October 31, 2002
Forsyth County Board of Education members previewed the county's seven-year plan calling for 12 new schools to be built by 2008.
Six elementary, four middle and two high schools will be needed to accommodate growth, according to Facilities Director Robert Sewell.
"How we come about these projections is we take the real numbers of students per individual school over the last five years then take an average of real attendance and project an estimate forward for seven years," said Sewell.
The plan could cost the county $190 million since the estimated cost to build a 70-classroom elementary school is $12 million and the cost to build a middle school is $12.6 million and the cost for a high school could range between $32 and $35 million, according to public information specialist Jennifer Caracciolo.
Seven of the schools in the proposed plan are to be located at the southeast section of the county. One of the schools, Sharon Elementary located on Old Atlanta Road, will be opening its doors to an estimated 933 students next year and could be at capacity by 2008. Another school set to open in 2004, Riverwatch Middle located on James Burgess Road, will be accepting an estimated 788 students and be at capacity in three years if the county continues to grow at the same rate.
According to the plan, the school system would open two elementary schools, one middle school and one high school in 2005. The new elementary schools would give relief to Midway, Big Creek, Daves Creek, and Settles Bridge and Sharon Elementary schools. The new middle school would give relief to North, Liberty and Otwell Middle schools. The new high school would relieve all three current high schools, North, Central and South.
The school system plans to build two elementary and one middle school in 2006. The two elementary schools would provide assistance in relieving the number of students at Chestatee Elementary and Primary Schools, Coal Mountain, Cumming and Mashburn schools. Vickery Creek and South Middle Schools would be loosing students to the new middle school.
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A new relief south high school is proposed for 2007 along with a fourth relief middle school for the following year. The middle school would help to relieve crowding at Otwell and Riverwatch.
Sewell questioned whether the board wanted to make the map available to the public on the school website (www.forsyth.k12.ga.us) since many might conceive the map as a final site location for a particular proposed school.
The plan is not entirely new to the public or the school system, according to School Superintendent Paula Gault.
"This is really not anything new," said Gault. "There is a misunderstanding that we are not planning but we are by seven years or more."
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