CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – The Clarksville-Montgomery County School Board met Tuesday to hear the public’s concerns on the final rezoning proposal for Kirkwood Elementary School.

Back in November 2023, CMCSS officials and RSP & Associates, a consulting firm with expertise in school system rezoning, held many conversations with the public during informal virtual meetings to discuss the school rezoning efforts to make way for Kirkwood Elementary. After receiving feedback from the public and refining the final proposal, the rezoning is now in the School Board’s hands.

Rezoning proposal

The opening of Kirkwood Elementary is the first phase of a two-phase plan to help relieve overpopulation in CMCSS schools.

Specifically, five CMCSS elementary schools are experiencing overpopulation pains:

  • Oakland (1,290 current/1,210 capacity)
  • Pisgah (1,062 current/1,012 capacity)
  • Rossview (1,308 current/1,298 capacity)
  • Sango (966 current/891 capacity)
  • Woodlawn (789 current/781 capacity)

The final proposal is seeing some small differences from the original, with 14.4% of current PreK-4th grade students being impacted when Kirkwood Elementary comes online, instead of 15.9%. Based on the observations from CMCSS and RSP & Associates, 15 schools would have students affected by this instead of the previously noted 16.

The formal public meeting was held to discuss the rezoning efforts to make room for Kirkwood Elementary School, Jan. 2, 2023. (CMCSS contributed)

According to the proposal, all 822 students in the Burt/St. Bethlehem zone are to be redistributed to other schools, as those schools will be repurposed. The proposal forecasts that Byrns, Oakland and Rossview are to be highly impacted in this zoning change, affecting over 200 students at each school.

Board hears from parents

Several parents voiced concerns Tuesday night about the rezoning.

“I know nothing is permanent yet and everything is set into stages,” Alex Mitchell told the board. “But the way that these new proposed lines would lie, it would divide our neighborhood in half.”

Alex Mitchell speaks to the school board regarding her concerns with the final rezoning proposal for Kirkwood Elementary, at Kirkwood High School, Jan. 2, 2024. (Jordan Renfro)

The neighborhood, Plantation Estates, was built in the late 1980s. Now, the large subdivision has expanded, and holds a mixture of older homes and new construction.

Another parent, Kristi Murtha, spoke on the impact on military families.

“One of the two things I want to make sure that you guys are considering is our military families,” Murtha said. “On average, our children will go to nine schools in their first 18 years.”

Murtha also stated that roughly 30% of CMCSS is composed of military connected families, based off of statistics shared in a CMCSS article in March 2023. She suggested that military families be offered the opportunity to stay at their currently zoned schools while stationed here.

Shawnette Murphy speaks to the school board regarding her concerns with the final rezoning proposal for Kirkwood Elementary, at Kirkwood High School, Jan. 2, 2024. (Jordan Renfro)

Shawnette Murphy told the board her biggest concern was the relocation of all Pre-K students (including those with special needs) to a central location at St. Bethlehem.

“I know it sounds fantastic for a new facility, but in our situation, we have a special needs, cerebral palsy, 3-year-old who goes to the Pre-K program at Kenwood,” Murphy said. “My biggest concern is just taking the youngest in the community as well as those with special needs and possibly moving them into this central location.”

Murphy said moving the special needs population could cause larger issues when their routine has been disrupted. Long bus rides, shifting schedules, and the changing of their programs and teachers would be difficult.

Final vote approaches

“We want you to know as a community that we really do treasure whatever you have to say about what it is that we do,” Jimmie Garland, School Board District 5, told the community members in attendance. “Everything we try to do is for the advantage of the children, and the parents, and the community.”

Jimmie Garlands addresses community members during the formal public hearing on the final rezoning proposal for Kirkwood Elementary, at Kirkwood High School, Jan. 2, 2024. (Jordan Renfro)

“We hope that we all will be able to learn something for this so that we all will be able to do a better job in the future,” Garland said.

The board also reminded everyone that you can still go online to make recommendations.

For those that want to know if they will be affected by the rezoning efforts, APSU has provided an interactive map to search for a specific address to learn more about the proposed zoning changes for that address.

The final vote will be held at 6 p.m. on Jan. 16, in the CMCSS Central Office board room.