Design work for a new Sprayberry High School gym and renovations to the school’s career training building was approved by the Cobb Board of Education Thursday.
The board voted 7-0 to spend $925,162 for an architectural and engineering design contract with CDH Partners of Marietta.
Plans call for a new main gymnasium and renovations to the Sprayberry’s CTAE (Career, Technology and Agricultural Education) facility.
(Click here to view the meeting agenda.)
That project, as well as design work, is included in the upcoming Cobb Education SPLOST V collection period that begins Jan. 1. The design contract will be paid for out of the general fund, which will be reimbursed with SPLOST V revenues.
At a work session Thursday afternoon, John Adams, the Cobb County School District deputy superintendent, was asked by school board member David Banks where the new gym would be located on campus.
Adams said that “we have to hire an architect to tell us what we can do and where.”
Most other East Cobb high schools have gotten new gyms in recent years, or are getting them. Wheeler opened Wildcat Arena three years ago, Pope opened a new gym earlier this year and construction on new gyms at Walton and Lassiter are underway.
The new gyms are built with a capacity of 3,000 and the Sprayberry facility is expected to cost around $20 million.
Another board member, former Sprayberry administrator Randy Scamihorn, asked if the school’s baseball field may have to be relocated to accommodate the renovations.
Adams gave him a similar answer, saying that “we have to get an architect on board.”
He said that the CTAE facility would have a similar capacity within an improved building.
The board also voted 7-0 to approve $90 million in short-term construction bonds to begin work on SPLOST V projects in advance.
The district wants to speed up the completion time for projects and find cost savings with interest rates on the rise.
Brad Johnson, the district’s chief financial officer, told board members at the work session that interest rates have been going up 4-5 percent a year.
The $90 million in bonds, called TANS (tax anticipatory notes) would be repaid at the end of 2019 with revenues from SPLOST V.
Superintendent Chris Ragsdale said it’s a “no brainer” to get started with construction at a lower cost, “instead of waiting for a higher interest rate to kick in.”
Johnson estimated that the strategy could enable the district to “come close to breaking even” after the interest costs are paid.
Earlier this year the school board approved $40 million in TANs for similar reasons. Those funds were applied to completion of the East Cobb Middle School and Brumby Elementary School rebuilds, as well as the Lassiter and Walton gym and fine arts projects that are part of the current SPLOST IV collection.
“We’re borrowing more,” Johnson said, “but we’re borrowing for a longer time.”
Also included on the SPLOST V project list is rebuilding Eastvalley Elementary School on the former site of East Cobb Middle School on Holt Road.
The school board is expected in January to formalize issuing the bonds, with revenues anticipated by February.
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