County buys new school property

Loudon County Schools moved one step closer to opening a new school on the north end of the county.

The district closed Thursday on 35 acres purchased for $1.83 million from First Baptist Church in Lenoir City. The deal has been in the works since late last year. The church approved the sale Oct. 16.

“We are excited to continue moving forward in the design process to address the growth in the northern end of the county,” Mike Garren, director of schools, said in a written statement.

The purchase includes 27.6 acres between the church and Highway 11. A second 6.7-acre parcel is beside the church parking lot on Simpson Road.

The new school would be for grades 7-12 and include facilities for sports teams. The building would feature two stories with separate areas for middle and high school students similar to Greenback School.

Erin Rice, county finance director, said funding for the land purchase is coming from the county’s education capital projects fund with a capital outlay note issued for $2.6 million. Rice said the additional money will be used to design the new school and reconfiguration projects at other schools.

Garren said finding enough property in the right location took about two years. He said the district was blessed to get the property after approaching church leadership.

He said a new school will address local growth, particularly in the northern part of the county. In the 2021-22 school year, the district saw a 2.2% increase in students. In 2022-23, the increase was 4.9%.

Over the last two years, North Middle School has seen a 7% increase in students and has no more open classrooms. Highland Park Elementary School has increased 7% and has just one open classroom left. Eaton Elementary School, at 683 students in 2022, has no open classrooms.

When Fort Loudoun Middle School was built in 2014, the district was able to accommodate growth at Loudon Elementary School, Garren said.

The hope is the new school will have a similar effect on the north end of the county, he said. The additional campus would allow Eaton to house grades K-3, while NMS would have students in grades 4-6. The changes would free up classrooms for future growth.

“We really don’t have the space at Eaton and North to do additions, and the traffic is already complicated out there,” Garren said. “We don’t want to create more of a traffic problem that already exists out there. Actually, by pulling kids off of those campuses and putting them on the new one, in the short term it will help the traffic out there until they fill back up again.”

Garren said he is not sure if the student population will keep growing at the current rate, but he pointed out that more housing developments are under construction.

The design process for the new school has already begun with Cope Architecture. Garren hopes by the fall to have schematic designs for all the necessary projects.

Provided the schools get funding, Garren said design development should be complete by January and construction documents would come in the spring. Garren said the projects won’t go out for bids until funding for construction is approved by Loudon County Commission.

He said he would like to have a cost estimate for commission to consider in the next budget cycle in June and, if approved, go to bid in July 2024 and start construction in August 2024.

Construction will likely take two years, Garren said.

“At this point, we’re still three years away if everything goes according to plan,” he said.

The concern in the interim is growth and overcrowding that could force the use of temporary, portable buildings, which Garren said he isn’t a fan of.

In addition to the new school, Garren said 10 new classrooms and a band room are needed at Philadelphia Elementary School. The career technical education program at Loudon High School also needs more space and athletic facilities at Greenback could use a facelift, he said.

When the current Greenback School was built, the district didn’t address athletic facilities, Garren said. The bleachers at the football stadium must be replaced and a possible practice gymnasium could help since multiple grade levels and teams use the school’s only gym, he said.