Fri, Aug 29 2008

Local Sports | Business | Obituaries | Weather |

Resources

Print this story
email this story

E-mail this story

Post to del.icio.us

Photos

The front drive and drop-off area of the new S.L. Mason Elementary School.

Paraeducator Dee Arnold, from the media center of the old S.L. Mason Elementary School, starts shelving some of the 10,000-plus books brought over from the old S.L. Mason and West Gordon Elementary School Thursday afternoon in the media center of the new S.L. Mason school.

Westside Elementary School first-grade teacher Donna Dalton demonstrates the touch-sensitive Smartboard system that ties into a projection system and a computer Wednesday in her new classroom. Children can write on the board with either their finger or a special pen; the image appears on the Smartboard and the computer screen. All the classrooms are equipped with this technology at Westside Elementary.

First grade teacher Tanya Davis unpacks boxes of supplies brought over from her old classroom Wednesday as she prepares for the new school year in the newly-built addition to Sallas Mahone Elementary School.

The drop-off area and front entrance of the new Westside Elementary School.

Published July 19, 2008 09:59 pm -

Bigger, better schools
Lowndes, Valdosta systems opening new facilities as population grows

By Johnna Pinholster

VALDOSTA — An ever growing population has had the Valdosta City School and Lowndes County School systems expanding their horizons and schools by leaps and bounds.

At the beginning of the 2008 school year LCS will celebrate the grand opening of Westside Elementary School, while VCS will open the doors to students at S.L. Mason.

Both schools and the VCS addition at Sallas-Mahone are state of the art and ready to accommodate students.

• Consolidation and Expansion (VCS)

Construction on the 130,000 square foot S.L. Mason kindergarten through fifth-grade school began in February 2007.

Now less than a month before the Valdosta City School begins classes, William Aldrich, VCS director of Facilities and Maintenance, is busy making sure the school is ready.

The classrooms could be open for occupancy tomorrow, Aldrich said, but the driveway for the school buses and a few minor things could be pushing the Aug. 8 deadline for the first day of school.

“We might have to improvise until it gets done but I feel like we will get it done,” Aldrich said.

Sixty-nine classrooms, a media center, gym and cafeteria will be able to handle more than 1,100 students.

The $15 million project located at 821 W. Gordon St. was funded through SPLOST and combines students from the old S.L. Mason and West Gordon elementary schools, Aldrich said.

Half of the fourth and fifth-grade students will go to S.L. Mason in the fall while the rest will go to Sallas-Mahone Elementary School. Both S.L. Mason and Sallas-Mahone will now serve kindergarten through fifth-grade students.

The Valdosta Early College Academy will take up residence in the old S.L. Mason school in 2009 while Valdosta State University’s football program will call the school home this fall.

“West Gordon has been demolished and no longer exists,” Aldrich said.