CRAWFORD COUNTY, Ga. — The Crawford County Superintendent and high school principal have announced plans for a new school building.
Middle school teacher Melessa Hollis, local farmer Leighton Cooley, and high school math teacher Lauren Johnson share experiences in the old Crawford County High School building.
"I actually attended Crawford County and I took physical education in the gym that we are currently using 30-something years ago," Hollis said.
"It was a nice building when we were there, it was a nice building when we were there. They've done a lot of work keeping it up, but like everything else [the] building's just aged out," Cooley said.
"I went to Crawford County High School a long time ago and so now I've taught there for 12 years, and so just to have something nice and new for our students to be proud of," Johnson said.
Superintendent Brent Lowe and High School Principal Desmond Foster announced plans to replace the old building in phases that will take about 20 months.
"We looked and saw that if we phased out our old high school and built a new middle-high, we would get about $23 million from the state with a local participation of about $10 million," Lowe said.
"The design's perfect. We have a commons area in the middle that will be for their library and their lunch room, but the design other than that... they won't see each other at the same time. They won't be in that part of the building at the same time, the schedules will be different. It's just going to be a huge positive all the way around for these kids," Foster said.
Millicent Price is excited for her son to attend middle school in a new building.
"It just builds the morale up in Crawford County and just have a fresh start in a couple of years and I think it's going to be great," Price said.
The new high school will also have a new gym to replace the old one that's located off-campus. It was built in the 1950s.
High school students will still report to the old building for class during the construction. They will close off different parts during each phase.
Lowe says they're also planning to expand their parking lots.
Once the middle and high school students move into the new building, the elementary school will move into the old middle school, and the primary school will then move into the elementary school space
This project is expected to finish by the beginning of the 2022 school year.
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