Redstone Federal Credit Union on Friday donated $3 million toward the creation of the new Alabama School of Cyber Technology and Engineering Foundation, according to a press release.

The school will be built in Cummings Research Park-East. Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle announced the Huntsville City Council would acquire a parcel of land and donate it to the ASCTEF.

Construction on the project is tentatively scheduled to begin in August 2020. The school’s first class of students — high school sophomores and juniors from across the state — will start at the same time at an interim location at the University of Alabama in Huntsville’s Bevill Center.

The announcement of RFCU’s donation was made at an event attended by Battle, State Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, and Alicia Ryan, chief executive officer of contractor LSINC and a ASCTEF board member.

The $3 million donation to the project, presented by RFCU Chief Executive Officer Joe Newberry, represented the largest donation to the school to date.

“Education is a wonderful mechanism for bringing positive change to a community,” he said.

“This gift to the Alabama School of Cyber Technology and Engineering Foundation provides another opportunity for us to give back to our thriving communities. The benefits realized will continue for generations to come.”

The ASCTEF is described as a statewide residential magnet school where “Alabama’s brightest students will experience a collaborative educational environment that develops cyber technology and engineering professionals,” the release said. Students who attend will be provided opportunities and experiences in the rapidly growing fields of cyber technology and engineering.

The school will implement a flagship curriculum and assist a broad range of teachers, administrators, and superintendents across the state in replicating cyber technology and engineering studies in their own schools.