The Henry County Board of Education designated the site of the former Patrick Henry High School as the location for the planned district-wide STEM (science technology, engineering and math) high school.

The vote at the school board’s January 10 regular business meeting was unanimous. The school is one of the capital projects designated under the district’s latest E-SPLOST initiative.

A portion of the adjacent Stockbridge Elementary School campus will also be utilized for the project, and a new gymnasium will be built for that school. The current Patrick Henry campus will be demolished.

Located on South Lee Street in downtown Stockbridge just off North Henry Boulevard, the property was the site of Stockbridge High School from its inception in the 1960s until its current campus opened in the mid-1990s. Patrick Henry High was the district’s main alternative school until about seven years ago when it was renamed EXCEL Academy and moved to McDonough.

In the fall of 2015 the school board approved an agreement with a production company to film a television series at the Patrick Henry site which had become mostly vacant. That series, “Stranger Things,” became a worldwide sensation on Netflix and there have been reports of tourists driving unannounced to see the “Hawkins Middle School” building and surroundings. Other television productions have utilized the site as well.

In other business, a special called meeting was convened just before the regular study session at which Holly Cobb was nominated for school board chair and Annette Edwards was nominated for vice chair. No other nominations were received for either position, and both were confirmed by unanimous vote.