Students returning to Oglethorpe County High School on Aug. 7 might not recognize the interior of the building.
A summer of renovations has included fresh paint, new floors, window tint and the removal of most of the lockers. Principal Bill Sampson said the renovations are on schedule to be complete before the students return.
Every hallway, common area, classroom and the agriculture shops received a fresh coat of paint.
“Pretty much the entire interior school was painted,” Sampson said. “I am extremely proud of the way the school looks.”
The renovation also included luxury vinyl tile flooring throughout the hallways, cafeteria, media center, offices and other common areas. Classrooms still have the original tile flooring.
New window tint was added throughout the building to improve both safety and the appearance of the campus. Sampson said the blinds were damaged, so instead of replacing them they decided to add a safety tint.
Superintendent Phillip Powell said the window tint serves two purposes.
“It was for school safety, so you would have it where individuals couldn’t look in to be able to see, but at the same time it was also an aesthetic where teachers had over the years installed blinds in the classrooms or things that were hard to maintain,” he said. “We just wanted a uniform look throughout the school where students could be proud of it.”
Another noticeable change is the removal of most of the student lockers in the hallways.
Sampson said the lockers hadn’t been used for 4-5 years and created unnecessary blind spots in the hallways. The old lockers were the first thing to be removed, but five sets of lockers built into the wall remain.
“If we do have a student who needs a locker for some reason, we can make a locker available to those students,” Sampson said.
Painting the interior of the school cost $181,679.92, while flooring, window film, locker removal and other construction work cost $336,480, for a total of $518,159.92.
“We had leftover construction funds from the elementary school to pay off, and it was completed exactly at budget,” Powell said.
Sampson said he hopes the renovations will create a better environment for students and staff. The building hadn’t been painted in at least a decade, he added.
Powell said improving facilities builds a sense of community pride.
“I think it’s the attention to detail and the sense of pride that we want each of our stakeholders to see that we care about the small things so the big things become easy,” he said.