Construction is slated to start next month on the $3 million district office building for Arlington Community Schools, and it’s expected to be completed just in time for the start of the 2017-18 school year.
According to Shelby County Code Enforcement, the permit that ACS filed on Dec. 28 is for a main building with 15,821 square feet on the first floor and an initial 3,005 square feet on the second floor, where there will be a partial mezzanine and room for expansion. The building will have a pitch roof, so when the second floor is eventually fully expanded there will not be quite as much room as on the first floor.
ACS also plans to build a separate operations maintenance building that will be 2,996 square feet.
The new district office will be at 12060 Arlington Trail, near the intersection of Interstate 40 and New Airline Road.
According to a Dec. 19 Arlington Planning Commission meeting discussion, the facility will have office space for ACS Superintendent Tammy Mason and school board personnel, three conference rooms, a large lobby for gatherings, a meeting room that will fit about 150 people for school board meetings, and two access doors to the parking lot. The grounds will have 79 parking spaces.
Douglas Burris, the project’s architect and principal/owner of The Renaissance Group, commented at that meeting, “It’s going to be a state-of-the-art office facility. The meeting room is a multipurpose room that will be multifunctional for various training exercises, staff meetings and parties that are related to the school.”
Once in the new building, the school board also will be able to broadcast meetings, and TV/radio students will get actual hands-on training with the broadcasts, Burris said.
The Arlington school district has been progressing toward this project for more than a year. In the fall of 2015, the town deeded 2.16 acres to the school district for construction of the district office. The school board approved an agreement with Renaissance for architectural and engineering services back in September. At its Dec. 5 meeting, the Arlington town board conveyed a 6,242 square-foot strip of land to square up the back property line of the land previously deeded to the school district.
Written by Carolyn Bahm, Express editor; contact her at (901) 433-9138 or via email to bartlett.editor@journalinc.com. A.J. Dugger III, a Bartlett Express writer, also contributed to this article.
