Another High School for Gwinnett

Gwinnett County school board members voted unanimously Thursday in Suwanee to begin construction on a high school that is expected to relieve pressure within the Berkmar and Central Gwinnett clusters.

In its vote, the school board approved a $63.5 million contract with Gainesville-based Carroll Daniel Construction Company.

The school will be built at 1335 Old Norcross Road in Lawrenceville, and it will be the district's 20th high school.

It will have a capacity of about 1,800 students. Those students will come from Berkmar High School, which has a population of about 3,000 students, and Central Gwinnett High School, which has a population of about 2,500.

The new school is still in the design phase, but officials say it will open in August 2015. It is the only new high school planned for construction within the the next five years.

Funds for the school were approved in November 2011, when Gwinnett County citizens voted to for another five years of an education special purpose local option sales tax.

Besides the new high school, there will be four other new facilities: a Peachtree Ridge Cluster middle school to open in 2014; and a Berkmar/Central Gwinnett cluster elementary school, a Meadowcreek Cluster elementary school, and a Central Gwinnett Cluster middle school, which will open in 2015.

Many of the plans in the current SPLOST building program were made to address the district's robust size. Officials are projecting enrollment to grow to 166,667 students by October 2013.