Progress continues on new Gainesville middle school

Come Monday, Red Elephants will know a lot more about the second middle school under construction.

At the school board's combined work session and meeting, there will be updates on the building progress, including what Superintendent Jeremy Williams calls the fun stuff.

"We will share some updates on the attendance zone projections, we'll also come down to enrollment projections, race and ethnicity projections, as well as the mascot name," Williams said. "More importantly, we have narrowed it down as a committee to four names."

In the meantime, Facilities Director Adrian Niles shared what's on the construction schedule for the school with AccessWDUN on Thursday. He said the public can expect to see some real building.

"In the next month or so, they'll actually start seeing more block work being done, they'll see some block walls and some plumbing, some pipe going in and everything as they continue footings," Niles said. 

Blasting of the rock on site is over, but Niles said they had to blast about 10 more times than they expected to get the space just right. However, that hasn't hindered the progress.

"It is on schedule. Again, hitting more rock than we anticipated, I wouldn't say it's going to plan, but we've actually been able to make up some time," he said."

As construction goes on, both Williams and Niles encouraged parents and community members to take a look at the site.

"What we really encourage you to do is drive in both ways, both heading south out of town and heading north into town. " said Williams. "You can kind of see it from two different angles, two different views. Also, turn on to Gould [Road] and see the backside of the property as you then go around and come up to Browns Bridge Road. You can really see how large that site is and the work that is being done on both retaining walls."

The middle school is expected to be open August 2022 for the 2022-2023 school year.