Before a gathering of about 50 people at Campbell Middle School on Tuesday night, the Cobb County School District unveiled site and architectural plans for Smyrna’s new elementary school.
In the first of two public forums, SPLOST Chief Doug Shepard stressed to those in attendance that the “preliminary plans’’ presented were “not set in stone.’’ The second forum is scheduled for August with construction set to begin in December.
Citizens are encouraged to supply input here concerning the new school, which will replace at least one current Smyrna elementary school. It was originally reported that would be replaced, but that decision as not been determined according to Shepard.
“We want to relieve overcrowding and the use of trailers at some of the nearby schools,’’ Shepard said. “But we want and need to hear from the public as this process continues.’’
The $22 million dollar replacement school will open in August 2013 and will have a capacity of almost 970 students.
“One thing I think people are concerned about is that it will be a very large student body,’’ said Smyrna City Councilwoman Teri Anulewicz, who represents Ward 3 where the school will be built. “But it’s going to be a large student body in a school that’s designed to accommodate a large student body. I like that the kindergarten has its own wing.’’
The 62-classroom school is being zoned in the downtown area and the architectural team ensured that the building adhered to the city’s Downtown Design District development plans. School drawings are available for viewing here.
“We wanted to comply with the city’s downtown development code,’’ said Shepard, who pointed out that all of the school classrooms will have at least one window to allow in natural light.
The front of the school will be on what is being called the Ward Street Connector and will include a traffic circle.
“We wanted to make the center feature of the school more or less centered on that traffic circle, although we did want the entrance to the school to be there’’ said Bob Cunningham of the Atlanta’s Cunningham, Forehand, Matthews, & Moore Architects, Inc. “We wanted the main entrance to the school to be where the administrative area is and convenient to the parking.’’
The school will backup to , and there will be fencing to separate the two schools. Both schools will utilize Fleming Street off Atlanta Road for school access. The traffic circle will be able to be accessed by vehicles from the Ward Street Connector and a new street tentatively named Middle Road.
It will be a two-story building with second through fifth grade classrooms on the second floor. Play fields will be available to the public when school is not in session.
Smyrna-Vinings Patch will provide more coverage including additional videos from Tuesday night’s presentation later in the day Wednesday.
Browse these pictures & enjoy! Also look up their other sites & you will see their 1,000's of beautiful sustainable projects. Wonder what they could do on the new Smyrna School site?? http://www.landplanning.net/leed.html
THEN, the citizens can decide which route to take! Give US the options, please!!
here's a link to the Mayors Green School Alliance- http://www.greenschoolbuildings.org:80/action/join/mayors_alliance.aspx
City of Smyrna elections are conducted by the Cobb County Board of Elections (www.cobbelections.org), using the same electronic voting machines that are used in every precinct in the state of Georgia, regardless of whether the election is for City Council or for the President of the United States of America. City employees or officials have no interaction with the machines, short of when they're placing their own votes. I presume you're familiar with the process - amiable poll workers, you sign in, you get a yellow credit-type card embedded with a microchip, you stick the card in the touch-screen machine, you place your votes, you check and confirm your votes, the machine ejects your card, you place the card in the basket with the precinct official, you get your "I'm a Georgia Voter!" sticker, and you're on your way. No ballots, or yellow plastic cards, or whatever, ever go to the Mayor's office - nor have they ever gone to the Mayor's office. If you have any further questions or concerns about the elections process, by all means do not hesitate to contact the Cobb County Board of Elections.
Things are NOT great in Smyrna- everything is ignored, except the constant landscaping of the Village Market area. The EMPTY village green area, I might add. Concord Roads SPLOST has been MIS handeled. When I moved to Smyrna Heights , I came to Croy Engineers open house(@), and the presentation was such that everyone left believeing that Concord Road would be started & FINISHED w/in a 2 year time frame-09! Well, 3 years later looks like the city got a little side tracked buying up businesses & properties-- & to just leave it as a WAR ZONE ?? -TOATALLY UNACCEPTABLE!! .But there is NO ONE looking out for Smyrna Heights! There is also NO EXCUSE that all the school properties look in such poor condition!! Campbell High School looks as tho' it's an abandoned property! Compare to Fultons, Dekalbs & Gwinnetts! Yes, I compare- yep, ABSOLUTELY! And the Belmont Hills Elementary- that's 3rd world- & Smyrna should be asHAMED! And it must be sad for the Brown Elementary kids to look @ the back of a run down grocery!! Smyrna is NOT planning well for the future by building a mega- (UN) eco friendly foreboding structure in a location far away from most children to walk to! Most cities are planning schools, 1st, w DAYlighting, 2nd, environment connected buildings & 3rd, making sure the small children have SAFE streets to school- walking/biking! What if 5 million each had gone to Brown, Belmont & Argyle- to creat BETTER neighborhood schools!
To leave a grown over rodent filled property 3 doors down from the community relations gal! You'd think she would get on it! So I ask all the people that have an investment in Smyrna, why is it ok w/ everyone that so much is left UNattended,... while the ONLY area that gets adnaseum care is the ONE Atlanta Rd stretch! So yeah,.. I have asked questions for 4 years--- WAITING for answers!! Why in the world would people not want things to CHANGE here? It's not 1950 anymore! Our streets shouldn't be so rundown! Our schools should not be so run down. Our shopping strips should not be so run down. Apartment complexes all over the city should not be so run down! 20 million dollars should not be going in peoples pockets! I think Smyrna SHOULD be a much better place-- but noone seems to care!! .... waiting!!
These folks will stop @ nothing to deflect the issues & turn to distasteful, ad hominem attacks, to the point they had to be asked to cool it. Apparently, the city officials want to ignore citizens that ask legitimate questions & this (nameless) group has come to their rescue. . People that look for somewhere to live, will decide by looking around the area. I believe the conditions in Smyrna,... speaks for itself. And I started speaking out when it became clear to me that other cities similar tin size to Smyrna were doing things smarter & growing their economy & quality of life! One has to wonder just what is holding Smyrna back! ..... & w/out proper oversite...
The CCSD intends to hold another public redistricting meeting in September, which would outline two or more alternate plans for redistricting based on citizen’s input. The next meeting would then be held in November and at that time the CCSD plans to unveil a single draft plan. The next Smyrna Elementary School public forum is set for August and most likely will again be at Campbell Middle, although no set date or place has been finalized. In listening to comments from officials and trying to read between the lines, it would appear that Brown will be closed. But that is only my opinion and by no means an official comment from the CCSD or anyone else.