Multiple Lowndes County School District capital improvement projects — funded by a voter approved $44 million bond issue in May — are underway and on schedule.
“People are excited now that they can actually see buildings getting constructed, and coming up out of the ground,” Joey Henderson, a representative with JBHM Architect who is in charge of the projects, told The Dispatch on Monday.
In the most recent project update, the districts’ board of trustees last week selected West Brothers Construction and its bid for the construction of the new building for New Hope High School at $24,259,500. Henderson said the building is projected to be completed in the fall of 2017.
The bond funds capital improvements throughout the district, including a $11 million centralized career-technical center; $3 million for upgrades and additions at the Caledonia campus; $1.9 million for a new field house at Caledonia; and $2 million for renovations on the West Lowndes campus.
The district has until November of 2017 to spend the funds.
Henderson said the district is projected to remain in budget and that there have been no issues aside from some late starts due to weather.
“Right now they’re all going well,” he said. “The elementary had so much bad weather last spring it pushed us behind, but it’s pushing us to get finished this fall on it. Everything else should finish on schedule.”
The plan for incorporating the new high school in New Hope, which will have one floor compared to the current high school’s two floors, is to move the middle school to the old high school building, according to Henderson. The “long-term” plan is to remove some buildings on New Hope’s campus and rework the circulation for buses and parent pick-up/drop-off, he said.
“The entire campus is pretty congested,” Henderson said. “By pulling off of that campus we hope to free up some of the congestion on campus and it also gets the high school on the same side of the road as all the athletics.”
Board President Brian Clark said the special meeting on the high school building was held in order to make sure the project was moving at an appropriate speed.
“We did not want to wait three weeks and push this project out anymore,” he said.
The district has an overall budget of $26 million for the New Hope project, which will include a $1 million shelter/physical education space, a $120,000 movable partition within the library, as well as about $175,000 in new storm piping. Other additions include cafeteria ceilings, equipment, fiber infrastructure, and acoustical treatments. It will also feature a building automation system — which will control energy management that will save on “energy and money,” Henderson said.
The board will likely begin to advertise for the $11 million centralized career-technical center in May, according to Henderson.
Sam Luvisi is news editor and covers education for The Dispatch.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 36 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.