Adairsville Middle near completion

The Bartow Chamber is planning an open house at the school.

For the first day of school in Bartow County on Aug. 7, students attending Adairsville Middle School will kick off the academic year in a brand new building.

“We have substantially completed constructing the school and are currently toning up the outside of the building,” said John Harper, superintendent of Bartow County Schools, adding that rainy weather was a minor setback but he is optimistic the school would be completely finished very soon.

Having recently visited the school, Harper said it was furnished and “ready to rock and roll,” save for a few small additions of equipment such as projectors in the classrooms.

The new school can hold between 900 and 1,000 students, he said. It’s located right next to Adairsville High School on Old Highway 41. Funding for the $24 million school came from the Bartow County SPLOST IV, an education local option sales tax.

Middle school students have been going to classes at the old Adairsville High School for the past seven or eight years — since the new high school was built — Harper said. Now that building will be closed.

Harper said the new facility is going to be an enormous improvement for the teachers, faculty and students, since the old school building is one of the oldest buildings in the county.

It costs less to build a new facility, he explained, than to renovate an old building while trying to keep up with technological advancements. The new building is well-equipped for modern educational instruction, he said.

“It’s like having an old car,” said Harper. “If I fix it up, it’s still an old car. I wouldn’t drive it to California, but I would drive it to Cartersville. The community has needed a new middle school for a number of years.”

The Cartersville-Bartow County Chamber of Commerce will be hosting an event at the school on July 25 from 5 to 7 p. m. where the community is invited to come see the new school.