Aiken County’s board of education members received an update on one of the district’s major construction projects.
A new Wagener-Salley High School is expected to open in 2024. It is being built near Busbee Elementary and A.L. Corbett Middle Schools.
Donnie Love with McMillan Pazdan Smith Architecture firm presented board members at the Aug. 23 regular board meeting with the latest design development plans and updated budget.
“One of the things that we talked about last time, if you remember, is that we were over budget,” he said, adding, “We’ve been able to reduce the square footage of the building to get it back in line with where it needed to be to match up with the budget that we had. We didn’t really lose any spaces; we were just able to tighten some things up. And so, I think that really was the big thing was just tightening up and making sure that we had all the spaces that we needed, but that we had, we didn’t have any excess.”
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Original plans called for the new building to be 163,000 square feet. The revised plan reduces that to about 152,000 square feet. It will still be large enough to accommodate up to 330 students which is about 100 students more than the current school.
The design incorporates a courtyard which includes an outdoor dining area adjacent to the dining room for students to use.
“We organize the building around a large outdoor space, so that students could use that space during the morning, during the during their lunch, after school,” said Love. “We really feel like this is something that will really be very useful and strong thing for the school going forward.”
Originally, the projected budget was $66 million. Love said the revised plan lowers the project’s cost to about $65 million.
Laura Slagel, also with the architecture firm, briefed board members on community involvement meetings held to find out what stakeholders want in the new building.
“We had about 20 community members who were former students, administrators, teachers come together, and just spend the day with us and give us some really valuable insight into the history of the schools and the schools in the area, and the culture and just kind of, you know, the feeling that we wanted to capture in our new buildings, we weren’t necessarily losing the old building, but bringing that culture into the new building,” she said.
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She said participants want to hold on to the history of the existing building. She said they are working to incorporate the suggestions into the interior design of the new building.
In other action, the board unanimously approved purchasing a new type of weapons detecting system.
Called OPENGATE, the system is manufactured by CEIA USA, Ltd. The company website says it “quickly provides automatic and unprecedented screening of people with purses, backpacks and luggage for mass casualty shooting weapons detection.”
The system weighs 25 pounds, is portable and easy to install in any location. Individuals can walk through the pillars without emptying their pockets or relinquishing bags for separate inspection.
The board approved spending up to $1.1 million to provide one or two OPENGATE systems for every Aiken County school.
Dana Lynn McIntyre is a general assignment reporter for The Augusta Press. Reach her at dana@theaugustapress.com
