Whitfield school board delays land decision: Asks for community input

Published 11:46 pm Monday, December 8, 2014

More than a half hour of deliberation was not enough for the Whitfield County Board of Education on Monday, with members voting to postpone a decision regarding a request for land by Georgia Northwestern Technical College.

The board met during a special called meeting to discuss the request, which involves the donation of approximately 21 acres of undeveloped land to GNTC, to be used for the expansion of the college. The land is on the campus shared by Georgia Northwestern Technical College and Whitfield County Schools’ Northwest Georgia College and Career Academy on Maddox Chapel Road.

Board members voted unanimously (5-0) to put off a decision until Monday, Dec. 15, at 7:30 a.m., to allow for more discussion.

“We just want more time. We want to hear from the community and have a little time to digest it and see where we are,” said board member Thomas Barton. “We want to make the best decision for the community. And, really, our biggest question is how this would work out and how it will benefit us and our students.”

Officials representing the college brought forth the request during a school board meeting last week.

According to Vann Brown, a member of the GNTC board of directors, the donation of land — officially, the land would be donated to the state, which would grant it to GNTC — would allow for an approximately 80,000-square-foot, $23 million standalone campus for the college.

The proposed building, if approved and funded by the state, would be a two-story structure comprised almost entirely of classroom and lab space.

Currently, GNTC hosts a large percentage of its classes in spaces inside the College and Career Academy.

“The Career Academy needs to grow, and (GNTC) needs to grow. We are limited at the technical college to five programs and there is definitely a need for more,” Brown said. “We’ve got to a point where we have all of the momentum to make growth happen in the very near future, but in order to do that, we’ve got to request that you (the Whitfield County Board of Education) invest in the community with this donation of land.”

GNTC President Pete McDonald has stated that he believes as many as 4,000 students could be enrolled at the technical college’s Murray-Whitfield campus within the next five to 10 years if the expansion goes through.

A new building would increase the number of programs offered by the college there from five to 10.

According to college representatives, a commitment of the land prior to Dec. 19 will allow the GNTC officials to begin a design phase for the building, and request funding from the state during the General Assembly’s upcoming legislative session, a timeline that would possibly allow for an occupied building by 2017.  

Responding to questions about how the land exchange would benefit Whitfield County Schools and the community, Brown said: 37,000 square feet of learning space would be opened up within the College and Career Academy; potentially millions of dollars would become available for GNTC and Whitfield County Schools thanks to a federal partnership, the Investing in Manufacturing Communities Partnership (IMCP), which offers grants to match community investments in manufacturing-related educational programs; and, in theory, economic development potential would increase with a more skilled, educated workforce in key technical areas.

“To bring jobs to the area, we need to have something like this,” Brown said.

Whitfield County school board Chairman Louis Fordham said, “The community, economic impact aspect of this is obvious. It’s a good thing for the community. But, this is a $400,000 investment by Whitfield County Schools, and we have got to see some kind of return on that investment.

“It is a big decision,” he said. “We definitely see the merits on both sides. But, we definitely want to sift through all aspects of it, and make sure we get all of the details we need. I think our big questions are about the property — clearly vetting out what the future possibilities are for that land, if there are any — and some of the specifics concerning the plans of GNTC. We just want to do our due diligence.”

School board members are asking that people interested in the issue (or any other education-related issue) send their views to comments@whitfield.k12.ga.us.