Another step was taken last week by school board members toward building a new Career, Technical and Agricultural Education (CTAE) facility at Fannin County High School.
Meeting in a work session Thursday, February 12, Bobby Bearden, Ashley H. Weeks, Adam Born, Mike Cole and Robert Patterson agreed with changes made to original drawings, and accepted some new ideas and alternatives for the building.
Included in the building will be 11 instructional units and eight CTAE labs, meeting rooms, restrooms, offices, spaces for equipment and other functions. Auto mechanics, welding, health sciences, construction, culinary arts, and audio/video production classes will all be housed in the two-story structure.
School Superintendent Shannon Dillard said all the labs are designed to exceed state Department of Education specifications. They are built so they can be expanded or reconfigured as needs or state requirements change in the future.
School board members had been given individual opportunities to view the building plans prior to the work session. It was from those visits that initial suggestions had been made and incorporated into the plans viewed last week.
The board’s approval sets in motion a timeline for moving forward, which was presented by Dillard to start the work session. The architect is expected to have final drawings to the school system by the middle of March. Bowen and Watson, the Construction Manager at Risk (CMR) for the work, will send out bid requests in the middle of April and should have a Guaranteed Maximum Price (GMP) ready for board members to review individually April 23/24. A recommendation regarding that price would then come at the May school board meeting, if not before.
Dillard’s timeline noted an approved GMP is needed by the end of May or June 1 in order to complete construction of the roadway without interfering with the campus traffic pattern when school begins.