Pierce County, Georgia is moving forward with additions and renovations to both its elementary and middle schools, a coordinated investment in facilities that in many cases have gone decades without major upgrades.

The rural southeast Georgia district, centered in the small community of Offerman, is hiring a construction manager under a method known as Construction Manager at Risk, or CMAR. Under that approach, the firm is brought in early during the design phase to help control costs and scheduling before committing to a guaranteed maximum price. Georgia authorized CMAR for public construction specifically because it gives districts more budget certainty than traditional contracting, a significant advantage when projects have to work around school calendars and tight finances.

For a district like Pierce County, which serves roughly 19,000 to 20,000 residents across a largely agricultural and forestry-based economy, assembling the money to modernize school buildings is itself a years-long process. Georgia districts can draw on state capital outlay grants, including a Low Wealth Capital Outlay program aimed at poorer districts, and on the Education Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax, known as ESPLOST, which Georgia voters can authorize at the county level. Pierce County voters have backed ESPLOST rounds in the past, and the timing of this project suggests the district has pulled together funding from multiple sources to address needs that have likely been on the books for some time.

The scale of deferred maintenance in American schools is well documented. A 2020 Government Accountability Office report found that 54 percent of school districts needed to update or replace multiple building systems, with rural Southern districts among the hardest hit due to older building stock and smaller tax bases.

The district posted the solicitation on the Georgia Procurement Registry on March 26. Once a construction manager is selected and design work advances, the firm will lock in a guaranteed price before construction begins.