In a 4-0 vote, the board agreed to build a new elementary school in Fort Valley on U.S. 341, just north of the city limits. The site had been approved for a new school in December 2006, but was abandoned last year in favor of other sites.
C.B. Mathis, facilities director, said building a school on the University Boulevard site south of Fort Valley, where ground was broken one month ago, would have to be delayed another month due to stump removal.
"We'd have to wait another month for the ground to compact, and there is a no-burn period from May 1 to Oct. 1," Mathis said. "We'd have to bring in an incinerator for the stumps."
If the board went ahead with the University Boulevard site, the two new elementary schools - the other on Kay Road just outside Byron - would open six months apart, with the Kay Road school opening first.
Plus, Superintendent Susan Clark said, there's money to be saved by building on the U.S. 341 site.
"It's a simple fact: there's more work to be done on the University Boulevard site," Clark said.
"We will save $26,000 by returning to the 341 site."
The money saved would have been used for engineering work on the site, such as taking soil samples, said Mathis.
Norma Givens, board chairman, said she felt "a sad kind of emotion" because of what she said was a broken community trust. The University Boulevard site is in Givens' district, and she said her constituents were supportive of a school there.
Clark said she had talked with Ira Hicks, spokesman for a group of residents in Givens' district, and Hicks said if time could be saved by building the school on U.S. 341, he and his group would support that.
Mathis said both schools would be identical, and he would start the bidding process today. Architectural drawings would have to be submitted to the state fire marshal and Department of Transportation, he said.
"I'm going to notify general contractors that we'll let out bids on two identical schools, with construction to start no later than Aug. 1," he said.
To contact writer Jake Jacobs, call 923-6199, extension 305.
