COVINGTON, Ga. - The Newton County Board of Education approved the purchase of 107 acres of property in eastern Newton County at its March 12 work session meeting. As noted in the school system’s Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax for Education, which was approved in May 2018, the district will replace the current Eastside High School with a new facility located within the same school boundary lines. The property, purchased for $6,800 per surveyed acre or approximately $727,600, is located on Georgia Highway 142 near the intersection of U.S. Highway 278. 

“We promised our taxpayers in our capital improvement plan that we would replace the current Eastside High School facility to make the school equitable and comparable to the facilities at Alcovy and Newton high schools,” Samantha Fuhrey, NCSS superintendent, said. “With the purchase of this property we are moving forward on that promise.”

According to Dr. Michael Barr, NCSS chief operations officer, the new Eastside High School should be open and ready for use in 2021. 

Once the new building is occupied, as promised in the E-SPLOST referendum, the current Eastside facility will be renovated and become the new home of the Newton County Theme School, which is currently housed in the old Ficquett Elementary School facility. 

“We are excited to begin work on these projects,” Fuhrey said. “Both Eastside and the Theme School have outgrown their current locations and we made a promise to our community to provide them with new facilities. Our community overwhelmingly supported our E-SPLOST proposals and the purchase of this land signals the commencement of one of our major projects.”