Construction on new Moulton Middle School could begin in spring

By Nancy Glasscock
nglasscock@decaturdaily.com · 340-2443

MOULTON — Construction on a middle school could begin this spring, Superintendent Dexter Rutherford said Wednesday.

The Lawrence County school board recently approved an architectural agreement with a Montgomery-based firm, Goodwyn, Mills and Cawood Inc., to build a new Moulton Middle School. The school will be built on the same campus as the current school.

Rutherford said plans are being drawn for a 24-classroom building to replace the current facility built in the 1920s. The school system will solicit bids for the project in January, he said.

School officials have discussed the possibility of a new middle school for about a year, Rutherford said.

"When we determined that we weren't going to get a new (high school,) it kind of came on the front burner," he said.

Students will remain in the current building while construction is under way, Rutherford said. School officials had discussed moving eighth-graders into the new school, but Rutherford said that probably won't happen.

"We don't have enough room to have all the PE there at Moulton Middle without building a new gym," he said.

Rutherford said he expects the building to cost $4 million to $5 million.

Moulton Middle Principal Gaylon Parker said the school has an enrollment of 537, and is struggling with overcrowding.

"We've got kids in just about every available space that we have," Parker said.

Teachers and students can't use much of the technology available because of the building's age, he said. The school was built with only two electrical outlets in each room, Parker said.

"Those have been upgraded and changed over the years, but it's still hard to retrofit a building like this with all the problems we have," he said.

The building also has termite damage, Parker said.

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