Fwd: Oconee Schools Moving Forward With Plans For $12.7 Million Instructional Support Center



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From: Lee Becker <lbbecker48@gmail.com>
Date: February 7, 2022 at 12:04:44 AM EST
To: lowellsdad@gmail.com
Subject: Oconee Schools Moving Forward With Plans For $12.7 Million Instructional Support Center
Reply-To: lbbecker48@gmail.com

 Oconee Schools Moving Forward With Plans For $12.7 Million Instructional Support Center
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Oconee County Observations
Dear Friends,

Oconee County Schools plans to issue a request for proposals for construction of a New Instructional Support Center on North Main Street in Watkinsville on April 4 of next year, with construction to be completed in July of 2024.

Cost of the 35,000-square-foot building is now estimated at $12.7 million, or more than 50 percent higher than the $8.3 million estimate when the project was planned in 2019.

The Instructional Support Center will be funded entirely by the Educational Local Option Sales Tax (ELOST) approved by voters in March of last year and will be the second most expensive project to be funded by that tax, behind the $34.2 million for the new Dove Creek Middle School.

The new building will be double the size of the current square footage of the Oconee County Schools central offices and will be made of up 57 percent occupied space, 21 percent space for growth, and 22 percent circulation space.

These details of county building plans were revealed in a report by Brock Toole, Chief Operations Officer for Oconee County Schools, to the Board of Education at its out-of-county retreat on Jan. 19.

Toole also told the Board that North Oconee High School already is operating over the 1,500 student capacity and Oconee County High School is projected to exceed that same capacity in 2029.

The plan is to add three portable classrooms at North Oconee High School for the School Year beginning in 2024 and to add additional portable classrooms in each of the school years 2025 through 2027.

Ultimately both high schools are to add 26 new permanent classrooms to expand their capacity to 2,000 students.

For more on the story, please go to Oconee County Observations.

Thanks.

Lee
 
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