GAINESVILLE – Members of the Hall County Schools Board of Education were given a guided tour of their nearly-completed $8.26-million investment in technology following their board meeting Monday evening.
The site for the school board meeting was moved to The Oaks at Lanier College and Career Academy on Tumbling Creek Road at Atlanta Highway just so board members could see the progress being made on the project.
School Superintendent Will Schofield described the 31,090-square feet facility as, “Kind of the brain center of the entire school district when it comes to our infrastructure for our technology.”
Funded by SPLOST V dollars the facility should be ready by Thanksgiving for the first of several move-in phases.
Schofield said, “We’ve been housing technology for the district kind of at a corner of the old South Hall Middle School.” Schofield said it was time to relocate into a more suitable setting and facilitate the upcoming return of classes to the SHMS location.
Schofield says the new structure is already preparing for future expansion and use. “You’ll notice the south end of the building…it’s been built with an expansion joint…and if we ever decide to go in-house central warehousing that is where we would add on to the building and put a general warehouse for the Hall County school district.”
“This was probably 18-months ago that it actually was approved but we have been talking about it for a number of years, that we knew we needed an instructional support center,” Schofield said about the additional space in the new facility dedicated to district wide instructional needs.
“It’ll be where all the technology training happens for the district.”
As to the ever-advancing state of technology, Schofield feels like the school board’s investment will serve the school district’s needs for a long time to come. “Yes, I think this is kind of in the line of what Georgia Tech has, what the Fulton County school district has...we've kind of looked at some of the tech leaders and copied their playbook.”
According to Assistant Superintendent of Technology Dr. Aaron Turpin, 34 employees will work in the new complex and he hopes to have all areas of the building in full operation by the start of the second semester in January.
Additionally, Lanier Tech plans to offer LCCA students welding and industrial mechanics classes within the building.
School board vice-chairman Craig Herrington said following the tour, “It’s a big investment but I think it’s something much needed in Hall County.”
Irma Impact
School board members were updated on the damages to district property caused by the recent visit of Tropical Storm Irma.
Executive Director of Facilities Matt Cox said roughly $18,000 worth of damage was done to the HVAC system at Meyers Elementary, several fences were damaged by falling trees and three school buses were hit by falling trees with two of the vehicles being totaled.
“We dodged a lot of bullets,” Superintendent Will Schofield said with a sigh of relief. “We only lost $1300 worth of food in the entire district which is unheard of with the fact that we had some schools without power for three and four days.”
Schofield said opening the middle schools following the storm to feed people and offer a place to take a hot shower was welcomed and appreciated countywide.
“These schools belong to this community,” Schofield said. “There were hundreds of people that were fed and got to have a sense of normalcy.”
