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The outside of L. Frazier Banks Middle School, which closed in 2007. Marvin Smith, Jr. has plans to turn the campus into a construction and arts school.

(Amy Yurkanin | ayurkanin@al.com)

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama - The trophy cases are empty. The football field is shaggy and overgrown. Just about the only token left from the glory days of Banks High School football is a lonely set of shoulder pads sitting on a sidewalk between brick buildings.

L. Frazier Banks hasn't been a high school since the 1990s, when it was converted to a middle school that closed in 2007. In the last seven years, the building has been ransacked by squatters and taggers. Broken ceiling tiles and bins full of paper fill abandoned classrooms up to the windowsills.

It's hard to imagine this abandoned school fielded the team featured in the independent film "Woodlawn," the football powerhouse that won 35 games straight and back-to-back state championships.

But in his mind, Marvin Smith, Jr. can see the team charging out of the gymnasium.

"[The football team] would run across the street there and up through that chute," he says, pointing to the field.

Smith has been gathering his own team to plan the biggest comeback in Banks' history. He and his volunteers have been cleaning the building every weekend since September, in an attempt to reinvent it as a technical and arts school.

The Goal Institute of Construction Technology and the Arts would offer a master builder program and classes in everything from culinary arts to ballroom dance.

Before the school can take shape, Smith must clean the facility and raise money. He estimates that the full cost of the project could top $10 million.

In September, Smith signed a nine-month agreement with the city giving him access to the school to clean and assess the facility. The agreement gives the city the option to sell or lease the site for less than market value if they determine that the project is viable.

Smith and his team have already cleared out about half the buildings, including the main building with the cafeteria and the theater. On Sundays, the volunteers gather at the school, don dust masks and get to work, loading sleds with trash and debris and dragging them to rollaway dumpsters. The group has been moving through the buildings one at a time, clearing them out before moving on to the next. It's a big project, but Smith and his team have been taking it one step at a time.

"It's just like an elephant," Smith said. "How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time."

Smith swept a flashlight across the walls of the cafeteria. The school has no electricity or heat. The floor is clear, but covered in a thin layer of dust. Paint has chipped off the columns and walls.

"We're going to redo this and make it all modern," he says. "It won't look like a school cafeteria at all."

Smith is a general contractor and an artist, and he envisions the school as a facility that teaches both.

"I took everything that I love to do," he said. "I'm an artist and a general contractor, and I love to see people learn."

He was born in Fairfield, Alabama but moved to California as a young child. His father was a student leader at Miles College during the Civil Rights movement, and the family left the South in 1963 due to the violence being committed against movement leaders. Smith moved his construction business to Alabama after the housing bust.

Students who enroll in the master builder program will be required to build a house from the ground up, using a team they assemble from fellow students, Smith said.

And the students may get some preliminary construction experience rebuilding the school itself. Smith plans to hold early classes in the buildings across the street, a former elementary school that now houses administrative offices. Smith said the school district is seeking to move the office and sell the building.

He has consulted with architects, plumbers, HVAC specialists and others. Right now, he is seeking a loan to cover the expense of turning on the utilities and installing new doors to secure the school.

Brian Pond is one of the lead volunteers on the project.

"It's going to bring jobs and education to the neighborhood," he said. "It will be the first school of its kind."

The project also has the backing of Mayor William Bell. The city has been providing dumpsters to haul away the trash collected on the weekends, Smith said. In a city council meeting last week, the mayor applauded the work done at the Banks School.

"There's been criticism over the condition of Banks School," Bell said. "There were records that were left in the school by the school system. We had some people go in and out of the building to show that the building was not secure. Mr. Smith came forward with an idea. Now we're a long ways from him being able to implement the program itself. But the first step is to demonstrate that he had the support and the volunteers to clean the school up, and that's where we are today."

Cleaning is the first step. Smith's non-profit needs $150,000 just to get started on the project, which he is in the process of raising. But he is confident that the Banks School has plenty of life left in it.

"It has great bones," Smith said. "I'm just going to have to put the guts back in."