THOMASVILLE- With the 2024-25 school year gearing up, so is the construction at Thomas County Central High School.
The construction project, which broke ground on January 4, 2023, is well on its way for the new 122,000-square-foot multi-purpose building, which will be housed at Central’s campus.
The building will feature a state-of-the-art band facility, a new home for the JROTC program, new basketball locker rooms for both girls and boys varsity and junior varsity programs, a full gymnastics and cheerleading gymnasium, football locker rooms for the varsity and junior varsity teams, presentation room, health classrooms, modern weight room, and a full 120-yard indoor practice field for football, soccer, baseball, soccer, and golf.
According to Facilities and Maintenance General Manager Jake Smith, the foundation is being laid for the massive project.
The classrooms will adjoin the current TCCHS building, while the indoor practice field will back up to the former parking lot.
“On the back side of it, there will be an outdoor practice field,” Smith said.
Superintendent Dr. Lisa Williams said this project has been a goal of the Thomas County Board of Education’s for approximately two years.
“This state-of-the-art facility, expected to be completed in June of 2025, is designed to significantly enhance the educational and extracurricular experience for our students,” she said. “By providing dedicated spaces for our band, JROTC, gymnastics, cheerleading, basketball, and football programs, we are ensuring that our students have the resources they need to excel.”
Williams went on to say that the new building will also create opportunities for further development across various programs ranging from athletics to fine arts and academics and CTAE.
“The potential for growth and expansion with this facility is immense, and we are excited about the future it promises for our school system,” she concluded.
Students won’t have to wait much longer for the project to start taking shape. Smith expects walls for the expansive project to go up within the next two months.
“When they get everything backfilled in the indoor practice field area, these classroom walls will start going up,” he said.
Currently, infrastructure, including plumbing and electricity, is still being installed, but Smith assured the construction is on schedule, despite a few rainy days lately.
Smith has been assisting in various other projects, including the renovation of the Thomas County Middle School cafeteria and the construction of a bus car wash for the school system’s 90-bus fleet.
The car wash project is expected to be completed within the next 6-7 months and be up and running by the end of the school year.
The TCMS cafeteria project was primarily cosmetic, replacing the old paint job with the school’s signature navy and gold. However, students can look forward to new pizza ovens, in addition to new seating.
“They came in and put in a new floor coating and totally repainted the walls and brought out the school colors,” Smith said. “We put in new LED light fixtures and have ordered new chairs for the students.”
Williams explained the decision behind the pizza ovens was due to the massive success at the high school.
“We had good success there, so we wanted to bring it down to the middle school,” she said.
Overall, Williams and Smith are both happy with the progress of the various construction projects and look forward to the students being able to utilize the renovated and upcoming spaces available to them.