LOXLEY, Alabama — With construction of a major aircraft plant underway in nearby Mobile, officials with the Board of Education are being asked to help fund an aviation center in Baldwin County.

Bob Higgins with the Baldwin County Economic Development Alliance addressed the Board of Education during a planning meeting Tuesday night at the Central Office Satellite in Loxley.

Higgins is part of an ad hoc team which is studying the potential of locating the aviation center, which would be a remote campus of Enterprise State Community College, at the Sonny Callahan Airport in Fairhope.

The team, which is made up of faculty and administrators from ESCC and Faulkner State Community College, members of the Baldwin County Board of Education, and officials from the City of Fairhope, along with Higgins, Dr. Amy Brabham with the Alabama Community College System, and Dr. Phillip Cleveland with the Alabama Department of Education, have been studying the possibility for years, according to a proposal presented to the BOE Tuesday.

According to the proposal, a 15,000 square foot expandable college building will be built by the Fairhope Airport Authority at a projected cost of about $2 million. Faculty from ESCC will teach aviation courses and faculty from FSCC will teach industrial maintenance and welding courses. Courses would be available to high school students as part of the BCBE’s dual enrollment program.

The Baldwin County Economic Development Alliance has offered to cover the interest expense up to $85,000 to be reimbursed when permanent financing is in place. According to the proposal, the BCBE is being asked to enter into a long term building lease to cover the debt and FSCC and ESCC are being asked to share operating costs based on each college’s use of the facility. The Alabama Department of Education will cover the cost equipping the facility, according to the proposal.

In 2009, the BCBE approved offering this curriculum at both the North Baldwin and South Baldwin Centers for Technology. The proposal would move the current courses from the SBCT to the college facility.

The proposal will come up for final approval at the Board’s Aug. 16 meeting.

“It’s exciting to see what you’re doing to support education and job growth in Baldwin County,” said BOE member Tracy Roberts. “I know this is where education is headed as far as preparing young people to enter the workforce and I’m really excited that we are finally to the point where we can move on this.”

Baldwin County School Superintendent Dr. Alan Lee, who has served on the Ad Hoc Study Team, along with School Board President Angie Swiger and Board Member Bob Callahan, said a big part of making the program work is that students are no longer required to take a bus to off-site training.

“They can now take their own private transportation and that makes a big difference in the willingness of the students to participate,” he said.

A survey taken this spring before the Airbus announcement showed that 13 to 26 percent of south Baldwin high school students said they were interested in dual enrollment at the facility, according to the proposal.

Callahan said Tuesday one of his main concerns is how the program will be funded. Swiger was not present at Tuesday’s meeting.

In other business Tuesday, Billy Brazil gave an update on the School System’s Chemical Abuse Prevention Program.

“We just want to thank the Board for all the support they have given this program,” Brazil said. “We were expecting 50, 60, maybe 75 participants and we ended up with 240 so the need for this program is definitely there.”

Board members also received a financial update and went through the agenda items with little discussion at Tuesday’s meeting. The Board’s regular meeting was held Thursday, July 26 at the Tharp Building in Bay Minette. Results from Thursday’s meeting were unavailable at presstime.