Milford Elementary in the path of progress

The $26.6 million four-lane road will hug a subdivision west of the school near Macland Road. The connector will then skirt Jim Miller Park and funnel cars from west Cobb to within 100 feet of Milford’s front door, then down Windy Hill Road toward I-75.

Community members say the connector, slated to open in 2011, is just too dangerous. They fear for the safety of the children.

“We’re tired of being the dumping ground of Cobb County,” said nearby resident John Williams. He is a member of the school board’s citizen’s Facility and Technology Review Committee. “Enough is enough,” Williams said.

Williams and others want the school board to delay granting the county a strip of land near the school that is needed to continue the road work. Community leaders say the school board needs to build a new school first in a new location.

The Cobb County School Board is scheduled to vote Thursday on the land transfer.

In return, the county would give a few acres for a new playground behind Milford, and provide a new entrance to the school from the connector which would separate bus drop-off and car drop-off areas. Additionally, Cobb County plans to use part of the school’s parking lot as a buffer for the connector, build a retaining wall, a fence, and install landscaping to prevent children from slipping out onto the busy road.

The county also offered to build a pedestrian tunnel under the road, but residents nixed that idea, saying it’s unsafe for children to enter a dark tunnel in an area with a lot of adult pedestrians.

In a letter to the school board last month, County Commission Chairman Sam Olens said that if the school board does not grant the land by Sept. 30, the county will move the road slightly away from the school and will not provide the safety improvements.

The push for a new school for Milford started earlier this year with meetings with school board and county officials and a protest outside of Milford.

It’s possible the school board has softened its previous position against moving Milford.

“My goal is to replace Milford Elementary School,” said school board member Alison Bartlett, who represents the Milford area.

“They’re going to be coming up to that school at 60 miles per hour,” she said of cars on the connector. “The road’s happening. There’s no ifs, ands or buts.”

But Bartlett says the school board has nearly $2 million left over in sales tax collections to buy land for a new school.

The question is where would the school district find money to build the school, which could cost up to $30 million?

Bartlett hopes to find stimulus money. In fact, a group will meet with the office of U.S. Rep. David Scott (D-Ga.) on Monday to talk about it. Williams plans to attend, as does state Rep. Terry Johnson (D-Marietta) who represents the area.

“Once the road is completed, the property where Milford is now would be a very prime commercial location,” said Johnson, who attended Milford back in 1955, one year after it opened.

The school has a high transiency rate. Nearly half of the students who enrolled last year left before the school year ended.

For the working class families who live in apartments and trailers nearby, Milford Elementary represents one thing that’s stable in the community, said Christine Able, executive director of the nonprofit Osborne Community Coalition.

Now it’s best for all involved if the school picks up and moves too, Able said.