The Coweta County School System moved a step closer Tuesday night to moving forward on the construction of a new elementary school.

The system’s building and grounds committee met and discussed building the new school on Jim Starr Road. School spokesperson Dean Jackson said the system could have architectural drawings on the building by January, and possibly but the building out for bid in February.

One of the interesting elements of the building is that it could be a two-story facility.

“The slope of the land would allow it to look like a one story structure from the front, but still have a second story,” Jackson said.

The new school would house between 800-1,000 students and open in the fall of 2009. The system is also looking at the construction delivery method for building the new school. The two methods the system uses are construction management agency and construction “at risk” system. In the construction management agency approach, the school system takes bids on all the sub-contractors. In the “at risk” approach, the construction management company hires all the subcontractors and guarantees an overall price to the school system.

The new school would be located at the intersection of Jim Starr Road and Tommy Lee Cook Road. The school system recently purchased a 30-acre tract, just behind the fire station at the busy intersection.

Jackson said a new elementary school is called for in the latest Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax, and the school would help alleviate overcrowding at some of the schools in the northern part of the county, such as Arnco-Sargeant, Arbor springs and Canongate. Jackson said he doesn’t see a wholesale redistricting process to accommodate the school. Instead, like earlier this decade, the redistricting would focus on a more regional aspect.

The land was purchased from Temple Inland, which plans to build a subdivision near the proposed school.

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