Multimedia design students at Mortimer Jordan assemble fans to be used during the Oct. 6 groundbreaking ceremony. The students are Meaghan Passantino, Trevor McClendon, Chassidy Pennington, Zac Hardiman, Susan Williams and India Blankenship.

By Melanie Patterson

The North Jefferson News



Barbara Snider feels like a wedding planner. Since the school year began, she has organized committees, written pages and pages of notes, and compiled a long guest list.

Only the event she’s planning is the kickoff to something that will impact the lives of thousands of people for many years to come.

Snider, principal of Mortimer Jordan High School, is in charge of the school’s groundbreaking ceremony on Oct. 6. The 10 a.m. ceremony will be held at a site that currently contains not much besides dirt.

But heavy equipment has been moving the dirt around and making way for a new state-of-the-art high school.

Mortimer Jordan is one of the oldest schools in Jefferson County. It opened in 1920 at its current site at 8601 Old Hwy. 31 in Morris.

The new Mortimer Jordan school will be located in neighboring Kimberly. In April 2008, the Jefferson County Board of Education voted to buy 122 acres for the new school on Bone Dry Road in Kimberly for $1,590,160.

Mortimer Jordan is one of six high school the county school system is building with 1-cent tax funds collected in 2005.

In May 2009, the board of education accepted a bid of just over $31 million from Winter Construction of Atlanta for the Mortimer Jordan High School project. The relatively low price came thanks to the economic recession, which had caused construction prices to plummet.

Among Snider’s six subcommittees working on the groundbreaking ceremony are career tech students in Becky Mauldin and Theresa Wine’s classes.

Since the beginning of the school year, Mauldin and Wine have integrated preparations for the ceremony into classroom curriculum. The students have designed and applied labels for water bottles, designed and assembled fans for the guests to use, and helped Snider design the invitations and programs.

Wine, who is a 1970 MJHS alumna and Mauldin, a 1975 MJHS alumna, are carefully overseeing the preparations because they want to ensure that Mortimer Jordan’s rich traditions are not lost in the excitement of a new school.

Wine, who teaches business technology applications and accounting, said she especially wants to make sure the school’s motto of “Blue Devil Country – Love it or Leave it” has a strong presence at the new facility in Kimberly.

In its 89 years in existence, Mortimer Jordan has had only 12 principals, with Jimmie A. Trotter serving the longest term, from 1968 to 2000.

Wine said that it is not uncommon for the schools graduates to return, as at least 20 of Mortimer Jordan’s staff and faculty graduated from the school.

The school was named for Capt. Mortimer Harvie Jordan, a war hero who died in 1918 in World War I.

The school’s “old gym,” which currently serves as the location of drama rehearsals, wrestling practice and other activities, was built by the WPA in the mid-1930s.

Athletic fields were added in the early 1950s, followed by the “new gym” in 1968.

The newest classroom wing of the school was built in 2003.

On hand for the ceremony will be officials from the Jefferson County Board of Education; Davis Architects, Inc.; Winter Construction and others.

To reach the groundbreaking ceremony site from U.S. Hwy. 31: Turn onto Morris Majestic Road; turn left onto Self Creek Road; turn left onto Bill Jones Road; and turn right onto Bone Dry Road. The site is on the left.