Petruzielo: Replace Former Canton Mill Office, Grammar School Buildings

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Superintendent of Schools Dr. Frank Petruzielo is recommending the Cherokee County School Board proceed with the process of building a new central office complex in downtown Canton.

That recommendation, however, comes with one caveat: the school board would have to demolish the district’s administration buildings known as Building A and Building B in downtown Canton.

Petruzielo made the recommendation during the board’s strategic work session, which took place before its regular meeting.

Building B, the former Canton Grammar School that was renovated more than 30 years ago for office use with no preservation of historic details, has been closed for six years due to structural, safety and health concerns. The basement level of the two-floor Building A, the former home of the Canton Textile Mill offices, was closed shortly after due to similar concerns. As a result of these closures, several departments and more than 100 employees were relocated to schools and other facilities.

The project would replace the administration buildings with a single, three-story building on the same footprint. The construction of a new facility would accommodate all district staff, cost $9.9 million and could be completed by the fall of 2016. It would not only allow for the return of all relocated employees, it would also accommodate the district’s training facilities that would regularly bring 50 to 100 employees from throughout the county to downtown Canton for professional development.

The replacement project also would include additional district staff parking, as well as new public parking on the street on Academy Street. It would also allow the city of Canton to continue to use the school district’s lot on the corner of Archer and West Marietta streets for public parking.

Voters have approved this project in each of the three Educational SPLOST (Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax) referenda since 2001, but the superintendent consistently has postponed it due to critical school construction needs. The project was added in August to the district’s five-year facility plan.

“After successfully building dozens of new and replacement schools on time and within budget in order to bring the school district up to modern standards and meet exploding enrollment, we’re now in the position where we must address the administration infrastructure needs we’ve long delayed,” the superintendent told the school board. “This is a practical decision to increase efficiency by staff and decrease operating costs.”

Architects and engineers recently assessed Buildings A and B and determined the cost to renovate both facilities — including the removal of asbestos, lead paint, mold and mildew and construction in compliance with Americans Disabilities Act standards and current code — would exceed $14 million, “be very time-consuming” and would not accommodate the return of all staff, the school district said on Friday.

Board members will be asked to take several votes in the coming months on the project to approve proposals for site preparation and construction, and members made their support clear during the work session.

Board Chair Janet Read said it would be “misleading” for people to look at the buildings’ exteriors and judge that the buildings are safe or worth preserving, noting that she and other board members recently toured the closed facilities and saw the deplorable conditions and lack of historic significance.

“The best decision fiscally would be to start over,” she said.

Petruzielo said he knows that some in the community would like the district to preserve the buildings, as they did with the Historic Canton High School/Building C project more than 15 years ago, but that is not in the taxpayers’ best interest.

“The school district’s priority cannot be preservation of older buildings,” he said, adding the district is supportive of opportunities when they are in the taxpayers’ best interest such as the donation more than 15 years ago of the historic Rock Barn to the Cherokee County Historical Society. “Our mission is teaching and learning, and, while we must have administrative infrastructure in order to meet that mission, we must be fiscally conservative when it comes to the construction of those facilities.”

Board members during the regular meeting unanimously approved the purchase of 217 acres on Highway 108 north of Highway 20/Knox Bridge Highway in west Cherokee County for $1.05 million. The size of the property would enable development of a multi-school campus, which could include an elementary, middle and high school configuration or a middle and high school configuration.

There currently are no elementary schools west of Knox Elementary School at River Green and no middle or high schools, and future significant growth is anticipated in the area, the district said. The price per acre, Petruzielo said, also is extraordinarily less than what it would have cost to buy this property prior to the economic downturn, and much less than what it will cost once development resumes.

The board during its meeting also welcomed three new board members, including a former chairman.

Mike Chapman, former longtime board member and chairman, was sworn into office after last year’s election to a four-year term, as were new members John Harmon and Clark Menard. Board members Kyla Cromer and Rick Steiner also were sworn in to begin new four-year terms after winning their bids for office.

“We all have one thing in common,” School Board Chair Janet Read said in her remarks to introduce and welcome the new and returning Board members. “We ran for this job to do what’s best for the 40,000 students in the school district.”

The new and returning board members and Read also elected board member Patsy Jordan, who is beginning the third year of her term, to serve as this year’s vice chair.

The school board also took the following actions:

• Recognized Cherokee High School Principal Debra Murdock for her appointment to the National Association of Student Councils’ National Advisory Council;
• Recognized Etowah High School senior Katherine Morawa for winning the Hispanic Heritage Foundation 2014 Regional Youth Gold Award in the Education category;
• Recognized the Etowah High School football program for achieving the school district’s first-ever football state semi-final appearance, Coach David Svehla as county and region Coach of the Year and players for First-Team All-Region and First-Team All-State honors;
• Recognized the River Ridge High School volleyball team and coaches as area Champions and a atate Final Four team;
• Approved adoption of a resolution supporting the school district’s intent to establish an Investing in Educational Excellence (IE2) performance-based contract with the Georgia Department of Education; and
• Approved adoption of the Georgia Education Coalition (GEC) 2015 Legislative Priorities and for Mr. Chapman to represent the board on the Coalition.

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