Main Elementary is 1st priority
Soon the current school will be demolished as the city school system pushes to meet its deadline of getting a new Main Elementary opened by the 2019-20 school year.
The demolition of Main Elementary School is expected to get underway this week, paving the way to progress on the ELOST 5 project for Rome City Schools.
With an extension of the 1-cent education local option sales tax getting the go-ahead from voters on Nov. 7, Rome City Schools is moving along with one of its three major projects, building a new Main Elementary. The current ELOST runs out March 31, 2019, and ELOST 5 collections will pick up the next day.
Not included in the demolition are the cafeteria, which is a separate building at the back of the school that was recently refurbished, and the gym, also a separate building. The system is shooting to have the new school ready for students by the 2019-2020 school year, and the project is estimated to cost approximately $10 million to $11 million.
In August, the Rome Board of Education approved Carrollton-based J&R Construction as the contractor at-risk, which means the company holds all liability while overseeing the project. J&R is currently working on setting up bid packages for subcontractors, said Lou Byars, the superintendent for Rome City Schools.
To start the project now, the system is essentially borrowing from itself, Byars said. As ELOST 5 collections come in the system Lou Byars will pay back what was borrowed, he continued.
Under ELOST 5 plans, the system also plans to restructure North Heights Elementary into a sixth-grade academy. However, work on this project can’t begin until the new Main Elementary is built. Main Elementary students started attending North Heights at the start of this school year, and when a new school is built, they will all move over.
The next big move for the system is finding a contractor at-risk for the project of constructing a multipurpose facility, which will house a college and career academy along with athletic facilities, at Rome High, Byars said. The board could possibly be presented with ELOST-related items during their December meeting, he added.
Plans for the CCA are still being finalized, as system officials work to determine the exact number of pathways to house in the new building, Byars said. Determining the phases of the projects are also in the works.
Since the new building will be built on the site of the current practice football field, the system is seeking bids for the project, which is expected to cover 4.5 acres, for putting a new field at the high school. The new practice field will be fullsize and bleachers will be put in.
With an ELOST extension secured, the system has two projects that it would like to complete with the remaining funds to be collected from the current ELOST.
The first is completing the one-to-one initiative for Chromebooks, so all students from kindergarten to 12th grade have one of the laptops — only the system’s first-graders and kindergartners are left.
The second is installing air conditioning at each elementary school gym. Within the next few months Byars expects project packages to be presented to the board for approval.