JONESBORO — In its regular meeting Monday, April 10, the Clayton County Board of Education approved a contract of more than $92,000,000 for the building of the new Forest Park Middle School.
The school board voted 5-0-3 to award the contract to Meja Construction Inc., of Peachtree City, for a total of $92,160,000. More than $86.6 million will be paid from local Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax money while more than $5.5 million will come from the Georgia Department of Education.
Board members Benjamin Straker, Victoria Williams, Dee Haney, Mary Baker, and Sabrina Hill voted in favor of the contract. Joy Tellis Cooper was absent from the meeting.
Three school board members abstained from voting on the contract — Board Chair Jessie Goree, Mark Christmas, and Jasmine Bowles.
“I have a problem with always having punchlists that’s not completed (by Meja) by the time it’s done and will have projects that’s out there that’s supposed to be done that have punchlists,” Christmas said. “I think we need to look into how Meja does their work because our maintenance crew shouldn’t have to go behind them and do their work.”
Goree said she abstained because of a “lack of information.”
Bowles abstained because she said she “just wants to see us diversity our contracts for construction.”
The new Forest Park Middle School will be at the old Forest Park Middle School site at 930 Finley Drive, Forest Park 30297.
The new school will serve an enrollment of 1,200 students.
In February, the school board approved the demolition of the old Forest Park Middle School and Riverdale Middle School. The contract went to Complete Demolition for more than $2 million.
A video of the new Forest Park Middle School conceptual design is on YouTube at
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