 10-year capital plan was presented at the Huntsville City Council Meeting on Thursday, Feb. 26.

Huntsville City Schools Superintendent Dr. Clarence Sutton, the school district’s financial officer Dustin Daehn, and City Finance Director Penny Smith presented details of the plan to council members.

Sutton said the capital plan is integral to the district’s strategic goal of becoming a “district of choice.”

“This plan is not separate from our strategic plan. It’s the core of it. It represents our vision, discipline, and long-term commitment to the future of our city and for our students,” Sutton said.

Sutton also provided an update on the school system’s progress.

Currently, Huntsville City Schools has:

23,759 students and 3,000 employees
Over 50 pre-K classes
Maintained and exceeded a 96% graduation rate
Over 800 high school seniors and juniors currently taking dual enrollment courses
More than 340 students learning virtually
A federal score of 88 and a state score of 89 (from 2025)

“The object of this is to modernize facilities and strengthen instructional environments, which also aligns with our HCS mission to provide a safe and supportive learning environment for our students,” Daehn said.

According to the presenters, significant progress on the capital plan has already been made, including the opening of a new central office and career tech center, the installation of turf on all high school baseball and softball fields, and the elimination of all six “pod gyms” at elementary schools.

Ground has also been broken on two new advanced schools: a new Montview STEM Magnet elementary school, and a new Chapman and STEM magnet middle school, which will feature a competitive e-gaming and robotics arena.

The plan also strategically addresses growth across the city, with classroom additions completed at Hampton Cove and Goldsmith Schiffman elementary schools. A new PreK-8th-grade school planned for Limestone County is scheduled to be completed by 2029.

In a follow-up question to the capital plan presentation, City Councilman Bill Kling asked Sutton whether the district was looking ahead to the potential revenue the schools would receive from the Eli Lilly development.

Sutton directed Daehn to answer Kling’s question.

“We’re going to grow into that $10 million. That’s not going to happen immediately. It’s going to grow and grow and eventually come to us. Not knowing what it looks like in several years, five, 10, 15 years, we just want to keep the excellence up,” Daehn said.

Daehn emphasized that the school district wants to make sure it has the teachers, updated facilities, and technology resources it needs.

“All of those things cost money, and all of those things are more and more expensive. We look forward to utilizing those ad valorem revenues when they come in accordingly,” Daehn said.

Immediately following the capital plan presentation, Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle presented Sutton with a check for more than $5 million. The funding, generated after the city closed out three tax increment financing (TIF) districts in August 2025, will support Huntsville City Schools’ ongoing facility and infrastructure improvements.

“When those TIFs close out, the money reverts back to where it should go. It goes to the schools,” Battle said.

According to the City of Huntsville, “Through a TIF, the City is allowed to use the growing property tax to pay for the improvements it made to support the development and to help pay for other public infrastructure improvements such as new schools.”

TIF districts are designated areas throughout Huntsville that stimulate economic development and provide funding to local schools. City officials said that their economic strategy in these districts created over 20,000 jobs and generated billions of dollars in private investment.

“After that money goes to the schools year after year after year, there’s an amount that will come back to the schools in the millions here because this community supported industry and opportunity and the industry pays back,” Battle said.

These districts, TIF 2, 4, and 6, include areas of:

Infrastructure improvements that helped to attract Polaris, Mazda Toyota, and Amazon
The Parkway Place Mall retail district
The construction of Lee and Butler High Schools, and Harris Hills Boulevard
The downtown safety precinct, the Von Braun Center, and the Huntsville Museum of Art

“We have a city that believes in education and giving opportunities to all students. It’s remarkable, and I’m just thankful to the City of Huntsville, the City Council, and Mayor Battle,” Sutton said.