Olivia Carroll is a student at Ringgold High School.

Catoosa County will welcome a new addition in August when Heritage High School opens its doors to its first class of students.

Naturally, a new school in the North Georgia county is a big event, and many students from Ringgold High School, which is also in the Catoosa County Public School System, have formed opinions about Heritage High.

Alex Day, a junior at Ringgold High, said he thinks Ringgold is overcrowded and that the new school will benefit the surrounding schools and community.

“Heritage will be really useful,” Alex said. “Next year, some people won’t have to drive as far as usual, traffic will not be as bad as it is now, and this school will be less crowded. Basically, we will be able to do things more efficiently.”

Heritage is the Board of Education’s solution to the growing population at Georgia high schools Ringgold and Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe, according to a news release from Superintendent Denia Reese.

“The county did not have a choice but to build another high school,” said Ringgold High School’s business department chairperson, Sandy Kilgore. “The other two high schools are too crowded.”

Mallory Hope, a sophomore at Ringgold High School who will be attending Heritage High School in the fall, said she is looking forward to a change in scenery.

“Ringgold is too crowded,” Mallory said. “Heritage offers a new start with different people in a different situation.”

Other students are not as certain that Heritage is the answer to the other schools’ overpopulation troubles. Many said they worry Heritage will offer only fleeting relief.

Ringgold senior Bekah James is one of those students. She said she believes people are too confident the new school will solve zoning issues.

“The community is always changing, so Heritage is just more space for people to flow in and fill,” she said.

To some, the school seems like a quick fix.

“Temporarily, it will relieve some of the mass amounts of students in the other schools, but even then, it will eventually fill up,” Ringgold senior Amelia Atwell said, adding that she still thinks Heritage High School is a necessary project for Catoosa County. “We have eight elementary schools that feed into three middle schools that used to feed into two high schools. Only now, they will feed into three high schools, so it will balance more.”

Emily Cromer, a senior at Ringgold, said she wishes the county had focused more on its existing schools before building a new facility.

“Yes, they needed Heritage because of the number of students in Catoosa County, but they also needed to focus on revamping Ringgold and Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe,” she said.

Some of the money put into Heritage should have been spent on the essentials, like textbooks and cosmetic improvements to these schools’ interiors, before it was spent on Heritage, Emily said.

Still, many students said they are grateful for a chance to be the first to attend the new school.

Shelby Williams, a sophomore at Ringgold, will attend Heritage High School in the fall.

“Heritage High is really nice,” she said. “It is really awesome because we really needed new facilities.”

Like Mallory Hope, Shelby said she is looking forward to a new start.

“Heritage High School offers a chance at a new beginning,” she said. “At Heritage, you have a chance to start over as a person.”