The wait is over!
After 67 years at the current location, Smithville Elementary, the oldest school building at its core in the county, will be getting a new home on property adjacent to Northside Elementary School.
During Monday night’s regular monthly meeting the county commission voted 12-1 to adopt a detailed bond resolution not to exceed $55 million to fund construction of a new 800 student Pre-K to 2nd grade elementary school. The term of the bond is for up to 30 years. The projected cost to build the new 124,207 square foot facility at the latest estimate is $53,414,825.
The new school will be funded only by revenues from local option sales tax money (local purpose/sinking fund) designated for school construction and operation. There will be no need for a property tax increase because the county will not be allocating any property tax money to fund it.
Commissioners voting for the bond resolution were Daniel Cripps, Myron Rhody, Tony Luna, Brandon Donnell, Tony (Cully) Culwell, Greg Matthews, Larry Green, Glynn Merriman, Jeff Barnes, Andy Pack, Beth Pafford, and Mathias Anderson. Tom Chandler voted against it. Sabrina Farler was absent.
Commissioner Chandler gave his reasons for not supporting the new school project.
“Lord knows this is a touchy subject. Let me first acknowledge that the school board has a responsibility to find what school should be built and when and how they should be maintained. But I also acknowledge that the county commission has a fiduciary responsibility to determine not just whether the funds are available to fund the school board’s plans but to also determine if those funds will be spent in the best interest of the county. So I exercise my fiduciary responsibility as a member of this commission to say that I do not think this plan is in the best interest of the county. I do not believe the current enrollment data nor the 10-year growth history in our schools warrants this particular plan of action at least as a first priority,” said Commissioner Chandler.
“I also believe the school board has willingly withheld maintenance and upgrades for Smithville Elementary that would have extended its life because they were determined to build a new elementary school no matter what. On multiple occasions I have said that I would vote for a comprehensive 30-year plan that included a new elementary school if that plan included a broader plan for repairs and upgrades to the middle school and the high school. This is not that plan. This is the same ole tired plan to build a new elementary school. I remind this commission that this school could have been built in 15 years and at a lower cost if the school board had coughed up $2 million 18 months ago,” Chandler continued. “However, I applaud the school board for their plan to build walls around some of the classrooms in the middle school. But you should ask yourselves. Why do we have classrooms with no walls? Open concept learning was bs 50 years ago and its bs today. No, we have classrooms with no walls because it was cheaper than building a real elementary school. It’s the same reason why we have a dormitory instead of a real jail,” said Chandler.
“For decades the infrastructure of this county has been addressed with financially low ball and shortsighted solutions and the public has been willingly led down that primrose path not because it made any sense but because they just didn’t want to pay higher taxes. The piper is at the door, and she is here not just about our schools but also about the courthouse, the jail, the community centers, the roads, the fire department, EMS, the list goes on. Stop and ponder this for a minute. Every child in kindergarten in DeKalb County today will have graduated from high school and for some of them their children will have graduated from high school before this school is paid for. At that point the high school will be 90 years old and the middle school will be 80 years old. That is not going to be an enticement for parents to put their children in DeKalb County Schools. Don’t you think we should have some idea of what the plan is for those schools and what it will cost before we continue down this primrose path” asked Chandler.
While the new school project has been set in motion, it still may take months for development to begin and perhaps as long as a year or more before the new school is ready to open.
“I talked to our architect today and we will get the topographical study done first and then we will go from there. It may take three months or so to get that completed because it is an extensive study. They will be doing core drilling and things of that nature on the property. Its not like building your house but we are excited to get started,” said Director of Schools Patrick Cripps.
The existing Smithville Elementary School, originally built in 1958, is 70,557 square feet in size (including additions over the years), and had an enrollment of 534 students as of August 2024. As far back as 2017, a facilities study by Upland Design Group, concluded that the school, which has mold and other concerns, should be replaced and repurposed for other uses.
According to Upland, the school board’s architect, the new Pre-K to 2nd grade Smithville Elementary School will be 124,207 square feet in size and will be designed to accommodate 800 students with room for future expansion to house up to 300 additional students (1,100) total. The school will be built with 11 classrooms for each grade level of kindergarten, first, and second grade (33 classrooms for 20 students each) along with seven Pre-K classrooms for 20 students each plus four CDC/SPED classrooms as needed. The future expansion will accommodate 15 new classrooms at 20 students each. There will be 189 parking spaces on the campus.