Hickory Flat Community Celebrates Ribbon Cutting of New Dean Rusk MS The 30-year-old former Dean Rusk MS building required replacement in order to meet the needs of the growing community. The new school accommodates the current 1,480 students with room for growth, with numerous classrooms, wide hallways, a spacious gymnasium, a cafetorium and additional technology, all designed to serve the new grades 6-8 configuration. The school is named for the late U.S. Secretary of State Dean Rusk, who was born in Cherokee County and served from 1961-69 under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson.Constructed by Womack, Lewis & Smith, Inc. using a CCSD prototypical middle-school design, the 255,037-square-foot, two-story school is on 25.6 acres on East Cherokee Drive, adjacent to the campuses of Hickory Flat ES and Sequoyah HS. Its classrooms all feature touchscreen, flat-panel smart boards the first school in CCSD with this feature. Other technological innovations include the Global Learning Theatre video-conferencing classroom and Technology Lab classroom, with a 3-D printer, green-screen video room and Lego robotics table among its special features.In addition to CCSDs safety standards, such as an electronic front-door buzz-in security system, the new design requires all visitor traffic to flow into the front office for an additional security foyer level of check-in and verification before entering the main hallway. The former Dean Rusk MS is being renovated to provide additional capacity to Sequoyah HS beginning in January, much like how the former Chapman Intermediate School now is used as Etowah East by Etowah HS. The District and school are collaboratively developing a plan for which programs will be housed in this facility.
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