North Fulton Bethany Bend High School Site Plan If you didn’t have a chance to attend the community meeting last week to review the proposed site plans for a new high school in Milton, you will want to review the information below. This is a first draft, not a final proposal, that was shown to the community by the architects, CGLS Architects, and by Fulton County Schools. CGLS is the same firm that designed the new Johns Creek High School and due to the short time-frame that they have to finalize a design for the new high school, they will be working with something along the lines of the Johns Creek High School plans.

The site is located at the corner of Bethany Bend and Cogburn, across from Kings Ridge, on a 64.48 acre site. Approximately 25 of those acres will remain undisturbed due to some wetlands, stream buffers which flow intermittently, and an existing pond that will remain intact. It will take 24 months to build and will be open for the 2012 school year.

There were quite a few residents in attendance and many questions were brought up (no shortage of opinions by any means!), some of which I’ll share with you, but first I’ll give you the short list of what is proposed:

Key Points of Interest

  • Enrollment: 1,900
  • School size: 327,640 sq. ft
  • 600 – 700 parking spaces for cars, 24 for buses
  • 600 seat performing arts theater
  • 200 seat gymnasium w/ raised 3-lane running track
  • 5 tennis courts
  • Baseball field w/ batting cages
  • Sports stadium which will accommodate 2500 home and 1200 visitor attendees
  • Softball field
  • A separate practice field
  • A band practice area

Student Population and Redistricting

I had to chuckle at the first question from the crowd when a gentleman stood up and asked "where on that plan will the trailers go?".  As you probably know, trailers are an issue at some of the schools in North Fulton and certainly not unique to schools all around Atlanta. This is a local sore subject I mentioned in an earlier post regarding redistricting and trailers at Cogburn Woods . The answer was reassuring, and hopefully accurate. When this school opens and pulls students who would have otherwise attended Milton or Alpharetta High Schools, there will be no requirement for trailers at any of these schools for some time to come.

The last question led into the next obvious question regarding redistricting and who will be allowed to remain at the other schools. The answer is rising 10th, 11th and 12th grade students can choose to remain at the High School they are already attending but parents will have to provide transportation to that school. Redistricting meetings will take place in the spring of 2011 and the final lines will be drawn by August 2011. Families impacted by the redistricting will be notified by that winter and the spring of 2012. Fulton County Schools has a Redistricting page on their website for additional information.

Other Questions from the community

Another big question had to do with potential access from Hwy 9 in order to minimize traffic on Bethany and Cogburn. A good question but with all commercial property along that side of the school property it isn’t an option. However, the plan does provide for an entrance off both Bethany and Cogburn for drop-off and pick-up which will ease traffic concerns on those roads.
Off to school
From there the questions ranged from wanting the school to have a look and feel that will mirror our rural, equestrian community to a concern over the distance from the locker rooms to the softball field. With no vehicle access to the softball field, kids will have to carry their equipment too far.  Hmmm… maybe the school should be a barn and the kids can ride horses to the stadium.Ok, I’m just kidding….

Some of the other questions or comments had to to with:  The cafeteria being too small to feed that many children, why isn’t there a swimming pool, why isn’t it a 3-story building instead of a 2-story building, will the school be built by Americans or illegal aliens, how long will it take to acquire books for the library, will the sports programs and band programs be in place at the beginning or be built from scratch. I have to give Katie Reeves, our district representative from Fulton County Schools, credit for breathing common sense back into the conversation when the discussion would go a little astray. As she pointed out, the principle is hired one year out from opening. Teachers, staff, sports and band programs and operations will all be worked out in advance in order to have a fully prepared and operating school from day one.

What about Money?

With declining tax revenues a question was raised about building costs. Katie Reeves pointed out that while SPLOST revenues were down over $6 Million, building and material costs were down significantly and would "save the day" allowing for the school to be built within budget. We were assured that teacher and staff salaries were in the budget when a question was raised about hiring quality teaches in light of the recent teaching layoffs and staff cuts. Oddly this was the only question of the night regarding education…

It’s great that we have such overwhelming community involvement from local parents and certainly you can’t please everyone but I’m sure the school will be something we will all be proud to have our children attend. You can see the full presentation from that evening on the Fulton County Schools site. If you missed the meeting and have some ideas about what was discussed we would like to hear from you. Tell us what your thoughts or concerns are. Or better yet, what do you think we should name this school?