By Marcia Barnes
Staff Writer
The Clay County Board of Education gave a thumbs up to Wells and West to build the new Hayesville Intermediate School when they gave approval for the contract during a regular meeting in May. Construction is slated to begin Monday, July 8.
Wells and West were low bidder for the project by about $4 million. The company previously built Hayesville Primary School and are now staging materials on the campus for the new school. Fencing was delivered on Friday, June 14.
The scope of the project provides for a hub building and sixth grade through eighth grade wing. Fifty-two million dollars in grants is secured for the project and completion of Hayesville Intermediate School is set 944 days from the start date.
At the moment construction is on hold waiting for an answer from the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality as to the possibility of utilizing an existing pond on school property in lieu of building a storm water system. The permit has been applied for and usually requires 30 days, but the wait does not affect staging building materials like construction fencing.
Superintendent Melissa Godfrey said that in front of the new hub building is the official office building and that will stay the same as it is now, also the middle school gym will stay where it is.
“Right behind the middle school gym will be our bus loop, it will have to be modified. Right now we are not going to be able to demo the pods because we’re going to need that for elementary space,” Godfrey said.
Godfrey added that construction fencing will start at the pods, enclose the cafeteria and parking lot by the middle school gym and the current Hayesville Middle School.
“That’s being done because an entrance is needed for construction vehicles. There will be a lot of enclosures for the protection of students as they move through the campus and that will be a challenge in navigating buses and cars,” Godfrey said.
Hayesville Intermediate School is scheduled to open in January 2027.