By Scott Harvey
Sulphur Springs – An official groundbreaking for the new Sulphur Springs Middle School is scheduled for Thursday.
District officials plan to recognize special guests along with the Board of Trustees, with future student representatives to turn the first shovels of dirt at 9 a.m.
"We started dreaming about this middle school several years ago," said Sulphur Springs ISD Superintendent Patsy Bolton. "We had a successful bond issue in May 2009. We consider it a miracle it passed with our economy the way it is today."
The $48.4 million bond also covers four other projects, including construction of the High School's new Multi-purpose facility, already underway.
The 161,300 square foot school will open during the 2011 school year for sixth, seventh and eighth graders. The two-story facility features standard, science lab and fine arts classrooms. Three student computer labs and a state of the art media center will take advantage of the latest technology.
It was designed with staff and teacher input by Claycomb Architects of Dallas and will be constructed by J. T. Turner Construction Company. Drawings of the new school plus pictures of the Multi-purpose building construction are available at www.ssisd.net.
Aside from the Middle School and Multi-purpose building, the other projects covered by the bond include renovating the current middle school so third and fourth graders to be moved from four elementary schools, finishing the track complex for track and soccer and building four classrooms on the Douglas Fifth Grade Campus.
Thursday's groundbreaking will take place at the new site on 54 acres along the new Highway 11 bypass south of the City.