The Newton County School District’s projects at Newton County Elementary School and the recently acquired Peavey building are almost done.
Newton County Elementary is getting an upgrade of several restrooms in several of the older buildings. The kindergarten building, third grade building and fifth grade building each had major overhauls of the bathrooms.
School Superintendent J.O. Amis said these restroom facilities were dated and needed a major overhaul.
“These were the oldest bathrooms on campus,” Amis said. “They were some of the original bathrooms when the school first opened in the late 1990s. We added heating and cooling to some of these bathrooms, and we updated the look of them. We still have a little bit left to do, but they look really good.”
The heating and cooling was one of the things the students noticed most when they came back to class after Christmas.
“That’s probably the thing that they’ve liked the most,” said Newton County Elementary School Principal Jason Roberson. “I know they have personally thanked us for that, especially since we’ve had one of the coldest weeks so far.”
Also on the elementary campus, parents are noticing new fencing being installed on the perimeter of campus. Amis said it’s something that will help improve the security of the campus at all times.
On the front side, the school is installing a mechanical gate that will be open only at certain times of day for school drop off in the morning or pick up in the afternoon. The gate will also have an intercom and camera that will be monitored by the front office. After the person states their reason for being on campus, the office staff can remotely open the gate to allow the visitor on campus.
The fencing on the back side will also help make sure students stay on campus while protecting the campus from outsiders coming on campus.
“It’s something that should help make it safer for everyone,” Amis said. “It will be harder for students to wander off campus, especially on the back side where the playground is. It will also protect the students and teachers from anyone who comes on to campus.
“We’re trying to make it where the only way to come on campus is through the front gate. That will help us make sure that everyone who needs to be on campus is here.”
At the Peavey building, the demolition and repair of the roof was being completed last week. This was only on the front part of the building. The back side of the building’s repairs will be done at a later time.
Now, the district has clean 65,000 square feet of space that can be used to house the district’s career and technical school.
“What we eventually want to do is to move our career/tech over here,” Amis said. “The first part was the demolition of the inside of the front part of the building and repairing the roof. We removed the skylights and repaired the roof. Now, we will begin looking at the next phase of the project, which will be construction of the classrooms and offices that we will need.”
Amis did not have a timeline on the construction of the career/tech facility.
