The Fulton County Board of Education has rebuffed a call by the Sandy Springs City Council to build a new North Springs Charter High School to replace an existing school.
Under a capital plan approved by the school board in February 2016 and an Educational Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax approved by voters that May, plans call for a North Springs High School renovation, “not a new school,” schools President Linda P. Bryant said in a Nov. 17 letter to Sandy Springs.
The letter responded to a City Council resolution earlier this month that said the high school is the oldest in the Fulton system, built in 1963, with dated facilities that cannot support modern education initiatives and that pose a safety risk to teachers and students.
Bryant said about tw0-thirds of today’s North Springs High has been constructed since 1993. She acknowledged it is dated in parts but said it is in good physical condition, and $19 million in renovations are planned. An architect’s designs are to be presented to the school board for review and approval next June.
“The Board of Education does not have the legal authority to build a new NSHS within the current eSPLOST,” Bryant said. “Furthermore, based upon our assessments to date, there is not an identified need to replace the facility.”
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