School District Opens the Dutchtown High School Addition

Henry County Schools held a ribbon cutting on Thursday for the Dutchtown High School classroom addition. The new addition adds space for 500 more students.

The classroom addition represents the first of nine new capacity projects in education SPLOST VI. Altogether, the projects will add space for over 5,000 additional students by 2028.

Dutchtown High School Classroom Addition

The new addition built sixteen classrooms at Dutchtown High School. This includes fourteen regular classrooms and two science labs. The addition also includes more restrooms, two offices and two teacher workrooms. In total, the addition measures 26,493 square feet.

Dutchtown High School plans to use the new space as their ninth grade academy. This will group ninth graders together within the school to assist with their transition to high school. Students will begin to use the space in August 2023.

Voters approved the education SPLOST VI program at the ballot box in March 2021. The Dutchtown addition was the first project to begin work. Design work began shortly after the referendum passed. The school board then approved the construction bid in October 2021. Work began the following month.

Swofford Construction of Austell, GA built the addition at a cost of $6.5 million.

Other School Additions

The state of Georgia looks at three key areas when determining a school building capacity. They are the lunch room, kitchen and media center. Henry County purposely built these areas larger than necessary when first building schools within the county so as to allow for a future addition. The education SPLOST VI program includes building the addition at six schools.

Next, design work begins this fall on new classrooms at Ola Middle School. In spring 2024, the district will start design work for the Dutchtown Middle addition. There are also upcoming additions at Ola High, Locust Grove High and Union Grove Middle. Finally, the district is building three new schools. They include Birch Creek Elementary under construction now in McDonough, a new STEM high school in Stockbridge and a new elementary school in Locust Grove. All projects will be complete by 2028.

Featured image shows the Dutchtown High School ribbon cutting. Clayton Carte photo.