Two of the most important goals in the Greene County School System Strategic Plan call for all students to have achieved literacy proficiency by 3rd grade and math proficiency by 5th grade, standards required by Georgia state law. Research shows that students who have achieved these milestones before moving on to middle school are more likely to achieve success in high school and beyond. 

Research also supports that the traditional PK-5th grade elementary school model supports student achievement of these milestones. Oconee County and Morgan County are nearby examples of nearby systems who have implemented this approach with positive results. However, Greene County's elementary students are currently split up between the preschool located in Greensboro, a K-4 primary school in Union Point, and 5th grade at Carson Middle School because the school system does not have a building large enough to house a traditional elementary school.

Building a new elementary school building will solve the problem of this disjointed structure and encourage accountability and collaboration by concentrating in one location our best resource: our skilled elementary teachers and staff. It will also:

• Reduce the negative effect on student learning caused by changing schools twice during the elementary years.
• Ease the task of implementing the large number of new processes and strategies necessary for achieving substantial improvements in literacy in math—in short, it is easier to achieve a turnaround in performance with one team versus two
• Provide for better support from key community partners such as Atlas and the Pete Nance Boys & Girls Club due to its closer proximity to their facilities

The new elementary school's location is best suited to serve present and future student growth based on:

1. 1. Its centralized location near current student residences.
   2. Its location near areas expected to experience student growth based on planned housing development and analysis of building permits and census data.
   3. Closer access to emergency services, which are based out of the city of Greensboro.
   4. Improved travel logistics due to proximity to I-20, which helps with teacher recruitment, streamlines bus routes, and reduces travel time for strategic partners such as Boys and Girls Club and Atlas Ministries.
   5. The availability of extra land at little cost to the taxpayer—including 20 acres of land made available by the local developer at an eventual cost of $25,000. (The original 20 acres cost $300,000 paid to the county—essentially one pocket to the other with no incremental cost to the taxpayer.) The availability of enough land to handle a facility as large as the new elementary building PLUS potential expansion of the elementary school PLUS support facilities considered by our strategic partners PLUS support possible other related projects such as a day care facility and an Atlas facility to support PK-5 students that frees up needed capacity to better serve our Middle and High Schools .
   6. Will free up the 4 acres at the old GES site that can be used for community benefit.
   7. Creates a more inclusive environment.  

The new school will contain a number of technology and design upgrades to support teachers and make instruction more efficient. The building will be designed to facilitate 21st Century learning technology needs.

• Additionally, the building's layout includes a variety of modern and innovative concepts such as (among others) outdoor learning areas, independent learning spaces in between classrooms teachers can use for one-on-one tutoring or small-group learning, and dedicated fine arts infrastructure.
• Located near the geographic center of the county, the new Greene County Elementary School will be more accessible to the majority of students and their families than the current Union Point school, closer to our educational partners like the Boys & Girls Club and ATLAS, and closer to the other schools, easing the transportation burden on families who have students at multiple schools.
• This close proximity to the district's other schools will allow for greater collaboration opportunities between the schools, such as possible mentoring programs and other activities between the older and younger students.

• The Greene County School System has hired an architectural firm (Gardner, Spencer, Smith, Tench, & Jarbeau) that is experienced in the design of schools in GA and has a good track record to design the school.
• An experienced contractor (EverGreen Construction) has been selected to build the school. Evergreen is an Atlanta based contractor, building k-12 schools continuously since 1996 with repeat contracts with most if not all the major Atlanta area school districts totaling 7.6 million square feet.
• An experienced project manager (James Wilson) has been retained to help manage the project.
• An internal group of GCSS staff and  school personnel headed by the Superintendent oversees the project with Joe Bashore and Steve Kilgore assigned to provide BOE oversight.
• A series of regularly scheduled meetings have been established, including quarterly BOE updates open to the public.

Presently, total investment is estimated to be $39 million to build the Elementary School. This may change based on economics and further “value engineering”. (To date, about $5 million in savings have been achieved by value engineering, and there are signs that building material prices are easing from their present high rates.)

