Construction on the new Oglethorpe County Elementary School remains on schedule and on budget, as crews begin the brick-laying process.
Heavy rain and temperatures below freezing haven’t stopped progress for Parrish Construction Group, which is managing the project.
The construction caused a large pond to form behind the site, collecting stormwater up to 22 feet deep after recent heavy rains, Parrish assistant superintendent Brad Davis said. However, the crew gradually fills in the area during the construction process.
The new 135,560-square-foot school building that is projected to cost $41.5 million, will open to students in January 2025, replacing the county’s current elementary and primary schools and uniting grades K-5. With 79 classrooms, the building will hold 1,250 students.
Katie Baldwin, the principal for both OCPS and OCES, will continue her role as principal at the new school. Baldwin said she is excited about the move and is looking forward to several aspects of the change.
“Being accessible to everybody at all grade levels at the same time is what I’m most looking forward to,” Baldwin said.
The building will feature six wings, one for each grade, with a paved walkway that goes from the new school to the current Oglethorpe Elementary School, which will hold pre-K classes, along with other uses to be determined.
Paul Thiel, the Oglethorpe County School System’s director of operations, has been overseeing the construction since its groundbreaking last May. He said the new building is a “best of both worlds scenario.”
“You are basically going to have elementary kids on one side and primary school kids on the other,” Thiel said, “so they are going to still be separate and in their pods by their age group, but then also they will be able to come together.”
The construction is the first part of a multi-phase project, which will see the current Oglethorpe County Primary School demolished in 2025.
The school opened as Oglethorpe Consolidated School, an all-Black school in 1945, before becoming an elementary school, then the primary school for students in kindergarten through second grade in 1997.
The county will honor the former school by building a commemorative pavilion outside of the fourth-grade wing, which faces the site of the current primary school, Thiel said.
Baldwin said she thinks the students will be excited about the new building’s “bells and whistles,” but she also believes logistics might pose an initial challenge.
Due to the move happening over winter break, the new school’s parking lot will not be constructed until the OCPS is demolished in 2025, causing a lack of parking. Staff will also shift schools over break.
“There’s a lot of planning that goes into how we take people’s classrooms from one building to another building in the middle of a school year,” Baldwin said.