Clarkdale Survives, Construction to Begin on Replacement School

Tears stained their faces as the faculty, staff, students and parents of Austell's Clarkdale Elementary hugged each other tightly and gave the Cobb County Board of Education a standing ovation for voting to approve the $14.7 million construction bid from Gainesville, Ga.-based Carroll Daniel Construction Co. to begin on their new school.

The red “Clarkdale Survivor” shirts that peppered the standing-room-only crowd at the Cobb County School Board’s Thursday regular meeting made a statement, but it was the people wearing them that spoke volumes during the public comment portion of the meeting.

The school was destroyed by the 100-Year Flood of September 2009. The students and faculty have since been divided between Compton Elementary and Austell Intermediate until the school is rebuilt.

Kevin O’Meara said, during public comment, that 200 Clarkdale students at Compton Elementary currently 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 current Clarkdale student.

Michael Stovall, senior pastor at Austell's , which is 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,” Stovall continued, “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.”

The board’s Facilities & Technology Committee, a citizens’ oversight committee that monitors SPLOST expenditures for appropriate usage, The committee members said that the money should be used to add on to the schools in which the students had been divided instead of being used to rebuild a new Clarkdale.

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

Carroll Daniel Construction turned in the winning low bid to rebuild the school for $14.7 million, a significant deduction from the project’s original $20 million estimated budget in January 2010. However, the bid is higher than the $12.4 million construction budget projected for the project.

Using funds received from insurance, FEMA and GEMA 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 school, to build and outfit the school with furniture and equipment. Construction on the two-story school is set to begin in April and be completed by July 2012.

The new larger school with 53 classrooms would accommodate about 750 students and would help relieve overcrowding at Hollydale Elementary, Sanders Elementary and other nearby elementary schools, said Doug Shepard, chief administrative officer for the school system's SPLOST projects, to the board.

However, F&T committee members said they were never presented with information about relieving overcrowding at those schools at their last meeting.

Cobb County will have to redistrict in order to relieve overcrowding at these 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 members had their say.

South Cobb School Board Member David Morgan said, “I echo the sentiments of the Clarkdale community.”

Board Chairwoman Alison Bartlett said building a 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,” Bartlett said.

Clarkdale Principal Marjorie Bickerstaff said she just felt relief when the board members made their decision.  "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.
Gamblin 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.”