The Bulloch County Board of Education approved (8-0) a bid for $5.25 million for two new athletic complexes at Langston Chapel Middle School and William James Middle School. Dabbs Williams General Contractors will begin construction in July 2021, and they are scheduled to be complete by July 1 2022.
Designed by Hussey Gay Bell Architecture, the facilities will each include six-court tennis courts, combined football-soccer fields, softball fields, baseball fields, concessions, restrooms, and new parking lots.
New athletic facilities were provided for Portal Middle High School when its new school and new athletic complex were constructed and opened in 2010 and 2016. Southeast Bulloch Middle School is expected to gain expanded athletic facilities when a proposed future move into the current Southeast Bulloch High School occurs. In the interim the school district is completing upgrades to the school’s football/soccer and baseball/softball fields during summer 2021.
Middle school athletic facilities were a priority item identified by both the Board’s E-SPLOST IV and Facilities committees. The community committees met to review and prioritize a proposed list of projects to guide the use of the funds generated by the education special-purpose local option sales tax for capital improvements.
Registered voters in Bulloch County approved in a special election on Nov. 7, 2017, a fourth one-cent sales and use tax for educational purposes for five years (Jan. 1, 2019 – Dec. 31, 2023). E-SPLOST IV will raise approximately $51 million for capital improvement projects like these for each of the district’s 15 public schools and alternative learning centers.
