PELL CITY — Board of Education members reviewed the final plans for the new ninth-grade addition Wednesday night. “This will make a huge, huge impact,” Dr. Bobby Hathcock, superintendent of Pell City schools, said to board members. “It’s going to be very functional, and it will be very attractive.”
The board is expected to approve the final architectural plans at its 7:15 p.m., Tuesday night board meeting next week.
Hathcock said once the board approves the plans, the architectural drawings are sent to the state building commission for final approval.
“It looks like ya’ll did your homework on this,” said board president Cecil Fomby.
According to architectural plans, the new ninth-grade academy addition is located at the back of the high school and will have 10 classrooms, along with biology and computer lab rooms.
“This will give us a computer lab that we don’t have now,” said Pell City High School Principal Helene Bettinger. “All our labs now are being used as classrooms.”
The new addition will also have a 3,000-square-foot room, which the Panthers wrestling team will use for practice.
Hathcock said the wrestling team needs a place to practice.
“Right now they are practicing in the lunchroom,” he said.
The large room will also act as a dressing room for visiting football teams, and it provides a short walk to Pete Rich Stadium for the visitors.
There is also parking behind the new addition, which will give visiting schools room to park their school buses on Friday nights. During regular school hours, the 58-vehicle parking area is for faculty parking only.
The new ninth-grade addition will have a teacher workroom, a courtyard and restrooms. There also will be a covered walkway from the main high school building to the new section.
“We’ve tried to stay close to our budget numbers,” Hathcock said at Wednesday night’s board work session.
Hathcock said it would have been nice to make this a totally separate building, but that was impossible with the limited amount of construction space and funds.
The Pell City school system will also add an alternative bid when the new ninth-grade addition is let out for bid. The alternate bid will include the cost for two additional conference rooms, located between the existing high school building and the new addition.
Bettinger said additional conference rooms are needed at the high school.
“We have so many different meetings,” she said. “We need private conference rooms for confidential meetings with students and parents.”
Hathcock said he was optimistic that they can have the two conference rooms and still be within budget for the ninth-grade addition project.
“We’re excited about this,” Hathcock said. “What we have is a big high school with a lot of kids, and that’s not going to change.”
He said about six more classrooms can be added to the newest addition at the front of the high school, but with the new ninth-grade addition, the high school should be able to handle the current growing student population.
