Schools
Teasley Middle Replacement Scheduled for Construction in March
Construction bids are expected to be sent out next month.
Officials with the have a timeline in place to begin construction of the new before the end of the school year.
Superintendent Frank Petruzielo said that architectural design work is complete and the school system is in the process of soliciting permits from the . Bids for construction will be sent out in mid-December. Land development will be done in mid-February. And construction of the facility is expected to begin in March 2012. The school is slated to open in 2014.
“Ultimately, when we are able to open the new Teasley Middle facility, that will free up the existing Teasley facility for our technical high school academy,” Petruzielo said. “The two there are joined at the hip.”
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The technical high school is part of the school system’s initiative to create several new schools focused on specific studies.
Teasley is “critically overcrowded,” the superintendent said, and its sixth-graders are housed at its feeder elementary schools. Those students will be moved to the new facility when it opens. The current middle school is at 109 percent capacity with just seventh- and eighth-grade students.
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“Obviously, if we were to put the sixth grade in there, they’d be at 200 percent capacity,” Petruzielo said.
The current school was built for 775 students but currently has approximately 810 students enrolled. There are 10 portable units in use. The building will be a carbon copy of the E.T. Booth Middle School replacement, which is currently under construction. That school will have 95 classrooms and a capacity for 1,550 students.
The cost of building the new school is $32 million, and other items such as furniture, fixtures, equipment, supplies and technology bring the total cost to $37 million. The school system purchased 38.71 acres on Reservoir Drive off Reinhardt College Parkway for the new school at a cost of $2.9 million, which breaks down to $74,900 an acre. Commercial property typically sells for $100,000-$150,000 an acre, Petruzielo said.
“The economy and the market cooperated,” he said. “We got a really good deal for the taxpayers on the property.”
The new Teasley Middle School will be funded through the five-year continuation of the , which was .
