Gilmer County Schools plans to rebuild Ellijay Elementary School. The Board of Education has gotten the ball rolling by approving a resolution to phase out the facility.
At last week’s meeting, board members said plans to upgrade the school costs more than what the state’s funding to replace the facility, according to the architect’s estimates.
“[The building] is old,” GCSS Superintendent Dr. Brian Ridley said. “It’s got a lot of foundation issues. There’s been a school on that site probably for close to 100 years.”
The phase-out resolution states Ellijay Elementary will no longer be used for any school, and that the board intends to demolish the existing building and replace it with a new one.
Ridley said phasing out the school is a needed part of the administrative process, since the Department of Education will no longer count it in its calculations.
“We still use it, but they don’t,” he noted. “That’s one of the first steps in replacing it because it allows us to go ahead and start earning replacement, capital improvement dollars from the state, so we’re just having to go ahead and do that now.”
GCSS is in the planning stages for the rebuild and has met with zoning officials. Ellijay Elementary is in a floodplain, so Ridley said they’ve had to get some special considerations from the city, Georgia Emergency Management and other federal agencies.
“It takes a little longer, so if we go ahead and do the phase-out process now, we can include it in our facilities plan for the year with the state, and it allows us to go ahead and start earning those dollars and still use the school,” Ridley explained.
The building timeline will depend on the design of the school and where they’re approved to put it on the property. Crews will either tear down the current building before starting construction or build the new school next to it while it’s still being used by students and staff, he mentioned.
“It’s going to be a long process because the site development and site approval is going to take a while, but we’ve got topographical studies ordered, and we’re working with the city and Department of Education to make sure we get it in the right place,” Ridley said.