The Athens City school system is one step closer to bringing the new iAcademy at Athens Elementary School project to fruition. The board unanimously approved a bid from Bailey-Harris Construction for a new AES building, though the figure the company turned in is higher than the $18,860,000 amount the City Council approved securing a bond for earlier this year.

“Our wonderful architect team and our construction team have worked with us the past three weeks to look at materials and other things that can change to reduce cost without affecting quality,” ACS Superintendent Beth Patton said. “The purpose of tonight’s work session at this board meeting ultimately was to update the board on any changes so that we can hopefully move forward with this project that we’ve been waiting on for so long and we’re so excited about.”

Patton said ACS began accepting bids July 15. The new iAcademy building will be located at the intersection of Madison Street and First and Second avenues. A previous iteration of AES was located there.

As far as the current iAcademy location, which formerly housed Athens Middle School, Patton said ACS plans to keep the Clinton Street building for overflow given the anticipated growth that Athens is facing.

“We may have to utilize it before we can get all the spaces we need,” she said. “We definitely don’t want to do anything to it for a few years.”

Welcome back

Students returned to Athens City schools Wednesday for the beginning of the 2021-2022 school year. Faculty and staff at iAcademy were welcomed back with lunch from 306 Barbecue, courtesy of community partner Listerhill Credit Union.

The meals were provided as part of the Greater Limestone County Chamber of Commerce’s Partners in Education program.

“Community partners are incredibly important to schools, and we are delighted to be partnering with Listerhill,” said iAcademy Principal Amanda Tedford. “We are already seeing their commitment to the Athens community, and we are excited to welcome them to our town.”

Listerhill is currently working on a new location at the corner of Bab Daly Road and U.S. 72.

“Athens has a fantastic community, and we are proud to be partnering with a great local school as we head towards our grand opening,” said Sarah Evans, community relations specialist for the credit union. “Supporting education has always been a main focus for Listerhill, and appreciating our teachers is just one of the ways that we can do this.”