The city last week completed the purchase of a 26-acre site for a new middle school.

The site is located on Burbage Drive near the intersection with Glenrose Drive. The city paid $850,000, which City Manager Patrick Roberts on Tuesday called an “extremely good price at that location.” The new middle school will support 800 students.

The city also is under contract to purchase about 10 acres near the existing Florence Bowser School site, where a 1,000-student school will be located. The existing school, as well as the historic Rosenwald building located on the site and used for storage, will be demolished. Driver Elementary School also will be closed.

The school division’s current timeline shows that a bid for construction will be issued in February, with construction set to begin in April. The division aims for a July 2018 completion for both schools, so that students can begin school in both buildings that September.

Roberts said Tuesday the city and schools decided to abandon a multi-school campus idea that had been proposed about two years ago.

“We got the pretty distinct impression the school system wasn’t so much interested in the campus as they were just dealing with the capacity,” Roberts said about conversations with the school system.

Schools in the northern end of the city are severely overcrowded. John Yeates Middle School, for example, had 17 mobile units last school year. It will be supplemented by, rather than replaced by, the new middle school.

Two years ago, a 1,200-student middle school was proposed, with an elementary school on the distant horizon, Roberts noted. He said the school division was excited by the chance to get both schools open sooner in exchange for a slightly smaller middle school.