Click to enlarge  From right; Casey; Lee and Theresa Pritchard cut the ribbon in front of the newly renovated Anna Ruth Pritchard Junior High in Bells. Casey and Lee are sons of the late Anna Ruth for whom the school was named.

BY JONATHAN CANNON

HERALD DEMOCRAT

Just more than a year ago voters in Bells approved a $7.2 million bond, and on Monday students at Anna Ruth Prichard Junior High School will begin reaping the benefits of the voters' decision.

"There is a great deal of pride with students seeing the new facilities," Bells Superintendent Joe Moore said.

Moore said the 43,000-square-foot renovation includes seven classrooms, a computer lab, a science room, a new band hall and a gym that seats 1,050 plus six dressing rooms and an eight-lane track.

The new facility also features electronic locks that are linked to the bells allowing students to move between buildings between classes, but forcing everyone to enter through the office when classes are in session.

"It updates our facilities and it allowed us to eliminate our portable building," Moore said.

The superintendent said that in addition to creating more space and freeing students of the portable buildings, the construction also allowed the district to move the sixth grade to the junior high. This, he said, creates extra space at the elementary and helps decrease class size and make curriculum alignment easier.

"When you can group the sixth, seventh and eighth grade ... it absolutely helps," Moore said.

Moore praised Buford-Thompson Construction, the company that served as the construction manager for the project, for bringing the construction in on an accelerated schedule and under budget. He said the district was refunded $150,000 in contingency funds that were not needed. "That doesn't happen very often in a building project."