MORROW — Clayton County Public Schools held a groundbreaking ceremony for its Student Convocation Center and College and Career Academy Thursday at the old Sears store site at Southlake Mall.
The $117 million project is scheduled to open in the summer of 2025.
“Today is a historical one for the Clayton County Board of Education and Clayton County Public Schools,” Clayton County Board of Education Chair Jessie Goree said. “We are here to break ground and this vision of the Clayton County Board of Education has finally come to fruition. It represents our thoughts, our plans, our hard work, our blood, our sweat, our tears. It’s going to be an everlasting testimony how we not only educate but how we make the difference in the lives of children and everybody in this county.”
Goree said the center will impact the entire community and will a part of an economic revitalization of the area.
“We are building a state of the art building that will have a convocation center, a career academy, and Junior Achievement,” Goree said. “It will be a building second to none. No other school board, no other county authority board, no other city, no development authority undertook such a building.”
And it all came about because the School Board wanted to have a graduation facility of its own rather than rent facilities such as the Georgia International Convention Center in College Park.
School Board Vice Chair Benjamin Straker described fellow School Board member Mary Baker as the “most annoying Board member” as every year she would bring up the fact that CCPS needed a graduation facility of its own.
“Mary, you finally got your dream,” Straker said.
Clayton County School Superintendent Anthony Smith said one of the selling points of the center was partnering with other entities and governments such as Clayton County Government, which…
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