Local & State Headlines

Record count for Lee schools

• On the second day of school in Lee County, 6,162 students are enrolled.

Susan McCord

LEESBURG — Lee County schools have started the 2008-2009 school year with a record enrollment of 6,162 students, Superintendent Larry Walters said Monday.

The system added two new school facilities this year, the new Twin Oaks Elementary on Old Smithville Road and Lee County High School’s Ninth Grade Campus, located in the former Twin Oaks building on Leslie Highway.

More than 600 students and parents attended an open house last week at the Ninth Grade Campus, Walters said during a school board meeting.

“They were very, very complimentary. We heard some very good things about the concept, even from the ninth graders,” he said.

The campus separates Lee County High School ninth-graders from grades 10-12.

“The parents and students that have been in just couldn’t believe the changes that have happened over the summer,” ninth-grade principal Jamie Horne said.

While the new Twin Oaks facility is complete, the ninth-grade campus has several phases of renovations remaining, architect Greg Smith of Buckley and Associates said.

New energy-efficient windows, to arrive within about six weeks, will change significantly the campus’ appearance, Smith said.

Plans for the next phase, construction of an administrative office area, will be complete in about a month, Smith said.

School board members asked Smith about ways to save money in completing construction at the campus.

Renovating the existing kitchen rather than building a new one would reduce costs from $3.4 million to $2.86 million, Smith said.

In other business, the board increased tuition for non-resident students by 50 cents a day to $1,260 annually.

The only typical exception allowing out-of-county students to attend Lee schools is for children of employees, Walters said.

The board also agreed to move forward with the standards process for Georgia School Boards Association, the first step to becoming a “Board of Distinction,” at the suggestion of board chair Sylvia Vann.

The board is “already doing many” of the requirements, Walters said.

“Lee County could have received this, we just never filled out the application,” he said.

More Headlines>>