Tallapoosa County Schools superintendent Joe Windle was grinning Friday morning.
To some it was the first step in a new school growing from the ground. It was a typical groundbreaking with the pomp and circumstance of officials ceremoniously shoveling a little dirt, but for Windle it was his dream come true.
Eight years ago as Windle took the reins as superintendent, a new school or any school building or major renovation of facilities was a pipe dream for the Tallapoosa County Board of Education.
“After the first year as superintendent, I never thought we would get to this day,” Windle said. “We were struggling with debt. We were struggling with local revenue income.”
But the school board and Windle convinced the Tallapoosa County Commission they needed help.
“Over a period of time, we were able to convince the commission (to help with local revenue),” Windle said. “We owe the commission a great deal. This would have never happened had they not been willing to take the political risk necessary to pass a 1-penny tax to allow us to get out of the financial crisis we were in.”
The new tax was temporarily put in place to allow the commission to come to trust county schools, allow county schools to come out of the hole financially and develop a plan to use the 1-cent sales tax for facilities across Tallapoosa County. In August 2019, the commission authorized the tax to allow long-term financing for capital projects in Tallapoosa County Schools, Alexander City Schools and Tallassee City Schools.
“The three school systems involved in this can now start to close the facility gaps that existed,” Windle said. “It could have never happened without the commission’s willingness to work with us, to allow us to create the vision we had for improving facilities and capital improvement in our three main campuses.”
For Windle it means letting the old 91-year-old Reeltown school sail into the sunset.
“It is the oldest school in the state of Alabama that is heated by a boiler system with steam radiators in the hallways and radiators in the classrooms,” Windle said. “You can’t cool the building in the summer. You can’t heat the building in the winter. This has allowed us to give something to this community that their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, the staff and faculty and those who come later will be in a state of the art facility.”
First Team Construction of Auburn was the low bidder on the project at $12,551,100. It started construction moving dirt a few weeks ago but is no stranger to the parcel of land construction crews will call home for the next year.
“(First Team Construction knows) who we are,” Windle said. “They also built the high school. The have a vested interest in this campus. It’s part of their legacy.”
Students should be able to move into the new building in January 2022 and won’t involve a lot of moving.
“It is a matter of picking up and moving over,” Windle said. “We don’t have to move a lot of furniture; we are putting new furniture in here. The technology is all new technology. We will redistribute some of the technology. It is mainly a ‘you go home from one building and come back to a new building.’”
If there are delays in the project, Windle said it’s no big deal.
“If we don’t hit that target, no harm, no foul,” Windle said. “We just move the target date, maybe to spring break 2022.”
The idea of possible construction delays were not going to dampen Windle’s spirits Friday and thank those for making the dream possible.
“There are too many people who made this day possible for me to begin to name,” Windle said. “I won’t try to name. They know who they are. It is a great day for this community. I am just grateful that we could make this happen.”
Cliff Williams is a staff writer for Tallapoosa Publishers.
