In just two weeks, teachers return to the classrooms across Liberty County and students will start classes August 6.

And the school system has been busy in the few short weeks of summer.

Operations director Arnold Jackson said improvements at schools planned for the summer remain on track as the August 6 first day of school for 2025–26 draws near.

The school system has purchased nine new buses — six are 78-passenger buses and three are designed for special-needs students. All nine buses are in and are operational, and the total price tag was $1.3 million. Funding for new buses come through education special purpose local option sales tax proceeds.

Work on the Liberty County High School envelope — after bricks on the outside of the school’s cafeteria fell last school year — is done, complete with a new illuminated sign.

“It looks fantastic,” Jackson told school board members.

New gym floors, at a cost of $542,000, are being installed at Button Gwinnett and Joseph Martin elementary schools. New HVAC systems, at a cost of $1.16 million, are being installed at Taylors Creek and Waldo Pafford elementary schools. Those projects are expected to be completed before the end of July.

New generators are on the way for Joseph Martin Elementary and Snelson-Golden Middle School and are expected to be on hand by August 1.

Other projects will be done early in the school year or will get a start then, such as new playground equipment at Waldo Pafford Elementary. The new playground apparatus is expected to be ready by August 18.

The school system also will begin renovations to the Performing Arts Center. Work on the interior is scheduled to start next month and will include painting, flooring, new ceiling time, restroom upgrades and lighting improvements. The work, at a tab of $461,000, could be finished by November.

“It’s going to look great,” Jackson said.

In all, the school system’s summer to-do list tops $4.6 million, funded through ESPLOST, the state Department of Education and the Georgia

School Boards Association.

Jackson said repeated problems with Bradwell Institute’s air conditioning should be resolved through work done on its cooling tower. Bradwell’s HVAC system is scheduled to be replaced in 2027, Jackson added, and that could take about $1.2 million to do.