What should be the name of this new school in Columbus? Here’s how you can help decide

Mark Rice
·3 min read

Your suggestion could be the name of the newest public school in Columbus.

The Muscogee County School District is conducting an online survey that includes the opportunity for folks to propose a name for the new school. June 15 is the deadline to submit a proposed name.

MCSD is constructing a new school to combine and replace Dawson Elementary School and St. Marys Road Magnet Academy. The new school is scheduled to open in August 2024 on Dawson’s current campus, 180 Northstar Drive, along Kennedy Street. St. Marys is 1 mile away.

“The name selected will meet the guidelines proposed by the naming committee to include but not limited to the historical, current name, or geographical features of the community or local area, names of persons who have made outstanding educational or societal contributions in the local area, or someone who has significant meaning to members of the school community,” MCSD’s announcement says.

“We are not looking for a name that other school districts have widely used but a unique name that embraces our community’s guiding principles and values,” the statement continued.

No living person is eligible for nomination.

Name selection process

The new school’s naming committee members are:

  • Naomi Buckner, MCSD board’s District 4 representative

  • Trenton Chester, businessman in District 4

  • Cassandra Downing, teacher at Dawson

  • Mary Farley, Dawson alumna, former Dawson parent and current Dawson grandparent

  • Seritha Love, St. Marys alumna and former St. Marys parent

  • Sasha Smith, academic coach at St. Marys

  • Kimberly Wright, MCSD communications director.

MCSD policy allows the board member representing the district where the new school is located to recommend the new school’s name to the board for approval. Buckner told the Ledger-Enquirer she consulted with current and former principals of Dawson and St. Marys to appoint the committee that will help decide her recommendation.

The committee created the survey to gather more input. After the June 15 deadline for responses to the survey, the committee will consider the options and advise Buckner. She plans to make her recommendation to the board in time for a vote at the July 17 meeting.

Project’s budget and scope

The project’s original $25 million budget, approved by the board in 2021, included an estimated $20 million for construction. But the lowest bid from the two construction companies that completed the bid process was $34.9 million.

After value engineering and scope reduction, the low bid from Freeman & Associates of Columbus was cut to $33.5 million and approved by the board in May 2022, bringing the project’s total budget to $37,890,500. Hecht Burdeshaw of Columbus is the project’s architect.

The project is designed to produce a 106,833-square-foot school with a capacity for 750 students in 46 classrooms: four classrooms for prekindergarten, six each for kindergarten and first grade, five each for grades 2-5 and seven for special education. Other spaces will be for music, art, gym, cafeteria and media center.

“Please remember that classrooms can be re-purposed for the school’s ever-evolving needs,” Wright told the L-E in an email Wednesday.

Enrollment was 290 at Dawson and 428 at St. Marys, as of March 2, according to the Georgia Department of Education.