McDuffie Co. school leaders expect to open new elementary school in time for upcoming school year
THOMSON, Ga. (WJBF) – It's been just over a year since McDuffie County school leaders broke ground on a state-of-the-art elementary school.
Now they're working to finish construction in time for the upcoming school year.
At last year's groundbreaking, school leaders were expecting to finish construction on the new J.A. Maxwell Elementary School this week.
But, this week also marks 8 months since Hurricane Helene hit our area, which put a pause on this $36 million project.
The hurricane, along with snow storms during the winter months, pushed back construction by two weeks.
Despite the minor setback, the project is back on schedule.
'Right now, we're probably at 95 to 98% complete. We should be finishing up soon. We'll have a fire marshal inspection on June 13th, which we hope will get a temporary CO so we can start getting furniture moved in,' said Director of Administrative Services, Neal Tam.
Work crews have been on the grounds the last several months getting the structure built. With most of the outside complete, the last phase is getting the inside in top notch shape.
'You're going to have high efficiency HVAC systems, you're going to have state-of-the-art LED lights—and all of that saves energy for us as residents and taxpayers,' Tam said.
Superintendent Dr. Mychele Rhodes says there's other key features for the new school that will set itself apart from others in the county.
'This school will have an outdoor classroom area at the front of the school, we have a track for our Pre-Kindergarten students to ride their tricycles. This school also has 4 STEM labs, and that is going to be a huge part of instruction here on a daily basis,' said Rhodes.
She says it will also be easy to access for parents.
'We'll have a Pre-Kindergarten entrance that is separate for our smaller students, we have a car rider entrance for our K through 3, and we'll also have our bus rider entrance. The design of this school will allow for easy flow of traffic off of the Thomson Bypass, and it also allows our buses to enter the rear of this school from our current middle school—which also eliminates some traffic on the Bypass and White Oak Road,' Rhodes said.
Rhodes also served in various roles for Maxwell Elementary nearly 20 years ago.
She couldn't be more excited for the school's future.
'It's just going to be something that the children in this community will enjoy for many years to come, and it's going to provide a state-of-the-art education for our children,' said Rhodes.
Rhodes says after a few more finishing touches, she expects construction to finish by the end of June, and will open the school just in time for the 2025-26 school year.
'We are right now planning to have teachers in in the next couple of weeks, because it's important to our district that the faculty and staff of this school see their building first. Then after we begin the move-in process in mid-June, we will be announcing a community ribbon cutting—but that has not been scheduled yet,' Rhodes added.
The new J.A. Maxwell Elementary School will hold approximately 740 students from Pre-K through 3rd grade, and will combine students from the current Maxwell Elementary school and Thomson Elementary.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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