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New high school coming
On Monday, the Blount County Board of Education approved acceptance of bond money that will allow for construction of the new Southeastern High School to begin. The school, which is set to open in time for the beginning of the 2011-2012 school year, will be built in front of the current Southeastern School on Ala 75. “We will look to phase in the (high) school one grade at a time,” said Jim Carr, superintendent of the system. “That would mean we would have a ninth-grade class the first year, 10th grade in 2012- 2013, 11th grade in 2013-2014, and the first senior class in 2014-2015.” The school, which has been much talked about over the years, will consist of a 16-classroom addition and a full-size, competition gymnasium. The classroom addition will also include a suite of administrative offices and restrooms. Renovations to the current school will increase the seating capacity of the lunchroom, and some of the parking area in front of the school will have to be moved.
“The board many years ago acquired this property,” said Carr. “There is about 45 acres at Southeastern, almost all of it good, usable property along Ala 75. We are able to save money by using land that we already own.” Bond money Most of the funding for the projected $5.5 million construction is coming from a $3.75 million disbursement to the system from a bond issue made available by the federal government’s American Reinvestment and Recovery Act. That bond issuance of $3.75 million will be used along with almost $2 million budgeted from the system’s Public School and College Authority (PSCA) 2007 bond-issue funds. “All of the money used in this project,” said Carr, “was earmarked for construction. The funds could not be transferred for other uses. The high school (at Southeastern) has been on our capital plan for at least five years or so and the time was right (to begin construction).” Locust Fork to lose students The board has done a very preliminary projection to try to estimate enrollment when Southeastern becomes a full high school in 2014. “The school currently has 383 students (K-8),” said Carr. “When the first senior class is enrolled, we estimate the school will have about 700 students in grades K-12. This will pull students out of Locust Fork High School, although not all at one time. “Some of the students will not go initially because we will not be able to offer the extracurricular activities that Locust Fork will. We will adjust our faculty and what is offered (in extracurricular activities) as the enrollment changes as we add a grade each year.” Locust Fork High School, the secondlargest high school in the county system behind Hayden, received an eight-class- room expansion three years ago. However, the enrollment at the school has so increased that even the added classrooms have been filled and the school does not have much more room to grow. Bids, construction could be soon The timetable for the new Southeastern High School is an aggressive one. The system will get final plans for the school sometime in the next month or so from the architecture firm of Lathan & Associates of Homewood. Those plans will then be submitted to the State Department of Education’s architect for final approval. The board hopes to have the plans back from the state in time to let bids in late April or early May. Construction could begin in June and the system is looking at 12 months for construction. “With the economy the way it is and with construction down, we hope to get more competition for the bids,” said Carr. “If we do, that could translate to more ‘bang for the buck’ when it comes to cost per square foot.” |
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