Board lists needs for school

The Columbia County school board has determined its classroom needs for a new high school two years before it is set to open.

Proposed needs for the 86-room high school, scheduled to open in 2008, include 14 language arts classrooms, 12 science classrooms, three computer science classrooms, a health occupations classroom and a cosmetology lab.

The school system had to develop a space needs list to receive advanced construction funding from state coffers.

Now that the class needs are set, it is unlikely they will change once the school opens, Associate Superintendent Charles Nagle said after Tuesday's meeting.

"If you change them now you better have a good reason to change them," he said.

In other business:

- The gymnasium floor of the new Evans Middle School should be completed by Oct. 31, school officials said. Graphics still need to be put down before pupils can use the space.

- The board approved spending more than $12,600 to complete work on the first two floors of a new system administration building on Hereford Farm Road. Items the money will pay for include plumbing vents, doors, a hoist beam to the elevator shaft and insulation and sound-proofing measures for the superintendent's office.

- About $450,000 was added to the system's general fund expenditures to pay the salaries and benefits for seven new teaching positions created by student enrollment growth.