WCPS Breaks Ground On New Middle School

Walton County Public Schools has officially broken ground on the first of two new schools to be built on Bay Creek Church Road in Loganville.

At 9 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2013, WCPS officials, Loganville Middle School faculty members and other interested parties gathered for the groundbreaking of the new Loganville Middle School.

“We will be opening in two years time, for the 2015/2016 school year,” said WCPS Superintendent Garry Hobbs, adding that the new elementary school is likely to open a year later. “An elementary school usually only takes a year to build.”

Hobbs said with the extra sports fields, larger gym and increased campus space, the new middle school will take two years to build. The school will have three separate wings, one each for sixth, seventh and eighth-grade students. It will have a media center, which will have space to house the iPads that will be issued to middle school students by that time. The school is also slated to have an outdoor classroom and a greenhouse. The architects for the project are Manley Spangler Smith, PC and the contractor is Bowen and Watson Inc. The building is 214,113 square feet with a cost per SF of $142. Hobbs thanked the Walton County taxpayers for continuing to approve the Education Local Option Sales Tax, which allowed for Walton County's schools to remain some of the best in the state.

The new LMS will have a core capacity of 1,500 students and is expected to open with about 1,250 students. Faculty members from LMS were bussed in for the groundbreaking ceremony and Hobbs thanked them for their patience. Except for LMS and Loganville Elementary School, all other school buildings in Walton County have either been renovated or replaced.

There are still have issues that will need to be worked out before the school opens. At this time, the property is not located within the Loganville city limits, which raises the issue of school resource officers. The schools inside the city of Loganville are served by SROs from the Loganville Police Department. The property will need to be annexed in to the city in order for that to continue.

According to officials, WCPS, the Walton County Commission and the City of Loganville would have to agree to the annexation first. They also would have to agree to forming an “island” around the school since the adjoining properties would remain in unincorporated Walton County. If all that is worked out, then the state legislature would have to put its stamp of approval on the island being formed. 

There are also concerns about the impact the extra traffic will have on Bay Creek Church Road that officials are working with Georgia Department of Transportation to address.

With more than 13,400 students in K through 12th grade, WCPS is the 20th largest school system in the 180 school systems in the state.