Work began in December, but an official ground-breaking was held Wednesday morning for New Middle School Number Six in Midland.
Construction is underway for an unnamed middle school on Garrett Road---a soon to be 110,000 square foot, three -story building with state of the art technology, 46 classrooms with smartboards and room for 750 sixth to eighth graders.
"I think it's a lovely design. It has a little modern approach to it,” says Muscogee County Schools Superintendent Dr. Susan Andrews. "There of course will be a beautiful gymnasium, cafeteria, fine arts. There will be football practice fields."
There are already three middle schools in the North Columbus--Midland area, but Andrews says this new one is needed because all middle schools in the city are at or near capacity.
"We want to have enough school rooms for middle school students to attend so this will help ease the crowding."
On Dec. 20, 2011 there were 6,928 middle school students in Muscogee County. Blackmon Road Middle School had the highest enrollment at 852 students. Midland Middle School had 734 and Veterans Memorial had 678.
A lot of residential development is underway in the area where the new school is being built and the superintendent says, “Our projections have shown that the growth in this area will give us about 900 more middle school students in the next ten years and so we're trying to be proactive and build schools where growth is occurring.”
Some residents aren’t sold on the idea because of the potential traffic nightmares it could bring. Even though Stacy Anderson's child would likely attend the new school and it's needed in the area, she says she's lived next to a middle school before and doesn't want to experience it again.
"Even on the weekends when they were having like high school football games and stuff... getting in and out of there.. it was, just a nightmare."
But others say if it means smaller class sizes, then the additional school is a good idea.
"My kids have disabilities and the more time the teacher can spend with them, like one-on-one, sit down with them, the quicker they learn,” says Eric Robinson, who has a child at Blackmon and another who will be starting sixth grade in a few years.
In 2009, Columbus residents voted for a 1% sales tax increase for five years that helped pay for the new middle school estimated to cost $19 million and other area school projects.
The school is expected to be completed in April 2013. In the fall the school board will hold public hearings for the public to weigh in on the redistricting plan for middle schools.
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