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To alleviate
severe school overcrowding in two Farragut public schools is three
years away — factoring in construction supply slowdowns and
ever-rising costs — as Farragut’s new
kindergarten-through-fifth-grade elementary school is targeted to
open for 800 to 900 students by August 2025.
“There are certainly concerns with supply chain issues right now, and we’ve felt those in other building projects that we’re working on — but if it can be done, I know that our team will certainly try their best to get this school open” as soon as possible, 5th District BOE representative Susan Horn said. A major first hurdle in the process of dealing with severe overcrowding at Farragut Primary School (2022-23 enrollment of about 1,000) and Farragut Intermediate (2022-23 enrollment of about 1,200) came from Knox County Board of Education during its Wednesday, Aug. 3, meeting. The Board unanimously voted to purchase 32 acres for the school along McFee Road, located “just past McFee Park (southward) right at the end of McFee Road” according to Horn, which was bought from Scott brothers, Timothy C. and Todd M. Scott., for roughly $3.2 million.
While a
typical elementary school of this size (1,200-student capacity)
would require only 25 or 26 acres, “there are six (extra) acres we
are purchasing. The purpose of those acres is to get a driveway from
McFee Road to the school,” Horn said.
About the cost to build and prepare the school equipment-wise, “Typically for an elementary school it’s about $32 million,” the funds of which is “set aside over three years,” she said about total cost, from buildings, electricity and parking lots to desks, books and electronic learning devices. The major exception is playground equipment costs, which are set to be discussed by BOE “over the coming months,” Horn said. Though the school’s capacity is about 1,200, the new K-5 school is expected to initially welcome 800 to 900 students upon opening, Horn said. “The goal is to take about 400 to 450 students out of Farragut Primary and 400 to 450 out of Farragut Intermediate. And still have space to accommodate new growth. There are about 400 new homes being built right around that new location.” As for a timetable for letting bids, “We’ll be able to put out a (request for proposal) for the contractor and the architect and the builder fairly soon, with hopes of starting construction sometime in spring 2023,” Horn said. A name has yet to be chosen for the new school, the 5th District rep said. How overcrowded? In describing the need for the new school, “there are roughly 10 to 11 classrooms at both Farragut Primary and Farragut Intermediate that are in portable classrooms,” Horn said. “Plus, the principals are using every available space in the buildings to accommodate students and teachers. ”This is just not sustainable going forward,” she added. Expand existing schools? “The school system actually contracted an architect for them to do a feasibility study on adding actual brick-and-mortar to the existing buildings, but it was going to be so expensive,” Horn said. “… and the common spaces (at the existing school sites) simply cannot handle more students.” In terms of common space limitations in the FPS cafeteria, for example, “lunch begins about 10:30,” she said. Feedback, outlook “We’ve had art teachers who have classrooms on a cart, which is no way for an art class to be taught,” Horn said. “I’ve talked with several teachers and the principals about how difficult ... it is for them to accommodate all the students,” she added. “There are multiple reasons why this is just a great thing for our community. There will certainly be bumps in the road as we go through zoning and all those issues — but in the end I am thrilled we can do this.”
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5/15/22