A large number of West Lincoln Attendance Center faculty,parents and interested community members learned Tuesday night ofplans to replace the historic Old Green Building at the school.

Lincoln County School District Superintendent Terry Brister andschool Principal Jason Case made their first public announcement ofthe plans and solicited comments from those attending themeeting.

The old school building burned more than a year ago, and it hastaken until just recently to settle with the insurance company,Brister said.

The insurer originally offered a $350,000 in a settlement,Brister said. School officials then showed plans to rebuild andeventually managed to get the insurance company to up itssettlement to $729,527. The building was insured for $1 millionwith a supplemental policy of $300,000 for contents.

“This building should have been started a few months ago,”Brister said.

The total cost of the project is $1,434,200 with the contractawarded to Reid Metal Erectors, of Jayess. Money saved in thedistrict’s new-construction account will fund the difference.

The approximately 12,376-square-foot building will house nineclassrooms and an office area.

The office area may confuse some people, Brister said, admittingthat a office area was also included in a building built only a fewyears ago on bond money.

“We’re looking to the future,” he said. “With this building wealso know where to add classrooms when they become needed in thefuture.”

Future plans include dividing the campus into elementary, middleschool and high school areas. When that occurs, Brister said, eachlevel will need its own office.

The new building will be used to house high school students,Case said.

The project also includes a 1,488-square-foot cafeteriaexpansion, which would enable school officials to open a secondlunch line when necessary and add a career discovery room ofapproximately 1,569 square feet. A building now attached to thecafeteria would be torn down to make room for the expansion.

In addition, the project will fund a parking lot and an accessroad along the woods line at the rear of the school. Officials hopethe access road will relieve some congestion on West Lincoln andJackson Liberty roads during student pickup. The road wouldeventually be fenced to separate it from the playground.

All of the new additions would seek to preserve the look of theother buildings on campus, Brister said. However, the buildingwould use brick instead of the blocks used in other construction.The architects hired for the project raised concern over using theblocks, saying they tend to draw in moisture and must be treatedevery few years for mold. The existing block buildings will laterbe fronted with brick.

The project is slated to break ground on Nov. 17, Brister said,but may be delayed because of hurricane-recovery efforts on thecoast.

Construction projects are bidding at a premium now because ofthe high demand for work crews and increases in material costs. Thesuperintendent said that would not affect this project, however,because the contract was awarded before Hurricane Katrinadevastated the Gulf Coast.