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On Thursday morning, the Troup County School System hosted a groundbreaking ceremony for the new Rosemont Elementary School.

TCSS Superintendent Dr. Brian Shumate said the school is expected to open in the fall of 2024.

Rosemont currently has about 570 students. When the new school opens, it will have room for 850 students.

“It’s going to be 110,000 square feet. It’s going to be a nice big building,” Shumate said. “We fully expect down the road that this community will grow and the school will grow, and this building is going to really add to the entire instructional program at Rosemont.”

Shumate said the shape of the building will allow for expansion if needed.

“You could put another 16 classrooms on it if you wanted to. There’s enough room here,” Shumate said. “It’s suitable if we wanted to expand. We don’t plan on doing that anytime soon. We’ve got a long way to go.”

Shumate said plans for the school began about three years ago when the school system purchased the property adjacent to the current Rosemont school, and they started having conversations with LaGrange and the county about infrastructure to support the school.

With the City of LaGrange and Troup County’s support, the new school will have city water and gas coming under Interstate 185.

“This old school has been on a well forever since its inception,” Shumate said. “We’re going to have fresh water out here we’re going to have city gas now, natural gas, instead of LP [liquefied petroleum] in a tank, which is much more efficient and much more safe.”

Shumate thanked his staff, community leaders, architect Southern A&E and countless others who helped get the project ready to break ground.

“Southern A&E is very good at listening to the needs of educators and trying to design a building around what we need to do what’s best for these kids,” Shumate said.

The groundbreaking was joined by hundreds of students from Rosemont and Principal Martie Hornsby.

“I really do appreciate the opportunity to be able to be a voice for all of these 570 kids and this amazing staff,” Hornsby said. “Troup County Schools and Southern A&E have done such a great job of listening to us.”

“It’s important this morning for you to hear about how excited we are about this new school from the whole reason why we’re here our whole purpose for being here are these kids,” Hornsby said, introducing the Rosemont Tiger Cubs.

Two exemplary Tiger Cubs were allowed to participate in the groundbreaking. Third graders Danielle Matthews and Donovan Walker got to don hard hats and join community leaders as they officially kicked off construction for the new school. Matthews and Walker will be fifth graders when the school opens.

“They will be our seniors. These two are leaders. They work so hard,” Hornsby said. ”They are great representatives of what it means to work hard and be a Rosemont Tiger Cub.”

Commissioner Ellis Cadenhead, who Shumate said was instrumental in helping bring the new school to fruition, said it’s the voters of Troup County to thank for the school.

“We need to thank the citizens of Troup County for voting for SPLOST. But for SPLOST we wouldn’t be standing here preparing for a new school. It really means a lot for the citizens of Troup County to invest in something for the future,” Cadenhead said.

“We were fortunate that the county supported this SPLOST vote. We fully anticipate probably every SPLOST vote, probably every five years, we’re going to be looking at building some type of new school,” Shumate said.

Shumate said that they are still planning to keep and maintain the current Rosemont School, saying it could be used for Pre-K or as a community center.

“It still has a functional gym, functional cafeteria, and a library,” Shumate said. “It can be a lot of things, so we don’t plan on tearing it down.”

Shumate said they are keeping the name Rosemont for the new school.

“It’s absolutely Rosemont. This is the Rosemont community, and they’re very proud of this community and the old school and they’re going to be proud of the new school. So, it will absolutely stay Rosemont,” Shumate said.