The Atlanta school board approved construction management contracts totaling more than $39 million to renovate four schools.
The contracts, approved by the board earlier this month, are: $8.5 million for Beecher Hills Elementary School, $8.4 million for Hollis Innovation Academy, $7.8 million for Harper-Archer Elementary School and $14.4 million for Gideons Elementary School.
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Work at Beecher Hills will include a new air conditioning system, multi-purpose room and entry space.
Renovations at Hollis will open up a “Brutalist”-style architectural design to make it “bright, light and gorgeous,” Superintendent Meria Carstarphen told board members.
Harper-Archer, currently a middle school, will be converted into an elementary building to serve students from Fain and Towns elementary schools. The new elementary school will open in 2019.
Work at Gideons Elementary will include a partial demolition and a renovation as well as green space for children to play, Carstarphen said.
The work is in addition to other ongoing projects, including the renovation of the shuttered David T. Howard Building, where Martin Luther King Jr. attended school as a boy, and a new athletic complex at the site of the former Walden Middle School.
Money for the projects comes from a one-penny sales tax.