College and Career Academy gets $3 million in seed money
New facility will be located at Southside Middle School
By Staff Reports
ATLANTA — Lt. Gov. Casey Cagel presented a $3 million check to a delegation of Dougherty County Educators and area lawmakers at the state capitol Wednesday as seed money for the new Commodore Conyers College and Career Academy (CCA).
The money will be used to renovate Southside Middle School, which will be the site of the new academy.
“This is a great day for Dougherty County and Southwest Georgia,” Ealum, who was involved in getting the project started as a DCSS school board member four years ago, said. “Last month, our academy charter was approved, and today, we received the much-needed dollars to get our academy off the ground.
Ealum then praised Cagle for sticking with the project from the beginning.
“Lt. Gov. Cagle and his staff has remained steadfast with us over the past four years as we learned from his CCA Summits and from other successful academies about how to create a CCA that will positively impacted our economy and educational system,” Ealum said. “We owe them a debt of gratitude for their continued willingness to work with us on this very important initiative.”
In the beginning, high school students in Dougherty, Terrell and Calhoun counties are expected to participate in the new academy.
The facility is scheduled to open its doors in the fall of 2017.