Mableton community celebrates the
groundbreaking of new elementary school
Cobb school board members, district officials and Mableton community members gathered at the site of
the new school.
By Thomas Hartwell
thartwell@mdjonline.com
Parents and students from Clay and
Harmony Leland elementary schools
celebrated the groundbreaking on what they
said has been a long-awaited replacement
school in the community.
Though the ceremonial groundbreaking
took place in July, construction had been
underway for months.
The new, 186,930-square-foot Clay
Harmony Leland Elementary School, which
is slated for completion in May 2020 and to
welcome about 1,000 students that fall, has
been a project in the works for several years
to some community members’ frustration,
according to David Chastain, Cobb school
board chairman.
The school board voted in January 2019
to award the $26.8 million construction
contract to Nix-Fowler Constructors, Inc.
Leslie Ferguson said she and virtually all
other parents at the two schools are excited
for their move. She said the project has
been talked about since her daughter, Skylar
Ferguson, who will be a second-grader when
the school opens, was born.
“We moved into the community maybe
seven years ago with the hopes that a new
school would be built,” she said. “I was in
those meetings at the school board, (I) voted
for (the Special Purpose Local Option Sales
Tax referendum), so to actually see them
make good on a promise — it’s refreshing.”
Board member Randy Scamihorn said the
call to combine the two schools into one was
a result of discussion of the entire school
board in 2012, led by then-Chairman Scott
Sweeney. Scamihorn said overcrowding
concerns at Harmony Leland Elementary
School and ongoing maintenance concerns at
both schools, including mold and leaks, led
to the discussion.
“Maintenance and operation costs became
prohibiting,” he said.
Chastain said while previous school boards
knew a new school was in order for Mableton
and began budgeting money in the district’s
general fund, no further action could be
taken until a 1% education sales tax had been
passed by voters. Ed-SPLOST V passed in
2017.
“When I started in 2015, we worked on
trying to pave the way where this becomes a
reality, but it was still limited by the fact that
we still had to get SPLOST V passed,” he said.
continued on page 116
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