Construction projects to improve William James Middle School’s campus will temporarily change access to the school December 18 through July 1. The school’s main driveway on U.S. Highway 80 West will be barricaded and inaccessible to all vehicles during this time.
How persons who drive, park, and enter the school for work, to drop off and pick up students, make deliveries, perform maintenance, volunteer, visit, or respond to public safety needs will be altered during construction.
Highway 80 West Entrance Closed; Simons Road is Temporary Main Drive
Everyone will temporarily use Simons Road as the school’s main drive. Afterwards, once on Simons Road, use either the bus ramp road (first road to right – Entrance One) or the new Knight Drive (second road to right), depending on the purpose for coming to the campus. Please refer to the guide and map below.
Alternate Route for Those Using Knight Drive
For residents and businesses on Simons Road and school district employees, school buses, and visitors who need to access the campus in the morning and afternoon when car rider students are being dropped off or picked up by parents (7:30 a.m. – 8:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. – 3:45 p.m.), administrators encourage you to access Simons Road and Knight Drive (Entrance Two) via Veterans Parkway and Miller Road Extension instead of U.S. Highway 80. This will help reduce traffic congestion on U.S. Highway 80 and Entrance One in the mornings and afternoons.
During the mornings and afternoons, parents should not attempt to access Entrance One from Veterans Parkway and Miller Road Extension to drop off or pick up their child as traffic flow into Entrance One will only be directed to turn right. No left turn access into Entrance One will be permitted during morning and afternoon student drop off/pick up.
E-SPLOST IV in Action at William James Middle School
Please pardon any inconvenience during this progress. William James Middle School is benefitting from more than $2.9 million in new construction funded by Bulloch County voters’ support of a fourth education special local option sales tax referendum. These two projects will add a new main driveway entrance and parking off of U.S. Hwy. 80 West, and a new athletic complex that will allow the school’s football, soccer, tennis, softball and baseball program to both practice and compete at the school for the first time in school history.
In June 2021, the Bulloch County Board of Education unanimously approved (8-0) a bid for $5.25 million for new athletic complexes at Langston Chapel Middle School and William James Middle School. Designed by Hussey Gay Bell Architecture and constructed by Dabbs Williams Contractors, the athletic complexes will each include a six-court tennis court, a combined football-soccer field, softball field, baseball field, concession, and restrooms.
Middle school athletic facilities were a priority item identified by both the Board of Education’s E-SPLOST IV and Facilities committees. The community committees met to review and prioritize a proposed list of projects to guide the use of the funds generated by the education special-purpose local option sales tax for capital improvements.
Registered voters in Bulloch County approved in a special election on Nov. 7, 2017, the one-cent sales and use tax for educational purposes for a five-year period (Jan. 1, 2019 – Dec. 31, 2023). E-SPLOST IV will raise approximately $60 million for identified capital improvement projects at each of the district’s 15 schools and alternative learning centers.
