Construction on new middle school to begin by April

By Scott Wright

CENTRE — The 66-acre lot alongside Highway 411 east of downtown Centre is cleared off and Superintendent of Schools Brian Johnson expects construction of an $11.5 million middle school to begin in spring 2008. He said construction of a $2.5 million gymnasium at Sand Rock High School should begin around the same time.

“Preliminary drawings on the gymnasium should be ready by Nov. 20 and around Dec. 3 for the new middle school,” Johnson said. “We plan to receive bids for the gym on Feb. 14 and on March 15 for the middle school.”

Johnson said the drawings will be sent to the state architect for approval after they're approved by the Cherokee County Board of Education. He said current plans call for construction to be underway at both sites by April 1, 2008.

“We're looking at construction of the gym taking about 10 months, which will mean it can open after the Christmas break next year,” he said. “The basketball teams will begin next season in the current facility, then move to the new gym after they come back from the holiday.”

Johnson said the new Centre Middle School is slated to open for in the fall of 2009.

“The students will go to school all of the 2008-09 academic year in the facility on Main Street, then move to the new school for the 2009-10 school year,” he said. “Things really seem to be falling into place right now and we're all very excited about getting the construction of these first two projects underway.”

Johnson said he spent part of Thursday afternoon in a conference call with the board of education's bond attorney and financial advisor, finalizing the packaging and selling of the bond issues that will be used to pay for the gym and middle school.

“We're going to split the bond issues into two,” he explained. “We'll do one before Christmas and the other in January 2008 in order to take advantage of some tax incentives we can gain by keeping each of them below $10 million.”

Johnson said the advisors have assured him there should be no trouble selling the bonds, which should total around $14.5 million. He said investors typically consider a school system to be a sound investment with a guaranteed return.

“It's not like the Cherokee County Board of Education is going anywhere, and the millage vote guaranteed our income for the next 30 years,” he said.

In August, 87 percent of Cherokee County voters approved Johnson's plan to combine and extend four separate millage levies through 2038.

Johnson said the new gymnasium at Sand Rock may not be the fanciest design in the history of athletics facilities, but he said he's positive the students and faculty will be pleased with the Wildcats' new arena.

“It's a 1,000-seat gym, and that may seem like a lot, but the gym they have now -- which is much too small -- holds 800,” Johnson said. “It's not extravagant, by any means, but it's something that's going to be a lot nicer than what we have now, and something that the school and the community can be proud of.”

Johnson said he feels the same way about the new middle school.

“It's going to be nice, and I've always worked under the principle that if something is worth doing, then it's worth doing right,” he said. “And we're going to do the middle school the right way. We're going to have two really nice facilities.”

Johnson said the same architecture firm that is working on the two major projects is also preparing to perform less expensive projects at the school system's other campuses.

“As soon as we get the bonds going and get the plans for the two big projects sent to the state for approval, we're going to hit the ground running on the smaller projects at the other schools,” he said. “We know construction materials aren't going to get any cheaper so we want to get things going as soon as possible.”

A portion of the money raised by the state Legislature from the sale of a $1 billion bond will be used to fund the other construction projects, Johnson said. The county's share of the bond issue should be around $3.6 million.

“The money we're getting from the state should take care of all the general capital improvements we're planning across the school system,” he said. “We're not sure exactly when we'll get that, but right now we're hearing by February, maybe.”

Johnson said it is even conceivable that the county's share of the money from the state bond will allow the county to reduce the amount it borrows on the second local bond.

Johnson extended a special thanks to the Cherokee County Commission, whose members were instrumental in helping get the site for the new middle school cleared so quickly.

Asked what the board of education has planned for the remainder of the 66-acre middle school campus, Johnson was non-committal.

“Well, there's plenty of room for a new elementary school and maybe even a new high school on the site,” Johnson said. “But both of those current facilities are in much better shape than the middle school, so any major projects like that are likely 10-15 years down the road.”