Troup County celebrates stake in the ground event for new elementary

Troup County Schools System celebrated progress of construction on a new elementary school in Lagrange, Ga., on Wednesday, Nov. 15. The project broke ground in August, however, the official groundbreaking ceremony was postponed due to inclement weather.

“We can’t really call this a ground breaking because as you can see, that happened a long time ago,” Troup County Superintendent Cole Pugh said at the event. “This is our stake in the ground event. Thank you for joining us as we continue to put stakes in the ground for academic success in the future.”

GMC is designing the school, which will house pre-kindergarten through fifth grade students. The new 100,000-square-foot facility will replace Whitesville Road Elementary School and can accommodate an opening day student population of 700, with a core capacity for up to 900.

Slated to open for the 2018-19 school year, the elementary school will feature 33 general classrooms, a media center, 500-person multipurpose assembly room, cafeteria and commercial kitchen, high school-sized gymnasium with seating for 200, modern medical clinic and ample support spaces for teaching staff and administration.

The design includes 14 specialized teaching rooms to support art and music programs, along with occupational and physical therapy, English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL), academic coaching, gifted education and other needs requiring individualized attention. In addition, the elementary school will feature a special needs suite for up to 32 students with a private entrance and playground.

The building was designed with environmental sustainability goals of improved energy performance and water usage and conservation.

GMC is providing architecture, interior design, environmental, electrical, civil, survey and landscape architecture services. Carroll Daniel Construction is the Construction Manager at Risk.