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Board seeks more pizzazz in school design

• The Dougherty County Board of Education discusses renovation projects at its meeting Monday.

Joshua Brown

ALBANY — “Energy” was one of the buzzwords as Dougherty County Board of Education building and grounds committee members discussed the renovations to Dougherty High School Monday.

The committee heard an update from Atlanta architect Don Campbell concerning designs for the yet-to-be renovated Dougherty High School, though committee members David Maschke and Michael Windom expressed dissatisfaction with several aspects of the design.

“Kind of pizzazz it up a little bit,” Windom said about a common area that would be renovated from a music room.

The room would, according to the architect’s proposals presented Monday, have blue and green panels painted across the wall several feet from the ground, with more neutral colors for the flooring.

Maschke said he wanted to see more “energy” reflected in the design of the school since it was a performing arts school.

“I’m concerned about the energy and the liveliness of this place,” he said.

The project’s budget is about $15 million.

Facilities Director Bob Fowler said advertisements for construction bids would go out in October and the bids would be awarded in December, with construction slated to begin in January.

Other concerns brought up about the building were the directing of visitors into the school’s main office using the building’s design and vertical rectangular windows used on the building’s exterior.

The committee also heard bid results for a Lake Park Elementary School renovation project budgeted at just more than $5 million.

Committee members decided to recommend a bid for the project be awarded to Construction CGM for $4,410,696 with plans to use contingency funding to pay for part of the project. The $4.4 million bid recommendation included several “value engineering” cuts designed to save some on the construction costs.

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