Clarkdale Survives: School Construction Approved

Tears stained their faces as the faculty, staff, students and parents of Clarkdale Elementary hugged one another and gave a standing ovation to the Cobb County Board of Education for voting unanimously Thursday night to approve a $14.7 million bid from Gainesville-based Carroll Daniel Construction Co. to build their new school.

The Powder Springs-area school in September 2009. The students and faculty have since been divided between and , waiting for their school to be rebuilt.

The red “Clarkdale Survivor” shirts that peppered the standing-room-only crowd at the school board’s regular monthly meeting Thursday night made a statement, but it was the people wearing them who spoke volumes during the public-comment period.

Kevin O’Meara said 200 Clarkdale students at Compton Elementary share one boys restroom and one girls restroom.

Compton Elementary and Austell Intermediate “have been generous, but we still want our school back,” said Carleece Brown, a Clarkdale student.

The Rev. Michael Stovall, the senior pastor at in Austell, a community partner for Clarkdale, said: “No one asked for the flood. … All we have done is take a very difficult situation and make it look easy.

“We make investments of brick and mortar, but we make investments in people.”

Veronica Johnson told the board, “Please do not listen to our concerns in the community and then disregard them as you have done before,” which appeared to be a reference to the to switch from a balanced calendar to a traditional one. (The calendar debate continued Thursday night; Patch will have more on those discussions later today.)

The board’s Facilities & Technology Committee, a citizen advisory committee that monitors Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax expenditures, The committee members said the money should be used to add on to the schools that absorbed the students instead of building a new Clarkdale.

The school board unanimously voted in February 2010 to build a significantly larger Clarkdale, appoint an architect and, three months later, purchase land for the school on 3.46 acres adjacent to in Austell.

Carroll Daniel Construction turned in the winning low bid to build the new Clarkdale for $14.7 million, a significant reduction from the project’s original $20 million estimated budget in January 2010 but higher than the $12.4 million budget projected when the building went out for bid.

Using funds received from insurance, Federal Emergency Management Agency and Georgia Emergency Management Agency disaster aid, along with SPLOST II and SPLOST III dollars, the school district will pay $18.68 million, not including the $120,000 already spent to demolish the flood-destroyed school, to build and outfit the new Clarkdale.

Construction on the two-story school is set to begin in April and to be completed by July 2012 for the 2012-13 school year.

The new school will have 53 classrooms, up from 22, and will accommodate about 750 students to help relieve overcrowding at Hollydale, Sanders and other elementary schools, said Doug Shepard, the chief administrative officer for the school system's SPLOST projects.

But F&T Committee members said they were not presented information about relieving overcrowding at those schools at their last meeting.

Cobb County will have to redistrict to relieve overcrowding at those schools, which Shepard said have a total of 14 classroom trailers.

Clarkdale's supporters, having waited more than a year for a construction contract, had to wait a bit longer Thursday night. Although the meeting began at 7, the usual recognitions for standout students and others, an extended comment period that included more calendar discussion and other issues in addition to the stream of Clarkdale advocates, and a lengthy board debate over minutes and parliamentary procedure stemming from the calendar fight meant that it was about 9:30 when Clarkdale came up for a decision.

The board members did move Clarkdale to the beginning of the discussion agenda to prevent an even longer wait for the children and adults awaiting the vote.

The red-clad supporters leaned forward in their chairs. The ones standing shifted their weight. Some closed their eyes. Others held their breath. Some prayed silently.

First, the board had its say.

“I echo the sentiments of the Clarkdale community,” South Cobb school board member David Morgan said.

Board Chairwoman Alison Bartlett said the new school will bring value to the properties in the area, and more people will move into the area and will pay property taxes, thus strengthening the school district’s main funding source.

“For me, it just completes the circle,” she said before calling for the vote, which was unanimous.

Clarkdale Principal Marjorie Bickerstaff said she just felt relief. "We had thought it was a done deal (that the school would be rebuilt), and then we felt that it wasn’t. We had already started preparing for the new school. … It’s not just for us to celebrate. We’ll celebrate with the students.”

Rhonda Gamblin, a former Clarkdale student whose daughter also attended the school, now teaches at the school. She said: “It’s just so exciting that we get to keep our family because that’s what it is to all of us. I get chills. I’m ready to break ground right now.”