Building a Better Sylvan Hills Middle School

Principal Portee returns to Sylvan Hills Middle School for the 2014-15 school year and says that he is excited to see so many familiar students and parents. 

The school will continue to be housed in the former Parks Middle School building while construction on the new Sylvan Hills building continues throughout the school year.  The new Sylvan will be built on almost 13 acres with 55 classrooms using a total of 38,400,000 in SPLOST dollars. 

The original building has been demolished to make way for a 3-story classroom building, a new gymnasium and auditorium, a new football field, 400 meter track and softball and baseball fields.  Students will appreciate the state of the art labs and art room, while parents will be happy to see redesigned drop-off areas and bus lanes. 

Students represented Sylvan well last year – even while going to school in the temporary building – bringing home 2^ndplace in the district’s social studies fair.

While I know there’s a new building under way it was very hard to learn of how long it will take for the new building to be built. The construction has been going slow and the project has already been delayed once. I did walk the grounds and the building to see how the school is managing in its temporary site. I did take detailed notes and will be working with facilities to improve the location so that students and teachers have a better quality learning and teaching environment. 

In the meantime, I have confidence in the teachers and leadership at the school to keep things on track academically while the facility is getting prepared. Thank you to the parents and the community for continuing to support the school and we look forward to moving into our new home as soon as possible.