Officials say Highlands School will be ready next week
With the first day of school around the corner, Highlands School is said to be ready for students and teachers.
“This project is as of now still on time and on budget,” Warren Cabe, Macon County manager, said. The county is financing the $9.5 million project that came with an unexpected additional cost to provide more LP gas tanks to heat the facility. LP gas is replacing the old and once-leaking diesel underground tank that has since been filled with concrete. Five additional tanks were needed as the three tanks installed in October 2024 were insufficient for heating all classrooms.
The middle school renovation and expansion is on target to be ready by the start of school Monday, Cabe said.
“The media center renovation is also almost complete as well as the outdoor classroom and courtyard between the middle school building and the other main building,” Cabe wrote in an email to The Highlander this week.
He added that the pre-K classroom addition is anticipated to be completed within about a month. No classes are slated for that section until 2026.
Todd Gibbs, who wears several administrative hats with Macon County Schools, has been spearheading the project and said Monday that he and a couple of other people from the central office had been busy moving furniture and boxes back into classrooms since Aug. 11.
“There were some challenges to the project such as drainage, but those have been addressed,” he said in an email Monday.
“Everything’s going well, everything’s on target,” Tracy Tallent, project manager and maintenance director for the school system, said Wednesday. A new outdoor classroom is complete with a new entrance to the media center, he said. He echoed that the courtyard between the main building and middle school is finished, with a new sidewalk, canopy and four new classrooms. Existing classrooms at the middle school have also been renovated, he said.
Tallent said final inspections are taking place this week but all is a go for the start of school next week.
On Tuesday of this week and two weeks prior, owner, architect and contractor meetings took place. Tuesday’s meeting resulted in no changes to the project and its on-time situation, Cabe said. Gibbs quipped, “General contractors have an uncanny knack for meeting deadlines that, by looks, you think they would not meet.
While acknowledging the school project remains not only on schedule, but also in line with the budget, Cabe offered that once the middle school and pre-K sections are complete, the county will review financials.
“If we still have some remaining allowances in our line items we will look at any other minor touch-up items that could be completed,” he said. If any such work is needed, Cabe said, work would be done after students leave for the day or during holidays and teacher workdays.
Cabe had high praises for Vannoy Construction, the general contractor on the project.
“They have been working really hard to meet the deadlines and other obligations to ensure the first day of school goes as smoothly as possible,” he said Tuesday.
Vannoy will have staff and subcontractors working this weekend, he said, adding that “they have offered to assist the educators as needed next week to make sure any issues are addressed and assist in any way possible.”
- Richard Whiting
rwhiting@cninewspapers.com