First Look at Proposed New Loganville Middle School

At an Education Summit at the Walton County Chamber of Commerce luncheon on Wednesday, Walton County Public Schools Superintendent Gary Hobbs unveiled the first renderings of the proposed new Loganville Middle School.

"We're getting ready to put this out to bid and expect to have the groundbreaking early in the New Year," Hobbs said, adding the construction would include a three-way government agreement between WCPS, Walton County and the City of Loganville. The city's involvement would be in the schools using the city’s sewer and gray water system to provide water for the schools’ ball fields. Hobbs said it looks as though the three agencies are on the same page and that agreement would enable the plans to move forward for the benefit of everyone.

For more than a year, the City of Loganville has been in talks with the Walton County Board of Education over its potential involvement with the new school to be built on property purchased in 2008. The property, 98.31 acres off Bay Creek Church Road, is proposed for a replacement school for Loganville Middle School and later Loganville Elementary School.

"Our school buildings have been either replaced or renovated, all except Loganville Middle School and Loganville Elementary School," Hobbs said, adding officials will soon begin looking for property to start a fourth cluster.

"That will be for some time in the future, but we don't want our schools to get gigantic," Hobbs said. "We don't want to get to 3,000 or 4,000 students. We have almost no mobile classrooms now and that's almost unheard of."

Hobbs said at 13,400 students in K through 12th grade, Walton County Public Schools is the 20th largest school system in the 180 school systems in the state.