LAURENS COUNTY, Ga. — West Laurens Middle School Principal Reed Waldrep says it's out with the old and in with the new.
"I look back at West Laurens Middle School Junior High, some of you remember it as Junior High, and it's just a tired building. It's an old building and it's tired," Waldrep said.
They've broken ground on the future West Laurens Middle School.
"Well the old one is about 50 years old. It was occupied in 1970-71, and we've put a lot of patches on it. It was built for about 700 kids after the remodel a few years ago, and we've got about 1,000 kids there so you can understand the crampness, the space," Waldrep said.
Superintendent Clifford Garnto says the $40 million project is covered by education sales tax money known as ESPLOST.
"The project is about 180,000 square feet for the facility itself, but it'll also have an athletic complex with track, football field, softball, baseball, tennis courts," Garnto said.
The two story building will have three wings, one for each grade level with updated technology features inside the classrooms. 6th grader Maizy Thomas can't wait to start her 8th grade year in a new building.
"We've had the same school for a long time and we really need something new and it's old and we just need something new," Thomas said.
The site is on Honeysuckle Road in Dublin.
Construction begins in January, and the school should be completed by summer of 2022.