1. Over 40% of the investment will come from funds already saved in anticipation of the construction project ($4.9 million from the General Fund and $11 million from the current ESPLOST) and $3-5 million from the state. 
   
   • • (ESPLOST is a 1% sales tax levied on retail sales in the county that are made available primarily for school facility projects.)
2. We anticipate a minimum of $3 million to be funded by the state.
3. For planning purposes, we are assuming the balance will be funded by a $20 million bond maturing in 15 years with a conservative 6.5% interest rate. (The ESPLOST/Bond Referendum provides for up to an 8% rate and up to a $29.5 million bond to provide upside flexibility.)
4. Ongoing, we expect the annual debt service on the bond to be about $1.5 to $2 million, which is expected to be funded by the new ESPLOST. (The new ESPLOST is expected to raise in excess of $7 millon annually—more than enough to cover the present LOA $1.4 million/year debt service, the new school debt service, and other facilities projects—including those eligible LOA projects.) 

We do not believe the Elementary School project will require any increase in the millage rate, barring any unforeseen recession that results in a significant reduction in property values.

• The old GES site is not big enough to accommodate the size of the new school campus. It totals 4.5 acres and the new school requires 20. The GES site has no room for future expansion as our school system grows.
• Building on a new site frees up space for beneficial community uses—which is being explored.
• The GES location foregoes the advantages of the Meadow Crest site—importantly the access to land for supporting facilities and the nearness to projected centers of family growth. 
• Building on the old GES site fails to signal the new approaches being taken by the GCSS. It signals “same old same old”.
• The GES site does NOT represent a significant project cost savings—the construction cost would be about the same and land cost of the new facility is negligible.

Yes, the Meadowcrest Road site will be incorporated by the City of Greensboro upon the start of construction, and the new school's utilities will be provided by the city. It should be a significant revenue source for the city.

• The Union Point site is not centrally located to rest of the school district's facilities, the county's resources (including emergency services), and our student population. The new school site on Meadow Crest Road is also located in the area of the county that saw about 60% of the county's population growth during the last 10 years and is expected to see much of the county's future growth.
• A Union Point site would not share in the benefits of the Weyerhaeuser development, including the potential to locate facilities nearby that our partners would use to support our entry level students. 
• UP’s location does not equally promote teacher or volunteer recruitment.
• Note: the present UP facility is not big enough to contain a PK-5 elementary school—so a new facility would be required.
• The Board of Education is looking at a variety of options for the Union Point site and are open to suggestion.

The district's older buildings were not designed to support the modern technology needs required by education today. The cost required to renovate and retrofit an older building would not be a good investment because, ultimately, it would still be an old building in need of replacement sooner rather than later. Renovations have a limited lifespan because old foundations remain, containing aging plumbing and water and sewer lines. In addition, except for the high school, none of the existing school buildings are big enough to house the PK-5 Elementary School.

• The school was sized based on student capacity and the application of state guidelines.
• The enrollment capacity is established at 900 PK-5 students—compared with 958 students enrolled 10 years ago, 779 students 2 years ago (when planning began), and 683 students enrolled in March 2022. We believe the 900 will contain reasonable growth, and the flexibility to increase capacity is being designed into the facility.
• The square footage of 113,000 square feet was determined by applying state standards to the 900-student capacity. This compares with 118,200 square feet of space presently serving our PK-5 students.

• The building cost is estimated to be $35 million, which computes to $310/square foot. This is after a $5 million reduction gained from “value-engineering” the project, but still higher than historical cost as low as $200/sq. ft. 
• Value engineering efforts will continue and there are signs that present high material costs will weaken. 
• There is strong support for continuing to advance the project given:
  • Our ability to reasonably finance it
  • The importance of establishing the level of academics this school will engender and the already lengthy time it will take us to reap the benefits as students with much stronger basic literacy/math skills matriculate through the system.
  • The necessity of dealing with the 4^th/5^th graders struggling, misplaced in the middle school, and the advantage of co-locating PK with K-5.

Above are our responses to some of the questions we are asked most often about the new school. If you have more questions, feel free send them to us at  tiger.news@greene.k12.ga.us.