Architect picked to build academy

• By JAMES MINTON
• Advocate Baker - Zachary bureau
• Published: Aug 14, 2009 - Page: 4B

• Print
• Email
• Save
• Reprints
• Twitter
• Share

• Del.icio.us
• Digg
• Facebook
• Reddit
• 

ZACHARY — The Zachary Community School Board named an architect Thursday for a building to house Zachary High School’s Ninth-Grade Academy.

Henry J. Carville, of Bani Carville and Brown, Architects, in Baton Rouge, will design the facility, which board President Scott Swilley said “needs to be on a fast track.”

Superintendent Warren Drake said a ninth-grade academy is “a philosophy of transition from eighth grade to ninth grade” in which a group of teachers work as a team to prepare the ninth-graders for further high school work.

The students have been housed in two wings of the high school built several years ago, but Drake said the classrooms are needed for other students in the fast-growing high school.

The building will be erected on the east side of the campus, Drake said.

Building Committee Chairman Hubie Owen said none of the district’s bond money is allocated to the academy, but the board has about $3.5 million in contingency funds from other projects that may not be needed.

He estimated the academy building will cost about $7 million.

The board recently accepted the low bid of $5.7 million from Block Construction Co. to build a gym complex at the high school.

Other projects under construction are a School Board office and an early learning center on a 62-acre site on Rollins Road.

Business Manager Gordon Robertson said the district has gained approval to issue $5.7 million in interest-free bonds for construction purposes.

The investors who buy the bonds will receive a tax credit, Robertson said.

Drake also reported that enrollment is 4,965 students, noting the enrollment was only about 2,850 when the system split from East Baton Rouge Parish in 2003.

The high school has 1,330 students, while the middle school has 1,123, he said.