If you’ve driven down Highway 77 past Marietta Public Schools’ campus lately, you’ve noticed that there’s some construction fencing. And if you’ve paid close attention, you’ve noticed the absence of what used to be the high school/gymnasium parking lot. But there are other things going on, too, ones that aren’t so visible.
“Dirt work and parking lot demo has been going relatively smoothly,” said Superintendent Brandi Naylor, “and temporary walls are up in the existing high school. They should start tearing out the corner of the building this week sometime.”
And then there are those behind-the-scenes things that nobody sees but have to be done anyway.
“We’re currently still making last minute changes and finalizing drawings and engineering plans,” Naylor continued. “Those will go before the school board at a special meeting tentatively scheduled for November 18.”
There are several other important dates upcoming, including two advertisements for bids, the first on November 18 and the second on November 25. After that, a pre-bid meeting for contractors is tentatively scheduled for December 7, with bids due on or before December 16.
The board of education will consider bids at the regular school board meeting on January 4 and – barring complications -- will vote to award a bid that night.
“Assuming all these things happen as they’re scheduled to, we should be off and running on actual construction,” said Naylor. “Then we’ll be praying that we have no supply chain disruptions, and that everything progresses as planned.”