The effort to bring Alabama’s new residential high school for healthcare sciences temporarily to the campus of Judson College has come up short. The state has selected the University of West Alabama in Livingston as the temporary site for the Alabama School of Healthcare Sciences, which is set to open in fall 2025.
Perry County Commission Chairman Albert Turner discussed the news in a Facebook post this week, attributing Judson’s failed bid to concerns about infrastructure, police protection, and quality of life in Marion.
Turner stated that supporters of the Judson proposal were unable to offer guarantees regarding clean water service and adequate law enforcement, two longstanding challenges for the city. According to Turner, those issues prompted State Senator Bobby Singleton— initially a backer of the Judson plan—to shift his support to UWA instead.
Comments from Turner’s office emphasized the question of parental confidence, suggesting that families might hesitate to send students to a residential program in Marion “knowing what they know.”
In his post, Turner also criticized Marion Military Institute, claiming the school “treat[s] their cadets like prisoners” by restricting them from entering the city.
No statement has been issued by MMI in response to his remarks, and the school has not publicly linked its curfew and security policies to any judgment about Marion itself.
Turner noted that several institutions—including the DaVita Dialysis Center, TekPak, and MMI—have continued to operate in Marion despite the city’s troubled water system, which has drawn scrutiny in recent years for frequent outages and disrepair. He emphasized his support for improving services and has advocated for merging the city and county water systems as an avenue for that improvement.
He has likewise advocated for the merger of the Marion and Uniontown police departments into a county-wide law enforcement agency under the auspices of the Perry County Sheriff’s office.
The Alabama School of Healthcare Sciences, the first of its kind in the state, will be a fully residential high school focused on preparing students for careers in medicine and healthcare. The school’s permanent facility is under construction in Demopolis, with completion expected in 2026.
A grassroots push by Judson alumnae urged supporters to contact lawmakers and advocate for the campus’s use as a temporary site. The effort drew attention but, in the end, was not enough.
Still, development is moving forward elsewhere in Perry County. The Alabama Community College System has approved plans to establish a branch campus of J.F. Ingram State Technical College at the Perry County Re-entry Center in Uniontown. The facility is expected to break ground this fall.
