Lexington, SC - On Tuesday during its September 2019 board meeting, the Lexington County School District One Board of Trustees accepted the administration’s recommendation to proceed with the purchase of property for the relocation of Lexington Middle School. The final price was $1,594,575.00 or $47,500 per acre. The negotiated price is on the low end of the independent appraisals the district received.
The careful decision to purchase this 33.57-acre property on Old Cherokee Road began in March when the district entered into an option agreement. They had gone through an extensive six-month long evaluation of all parcels of comparable size in the attendance area. According to the district’s administrators, this parcel best meets the need for a school site.
The district will use the prototype it used to build Beechwood Middle School, which just opened on Highway #378, to build the new Lexington Middle School. It is currently using that same prototype to build Pelion Middle School. The use of the prototype concept allows contractors to begin work earlier reducing inflationary costs, and typically results in fewer change orders.
The relocation of Lexington Middle School ensures that students will be under one roof and not in multiple buildings on a safer campus. The new site also will provide adequate stacking for parents as they drop-off and pick-up students. There is also room to increase the capacity of the facility to accommodate future growth.
After a detailed traffic analysis, the district plans to make all necessary road improvements in the area to mitigate the anticipated impact on traffic caused by morning drop off and afternoon pick up as it develops the new site on Old Cherokee Road. Those improvements will improve traffic patterns in the area year-round even though school does not take place during the summer months.
Lexington District One has published a webpage to allow residents to keep up with this and all other construction projects. That site enables residents to see what is currently happening at their child’s school and includes “before” photographs, the current phase taking place, photographs of that progress, etc.That website can be located here. LINK
