COBB COUNTY, Ga. — The first few weeks of the school year will look slightly different than anticipated for some Cobb County students.
The new Eastvalley Elementary School building on Holt Road was expected to be completed by the start of this upcoming school year, but the school said due to supply chain issues, it’s being pushed back about two months. Therefore, students will start school at the original building on Lower Roswell Road.
Cobb County parent Russell Sauve sent 11Alive a video of the library at Lower Roswell Road and explained that it was already packed up.
“The library is already packed up, thousands of books, computers, electronics, all of the equipment that a library and a media specialist are responsible for," he said. "The librarian and his or her staff have to come back in here early, unpack the entire library, reinstall all the computer systems, all the technology, only then to pack it up six weeks later to move down the street to the new school.”
The Cobb County School District projects that students will be able to transition into the Holt Road building after fall break, around Oct. 2 – once construction wraps up.
“I think it's a big disruption to the learning process to begin with," Suave said. "You're going to have brand new kindergartners, kids who are new to the school come in. You're going to be told, 'This is what we're going to do. This is the systems we had. This is how we learn.' We're going to scrap all of this in six weeks and we're going to move down the street.”
In an email sent out to the Eastvalley school community in May, principal Whitney Spooner said this delay is due to supply chain issues and writes that while the timing is not ideal, the construction team said it will complete the project as soon as possible.
Sauve is also a former Eastvalley Elementary student, and his daughter also attended the school. Sauve is one of the many parents who pushed for the construction of the new facility.
He said the 13 trailers where students would learn at the Lower Roswell location, were old and overcrowded.
"The first one was placed here when I was actually in second grade here. I'm 47 years old, and that trailer is still on property and the trailers were moldy," he recalled. "My daughter definitely had respiratory issues in the trailers. As soon as she was out of school for the summer, it would clear up... again for spring break, it would clear up."
A Cobb County district spokesperson sent 11Alive this statement:
We are excited to welcome all students for the start of the school year on August 1. Although Eastvalley students will begin the school year in their current building, we are looking forward to their transition to the new state-of-the-art Eastvalley building when construction is complete after fall break as we explained to the school community in May.
Sauve said he’s looking forward to this new building, too, but believes that the timing is inconvenient.
“'Are these teachers going to have to come back during their fall break and move their supplies over, unpack, or are they going to have to give up their vacation, their time off?'” he asked.
The Holt Road building will be more than 136,000 square feet and is funded by SPLOST funds. It will also accommodate more than 900 students and will have 61 classrooms, which is nearly double the amount of classrooms from the original building.
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