This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Schools

District To Build Ninth-Grade Center at Harrison

Its central location and prevalent portables are some of the reasons Harrison High is being recommended to house a west Cobb ninth-grade center.

Citing its 11 portables, small capacity, age and centralized location, was recommended by Cobb County School District officials to house the new $14.3 million West Cobb ninth-grade center during Wednesday’s long Board of Education meeting.

District SPLOST Chief Administrator Doug Shepard gave the aforementioned reasons for naming Harrison. In addition, the project was seeking appointment approval for an architect. The project is scheduled to be discussed further at the 7 p.m. Thursday board meeting in the Central Office’s boardroom.

Allatoona, and Hillgrove were the other high schools that were considered for housing the ninth-grade center since the location of the complex was not specified on the SPLOST referendum. Shepard said the fact that Harrison will soon start work on its renovation project contributed to the selection and will likely save additional funds.

Find out what's happening in Kennesawwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Shepard recommended accelerating the building of the project to save approximately $4 million in construction costs. He later referenced a 2007 enrollment projection study for 2013 that pointed to the likelihood of an enrollment increase in west Cobb. Based on that detailed study, Allatoona, Kennesaw Mountain, Harrison and Hillgrove would all be over capacity.

“So we definitely need relief in this area and we may need to consider redistricting in the future, although that is not part of the initial plan for this project,” said Shepard, who noted the project was scheduled by the board to start in 2012.

Find out what's happening in Kennesawwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Superintendent Fred Sanderson added that building a ninth-grade center would avoid building “another $50 million high school somewhere and going through another massive redistricting.” It would also provide ninth graders in the area a smoother transition to high school. Sanderson said, “Probably our largest failure rate is in our ninth grade.”

Board Chairwoman Alison Bartlett of Post 7 questioned the selection of Harrison and believed Campbell High in Smyrna should’ve been chosen. She backed up her case with district full-time equivalent enrollment figures from October for Allatoona, Kennesaw Mountain, Harrison, Hillgrove, McEachern, Osborne, Campbell, South Cobb and Pebblebrook high schools. She also provided the number of homes sold and leased in each of these high schools’ attendance zone from 2007 to 2010.

-- Allatoona was 282 students under its 1,912 capacity; it had 520 homes sold and leased.

-- Kennesaw Mountain was 35 students over its 1,987 capacity; it had 1,979 homes sold and leased.

-- Harrison was 289 students over its 1,837 capacity; it had 1,659 homes sold and leased.

-- Hillgrove was 162 students over its 1,912 capacity; it had 1,362 homes sold and leased.

-- McEachern was 119 students under its 2,362 capacity; it had 2,163 homes sold and leased.

-- Osborne was 317 students under its 2,062 capacity; it had 2,148 homes sold and leased.

-- Campbell was 323 students under its 2,637 capacity; it had 5,145 homes sold and leased.

-- South Cobb was 332 students over its 1,662 capacity; it had 2,220 homes sold and leased.

-- Pebblebrook was 241 students over its 1,862 capacity; it had 2,264 homes sold and leased.   

Bartlett, whose post includes Osborne, said she was “deeply concerned" about costs related to the construction of a ninth-grade center when the schools she listed had totals of 1,041 students under capacity and 1,059 over capacity.

“Is it right to build right now because I’ve got room for these students in other places?” she asked. “Is it right to build at Harrison when I’m seeing growth further south, south of Macland. I question at this time placement of the ninth-grade academy at this place. I think we’re being premature. There’s additional cost here. While we’ve agreed to build the ninth-grade academy, I think we should wait and move it to the further end of the SPLOST when we have a better idea of how the recovery will impact our schools because, right now, Campbell is the school with the largest growth.”

Post 1 Board member Lynnda Crowder-Eagle disagreed with Bartlett. Crowder-Eagle, whose post includes Allatoona, Harrison, Kennesaw Mountain and Hillgrove, cited the likelihood of voters’ not supporting another redistricting and their approval of a west Cobb location.

Board member Kathleen Angelucci, whose Post 4 includes Kell andhigh schools, said she shared some of Bartlett’s concerns.

“What if we get two years out and we got a lot of schools under capacity and we’ve got this new ninth-grade center with no kids to put in it,” she said.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?

More from Kennesaw