Walton, Wheeler Projects Lead SPLOST IV

Renovations at Walton High School and Wheeler High School will be among the first projects to get underway when the Cobb Education SPLOST IV collection period begins next year.

Cobb County School District officials on Wednesday presented to the Board of Education a projected cashflow plan for some of the largest projects in the $717 million SPLOST IV, which was passed by voters in March.

The largest projects in East Cobb are at Walton and Wheeler and a replacement for East Cobb Middle School. But all schools in Cobb will be included in the new sales tax collection period, which begins on Jan. 1, 2014 and continues through Dec. 31, 2018.

The Walton project is the biggest of any school in Cobb, coming in at nearly $40 million. In addition to a gymnasium replacement, the plans call for a main classroom building replacement and a new fine arts building.

Wheeler, which is undergoing a $19 million reconstruction of its main classroom building, is slated for nearly $19 million in gymnasium and theater replacement projects in SPLOST IV.

According to Chris Ragsdale, the district's deputy superintendent for operational support, advance funding for both Walton and Wheeler projects will be used this year.

He said the projected $1.97 million for Walton and $958,838 million for Wheeler this year would go for design work.

"By the end of the calendar year, we hope to put a package out to bid for early 2014," he told East Cobb Patch.

Ragsdale said details of how the project work would be staged won't be known until the design plans are finalized.

Parents eager for a replacement at East Cobb Middle School and renovations at several other East Cobb schools will have to wait a bit longer.

Collections for the $29 million East Cobb Middle School replacement won't begin until 2015, when $2.9 million is to be collected. Final collections call for sums of $13.1 million in both 2016 and 2017.

The following SPLOST IV cashflow projections are for other East Cobb schools slated for major projects:

• Pope High School ($19.3 million gymnasium and theater replacements): $1.9 million in 2015, $8.69 million in 2016, $8.69 million in 2017;
• Lassiter High School ($12.7 million gymnasium replacement): $1.27 million in 2016, $5.7 million in 2017, $5.7 million in 2018;
• Mt. Bethel Elementary School ($3.1 million classroom annex replacement): $316,699 in 2016, $1.425 million in 2017, $1.425 million in 2018;
• Sope Creek Elementary School ($2.4 million for physical education building renovations): $241,602 in 2016, $1.08 million in 2017, $1.08 million in 2018;
• Tritt Elementary School ($3.2 million classroom annex replacement): $327,427 in 2016, $1.473 million in 2017, $1.473 million in 2018.

Collection projections for the other school projects in East Cobb are not yet available.