With almost a week until the start of the 2018-19 school year, the Troup County School System hosted a walkthrough at Clearview Elementary School Tuesday morning. Tours were given by members of Carroll Daniel Construction Company and Goodwyn, Mills and Cawood, which led the school’s design and construction.

Assistant Superintendent John Radcliff said creating the school was not a single process and joked that he sighed when Superintendent Cole Pugh told him he wanted the school to open in August 2018.

“There have been over 1,546 hours of design work just from architects to bring this together,” Radcliff said. “When we look at the number of engineers and architects in total, there have been 51 architects and engineers who have been actively involved in bringing this building out of the ground and into the roof itself.”

The school features new security technology, allowing the school’s receptionist to press a button that will lock down the school in case of emergencies. Teachers have key cards to access certain rooms, and visitors have to sign in at the front before they can enter the school.

The building has brightly colored walls, classrooms and a cafeteria. Amy Bell, GMC chief architect for the school, said they gave the school a nature theme after finding out about Great Wolf Lodge being constructed nearby. 

“The most meaningful and impactful architecture that we do is education,” Bell said. “When we started this school, we did not have a mascot, we did not have colors, we didn’t have those things in place. We were given carte blanche. What was important to LaGrange?”

Clearview principal Debra Brock said it was coincidental that their mascot is a wolf, which was voted on by the staff and students. 

The school’s architecture includes a community space that can be used outside of school hours, a media center with a pit for children to sit together and modular furniture in the classroom. 

“This building gives hope for children in this community, as many children are not going to see anything much like this elsewhere,” Radcliff said.

There are bathrooms in the kindergarten and special needs classrooms. There is also a sensory room for special needs children to relax. 

The gymnasium’s floor is rubber based and has telescopic bleachers, which are retractable when not in use. 

The hallways are brightly colored and have space for students to sit outside classrooms. 

The Clearview administration is the same one as Whitesville Road Elementary School, which closed at the end of the 2017-2018 school year. 

Brock said the school’s colors are blue and gold.

“Our tag line for Clearview Elementary is ‘learners today, leaders tomorrow,” Brock said. “[It] speaks to our focus, which is empowering students to be independent, successful and happy individuals each day and when they walk through the door of Clearview Elementary.”