Oglethorpe Avenue Elementary School will start construction for a new facility Feb. 2017. According to Principal Scarlett Dunne, the temporary move to a location on the east side of Athens has impacted staff members’ and parents’ commutes. “A lot of our staff members are having to drive further than they would be driving if we were at the old school,” Dunne said. Photo by Mackenzie Caudill.
By AMY GOANA – Staff Writer
Oglethorpe Avenue Elementary School will undergo construction, which started in early February.
Oglethorpe Avenue Elementary School, a Clarke Central High School feeder school, is going to start construction for a new facility this spring. The school’s building, which was built in 1969, has experienced several problems throughout the years including faults in their plumbing, heating and air conditioning systems.
Although the school has gone under some renovations in the past, this reconstruction is a part of a timeline that was created by the district for schools to be renovated or go under reconstruction. The reconstruction will be funded by Special-Purpose Local-Option Sales Tax (SPLOST).
“The district follows a timeline so that all schools can be treated equally and fairly in terms of renovations and construction,” Oglethorpe Avenue Elementary School Principal Dr. Scarlett Dunne said. “It was our time on the established timeline for renovations or reconstruction.”
Dunne looks forward to the structural changes that will be found within the new school building.
“The Media Center will be larger and it will have a lot of windows and it’s gonna have a very picturesque view, and then classrooms because we’re getting all new color schemes, meaning colored walls and tiles and carpeting will be very different than what we had.”
While the new facility is being built, current students have been relocated to Oglethorpe East on Gaines School Rd. This has resulted in some adjustments to the school’s transportation system, including the addition of express buses and a delay in student pickup times.
“The biggest impact is transportation but all students have a bus that is available to pick them up at their home and bring them to school. For those students who live a mile and a half close of the school an express bus was created for them,” Dunne said. “All the neighborhood students who live in that walk zone can ride an express bus that leaves Forest Heights Baptist Church and goes directly to Oglethorpe East and drops them off so they only have one stop in the morning and one stop in the afternoon.”
The reconstruction affects not only Oglethorpe students and staff, but Oglethorpe parents. Parents who drive their children to and from school every day are affected due to cost of gas whenever they make trips to the school.
“A lot of them live nearby but now – what they have to do is – well what my mom does, if she wants to take my little brother to school, she gotta drive all the way up to the East Side which is costly on her for gas and also whenever there’s a family event or teacher conferences or something like that,” senior Jose Dominguez said. “Basically any events parents need to go to, it’s definitely a long drive, so that’s one negative.”
Sophomore Zuri Flores does not believe there are any negative impacts to the construction at Oglethorpe and sees the benefits of the new facility.
“I attended there since I was small, so it’s very surprising seeing the construction happen. The school was very old too, so it’s good (they’re) reconstructing it,” Flores said. “It affects the families who have children in the school, since they’re having to go to a different elementary school in the East Side. Plus, it’s going to be a big change with the new building.”
Similarly, despite the issues of transportation, Dunne is excited for the new facility and the possibility of growth in their school population.
“I think that could possibly increase our population, our number of students,” Dunne said. “I think people in our community will be very excited for a new school in that area.”
