PEACH COUNTY, Ga. — If you're driving along Highway 49 in Peach County, the site of the new high school is hard to miss.
Caden Pender will be a part of the first freshman class to walk through its doors.
"I think it's coming along pretty good. I'm kind of excited for it. Hopefully, I can get into my classroom as soon as possible. Hopefully, next year so I can come in as a freshman," Pender said.
The district broke ground on the $42 million project back in October 2019. Superintendent Lionel Brown says they had some rain delays at the beginning of 2020.
"Parish Construction, along with their subcontractors, have really picked up the pace and have been able to get it to where you see now, and I believe we're back on schedule and we're slated to enter in next year, August 2021," Brown said.
The new high school is covered by a local education sales tax, known as ESPLOST. It will have advanced technology in the classrooms and more space for extracurricular programs.
"We have all of the amenities of a new high school along with the stadium that's being built over here to my left side...so brand new stadium, facilities for our athletic program and of course we'll be able to house our fine arts and other programs as well and a couple of new CTAE programs, so we're looking forward to it," Brown said.
Students in the college, technical and agricultural programs will use a new greenhouse. Pender, a member of Future Farmers of America, is most excited about that.
"A new AG building means we could get more students. More students in AG the better, so we can feed more people and especially in a time like this we need the more the merrier," Pender said.
"When you drive out here and you see it and you see that this is going to be something good for our kids, you can't help but feel good about it," Brown said.
This will be Brown's first major building project since becoming superintendent in 2018.
He says he's working with city leaders to figure out what will happen to the old building. They're talking about renovating it and possibly making it into an administrative office building.
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