Gatewood Schools officially broke ground on Oct. 4 on a new high school building, ideally ready for occupation for the 2024-25 school year.
“We’re under contract to provide it to them next September and we’ll try our best to get it done for the start of the next school year,” said Rodney Smith, owner of SmithBuilt Construction Group in Alpharetta, which specializes in school building. “It’s a 30,000-square-foot, $8.3-million contract.”
According to SmithBuilt Vice President Tanner Parker, who also is serving as project manager for the Gatewood school, it will be a single-story structure featuring a centralized office area, a combined auditorium and cafeteria, surrounded by 10 classrooms and two lab facilities.
In a brief presentation before the groundbreaking, Gatewood Headmaster Jeff Decker explained the plan to finally add a permanent high school building was hatched early in 2019. However, the project was shelved until late 2020 when the COVID pandemic took hold. Decker admitted it didn’t truly become real to him until last Tuesday when construction equipment began arriving.
“This has been in the making for I guess three-and-a-half years or so,” Decker said before an audience of Gatewood parents, staff, county and city officials, and representatives of various construction-related firms. “When I saw the trucks coming in with bulldozers and excavators and all that stuff … I think that was the best day I’ve probably had in a couple of years … because then even I knew, this is now going to happen.”
Gatewood Board Chairman Chris Huskins spoke next and immediately acknowledged the presence of original board members Tom Thompson and Butch Rocker in the audience, among others.
“Very few of the original board, the original workers who built this school in 1970, are alive and they are here and it’s humbling to be in y’all’s presence. Thank you for being here because we’re just taking a step on top of what you’ve already done,” Huskins said.
“Y’all built this place, this institution, two years 10/5/21 before I was even born. And last year I got to celebrate the graduation of my son, who was the first of many to come who was a third-generation Gatewood graduate. Page 1 Many are coming behind now because of what you started.”
Gatewood Director of Development Marie Rainey called the groundbreaking event “a significant milestone, a testament to the power of dreams and collective determination,” and pointed out it came about only through continuing substantial support from donors and supporters of the project.
“Your support, your generosity, and your belief in our mission are instrumental in shaping the future. And I want to say also that I’m forever grateful,” Rainey said. “Tracy (Stickley) started this in 2019 and asked a group of parents to help get this all kicked off and started.”
Rainey also singled out Decker, Tara Rocker, Rich Lingle and Joshua Daniel for their efforts and contributions.
“As Jeff (Decker) said, we were so excited to see the equipment coming on Tuesday and the kids have loved it down that lower school hallway. They all stop at the window and stare and talk about the trucks, and a lot of the teachers have brought them out to let them witness all the moving of the dirt, and they’re just fascinated,” Rainey said. “We still have a lot of work to do as you’ve heard, so if you would like to be a part of this, please come find me.”
Architect Richard Nelson, who founded Atlanta-based CNN Architects in 1990, called designing the new Gatewood High School a “passion project” for his firm, which works on “everything from data centers to high-rise housing.”
“But we’ve done several schools in the past, too, so to some degree we had that advantage,” Nelson said. “The way we work is we’re good listeners. We are acutely aware of budgets, and our approach is to help clients find the best solution, not necessarily what they want, but a solution that works.”
Nelson called the Gatewood principals “a smart bunch,” adding that their extensive experience in education greatly aided his design process with consistent needs and goals.
“This iterative process gives us a feedback loop that helps us get to a good solution,” he explained. “And then in terms of the school design, what I’m proud about is it’s a smart design.”
Among the first suggestions Nelson made was to reposition and reorient the new building to its current planned position, effectively at the end of the road currently leading into the Gatewood complex. Everything was designed not only with functionality in mind but with security, too, which is so important in modern school design, he added.
“Probably the most proud thing for me is that this building functions in a way that is efficient, and is safe,” Nelson said. “Everybody’s got to go through that front door. And there are all kinds of devices involved in terms of letting people in or going into the office first before they go into the school. We’re not expecting anything bad; it’s just that good design considers a lot of things.”
Tom Thompson, among those singled out for recognition by current Gatewood chair Huskins, was on hand to watch the groundbreaking and said he never could have imagined in 1970 when he literally sketched the original plans on a napkin that the seeds being sowed then would ever have grown to the point Gatewood has today.
“To be honest, I thought, well, the school will probably fade away in 15 or 20 years. Things will have stabilized and it won’t be needed then,” Thompson recalled. “So, to see this happen today is really great, really incredible.”
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