Barrow PTA Looks At Plans For New School

At a Parent Teacher Association meeting Tuesday, parents got their first glimpse of a plan to rebuild and expand as part of several sales-tax funded projects officials have proposed over the next five years.

School officials will ask voters on Nov. 8 to extend , to cover the cost of building a new school, as well as other renovation and technology upgrades needed throughout the district.

If the measure passes, Barrow students will have larger classrooms and hallway space. Preliminary plans include a kitchen and lunch room that's twice the size of the school's old cafeteria with room for a stage, more parking space and two playgrounds. 

Since there isn't much room for Barrow to expand outward along Pinecrest and Rutherford streets, planners have decided to build an additional story which will contain a new media center and gymnasium.

District officials also plan to retain some of the school's historic features, like its rotunda in the center of the school, according to a conceptual design plan of the building's interior presented at Tuesday's meeting.

"It looks good, I mean it really does. It's basically a more effective use of space," said Kim Ripps, Barrow's Parent Teacher Association President, who is serving on the review committee. "It's slightly larger, but not marginally larger. It's just more efficient."

So far this year, a committee made up of architects, administrators, teachers and parents have met twice to discuss the vision for the new school, and will continue to meet to review the finer details of the plan as the construction date nears, Principal Ellen Sabatini said. 

Construction is scheduled to begin in May, and is expected to last one year, with the goal of reopening in a year by August 2013, according to Sabatini.

"They (school district administrators) are under pressure for (the new school) to be finished on time, because they have two schools they need to open, and one of them is going to be the (old) Gaines School, and they all need to open at the same time," Sabatini said.

To make way for construction, teachers and students will move to Old Gaines Elementary, a school that has housed several other district schools in need of a temporary space while undergoing similar SPLOST renovation projects.

Old Gaines is slated for construction under SPLOST and will be renamed as Maxine Easom School. Preliminary construction is scheduled to begin at Gaines five months before Barrow is scheduled to move into the building, school administrators said.