A small crowd gathered in a field off Jefferson Street in Statham on Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2011, to celebrate the groundbreaking for a new middle school.

In attendance were Barrow County Schools Superintendent Wanda Creel, Jake Grant, assistant superintendent for facilities and operations, other school administrators, members of the Barrow County Board of Education, Statham Mayor Robert Bridges, city council members and others. 

The school, set to be completed in April 2013, will include 58 classrooms and will be part of the Winder-Barrow cluster of schools. This project was originally slated to be built on Mulberry Road in 2008, but public sewer plans changed, requiring the school system to postpone the project. The board of education purchased property in Statham.